Joie de Vivre in France, Paris in the 1960s, and a Novel in French:Three Books

 In my mailbox: France and the French

 

 Joie de Vivre:  Secrets of Wining, Dining, and Romancing Like the French

by Harriet Welty Rochefort, October 2, 2012, Thomas Dunne Books

 I love all the tips about visiting and/or living in France among the French, from their food, to their customs, to the French love of bureaucracy, to marrying a Frenchman, living among the French, and much more.

The author is an American who visited Paris and met and married a Frenchman. Of course, they still live in France and are still trying to understand each other! 

I am enjoying the author's advice on meeting and greeting various people, expecting the French love of argument and conflict in conversation, which they see as just so much fun, and their petit habits - eating petit, having petit amusements, finding joy in small moments like petit snacks, petit promenades, etc. The word petit implies a small joy. 

The French joie de vivre or love of life is made evident throughout  the book. Though this memoir was printed about 12 years ago, I am assuming not too much has changed culturally. So, I'm getting prepared for a visit to Paris and France by taking in the book's advice for armchair travel or actual travel!

I won this book in a sweepstakes from this year's July in Paris hosted by Words and Peace.

 

The Propagandist by Cecile Desprairies, in translation

Published October 8, 2024; New Vessel Press ARC

Genre: historical fiction, autobiographical novel

Fascinating book about French women who informally reveal their past role in Nazi occupied France. 

Description: In a grand Paris apartment, a young girl attends gatherings regularly organized by her mother (late 1960s). The women talk about beauty secrets and gossip, but the mood grows dark when the past, notably World War II, comes under coded discussion in hushed tones. Years later, the silent witness to these sessions has become a prominent historian, and with this chilling autobiographical novel she sets out to unmask enigmatic figures in and around her family. Why, she seeks to understand, did they betray their Jewish neighbors and zealously collaborate with the Nazi occupation of France, remaining for decades hence obsessive devotees of that evil lost cause.

I'm one third of the way into the book. I find it intriguing that the author was the young girl who listened in to the women as they discussed their Nazi sympathies during the war. 

I won an ARC of this book from Words and Peace, in a giveaway during July in Paris 2024. 

I meant to buy this 1973 Italian detective novel in English, but landed up with the French translation, La Femme du Dimanche. Lucky for me, the French version is half the price of the English. I'll be using my dictionary to slowly read it. 

It was made years ago into a film available through Amazon Prime, and is by the same authors who wrote The Lover of No Fixed Abode (see Aug. 17 Sunday Salon post). 

Curious about Brazil, I found the perfect book that describes Rio and the beauty as well as the poverty and conflicts of the people there. 

Tropicália: A Novel by Harold Rogers

July 18, 2023; Atria Books

Genre: fiction, Brazil

Description:

Old secrets are brought to light when a family matriarch returns to Brazil after years away in this “original and highly immersive” ( Good Morning America ) debut that explores the heartbreak and hope of what it means to be from two homes, two peoples, and two worlds.

What new books or programs are you reading/watching this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves 

 

Note: Amazon Affiliate and will earn a small commission with  purchases made through the blog links, at no extra cost to you.

Thrillers on the Nile and China, and Women in Modern China: Sunday Salon

Latest read

Havoc by Christopher Bollen  Publication: December 3, 2024; Harper, NetGalley

Genre: suspense literary fiction, noir mystery, Egypt 

My review:

Eighty-something year old Maggie returns to the Hotel Karnak on the banks of the Nile to live out the rest of her life, but then meets an unlikely eight-year-old, Otto, a guest with his mother at the hotel, who gets in the way of her lifestyle and unusual hobby. Maggie is a self-made love arbitrator who has decided on the sly to interfere in couples' lives and engineer their break up when she thinks someone in the marriage is or will be unhappy.

Otto has witnessed Maggie at work, when he sees her leaving false trails that led to the break up of a family in the hotel. He decides to play cat and mouse with Maggie throughout the book and is diabolical in getting back at her when she doesn't give in to his blackmail for video games and expensive items for his mother.

A dark tale of warring minds, old versus young, both getting ever more desperate, until the two seem to go off track. It was hard to believe that an eight year old could be so diabolical, but then I'm reminded this is fiction and Maggie is equally wicked. The last page of the book left me wondering if Otto intended such an ending. The Egyptian god of disorder, violence, and foreigners in Egypt, Set, who is mentioned in the book, seems to reign over these two opponents.

It was an engrossing noir read, leaving the reader wondering during the book, what craziness will they have in store for each other next? 

 

At the library

A modern day spy thriller 

  

The Expat: A Novel by Hansen Shi ( Pegasus Crime, July 2, 2024)  

Description: Piercingly intelligent and ruthlessly contemporary, The Expat: A Novel is both a white-knuckle spy novel and a thrilling exploration of the myth of meritocracy, high-tech immigration, U.S.-China conflicts, identity, and disaffection. 

Princeton graduate, Michael Wang finds himself enmeshed in a dangerous web of industrial espionage and counterintelligence when he goes to China for an engineering job in the auto industry. Caught between two countries that view him as a pawn, where do his loyalties lie? (publisher)

Young women in China trying to make it in the new economy

 

Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order by Yuan Yang 

Published July 2, 2024, Viking

Genre: women's history, nonfiction, Communism and socialism

Description: A sweeping yet intimate portrait of modern China told through the lives of four ordinary women striving for a better future in a highly unequal society

While serving as the deputy Beijing bureau chief of the Financial Times, Chinese-British journalist Yuan Yang began to notice common threads in the lives of her Chinese peers—women born during China’s turn toward capitalism in the 1980s and 1990s, who, despite the country's enormous economic gains during their lifetimes, were coming up against deeply entrenched barriers as they sought to achieve financial stability.

The book traces the journey of four such women as they try to make better lives for themselves and their families in the new Chinese economy. 

 

What new books or programs are you reading/watching this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves 

 

Note: I am an Amazon Affiliate and will earn a small commission with each purchase through blog links, at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support.

The Lover of No Fixed Abode by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini: A romance in Venice

 Books set in Italy and Alaska

The Lover of No Fixed Abode by Franco Lucentini

Gregory Dowling (translator)

Published February 20, 2024; Bitter Lemon Press

Genre: travel, Venice, art history, romance, literary fiction

The novel is a love story of a modern day Roman princess who buys art for an auction house and a tour guide, the enigmatic Mr. Silvera, both of whom meet on a flight to Venice. The two share three unforgettable days in Venice,  their passionate affair including touring the canals, streets, bridges, museums and palaces of the city.

I loved this unusual book, the art and historical details of Venice that it gives the reader, and the romance between the two intriguing main characters themselves. Mr. Silvera's background is ambiguous and his wandering life is something he cannot escape. Learned in history, art, languages, he tells the princess that he must leave soon and she will not be able to follow him. Jewish himself, Mr. Silvera likens his life to the story of the Wandering Jew, who is condemned to wander till Judgement Day. This gives a certain melancholy to the entire book.

The romance between the two people is both heartfelt and tragic. But the book is also about Italian art, the trading of very costly works and the subterfuges and scams used in buying and selling. But overall, it's also a sophisticated love story of Venice. 

The book made me feel as I had visited the city and its surrounding islands in person!

Thanks to Bitter Melon Press and publicist for a review copy 

New books from Soho Crime set in Tuscan, Alaska: 

The Road to Murder by Camilla Trinchieri, a Tuscan mystery

Published March 5, 2024; Soho Crime

The setting in a little town in Tuscany is a big draw for readers of this mystery series. Local food, people, and customs are highlighted. 

Description:

Ex-New York City detective turned amateur chef Nico Doyle is asked by the local carabinieri to help. A woman has been found dead in her home, slumped over her piano, and the sole witness speaks only English. Nico reluctantly agrees to help Perillo with the case.

I've read several of the other books and am looking forward to this one too. 

 

Big Breath In by John Straley, former Writer Laureate of Alaska

Publication: November 12, 2024; Soho Crime

Setting: Alaska 

Description: Delphine, is a retired marine biologist, and a terminal cancer patient. However, she is determined to carry on with life as usual, and sets out to find the missing mother of a young child whom she had observed being harassed by an unknown man. What ensues is a rescue mission across the Pacific Northwest. 

I'm eager to get to the chase, but I'm first reading the first part of the book, which is all about sperm whales and their habitat and habits.

Straley's wife Jan is a marine biologist who specializes in studying humpback whales, while he is a well known writer of Alaska mysteries. 

 

What new books or programs are you reading/watching this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves 

 

I have an affiliate link with Amazon and will earn a small commission with each purchase through my blog links, at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support.

Wait: A Novel by Gabriella Burnham: Sunday Salon

 Book Review

Wait by Gabriella Burnham

Published May 21, 2024; One World, NetGalley

Genre; literary fiction, contemporary fiction, adult fiction, immigrants

I enjoyed this novel about two American born sisters - Elise, a recent college graduate and Sophie, a high school student, whose mother, illegally in the U.S., was deported back to Brazil after being arrested for long overstaying her work visa. The girls' father, a visitor to the U.S. himself, left the family to return to Ireland a long time ago when Sophie was two years old. 

How the sisters, half-Irish, half-Brazilian American citizens, manage alone on Nantucket Island, their home, while waiting for their mother to acquire a green card from Brazil is the crux of this novel, a story of one illegal immigrant and her children.

Heart warming as well as revealing, the book looks at the children, especially the older child Elise, who is more affected by the change in their family situation than her younger sister. The story of the girls living their own lives on their own in the U.S. while they wait, and their mother adjusting to her own life back in her country, Brazil, leaves the reader both joyful and a little sadder.

A wonderfully written and executed book on a timely and relevant topic.

Currently reading

See: Loss. See Also: Love,  a novel by Yukiko Tominaga

Published May 7, 2024; Scribner, NetGalley

Genre: adult contemporary fiction, literary fiction, Japanese fiction

Description: A debut novel following a Japanese widow raising her son between worlds with the help of her Jewish mother-in-law as she wrestles with grief, loss, and—strangest of all—joy. 

Shortly after her husband Levi’s untimely death, Kyoko decides to raise their young son, Alex, in San Francisco, rather than return to Japan. Her nosy yet loving Jewish mother-in-law, Bubbe, encourages her to find new love and abandon frugality but her own mother wants Kyoko to celebrate her now husbandless life. Always beside her is Alex, who lives confidently, no matter the circumstance.

Four sections of vignettes. 

I'm intrigued by the mixing of cultures, people, and family in a novel about love and loss.

The Olympics

 

I found myself getting involved in more games than I thought I'd like, watching fencing and archery, as well as diving, track, cycling, soccer, volleyball, table tennis, gymnastics and more.

Thanks to my son who subscribed so we could enjoy watching the games on tv!  Did you watch any of the games? 

One of my favorites - the final men's soccer match between France and Spain. Spain won a hard fought game. 

What are you reading/watching this week? 

Memes:  The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves

As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn a small commission on each purchase through my blog links. at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support.

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

 Book review

The Wedding People by Alison Espach
July 30, 2024; Henry Holt & Co.

Genre: literary fiction, adult fiction, contemporary


I totally loved this book, which I thought of as excellent literary fiction. It's the story of a woman, a nineteenth century English literature specialist who has lived a life fulfilling expectations of other people, namely of her dead mother - never making mistakes in her life, being quiet and obedient as a child so as not to inconvenience her father and as an adult. to be always calm and careful and to be perfect in her marriage.

Then one day, when all this becomes too much for her, her marriage failing after her husband Matt leaves her for Mia, another professor at their school, Phoebe walks out of her job and heads for the resort hotel in Newport she has always dreamed of visiting. Her intention of doing away with herself there is foiled by a bride Lila who had rented the entire hotel for her elaborate six day wedding, and who has to grudgingly accept that Phoebe is an unplanned visitor, an uninvited guest at her wedding.

The bride Lila begins to intrigue Phoebe, who slowly is drawn into her world and that of the wedding people at the hotel, enough to have Phoebe slowly change perspectives about people and her life. This story is told with humor, insight into personalities, and persuades Phoebe to "become part of the world again." The great thing is that the bride and her groom also change and find their true selves during this wedding week.

" ...becoming who you want to be is just like anything else. It takes practice. It requires belief that one day, you'll wake up and be a natural at it."

 The writing is superb, with references to Walt Whitman, Jane Eyre, and other 19th century literature that Phoebe refers to in her musings about her aims and her life. The characters are well drawn, unusual and distinct, and realistic at the same time.

Memes:  The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also, It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Sunday Salon, and Stacking the Shelves