My shiny new bookshelves and reading chair. Note: many TBR books and all my cookbooks are missing from this picture. Recommended by a librarian: The Little French Bistro by Nina George Adapted into a movie: Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky Genre that is new to you: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty Fiction: Will You Ever Change? by Aurélie ValognesWashington state author: Winter by Marissa Meyer Choose a book by its cover: Down Among the Sticks and Bones…
Bonjour and happy Wednesday! I am currently in the air and on my way to Atlanta for a road trip to New Orleans for Nola StoryCon. I get to spend a week in the south eating the best food and enjoying one last chance at summer weather (Seattle has been very disappointing, but then again no one has AC so that’s probably a good thing). I am very excited to be meeting Charlaine Harris and Delilah S. Dawson for the…
Diane Ratican, a native Californian, gives us this whimsical book comparing two of her favorite cities in Why LA? Pourquoi Paris? Between charming illustrations of Paris by Eric Giriat and LA by Nick Lu, Ratican narrates the main points that make these two cities alike and different. I’ve seen a lot of compare/contrasts between New York City and Los Angeles, or Paris and NYC, but never LA and Paris and I like that that sets this book apart from the rest. I have…
This book was recommended to me on Amazon about a year ago, after reading Out of Sorts and The Red Notebook. I’m not sure why I was resistant to reading it at first but now I’m so glad that I did. The author was even in town a few weeks ago and I had a feeling that I should have gone but I didn’t. Next time though! Ove is the grumpiest old man one can possibly imagine. He thinks if…
The latest book by Aurélie Valognes, Will You Ever Change, is a look inside the Le Guennec family: Martine, Jacques, and their three sons and respective significant others. The girls aren’t completely innocent, but Jacques does nothing to help the strained relationship between the girls and their in-laws. He doesn’t make things easy with his wife, either. They have a very old fashioned relationship where he worked to bring money home and Martine did absolutely everything else. Martine is tired…
Brimstone follows Alice Dartle, a clairvoyant from Virginia, and Tomas Cordero, a suit designer from Ybor City. Alice has moved to the small community of Cassadaga, Florida, a city known for it’s mediums and spiritual leanings, to learn more about her abilities. After a series of fires both in Ybor City and Cassadaga, Tomas and Alice come together with the spiritual community to find out who is behind the fires and how it can be stopped. I was skeptical going…
The Portrait is another amazing book by Antoine Laurain. This makes three out of four of his books that I absolutely love. Pierre-François Chaumont is a lawyer and antiques enthusiast who comes across an 18th Century portrait of someone who looks just like him. His wife and their friends insist it looks nothing like him, which only causes him to obsess over it more until he finally identifies the man in the picture and makes the three-hour trip to his…
A Paris Year is part of the OMGThereAreSoManyNewParis/FrenchBooksBeingReleasedThisYear extravaganza. I did, ultimately, very much enjoy this book, but I have a lot of problems with it. My main one is that it is not quite what it is described as. Here’s a portion of the description: “Part memoir and part visual journey through the streets of modern-day Paris, France, A Paris Year chronicles, day by day, one woman’s French sojourn in the world’s most beautiful city.” Firstly, there are not…
Down Among the Sticks and Bones is a follow-up to Every Heart a Doorway, the first in the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire. Every Heart a Doorway takes place at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, a school for kids who have returned after visiting another world and it is as hauntingly beautiful as you could imagine. We learn in this book that there are two such homes in North America: one for kids who want to forget and…
The Little French Bistro follows Marianne, a 60-year-old German woman who tries to commit suicide while on holiday in Paris with her husband. She has lived in an oppressive household with him the entire time they’ve been married -40 years- and she has never stood up to him. He refused to allow her to have a job, drive a car, or play the accordion. After surviving jumping off a bridge, she finds herself on the coast of Brittany after being…