19 May

Block Book Club May meeting

Posted by WordsAndPeace in Book Club, Fiction, Non-Fiction. Tagged: , , , , .

Here are the titles we shared [synopsis from Goodreads.com] during our Block Book Club May Meeting:

1) Cutting For Stone
by Abraham Verghese (2009) [presented by R and L]
    A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel—an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home.
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics—their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.
An unforgettable journey into one man’s remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing.
And here is the link to my own review.
2) Mrs. Dalloway
by Virginia Woolf  (1925) [presented by P]
Heralded as Virginia Woolf’s greatest novel, this is a vivid portrait of a single day in a woman’s life. When we meet her, Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party preparation while in her mind she is something much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house, she is flooded with remembrances of faraway times. And, met with the realities of the present, Clarissa reexamines the choices that brought her there, hesitantly looking ahead to the unfamiliar work of growing old.
3) The Pearl
by John Steinbeck (1945) [presented by M]
A retelling of an old Mexican folk tale involving the discovery of a great pearl and the ensuing misfortune of the fisherman who found it..
4) The Lifeboat
by Charlotte Rogan (Jan 2012) [presented by P]
Grace Winter, 22, is both a newlywed and a widow. She is also on trial for her life.
In the summer of 1914, the elegant ocean liner carrying her and her husband Henry across the Atlantic suffers a mysterious explosion. Setting aside his own safety, Henry secures Grace a place in a lifeboat, which the survivors quickly realize is over capacity. For any to live, some must die.
As the castaways battle the elements, and each other, Grace recollects the unorthodox way she and Henry met, and the new life of privilege she thought she’d found. Will she pay any price to keep it?
The Lifeboat is a page-turning novel of hard choices and survival, narrated by a woman as unforgettable and complex as the events she describes
5) Heart of a Killer
by David Rosenfelt (Feb 2012) [presented by J]
Jamie Wagner is a young lawyer who is happy to be flying under the radar at a large firm. It’s not that he isn’t smart. He is. It’s just that hard work, not to mention the whole legal thing, isn’t exactly his passion. Underachiever? A little. Content? Right up until the firm puts him on a case that turns his whole world upside down.
Sheryl Harrison has served four years of a thirty-year murder sentence for killing her husband, who she claims was abusive. The case is settled—there shouldn’t be anything for Jamie to do—except Sheryl’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Karen, is sick. She has a congenital heart defect and will die without a transplant. Her blood type is rare, making their chances of finding a matching donor remote at best. Sheryl wants to be that donor for her daughter, and Jamie is in way over his head. Suicide, no matter the motive, is illegal. So with Sheryl on suicide watch, Jamie’s only shot at helping her and saving Karen is to reopen the murder case, prove Sheryl’s innocence, and get her freed so that she can pursue her plan on her own.
Heart of a Killer—a gripping story of an ordinary man faced with an impossible situation—is the most powerful and shocking thriller yet from David Rosenfelt, a true master of the genre.
6) Lone Wolf
by Jodi Picoult (Jan 2012) [presented by A]
Edward Warren, twenty-four, has been living in Thailand for five years, a prodigal son who left his family after an irreparable fight with his father, Luke. But he gets a frantic phone call: His dad lies comatose, gravely injured in the same accident that has also injured his younger sister Cara.
With her father’s chances for recovery dwindling, Cara wants to wait for a miracle. But Edward wants to terminate life support and donate his father’s organs. Is he motivated by altruism, or revenge? And to what lengths will his sister go to stop him from making an irrevocable decision?
Lone Wolf explores the notion of family, and the love, protection and strength it’s meant to offer. But what if the hope that should sustain it, is the very thing that pulls it apart? Another tour de force from Jodi Picoult, Lone Wolf examines the wild and lonely terrain upon which love battles reason.
7) These Is My Words
by Nancy E. Turner  (1999) [presented by R]
In a compelling fiction debut, Nancy E. Turner’s unforgettable “These Is My Words” melds the sweeping adventures and dramatic landscapes of “Lonesome Dove” with the heartfelt emotional saga of “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All.”
Inspired by the author’s original family memoirs, this absorbing story introduces us to the questing, indomitable Sarah Prine, one of the most memorable women ever to survive and prevail in the Arizona Territory of the late 1800s. As a child, a fiery young woman, and finally a caring mother, Sarah forges a life as full and as fascinating as our deepest needs, our most secret hopes and our grandest dreams. She rides Indian-style and shoots with deadly aim, greedily devours a treasure trove of leatherbound books, downs fire, flood, Comanche raids and other mortal perils with the unique courage that forged the character of the American West.
Rich in authentic details of daily life and etched with striking character portraits of very different pioneer families, this action-packed novel is also the story of a powerful, enduring love between Sarah and the dashing cavalry officer Captain Jack Elliot. Neither the vast distances traveled nor the harsh and killing terrains could quench the passion between them, and the loss and loneliness both suffer only strengthen their need for each other.
While their love grows, the heartbreak and wonder of the frontier experience unfold in scene after scene: a wagon-train Sunday spent roasting quail on spits as Indians close in to attack; Sarah’s silent encounter with an Indian brave, in which he shows her his way of respect; a dreadful discovery by a stream that changes Sarah forever; the hazards of a visit toPhoenix, a town as hot as the devil’s frying pan; Sarah’s joy in building a real home, sketching out rooms and wraparound porches.
Sarah’s incredible story leads us into a vanished world that comes vividly to life again, while her struggles with work and home, love and responsibility resonate with those every woman faces today. “These Is My Words” is a passionate celebration of a remarkable life, exhilarating and gripping from the first page to the last.
8) NurtureShock : New Thinking About Children
by Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman  (2009) [presented by R]
In a world of modern, involved, caring parents, why are so many kids aggressive and cruel?  Where is intelligence hidden in the brain, and why does that matter?  Why do cross-racial friendships decrease in schools that are more integrated?  If 98% of kids think lying is morally wrong, then why do 98% of kids lie?  What’s the single most important thing that helps infants learn language?
NurtureShock is a groundbreaking collaboration between award-winning science journalists Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman.  They argue that when it comes to children, we’ve mistaken good intentions for good ideas.  With impeccable storytelling and razor-sharp analysis, they demonstrate that many of modern society’s strategies for nurturing children are in fact backfiring–because key twists in the science have been overlooked.
Nothing like a parenting manual, the authors’ work is an insightful exploration of themes and issues that transcend children’s (and adults’) lives.
9) Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever
by Bill O’Reilly, Martin Dugard   (2011) [presented by B]
A riveting historical narrative of the heart-stopping events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the first work of history from mega-bestselling author Bill O’Reilly
The anchor of The O’Reilly Factor recounts one of the most dramatic stories in American history—how one gunshot changed the country forever. In the spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America’s Civil War finally comes to an end after a series of increasingly harrowing battles. President Abraham Lincoln’s generous terms for Robert E. Lee’s surrender are devised to fulfill Lincoln’s dream of healing a divided nation, with the former Confederates allowed to reintegrate into American society. But one man and his band of murderous accomplices, perhaps reaching into the highest ranks of the U.S. government, are not appeased.
In the midst of the patriotic celebrations in Washington D.C., John Wilkes Booth—charismatic ladies’ man and impenitent racist—murders Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre. A furious manhunt ensues and Booth immediately becomes the country’s most wanted fugitive. Lafayette C. Baker, a smart but shifty New York detective and former Union spy, unravels the string of clues leading to Booth, while federal forces track his accomplices. The thrilling chase ends in a fiery shootout and a series of court-ordered executions—including that of the first woman ever executed by the U.S. government, Mary Surratt. Featuring some of history’s most remarkable figures, vivid detail, and page-turning action, Killing Lincoln is history that reads like a thriller
10) Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency
by Mark Updegrove   (March 2012) [presented by J)
Nearly fifty years after being sworn in as president of the United States in the wake of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Lyndon Baines Johnson remains a largely misunderstood figure. His force of personal­ity, mastery of power and the political process, and boundless appetite for social reform made him one of the towering figures of his time. But he was one of the most protean and paradoxical of presidents as well. Because of his flawed nature and inherent contradic­tions, some claimed there were as many LBJs as there were people who knew him.
Intent on fulfilling the promise of America, Johnson launched a revolution in civil rights, federal aid to education, and health care for the elderly and indigent, and expanded immigration and environ­mental protection. A flurry of landmark laws—he would sign an unparalleled 207 during his five years in office, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, Elementary and Second­ary Education Act, Head Start, and Medicare—are testaments to the triumph of his will. His War on Poverty alone brought the U.S. poverty rate down from 20 percent to 12 percent, the biggest one-time drop in American history. As president, he was known for getting things done.
At the same time, Johnson’s presidency—and the fulfillment of its own promise—was blighted by his escalation of an ill-fated war in Vietnam that tore at the fabric of America and saw the loss of 36,000 U.S. troops by the end of his term.
Presidential historian Mark K. Updegrove offers an intimate portrait of the endlessly fas­cinating LBJ, his extraordinarily eventful presi­dency, and the turbulent times in which he served. We see Johnson in his many guises and dimen­sions: the virtuoso deal-maker using every inch of his six-foot-three-inch frame to intimidate his subjects, the relentless reformer willing to lose southern Democrats from his party for a generation in his pursuit of civil rights for all Americans, and the embattled commander in chief agonizing over the fate of his “boys” in Vietnam—including his two sons-in-law—yet steadfast in his determination to thwart Communist aggression through war, or an honorable peace.
Through original interviews and personal accounts from White House aides and Cabinet members, political allies and foes, and friends and family—from Robert McNamara to Barry Goldwa­ter, Lady Bird Johnson to Jacqueline Kennedy—as well as through Johnson’s own candid reflections and historic White House telephone conversa­tions, Indomitable Will reveals LBJ as never before. “ For it is through firsthand narrative more than anything,” writes Updegrove, “that Lyndon John­son—who teemed with vitality in his sixty-four years and remains enigmatic nearly four decades after his passing—comes to life.”

11) The Forgotten Garden
by Kate Morton   ( 2008) [presented by me)
A foundling, an old book of dark fairy tales, a secret garden, an aristocratic family, a love denied, and a mystery. The Forgotten Garden is a captivating, atmospheric and compulsively readable story of the past, secrets, family and memory from the international best-selling author Kate Morton.
Cassandra is lost, alone and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her life already shaken by a tragic accident ten years ago, feels like she has lost everything dear to her. But an unexpected and mysterious bequest from Nell turns Cassandra’s life upside down and ends up challenging everything she thought she knew about herself and her family.
Inheriting a book of dark and intriguing fairytales written by Eliza Makepeace – the Victorian authoress who disappeared mysteriously in the early twentieth century – Cassandra takes her courage in both hands to follow in the footsteps of Nell on a quest to find out the truth about their history, their family and their past; little knowing that in the process, she will also discover a new life for herself.
Here is the link to my online review, where you will find links to Kate Morton’s beautiful website, with extra material on the book, and also the book trailer I showed you during our meeting.
As you may know by now if you follow this blog, our book club is unique, in its format and in its members, as men and women seem to go along very well with each other as we all share on recent books we enjoyed reading. Some men even read books recommended the month before by women members, and vice versa.
So after our sharing and trading of titles, R. had the good idea to ask the other men of the club what their impressions were. It seems that all of them came first with much hesitation, wondering if they could fit in a book club, which are usually more female oriented. BUT they discovered that they like it, they like the format, and definitely want to remain active members, as they are free to read any genre they like.
IS ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE MEMBER
OF A TRADING TITLES BOOK CLUB?
WHAT’S YOUR EXPERIENCE LIKE?

18 May

Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands

Posted by WordsAndPeace in Photos. Tagged: , , , , , .

You already saw that picture for the previous Photo Challenge, too bad, it would have worked so well for this new Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands

But wait, I have another good one:

This is La chouette, the famous owl in my home city, Dijon, Burgundy, France, downtown.

It is actually on the exterior wall of the church Notre-Dame, rue de la chouette.

Every time you go through this street, you are supposed to go and put your HAND on the owl, and make a wish, for good luck.

As a student before your exams, this is absolutely a MUST!

There is currently a quite rather complicated ritual, with touching another stone animal which is close by with your other hand, and things to say, but I just know the simple version.

Now why “une chouette”/an owl? There are all kinds of symbolical explanations, such as the owl being the symbol of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom.

But it could also be, according to a local historian, that one of the stone masons of the church was named Chouet, and that would have been his signature. We have similar things on other churches in France.

I had a chock though discovering that a nut case broke it with a hammer about 10 years ago. They fixed it as best they could, but it is so sad to think that someone would want to do this to a Medieval feature – the French Revolution is over for God’s sake.

NB: the owl worked for me, I did pass my Baccalauréat with flying colors.

DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING SIMILAR IN YOUR HOME TOWN,
SOMETHING THAT’S SUPPOSED TO BRING YOU GOOD LUCK?

***

To see other entries for this Weekly Photo Challenge organized by WordPress, or to post your own, please visit this page.

18 May

TOP 5 BOOKS FOR YOUR WEEK-END 05/19-20

Posted by WordsAndPeace in Fiction, Good books for your week-end, Non-Fiction. Tagged: , , , , .

TOP 5 BOOKS FOR YOUR WEEK-END 

05/19-20/2012

Here are the latest titles added on my Goodreads TBR, I suggest them as the top 5 books for your week-end.

in FICTION:

 

Farewell, My Queen: A Novel

by Chantal Thomas, Moishe Black (Translator)

It was once the job of Madame Agathe-Sidonie Laborde to read books aloud to Marie-Antoinette. Now exiled in Vienna, she looks back twenty-one years to the legendary opulence of Versailles and meticulously reconstructs July 14, 15, and 16 of 1789.

When Agathe-Sidonie is summoned to the Queen’s side on the morning of the 14th, Versailles is a miniature universe, sparkling with every outward appearance of happiness and power, peopled with nobles of minutely calibrated rank, and run according to a hundred-year-old ritual called the Perfect Day. But with the shocking news that someone has woken the King in the night, order begins to disintegrate and word of the fall of the Bastille seeps into court. Soon Versailles’s beauty is nothing more than a shell encasing rising panic and chaos. Agathe-Sidonie watches as the Queen’s attempts to flee are aborted; her most intimate friend betrays her; and the King, appearing to sleepwalk through this crisis, never alters his routine of visiting the Apollo Salon several times a day to consult a giant crystal thermometer.

From the tiniest garret to the Hall of Mirrors, where Marie-Antoinette stands alone and terrified in the dark, Chantal Thomas shows us a world on the edge of oblivion and an intimate portrait of the woman who, like “fire in motion,” was its center.

Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d’Art

Absolutely nothing is sacred to Christopher Moore. The phenomenally popular, New York Times bestselling satirist whom the Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls, “Stephen King with a whoopee cushion and a double-espresso imagination” has already lampooned Shakespeare, San Francisco vampires, marine biologists, Death…even Jesus Christ and Santa Claus! Now, in his latest masterpiece, Sacre Bleu, the immortal Moore takes on the Great French Masters. A magnificent “Comedy d’Art” from the author of Lamb, Fool, and Bite Me, Moore’s Sacre Bleu is part mystery, part history (sort of), part love story, and wholly hilarious as it follows a young baker-painter as he joins the dapper Henri Toulouse-Lautrec on a quest to unravel the mystery behind the supposed “suicide” of Vincent van Gogh.

IN NON-FICTION:

 

The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci

In 1577, the Jesuit Priest Matteo Ricci set out from Italy to bring Christian faith and Western thought to Ming dynasty China. To capture the complex emotional and religious drama of Ricci’s extraordinary life, Jonathan Spence relates his subject’s experiences with several images that Ricci himself created–four images derived from the events in the bible and others from a book on the art of memory that Ricci wrote in Chinese and circulated among members of the Ming dynasty elite. A rich and compelling narrative about a remarkable life, The Memory Palace Of Matteo Ricci is also a significant work of global history, juxtaposing the world of Counter-Reformation Europe with that of Ming China.

Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops

by Jen Campbell (Goodreads Author)

From the hugely popular blog, a miscellany of hilarious and peculiar bookshop moments:
‘Can books conduct electricity?’
‘My children are just climbing your bookshelves: that’s ok… isn’t it?’
A John Cleese Twitter question ['What is your pet peeve?'], first sparked the ‘Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops’ blog, which grew over three years into one bookseller’s collection of ridiculous conversations on the shop floor. From ‘Did Beatrix Potter ever write a book about dinosaurs?’ to the hunt for a paperback which could forecast the next year’s weather; and from ‘I’ve forgotten my glasses, please read me the first chapter’ to’Excuse me… is this book edible?’
This full-length collection illustrated by the Brothers McLeod also includes top ‘Weird Things’ from bookshops around the world.

Paris, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down

A self-described Francophile from when he was little, Rosecrans Baldwin always dreamed of living in Paris—drinking le café, eating les croissants, walking in les jardins—so when an opportunity presented itself to work for an advertising agency in Paris, he couldn’t turn it down. Despite the fact that he had no experience in advertising. And despite the fact that he barely spoke French. After an unimaginable amount of red tape and bureaucracy, Rosecrans and his wife packed up their Brooklyn apartment and left the Big Apple for the City of Light. But when they arrived, things were not eactly what Rosecrans remembered from a family vacation when he was nine years old.

Paris, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down is a nimble comic account of observing the French capital from the inside out. It is an exploration of the Paris of Sarkozy, text-message romances, smoking bans, and a McDonald’s beneath the Louvre—the story of an American who arrives loving Paris all out of proportion, but finds life there to be completely unlike what he expected. Over eighteen months, Rosecrans must rely on his dogged American optimism to get him through some very unromantic situations—at work (writing booklets on how to breast-feed, raise, and nurture children), at home (trying to finish writing his first novel in an apartment surrounded on all sides by construction workers), and at every confusing French dinner party in between. An offbeat update to the expat canon, Paris, I Love You is a book about a young man finding his preconceptions replaced by the oddities of a vigorous, nervy city—which is just what he needs to fall in love with Paris for the second time.

SO WHAT WILL YOU BE READING THIS WEEK-END?

17 May

I love France #18: Shakespeare And Company

Posted by WordsAndPeace in I Love France, Photos. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

I LOVE FRANCE!

I plan to publish this meme every Thursday.
You can share here about any book
or anything cultural you just discovered related to France, Paris, etc.

Please spread the news on Twitter, Facebook, etc !
Feel free to grab my button,
and link your own post through Mister Linky,
at the bottom of this post.

*******

Last week, I promised you more things from Le Quartier Latin in Paris.

There are of course several gorgeous gardens, such as Le Jardin du Luxembourg:

The Jardin du Luxembourg, or the Luxembourg Gardens, is the second largest public park in Paris[1] (224,500 m² (22.5 hectares) located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France. The park is the garden of the French Senate, which is itself housed in the Luxembourg Palace.

It holds lots of fountains and statues.

And Le Quartier Latin is the neighborhood where famous writers came, wrote, and drank!

I enjoyed reading about the history of different places thanks to plaques; there are many of them now, not only in Paris, but in many cities. Click on the picture to read the text – in French.

And and of course, we had to go and see the famous bookstore Shakespeare And Company, quite a place – and crowded as well.

you can sit…

…or sleep!

If you do not know anything about this bookstore, I recommend these videos: the first one is on George Whitman, the owner for decades, who died last year at age 98.

The second video is on the current owner, Sylvia Beach, George’s own daughter.

The introduction written under each video is worth while reading.

And I can only recommend this website, Open Culture, which published fascinating daily posts.

HAVE YOU BEEN TO SHAKESPEARE AND COMPANY?
WHAT DID YOU LIKE ABOUT THE PLACE?

***

Please if possible
include the title of the book or topic in your link:
name of your blog (name of the book title or topic).
Thanks

16 May

My favorite bookstore

Posted by WordsAndPeace in Fiction, Photos. Tagged: , , , , .

Last week-end we had a shock.

We were enjoying the city of Evanston, Illinois, and of course decided to stop at our favorite bookstore: Bookman’s Alley.

Have a look inside and tell me if you would not love that place: books all over,  accompanied with an assortment of various items; there is actually some sort of organization, with a theme per room, and book categories along the shelf. And plenty of chairs here and there.

isn’t this cozy or what?

As I was sitting on a chair and looking at books around me, I overheard a customer saying that they were going to close. I froze and checked with the owner: yes indeed, they are preparing to close, within a month!!!!!!

We decided to buy the complete works of Marcel Proust in 2 volumes, to keep something from this awesome bookstore.

So if you have never seen this amazing place, it’s now or never.

Or if you think you could maybe take it over, rush there, or call Roger – phone number on the business card on top of my post.

Have you also recently experienced the death of a favorite bookstore?
What are your feelings?

15 May

Weekly Photo Challenge: Blue

Posted by WordsAndPeace in Photos. Tagged: , , , , , .

This week, the Photo Challenge is the color BLUE.

When I saw the statue of King Stanislas in Nancy, France, on the famous plazza named after him, I thought I could do something whimsical with it. So here it is!

Enjoy, and if you want to join the weekly Photo Challenge organized by wordpress, go here.

10 May

I love France #17: study abroad – in Paris

Posted by WordsAndPeace in I Love France, Photos. Tagged: , , , , , .

I LOVE FRANCE!

I plan to publish this meme every Thursday.
You can share here about any book
or anything cultural you just discovered related to France, Paris, etc.

Please spread the news on Twitter, Facebook, etc !
Feel free to grab my button,
and link your own post through Mister Linky,
at the bottom of this post.

*******

Strolling recently in the Quartier Latin, I stumbled upon a few interesting buildings. That might give you some ideas if you plan to study abroad, or just want to enjoy a walk in Paris.

But first, what is this Quartier Latin?

The Latin Quarter of Paris (French: Quartier latin, IPA: [kaʁtje latɛ̃]) is an area in the 5th and parts of the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It is situated on the left bank of the Seine, around the Sorbonne.

Known for its student life, lively atmosphere and bistros, the Latin Quarter is the home to a number of higher education establishments besides the university itself, such as the École Normale Supérieure, the École des Mines de Paris (a ParisTech institute), the Schola Cantorum, and the Jussieu university campus. Other establishments such as the École Polytechnique (also a ParisTech engineering school) have relocated in recent times to more spacious settings.

The area gets its name from the Latin language, which was once widely spoken in and around the University since Latin was the international language of learning in the Middle Ages. [wikipedia].

Here is a flavor of the neighborhood:

Relaxing, stopping at a terrasse and have some crêpes, while listening to music, or watching vélibs go by – what best way of enjoying Paris?

But OK, I was talking about studying…

Here are a few famous buildings, starting of course with La Sorbonne:

 

La Sorbonne has been the historical house of the former University of Paris. Nowadays, it houses several higher education and research institutions such as Panthéon-Sorbonne University, Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris-Sorbonne University, Paris Descartes University, the École Nationale des Chartes and the École pratique des hautes études.

The name is derived from the Collège de Sorbonne, founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon as one of the first significant colleges of the medieval University of Paris.[1][2] The university as such predates the college by about a century, and minor colleges had been founded already in the late 12th century. During the 16th century, the Sorbonne became a focal point of the intellectual struggle between Catholics and Protestants. The University served as a major stronghold of Catholic conservative attitudes, and as such conducted a bitter struggle against king Francis I’s policy of relative tolerance towards the French Protestants – except for a brief period in 1533 when the University was placed under Protestant control.

The Collège de Sorbonne was suppressed during the French revolution, reopened by Napoleon in 1808 and finally closed in 1882. This was only one of the many colleges of the University of Paris that existed until the French revolution. [wikipedia]

I then had the joy to discover le collège des Bernardins or Collège Saint-Bernard, established by the Cistercians in the first half of the 13th century, when they started falling into the influence of the university mentality of the time, and desired to send their own monks study theology in Paris, instead of forming them at the monastery, as it had always been done for all the monks of that order before.

Well, sounds like after talking about the Cistercians, I need to talk about the ever present Benedictines of the time, with the prestigious abbey of Cluny.

Opposite the piazza in front of La Sorbonne is the Thermes et hôtel de Cluny, which is now the location of  Le musée national du Moyen Âge. The building also dates from the first half of the 13th century – abbots of Cluny would come there when necessary.

There are many more things to see in Le Quartier Latin, but that will be for another stroll next week.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BUILDING OR PLACE
IN THE QUARTIER LATIN?

***

Please if possible
include the title of the book or topic in your link:
name of your blog (name of the book title or topic).
Thanks

8 May

(2012) #23 review: Maya Roads

Posted by WordsAndPeace in Non-Fiction, Reading Challenges. Tagged: , , , , .

Maya Roads:

One Woman’s Journey

Among the People of the Rainforest

by

Mary Jo McCONAHAY

251 pages

Published by Chicago Review Press in 2011

Maya Roads counts for the following Challenges:

   

  

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS BOOK

The 52 countries reading challenge is certainly the best thing that has been happening to my reading life in 2012: so many books or countries I would not have read about. With Maya Roads, I went to Guatemala, or I accompanied the author as she visited and revisited the country in the span of a few decades.

Maya Roads is a very enriching book, full of the passion of the author for the beauty of the landscape and the people, different and hospitable; and for its rich history and archeology. But it is also a very realistic book about what has happened to Guatemala in more recent years through unfortunate and devastating American influence at all kinds of military, political, and economic levels, all basically ending up in ruining a country, destroying its patrimony and the richness of its local cultures.

There were also interesting details about the famous Mayan calendar, so popular these days, as we reach the end of one of its cycle on Dec 21, 2012.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT

In Maya Roads, McConahay draws upon her three decades of traveling and living in Central America’s remote landscapes to create a fascinating chronicle of the people, politics, archaeology, and species of the Central American rainforest, the cradle of Maya civilization. Captivated by the magnificence and mystery of the jungle, the author brings to life the intense beauty, the fantastic locales, the ancient ruins, and the horrific violence. She witnesses archaeological discoveries, the transformation of the Lacandon people, the Zapatista indigenous uprising in Mexico, increased drug trafficking, and assists in the uncovering of a war crime. Over the decades, McConahay has witnessed great changes in the region, and this is a unique tale of a woman’s adventure and the adaptation and resolve of a people.  [Chicago Review Press ]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 Writer and journalist Mary Jo McConahay watches the globe, near and far. She co-produced and co-directed the documentary, Crimebuster, A Son’s Search for His Father, and co-produced the award-winning PBS documentary, Discovering Dominga, writing its original story. Her reporting has appeared in Time, Newsweek, Vogue, Rolling Stone, Ms., Salon, Sierra, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Parenting, The Progressive, National Catholic Reporter, and more than two dozen other magazines and periodicals. GlobeWatch continues McConahay’s column by the same name, formerly published by Pacific News Service and New America Media. Follow me on FaceBook [from her website]

REVIEWS BY OTHERS

“Every once in a while I stumble upon a book that is so beautifully written and infused with so much intelligence and heart that it leaves an indelible mark on me. Mary Jo McConahay’s Maya Roads is such a book. In its hungry passion and wide-eyed wonder, it’s an extraordinary literary journey and a moving testament to a region and a life.” —Don George, National Geographic Traveler, August 2011 Book of the Month

“A layered examination of a place and a people whose ancient culture is rapidly disappearing.” —Kirkus

“From the moment Mary Jo McConahay steps into the deep Mexican jungle, you will follow her anywhere. In this extraordinary travel memoir, McConahay journeys through beauty, history, disappearing cultures, and revolution. . . . Her courage, keen observation, and open heart make her an unparalleled guide to this gorgeous, mysterious, sacred, and sometimes terrifying corner of the planet.”
—Laura Fraser, author, An Italian Affair and All Over the Map
“What you hold in your hands is a gift of rare courage and insight. McConahay rips off the layers of a little-known world, exposing to us its hypnotic beauty–and violence–through her own experience. The author’s familiarity with the region and its people enables her to do what no one else before has done, setting incidents of the current crisis against centuries-old wisdom.” —Jean Molesky-Poz, author of Contemporary Maya Spirituality

HAVE YOU READ Maya Roads YET?
DO YOU FEEL LIKE READING THIS BOOK?
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS  IN A COMMENT PLEASE

4 May

(2012) #22 review: The Maldive Mystery

Posted by WordsAndPeace in Non-Fiction, Reading Challenges. Tagged: , , , , .

The Maldive Mystery

by

Thor HEYERDAHL

308 pages

Published  by Adler & Adler Publishers in 1986

This book counts for the following challenges:

      

      

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS BOOK

I had a hard time finding a book on the Maldive Islands, for the South Asian Challenge. Apart from tourist guides, my local library had basically only The Maldive Mystery. But that was also a great opportunity to finally read something by Heyerdahl.

I know he is sometimes criticized, and I understand, as I felt frustrated sometimes by repetitions in this book, and mostly because at the end of the book, I never got the real final answer that seemed to be originally promised.

Nevertheless, I found The Maldive Mystery very interesting: invited by the government of the Maldive Islands, Heyerdahl organizes archeological diggings to try to identify where the first inhabitants of these islands were coming from. I know absolutely nothing of these islands, so that was a nice foray in the region and its history.

Heyerdahl’s maritime expertise did help him identify the areas where digging would prove most fruitful.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT

When the Maldive Islanders converted to Islam in the 12th century, they discarded or destroyed all traces of earlier cultures, thus denying their past. Recent archeological discoveries prompted the government to invite Heyerdahl to examine the artifacts and attempt a reconstruction of pre-Islamic history. Located in the Indian Ocean southwest of India and west of Sri Lanka, the Maldives encompass two broad, reefless sea passages (“One-and-Half” and Equatorial Channels) well-known to ancient mariners. Heyerdahl, an authority on primitive sea travel (Kon-Tiki, The Ra Expeditions, unravels a mystery that reaches into the vanished civilizations of Sumer and the Indus Valley. The Maldivan artifacts showed that temples were built around A.D. 550; that the original settlers had been sun-worshipers. An important export of the Maldives in ancient times was cowrie shells, found only in the Islands and used as money, these shells were unearthed in pre-Viking tombs (A.D. 550800) in Sweden!  [Publishers Weekly]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thor Heyerdahl (October 6, 1914, Larvik, Norway – April 18, 2002, Colla Micheri, Italy) was a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer with a scientific background in zoology and geography. Heyerdahl became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed 4,300 miles (8,000 km) by raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. All his legendary expeditions are shown in the Kon-Tiki Museum, Oslo.

Thor Heyerdahl was born in Larvik, the son of master brewer Thor Heyerdahl and his wife Alison Lyng. As a young child, Thor Heyerdahl showed a strong interest in zoology. He created a small museum in his childhood home, with a Vipera berus as the main attraction. He studied Zoology and Geography at University of Oslo. At the same time, he privately studied Polynesian culture and history, consulting what was then the world’s largest private collection of books and papers on Polynesia, owned by Bjarne Kropelien, a wealthy wine merchant in Oslo. This collection was later purchased by the University of Oslo Library from Kropelien’s heirs and was attached to the Kon-Tiki Museum research department. After seven terms and consultations with experts in Berlin, a project was developed and sponsored by his zoology professors, Kristine Bonnevie and Hjalmar Broch. He was to visit some isolated Pacific island groups and study how the local animals had found their way there. Just before sailing together to the Marquesas Islands in 1936, he married his first wife, Liv Coucheron-Torp (b. 1916), whom he had met shortly before enrolling at the University, and who had studied economics there. Though she is conspicuously absent from many of his papers and talks, Liv participated in nearly all of Thor’s journeys, with the exception of the Kon-Tiki Expedition. The couple had two sons; Thor Jr and Bjørn. The marriage ended in divorce and in 1949 Thor Heyerdahl married Yvonne Dedekam-Simonsen. They in turn had three daughters; Annette, Marian and Helene Elisabeth. This marriage also ended in divorce, in 1969. In 1991 Thor Heyerdahl married for the third time, to Jacqueline Beer (b. 1932).

Thor Heyerdahl’s grandson, Olav Heyerdahl, retraced his grandfather’s Kon-Tiki voyage in 2006, as part of a six-member crew. The voyage, called the Tangaroa Expedition, was intended as a tribute to Thor Heyerdahl, as well as a means to monitor the Pacific Ocean’s environment. A film about the voyage is in preparation.  [goodreads]

HAVE YOU READ The Maldive Mystery YET?
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT HEYERDAHL’S BOOKS?
DO YOU FEEL LIKE READING THIS BOOK?
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS  IN A COMMENT PLEASE

4 May

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unfocused

Posted by WordsAndPeace in Photos. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Sometimes I hate myself for taking blurred pictures, and using strong zooms tend to do this on my camera, but I kept this ine, as I thought it did a nice effect with the light which is so powerful in this Medieval abbey of Fontenay, in Burgundy, not far from Dijon.

It was founded by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in 1118, and built in the Romanesque style. It is one of the oldest and most complete Cistercian abbeys in Europe, and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. Of the original complex comprising church, dormitory, cloister, chapter house, caldarium, refectory, dovecote and forge, all remain intact except the refectory. are well maintained. The Abbey of Fontenay, along with other Cistercian abbeys, forms a connecting link between Romanesque and Gothic architectures.

Here is the beautiful website of Fontenay abbey, if you wish to know more about it.

***

New to The Daily Post? Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’re invited to get involved in our Weekly Photo Challenge to help you meet your blogging goals and give you another way to take part in Post a Day / Post a Week. Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Click here to see other unfocused pictures or to join the challenge yourself

3 May

The Secret Garden Read-A-Long

Posted by WordsAndPeace in ebook, Fiction, Giveaway, Reading Challenges. Tagged: , .

Earlier on today, I posted a review of The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton.

I mentioned that there was an interesting interview of her on the amazon site. In it, Kate Morton talks about The Secret Garden.

As a child who did not grow up in an English speaking world, I never got the chance to read The Secret Garden.

And tonight, as I check my google reader, I find this post by Under My Apple Tree about joining this read-a-long of The Secret Garden hosted by Book Journey!

I checked ibooks on my ipod touch, and there it is for free, plus a nice edition with color illustrations it seems, so yes I am in as well!

With so many reading challenges and 5 books started right now, this is pure madness, but what can put a limit to my book madness??

Book Journey writes:

“Won’t you come and read with me?

If you are interested in doing this read a long with me it is open to those who have not read it before, and to those who feel they may be due for a re-read.

Then… on May 31st here, we are going to have a garden party! You will have a chance to link your reviews and there will be an online book discussion here, as well as giveaways…. all garden themed!”

 

So if you have not read it yet, this is the best opportunity: click on the picture on top of this post and you will ready to join! Meet you in the garden…

3 May

(2012) #21 review: The Forgotten Garden

Posted by WordsAndPeace in Audiobooks, Fiction, Reading Challenges. Tagged: , , , , , .

The Forgotten Garden

by

Kate MORTON

Narrator: Caroline LEE

20:40 hours

Audiobook published by Bolinda Publishing in 2008

Book originally published by Pan Books in 2008

This book counts for the following challenges:

 

   

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS BOOK

I rarely approach writing a book review with fear and trembling, and that is definitely the case here, knowing ahead there is no way I can fully translate my feelings and give full deserved honor to this book and its author. But I do hope I will manage have you curious enough and go and check it out.

Let me first say that after I listened to it, I asked my husband to buy the paperback copy for my birthday, so that I could read it (again) and keep it! Well, if you follow my yearly statistics, you know I never ever do this: I own very very few of the many books I read, and I hardly ever re-read a book, possibly a book I read decades ago in another language, but definitely not a book I just read!

That should suffice to tell you how much I was enthralled and captivated by this masterpiece.

And why so? Well, you we are now getting into tough lands…

It is a mystery, a love story, a family story, spanning four generations, a fairy tale, or a story about fairy tales and art, and about mazes and secrets. When I say fairy tales, do not think modern fantasy where evil has so much emphasis – yeah, I’m against the trend, but I will not read anything about vampires, werewolves, undead and the like…

The ambiance is so beautiful and spell bounding, all along, as you switch from one generation to the next between the different characters, until you receive the magic thread that will deliver you the entrance to the forgotten garden, that is, when you understand finally who is who, and what happened.

Descriptions are magic, I really felt I was in those places with these people.

The narrator Caroline Lee was superb at translating this mysterious ambiance of the whole book, and for 20 hours mind you, this is not an easy task. Her voice fit perfectly all characters. I see she narrated another book by Morton, which is great. Sometimes it is hard to listen to the same author narrated by another voice.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT

A lost child…

On the eve of the first world war, a little girl is found abandoned on a ship to Australia. A mysterious woman called the Authoress had promised to look after her – but the Authoress has disappeared without a trace.

A terrible secret…

On the night of her twenty-first birthday, Nell O’Connor learns a secret that will change her life forever. Decades later, she embarks upon a search for the truth that leads her to the windswept Cornish coast and the strange and beautiful Blackhurst Manor, once owned by the aristocratic Mountrachet family.

A mysterious inheritance…

On Nell’s death, her grand-daughter, Cassandra, comes into an unexpected inheritance. Cliff Cottage and its forgotten garden are notorious amongst the Cornish locals for the secrets they hold – secrets about the doomed Mountrachet family and their ward Eliza Makepeace, a writer of dark Victorian fairytales. It is here that Cassandra will finally uncover the truth about the family, and solve the century-old mystery of a little girl lost. [taken from the website of the author: please go there and visit, this is a gorgeous website, with lots of goodies about the book when you click on the right menu].

Watch also this video

and you can find a nice interview of the author here

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Kate Morton grew up in the mountains of southeast Queensland, Australia. She has degrees in Dramatic Art and English Literature and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Queensland. Kate lives with her husband and two young sons in Brisbane.
Kate Morton’s books have been published in 31 countries. The House at Riverton was a Sunday Times #1 bestseller in the UK in 2007 and a New York Times bestseller in 2008. The Shifting Fog (know The House of Riverton) won General Fiction Book of the Year at the 2007 Australian Book Industry Awards. Was nominated for Most Popular Book at the British Book Awards in 2008. Her second book, The Forgotten Garden, was a #1 bestseller in Australia and a Sunday Times #1 bestseller in the UK in 2008

Other books narrated by Caroline Lee

THE REVIEW THAT MADE ME READ IT

REVIEWS BY OTHER BLOGGERS

HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK YET?
OR OTHER BOOKS BY KATE MORTON?
DO YOU FEEL LIKE READING THIS BOOK?
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS  IN A COMMENT PLEASE

3 May

I love France #16: Notre-Dame de Paris

Posted by WordsAndPeace in I Love France. Tagged: , , , , , .

I LOVE FRANCE!

I plan to publish this meme every Thursday.
You can share here about any book
or anything cultural you just discovered related to France, Paris, etc.

Please spread the news on Twitter, Facebook, etc !
Feel free to grab my button,
and link your own post through Mister Linky,
at the bottom of this post.

*******

Glad to be back with this meme, and for a while it will be mostly related to my trip to France, and first about Paris.

A few words today about Notre-Dame, taken from wikipedia, illustrated with my own pictures:

Notre Dame de Paris (IPA: [nɔtʁ dam də paʁi]; French for Our Lady of Paris), also known as Notre Dame Cathedral or simply Notre Dame,[2] is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the cathedra (official chair) of the Archbishop of Paris, currently André Vingt-Trois. The cathedral treasury houses a reliquary with the purported Crown of Thorns.

Notre Dame de Paris is widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture in France and in Europe, and the naturalism of its sculptures and stained glass are in contrast with earlier Romanesque architecture. The first period of construction from 1163 into 1240s coincided with the musical experiments of the Notre Dame school.

The cathedral suffered desecration during the radical phase of the French Revolution in the 1790s, when much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. An extensive restoration supervised by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc removed remaining decoration, returning the cathedral to an ‘original’ gothic state.

HAVE YOU VISITED NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS?
WHAT DO YOU LIKE/UNLIKE ABOUT IT?

HAVE YOU READ VICTOR HUGO’S BOOK?
HOW WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE?

Please if possible
include the title of the book or topic in your link:
name of your blog (name of the book title or topic).
Thanks

2 May

(2012)#20 review: If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

Posted by WordsAndPeace in Fiction, Reading Challenges. Tagged: , , , , .

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

by

Italo CALVINO

Translated by William Weaver

260 pages

Published  by Harvest/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1982

This book counts for the following Reading Challenges:

              

   

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS BOOK

March and April have been very full with a long trip, pictures coming soon, and now has come to go back to reading and reviewing! To go on with traveling, in some way, here is my review about Italian literature.

I have been curious about Calvino for a while, and decided to try him first with this book. This is certainly one of the strangest books I have read for a while.

It is for me more a book about books and writing than a novel; yes there is a sort of plot, and a love story, as the Reader and Ludmilla try to find each other through books they begin and can never really end – because the book ends up not being the book they thought it was, or because the book was corrupted, or pages have been replaced by pages of another book, or translated from another book. Have I managed to lose you yet? Good, that’s what your experience may be with this book. But just go with the flow, from book to book, and be ready to stop and taste some nice gems as the real author reflects about the act of reading and writing. Be also prepared to experience a whole array of genres as the Reader opens another book, and I really liked this aspect of the book, as an experiment in writing different genres.

If you are interested in modern literature, you absolutely need to read this book. This is the kind of books I would have liked to study in my younger years in literature classes.

It took me half of the book to realize what was happening with the title of each chapter, I won’t tell you what, but now that I mentioned it, you’ll get it quickly.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT

Italo Calvino’s masterpiece combines a love story and a detective story into an exhilarating allegory of reading, in which the reader of the book becomes the book’s central character.

Based on a witty analogy between the reader’s desire to finish the story and the lover’s desire to consummate his or her passion, IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A TRAVELER is the tale of two bemused readers whose attempts to reach the end of the same book—IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A TRAVELER, by Italo Calvino, of course—are constantly and comically frustrated. In between chasing missing chapters of the book, the hapless readers tangle with an international conspiracy, a rogue translator, an elusive novelist, a disintegrating publishing house, and several oppressive governments. The result is a literary labyrinth of storylines that interrupt one another—an Arabian Nights of the postmodern age. [from randomhouse.com]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 Italo Calvino was born in Cuba and grew up in Italy. He was a journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy (1952-1959), the Cosmicomics collection of short stories (1965), and the novels Invisible Cities (1972) and If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler (1979).

His style is not easily classified; much of his writing has an air of the fantastic reminiscent of fairy tales (Our Ancestors, Cosmicomics), although sometimes his writing is more “realistic” and in the scenic mode of observation (Difficult Loves, for example). Some of his writing has been called postmodern, reflecting on literature and the act of reading, while some has been labeled magical realist, others fables, others simply “modern”. He wrote: “My working method has more often than not involved the subtraction of weight. I have tried to remove weight, sometimes from people, sometimes from heavenly bodies, sometimes from cities; above all I have tried to remove weight from the structure of stories and from language.“[goodreads]

REVIEWS BY OTHERS

“[Italo Calvino is] one of the world’s best fabulists.”
—John Gardner, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

“Calvino is a wizard.”
—Mary McCarthy, NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

“[Calvino] manages to charm and entertain the reader in the teeth of a scheme designed to frustrate all reasonable readerly expectations.”
—John Updike, THE NEW YORKER

“Calvino is that very rare phenomenon, a true original . . . If on a winter’s night a traveler is breathtakingly complex and self-conscious (there are moments when it quite literally makes one gasp with astonishment) . . . [yet it] is one of the most accessible and enchanting novels written in the last fifty years.”
—from the Introduction by Peter Washington [from randomhouse.com]

HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK YET?
WHICH CALVINO’S BOOK IS YOUR FAVORITE?
DO YOU FEEL LIKE READING THIS BOOK?
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS  IN A COMMENT PLEASE

25 Apr

Block Book Club #3

Posted by WordsAndPeace in Book Club, Fiction, Non-Fiction. Tagged: , , , .

 Wow, it’s good to be back!

I was away for a while, with no time to read, I’ll tell you more about this another time, nor to post!

I rarely hear about people being 100% satisfied with their book club selections. Following a format my public library launched last summer, I decided to start my own book club for people of my block: instead of imposing the same title for everyone, each member presents the book he/she most liked during the previous month. I’m always fascinated by the richness of our sharing and the diversity of titles. I noticed also this time that we had more male than female presenters.

Here are the titles we shared at our last meeting [synopsis from Goodreads.com]:

1) Follow the River

by James Alexander Thom (2010) [presented by P]

Mary Ingles was twenty-three, married, and pregnant, when Shawnee Indians invaded her peaceful Virginia settlement, killed the men and women, then took her captive. For months, she lived with them, unbroken, until she escaped, and followed a thousand mile trail to freedom–an extraordinary story of a pioneer woman who risked her life to return to her people.

 2) Salvage the Bones

by Jesmyn Ward  (2011) [presented by P]

A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and Esch’s father is growing concerned. A hard drinker, largely absent, he doesn’t show concern for much else. Esch and her three brothers are stocking food, but there isn’t much to save. Lately, Esch can’t keep down what food she gets; she’s fourteen and pregnant. Her brother Skeetah is sneaking scraps for his prized pitbull’s new litter, dying one by one in the dirt. Meanwhile, brothers Randall and Junior try to stake their claim in a family long on child’s play and short on parenting.

 As the twelve days that make up the novel’s framework yield to their dramatic conclusion, this unforgettable family—motherless children sacrificing for one another as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce—pulls itself up to face another day. A big-hearted novel about familial love and community against all odds, and a wrenching look at the lonesome, brutal, and restrictive realities of rural poverty, Salvage the Bones is muscled with poetry, revelatory, and real.

3) Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, And Hope In A Mumbai Undercity

by Katherine Boo (2012) [presented by L]

From Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo, a landmark work of narrative nonfiction that tells the dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving toward a better life in one of the twenty-first century’s great, unequal cities.
In this brilliantly written, fast-paced book, based on three years of uncompromising reporting, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human.

Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as India starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a childhood in rural poverty, has identified an alternate route to the middle class: political corruption. With a little luck, her sensitive, beautiful daughter—Annawadi’s “most-everything girl”—will soon become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest Annawadians, like Kalu, a fifteen-year-old scrap-metal thief, believe themselves inching closer to the good lives and good times they call “the full enjoy.”

But then Abdul the garbage sorter is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and a global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power and economic envy turn brutal. As the tenderest individual hopes intersect with the greatest global truths, the true contours of a competitive age are revealed. And so, too, are the imaginations and courage of the people of Annawadi.

With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connects human beings to one another in an era of tumultuous change, Behind the Beautiful Forevers carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century’s hidden worlds, and into the lives of people impossible to forget.

 4) 11/22/63

by Stephen King (2011) [presented by B]

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed forever.
If you had the chance to change the course of history, would you?
Would the consequences be worth it?

Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.
Explore the Possibilities…

 5) And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris

by Alan Riding (2010) [presented by R]

On June 14, 1940, German tanks rolled into a silent and deserted Paris. Eight days later, a humbled France accepted defeat along with foreign occupation. The only consolation was that, while the swastika now flew over Paris, the City of Light was undamaged. Soon, a peculiar kind of normality returned as theaters, opera houses, movie theaters and nightclubs reopened for business. This suited both conquerors and vanquished: the Germans wanted Parisians to be distracted, while the French could show that, culturally at least, they had not been defeated. Over the next four years, the artistic life of Paris flourished with as much verve as in peacetime. Only a handful of writers and intellectuals asked if this was an appropriate response to the horrors of a world war.

Alan Riding introduces us to a panoply of writers, painters, composers, actors and dancers who kept working throughout the occupation. Maurice Chevalier and Édith Piaf sang before French and German audiences. Pablo Picasso, whose art was officially banned, continued to paint in his Left Bank apartment. More than two hundred new French films were made, including Marcel Carné’s classic, Les Enfants du paradis. Thousands of books were published by authors as different as the virulent anti-Semite Céline and the anti-Nazis Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. Meanwhile, as Jewish performers and creators were being forced to flee or, as was Irène Némirovsky, deported to death camps, a small number of artists and intellectuals joined the resistance.

Throughout this penetrating and unsettling account, Riding keeps alive the quandaries facing many of these artists. Were they “saving” French culture by working? Were they betraying France if they performed before German soldiers or made movies with Nazi approval? Was it the intellectual’s duty to take up arms against the occupier? Then, after Paris was liberated, what was deserving punishment for artists who had committed “intelligence with the enemy”?

By throwing light on this critical moment of twentieth-century European cultural history, And the Show Went On focuses anew on whether artists and writers have a special duty to show moral leadership in moments of national trauma.

 6) Suite Francaise

by Irène Némirovsky (2006) [presented by P]

Beginning in Paris on the eve of the Nazi occupation in 1940. Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.

 7) Room

by Emma Donoghue  (2010) [presented by J]

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it’s where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it’s not enough…not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son’s bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

 8) Gone with the Wind

by Margaret Mitchell (1936) [presented by F]

Revisit the South and fall under the spell of Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler all over again. After six decades, this sweeping saga set against the backdrop of the war-torn South remains one of the most beloved American novels ever written.

9) To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918

by Adam Hochschild  (2011) [presented by J]

World War I stands as one of history’s most senseless spasms of carnage, defying rational explanation. In a riveting, suspenseful narrative with haunting echoes for our own time, Adam Hochschild brings it to life as never before. He focuses on the long-ignored moral drama of the war’s critics, alongside its generals and heroes. Thrown in jail for their opposition to the war were Britain’s leading investigative journalist, a future winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and an editor who, behind bars, published a newspaper for his fellow inmates on toilet paper. These critics were sometimes intimately connected to their enemy hawks: one of Britain’s most prominent women pacifist campaigners had a brother who was commander in chief on the Western Front. Two well-known sisters split so bitterly over the war that they ended up publishing newspapers that attacked each other.

 

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