Shelf Quest

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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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