Lunar New Year, and Mon Coeur a Demenage: Sunday Salon

 French author, Michel Bussi

Mon cœur a déménagé est à la fois un récit initiatique, un roman d'amour et d'amitié, une vaste enquête s'étirant sur plus d'une décennie, et bien entendu une intrigue à twist, nul ne sachant, jusqu'à la dernière page, qui connaît la vérité, et qui la manipule.

Genre: mystery, thriller

Setting: Rouen, France

Published January 11, 2024; Presses de la Cite

Michel Bussi est un auteur et politologue français, professeur de géographie à l'université de Rouen. Il est spécialiste de géographie électorale.

What language(s) do you read in? There is a translate button at the right hand top column of the blog, for English and other languages.

Happy Lunar New Year of the Green Dragon

Description: Lunar New Year, an illustrated book, captures the magic of the celebration by exploring how Ling and her family enjoy the biggest Chinese festival of the year.

The new year festival lasts for 15 days full of preparation, celebration, and symbolism. Join Ling, her sister Mei and granny Po Po as they clean the house from top to bottom, pick fresh flowers from the garden, visit friends and family, and carry red lanterns through their neighborhood. Ling invites the reader into her home and family, allowing the reader to experience this special celebration first-hand through an authentic narrative non-fiction story.

A fun 16-page  'factivity' section  follows the story and delves into more detail about how the festival is celebrated in China and beyond. Enriching activities are also included, such as guess the riddle, make your own red envelope, and a recipe to make delicious Lunar New Year 'pot sticker' dumplings. 

The Lunar New Year is celebrated in many different Asian and Southeast Asian countries and beyond. It begins February 10.

Do you celebrate the Lunar New Year?

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

I'll Never Be French by Mark Greenside: Sunday Salon

Currently reading -

a book from my shelves that I rescued from my give away boxes. Why didn't I read this when I first got it? It's funny and informative, and very French!

 

I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do): Living in a Small Village in Brittany by Mark Greenside

Published: November 4, 2008; Atria

Genre: travel, memoir, nonfiction, humor, France

Mark Greenside and his girlfriend decide to live in a small French village in Brittany for about eight weeks. Mark fell in love with the place, the people, the customs, the food, and was encouraged by a neighbor to buy a house there. 

I'm enjoying his humor in telling the story of his growing love for Brittany and all things French, and the pitfalls of a foreigner trying to buy a home, open a bank account, and pay for a mortgage in France. 

I'm reading this in English, the author's language, but the memoir reminded me of the excellent French novels I've read over the years by mystery author, Michel Bussi. 

Here are a few I've read:

 

I finished a mystery set in Claude Monet's Givenchy, Black Water Lilies by Michel Bussi, February 7, 2017, Hachette. Translated from the French. I enjoyed it so much, I went on to read a previous novel of his, After the Crash, a mystery set in the Jura mountains of France.

My comments: After the Crash has an amazing plot. The only survivor in a horrific plane crash in the Jura mountains of France is a three-month-old baby girl. She was one of two baby girls of the same age on the plane, and none of the four parents survived the crash. 

There is no way to identify the baby, in the days before DNA testing was available. Two sets of grandparents claim her, the wealthy de Carvilles, and a working class family, the Vitrals.

The court awards the child to the Vitrals, but Mrs. de Carvilles hires a private detective to prove the baby Lyse-Rose is really hers, and not Emilie, the Vitrals's child. She gives the detective eighteen years to prove the case. The baby grows up to be called Lylie, a combination of both names, Lyse-Rose and Emilie, as neither family is one hundred percent sure who the child really is.

The book follows the two families and Lylie as she grows up, the story given in a detailed notebook written over eighteen years by the detective, Credule Grand-Duc. What he discovers after eighteen years is stunning. There are plot twists that makes riveting reading. I enjoyed it very much.

Black Water Lilies/Les Lympheas Noir by Michel Bussi, February 7, 2017, Hachette. Translated from the French.

Genre; mystery, crime novel

This is an unusual crime novel set in Giverny, France, the town made famous by the artist Claude Monet and his water lilies. The lives of an old woman,  an attractive young teacher, and an 11-year-old girl intertwine in a mystery involving art, artists, talent, Monet's water lilies, and romantic as well as an obsessive love that change their lives. 

I enjoyed the mystery as well as learned a lot about Monet and Giverny, and found interesting the rendition of how he created his famous water lily paintings. 

 

Don't Let Go

translated from the French

Don't Let Go/Ne lâche pas ma main by Michel Bussi

Published March 7, 2013. Pocket 
Genre; mystery, suspense, Reunion

It was challenging reading this in French, before the English edition was printed, but I enjoyed the suspenseful plot, the description of Reunion, a beautiful mountainous island in the Indian Ocean, and the main character, a gutsy young policewoman.

Publisher: On an idyllic resort on the island of Réunion, Parisians Martial and Liane Bellion are enjoying the perfect family moment with their six-year-old daughter....Then Liane Bellion disappears from her hotel room. Her husband Martial becomes a suspect when blood is found in the room. But then Martial also disappears, along with his daughter. An all-out manhunt is declared across the island. 

Just published: 

Trois Vies Par Semaine by Michel Bussi

Publication: March 2, 2023; Presses de la Cite

Language: French

Genre: thriller, mystery, France

About: the body of a man is recovered in the Ardennes,  his car containing three different passports suggesting he had three different aliases. The police must determine if his death was suicide, an accident, or murder and try to discover the truth behind his triple lives.  

What books are you reading? 

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

Sunday Salon: J'ai du Rever Trop Fort by Michel Bussi

Reading in the French language

J'ai du rever trop fort

J'ai du rever trop fort by Michel Bussi, February 28, 2019, Presses de la Cite
Setting: Barcelona, Montreal, Paris
Genre: contemporary French fiction, romance

Thanks to my built-in French-English dictionary, I'm able to use my college French to read this novel as it hasn't yet been translated into English, as many of the Bussi's other books have. What seems to be a pure romance in exotic cities has a bit of mystery added, as do his other books, many of which are more thrillers than romance. 

But I'm really enjoying this one, brushing up on my French language as well as  reading a well-written mystery and romance novel. 

Air France hostess Natalie travels around the world at least three times each month, leaving her husband Olivier to tend to their young daughter in Paris. She meets Ylian on her trip to Montreal and meets him again in Barcelona. Their story is one of passion and intrigue, coincidences that are unexplained so far, and even some danger. I'm half way through and enjoying the mini travelogues to the cities that also include Los Angeles, San Diego, Tijuana. Looking forward to Jakarta later on in the novel!

What books are you reading this week?

The Sunday Post  hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer,  Stacking the Shelves, and It's Monday, What Are You Reading? by Book Date

Currently Reading: Don 't Let Go by Michel Bussi

French novel: Don't Let Go by Michel Bussi

Don't Let Go

Don't Let Go by Michel Bussi is a book I read in the original French, but decided to re-read the English version to see the details I might have missed. My reading French is okay but far from perfect.

The translation as far as I can tell sticks closely to the original and I have picked up lots of small nuances and descriptive information the author wanted the reader to see. The setting is spectacular, the small French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, visited by lots of French tourists because of its dramatic geography - volcanoes, beautiful beaches, rocky and mountainous terrain, etc.

The story involves the disappearance of a French woman from her Reunion hotel. She leaves her husband and six-year-old daughter behind. The police are suspecting foul play though it seemed at the beginning she might have packed a suitcase and run away.

The plot is not straightforward or predictable and things are not what they seem. I am learning a lot about the island geography, people, and culture, while enjoying a suspenseful mystery.

Here is the cover of the original book in French:

Ne Lache Pas Ma Main

French version: Ne Lache Pas Ma Main

Have you read books in another language?

Sunday Reading: Time Is a Killer by Michel Bussi

Books:
I read this in French a year ago but saw this English translation at the book store and couldn't resist getting it. I am trying to find all the little details and nuances I may have missed reading in the original language. And I am enjoying the characters and the story all over again!

It's a thriller set in a corner of Corsica, and features a 15-year-old French girl, Clothilde, and her journal that tells of her youthful experiences and observations on the island in 1989.  The book moves forward twenty-seven years, when the adult Clothilde revisits the island with her daughter and husband, recalling the tragic car crash all those years ago that spared her life but took the lives of  her parents and brother in what seemed then like a freak accident on a mountainous, winding road. Clothilde is determined to find out the truth of the past by looking closely at the present.

Time Is a Killer by Michel Bussi, translated from the French,
Published April 10, 2018, Europa Editions
Here is the French edition cover, printed in 2016.

The temps est assassin

I finished and reviewed only one book last week:
Death of an Honest Man by M.C. Beaton, the 33nd in her Hamish Macbeth mystery series set in Scotland. I can recommend this quirky Scots copper in the little highland village of Lochdubh, who solves mysteries but goes without the praise and the promotions that would take him away from his beloved home!

Gardening: We had a productive gardening day yesterday, mowing, weeding, trimming, planting, watering, and generally tidying up after all the spring and early summer rains made a mini jungle out of everything. Maybe more raking today if the rains don't come.

Exercises: Stretching in the mornings and during the day is the new prescription for me, for flexibility and building up strength in my legs and hips. I am working on being able to walk more than three miles at a time without collapsing.

Coffee and tea: I am enjoying an Indian oolong spiced tea and finishing off the Tanzanian coffee we found that we just loved.

Have a great Sunday!

What books are you reading this week?

The Sunday Post  hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer,  It's Monday, What Are You Reading? by Book Date., and Mailbox Monday.

Sunday Salon: Travel and Romance, Mystery

A book won from Atria books, for review, thanks to Bianca Salvant
Mr. Flood's Last Resort by Jess Kidd
Published May 1, 2018
Genre: literary fiction, contemporary fiction
The tale of a lonely caregiver and a cranky hoarder with a house full of secrets.

Other books on my shelf:

The Dying of the Light by Robert Goolrick
Publication: July 3, 2018, Harper
Genre: gothic
...a glamorous Southern debutante who marries for money and ultimately suffers for love—a southern gothic. 


After the Monsoon by Robert Karjel, (Ernst Grip #2)
Publication: July 3, 2018, Harper
Genre: thriller
A Swedish army lieutenant drops dead on a shooting range in the desert. Was it an unfortunate accident—or something more nefarious? Ernst Grip, an agent of the Swedish security police, is sent to the Horn of Africa to find out.

Whistle in the Dark by Emma Healey
Publication:July 24, 2018, Harper
Genre: thriller
The story begins with a lost daughter who has been found but who remembers nothing about the days she went missing. Working backwards, a couple tries to find answers.

Finished reading:


The Backpacking Housewife by Janice Horton,
Publication: July 6, 2018, HarperImpulse
Genre: women's fiction, travel

This romance novel reads like a travelogue, with a backpacking runaway wife, who travels from the north of Thailand to the south islands and into Malaysia. Lori has run off with her passport and credit card to the farthest country from England she can find on the spur of the moment. Her discovery of her husband's year long affair with her best friend sends her heading to Southeast Asia, to a new adventure and to put distance between herself and her husband. She lands in Bangkok, heads to Chiang Mai, and from there goes south along the coast, from one beautiful beach and lovely island to another, hopping south till she reaches Malaysia. Needless to say, she finds friendships, adventure, independence, and a new romance - a whole new life. The perfect fairy tale getaway romance. I enjoyed it. Book borrowed from NetGalley   The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris by Jenny Colgan Published February 4, 2018; Sourcebook Landmark Genre: romance, travel Two romances are connected to this artisanal chocolate shop in Paris -stories involving the original owner and chocolatier, Thierry, and later his son. Two young English women travel to France at different times and find romance there, one unlucky, and the other about to be unlucky. Or is she? A nice romantic novel in a lovely setting - Paris and a chocolate shop! Book borrowed from NetGalley or Edelweiss.   Now reading: T'en souviens-tu, mon Anaïs? Et autres nouvelles by Michel Bussi Published January 4, 2018; Presses de la Cite Genre: romance, contemporary French novel Hooray! My French is improving, after reading so many of Bussi's books in the original French. Thanks to the dictionary provided in the Kindle ereader, I can look up unknown words and phrases tout de suite! And either this book is written in simpler French, or my reading ability has noticeably improved!

What books are you reading this week?

The Sunday Post  hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer,  It's Monday, What Are You Reading? by Book Date., and Mailbox Monday.

It's Monday: Cozies and French thrillers

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? by Book Date. Visit also Mailbox Monday.
The title of this cozy, Twelve Angry Librarians, February 21, 2017, caught my eye. I can't imagine twelve angry librarians, at least not in the same space. The book is the eighth in the Cat in the Stacks series.

Dial M for Mousse by Laura Bradford, Emergency Dessert Squad Mystery #3, January 2, 2018, from Berkley.
Baker Winnie Johnson works overtime to satisfy the emergency cravings of Silver Lake, Ohio and solves a murder mystery along the way. 

Death Below Stairs by Jennifer Ashley, January 2, 2018, Berkley Books
Victorian cook Kat Holloway takes a position in a Mayfair mansion and soon finds herself immersed in the odd household of Lord Rankin. Kat is unbothered by the family’s eccentricities as long as they stay away from her kitchen, but trouble finds its way below stairs when her young Irish assistant is murdered. 


Other reading last week: I finally finished a French thriller by Michel Bussi,
 N'oublier jamais, one I can recommend to those who read in French sometimes. A plot with so many twists and turns and unbelievably complex and interesting characters, not to mention the setting on the coast of Normandy, France.

I am now reading another thriller by Bussi, Ne lache pas ma main, set in the island of Reunion, a French territory in the Indian Ocean. Its about a tourist mother who disappears from her hotel on the island, leaving behind her young daughter and husband. I am eager to see if she fled or if she was abducted. I'm sure the plot will have more twists and turns.


Happy reading week everyone!