A Paris Odyssey by Axel Forrester: July in Paris 2023 Challenge

 For Paris in July 2023 Reading Challenge 

A Paris Odyssey by Axel Forrester

Published April 1, 2023; NetGalley

Genre: travel fiction, Paris, France
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

At first I thought this was a memoir, the details sounded to true and the narrator so authentic. Then I realized that the book was actually fiction - a novel about Grant the photographer on his first trip to Paris, written by a female author! This really didn't matter, in the long run.

The details of how Grant is robbed by professional pickpockets of his wallet, passport, and other IDs, and how easy it was to have them replaced at the American Embassy, rang so true. I had heard about pickpockets in all the major cities of the world.

I enjoyed the character's candid comments on visiting the famed catacombs, the underground tunnels of Paris filled with human bones from over the centuries. It's a place I have decided I'd never visit, as I hate anything speaking of horror!

The visit to the Louvre was also interesting, especially as Grant was in the company of a motley crew of street impersonators whom he spent most of his time with during his three to four week stay in Paris.

The people he decided to hang out with on the streets of Paris - the impersonators - seemed to be not only bizarre, but almost homeless, and Grant had to feed them most of the time. They seemed unreal yet authentic at the same time, and I wonder how much of what the author wrote in this novel is close to the truth of the streets of Paris, away from the tourist spots.

An enjoyable read, nevertheless, so much so I've decided to read Forrester's previous novel, A Chinese Odyssey.

Resource for Living, Traveling, Visiting, Vacationing in France: The Good Life in France

For Paris in July 2023 Reading Challenge. 

Author of three books on living in France, Janine Marsh has gone on to produce the magazine, blog, podcast, weekly newsletter entitled The Good Life France.

All the images on their website are protected, so I can't show any of them here, but the informative site is well worth at least a couple of visits. 

Her books:

My Good Life in France: Book 1 of 3 by Janine Marsh, published August 25, 2017

Genre: travel, memoir, biography, France

About: One grey dismal day, Janine Marsh was on a trip to northern France to pick up some cheap wine. She returned to England a few hours later having put in an offer on a rundown old barn in the rural Seven Valleys area of Pas de Calais. This was not something she’d expected or planned for.

 Janine eventually gave up her job in London to move with her husband to live the good life in France. Or so she hoped. While getting to grips with the locals and la vie Française, and renovating her dilapidated new house, a building lacking the comforts of mains drainage, heating, or proper rooms, and with little money and less of a clue, she started to realize there was lot more to her new home than she could ever have imagined.

 These are the true tales of Janine’s rollercoaster ride through a different culture—one that, to a Brit from the city, was in turns surprising, charming, and not the least bit baffling. (publisher)

See The Good Life France podcasts for a colorful and informative look at France.

Beginning French by Les Americains: July in Paris 2023 Challenge

  Paris in July 2023 Reading Challenge. My first contribution.  #

xxx BegoI was delighted to find this book hidden in my NetGalley shelf, perfect for the July in Paris 2023 Reading Title: Beginning French: Lessons from a Stone Farmhouse by Les Americains, published June 1, 2016

.I was delighted to find this book hidden in my NetGalley shelf, perfect for the July in Paris 2023 Reading Challenge I just joined.

Things may have changed since 2016 when this book was published, and I'm glad to see the archive date for this book has not yet been set on NetGalley!

I laughed out loud many times at Marty's wit in telling his story of finding and fixing and living in a stone house in Dordogne, France. The multiple fixes the old house required would have made others sell the house and move home to the U.S, permanently, but Marty and his wife persisted because of the million dollar views the house afforded.

I enjoyed the descriptions of the night markets in neighboring towns, the food, the camaraderie and the stories of the helpfulness of the French people in giving advice and fixing the old house time and again over the years. I also was amazed that there are so many English, Canadian, Australians and American expats who live full time or part time in France.

The book made me want to experience what the authors did, at least on a visit sometime.

The authors:

Les Américains is the nom de plume of Eileen McKenna and Marty Neumeier, an American couple who divide their time between California and France. Eileen is the kind of person who can predict an entire plot from the first line of a novel or the first scene in a movie. Marty is a design consultant who has written six bestselling books on innovation, creativity, and branding. Their daughter Sara, who appears in Beginning French and contributes the recipes, is a New York food stylist who began her career at Martha Stewart Living. The trois Américains meet every summer in France—to cook, write, and share photos and travel tips with their followers. (2016)

Take a virtual walk in Paris: A Walk in Paris on YouTube.

Paris in July 2023 Reading Challenge. stime.

It's Monday: What Are You Reading? My Nemesis by Charmaine Craig

 Newly Discovered book:

 I was interested in the different versions of what is acceptable femininity.  

My Nemesis by Charmaine Craig

Published February 7, 2023; Grove Press

Publisher information:

An intellectual affair and its reverberations across the lives of two couples

Tessa, a successful writer, develops a friendship with Charlie, a  handsome philosopher and scholar based in Los Angeles. Sparks fly as they exchange intellectual ideas —but there are obstacles to their developing friendship. 

Tessa’s husband Milton enjoys Charlie’s company, while Charlie’s Asian wife Wah’s traditional femininity and subservience strike Tessa as weaknesses. Tessa scoffs at the sacrifices Wah makes as adoptive mother to a Burmese girl, Htet, once homeless on the streets of Kuala Lumpur. The conflict leads to Tessa’s declaration that Wah is “an insult to womankind.” 

An exercise in empathy, an exploration of betrayal, and a charged story of the thrill of a shared connection—and the perils of feminine rivalry—

Charmaine Craig is the author of My Nemesis; Miss Burma, longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction; and The Good Men, a national bestseller. She received her MFA from the University of California at Irvine, and is a faculty member in the Department of Creative Writing at UC Riverside. 

Memes: It's Monday: What Are You Reading, Mailbox Monday.

Paris in July, 2023 Reading Challenge: Sunday Salon

 Words and Peace is hosting the Paris in July 2023 Reading Challenge. ##parisinjuly2023parisinjuly2023

Paris in July 2023
#parisinjuly2023
(Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest)

During this month,
our goal is to embrace and honor our French encounters
by immersing ourselves in various activities
like reading, watching, listening, observing, cooking,
and indulging in all things French

The books I've chosen for the challenge and the descriptions from NetGalley/publishers

A Bakery in Paris

Historical novel set in nineteenth-century and post–World War II Paris follows two fierce women of the same family, generations apart, who find that their futures lie in the four walls of a simple bakery in a tiny corner of Montmartre. (publication August 30, 2023)

The Paris Assignment

A courageous wife, mother, and resister confronts the devastation of World War II in a heartbreaking and hopeful novel by the bestselling author of The Venice Sketchbook and The Tuscan Child. (publication August 2023)

The Paris Mystery

Intrepid reporter Charlotte "Charlie" James arrives in Paris in 1938 eager to make a fresh start, but little does she know the trouble that awaits her...

On the summer solstice eve, the Circus Ball is in full swing, with the Parisian elites entranced by burlesque dancers, tightrope walkers, a jazz band . . . and a horrific murder. A wealthy but unscrupulous investor is dead, and the list of suspects is a veritable who's who of le haut monde. As Charlie tries to determine who the murderer is, she finds herself drawn into the magical parties, couture houses, and bohemian wine bars of the City of Lights. ( publication September 2023)

A Paris Odyssey

Genre: novel, travel, France

American Grant Decker is in Paris on a photography assignment.

When he arrives at Gare du Nord train station, he discovers just how unprepared he is to navigate this new world where the language is both vaguely familiar and baffling. ‘”Vous ne parlez pas français?” My brain turned around three times and then went to sleep!’

Determined to get his bearings, Grant explores the length and breadth of the city on the metro. But it is when he makes new friends among some street performers that he discovers a different Paris. These off-beat characters help him sharpen his eye and open his heart to the many love stories that weave through ‘the city of light.’  (published April 2023)

The War Begins in Paris

A provocative and stylish literary noir about two female war correspondents whose fates intertwine in Europe.

Paris, 1938. Mielle, a shy pacifist and shunned Mennonite who struggles to fit in with the elite cohort of foreign correspondents stationed around the city; the other, Jane, a brash, legendary American journalist, who is soon to become a fascist propagandist. (publication November 2023)

My book choices: These are ARCs that are on my TBR list. Some have yet to be published. The Paris Odyssey was published in April and is the only nonfiction, and not set during the war. 

I will be trying to read some but maybe not all of the books for the challenge. #p#parisinjuly2023arisinjuly2023

What's on your reading schedule this week and/or the rest of the month?#parisinjuly2023

#parisinjuly2023

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. Paris in July 2023

The Which of Shakespeare's Why by Leigh Light: Sunday Salon

After last week's Sunday post, I've been rereading the three books I featured there by Michel Bussi, French thriller writer, and have neglected all my TBRs. I'm almost finished (good reading all over again), and have to decide my next read. 

I've been ignoring the library as I have a stuffed Kindle, full of the ARCs I have to read. 

 In the meantime, a more literary novel came in the mail yesterday: 

The Which of Shakespeare's Why: A Novel of the Authorship Mystery Near Solution Today, by Leigh Light, publication September 19, 2023, City Point Press. 

The book dallies with the age old premise that the real Shakespeare could have been Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, an Elizabethan peer and courtier  (1550-1604)

Publisher:

 The controversy over who really wrote Shakespeare’s plays has been around almost since they were written. Was the genius behind the plays really that obscure glover’s son from Stratford? Or was it someone else entirely—a man whose class, background, education, and peculiarities make him a more than plausible candidate?
 
In The Which of Shakespeare’s Why, a 21st-century playwright named Harry Haines makes the case for a major contender via a play he himself is writing for a struggling New Jersey theatre company. Faced with strong disapproval from the “Stratfordites” and with the backing of supporters that sometimes takes some unusual forms, Harry attempts, against great odds, to get the play written and staged.

In the process he has to overcome his own doubts, stay on the right side of the right people, keep his romantic life under control, and deal with not only a difficult actress or two but a flock of opinionated Rockettes. Part hilarious farce, part serious critical examination, The Which of Shakespeare’s Why provides a thought-provoking look at a controversial puzzle with a surprising, ingenious, and wholly satisfying ending that Shakespeare—whoever he was—would have given a standing ovation.

Would you pick up this new novel about the Shakespeare controversy? 

Thanks to Wiley Sachek Publicity for a review/feature copy of this  intriguing book. 

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