Book review and giveaway: A Paris Apartment – I love France #115

I LOVE FRANCE!

I plan to publish this meme every week.

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.

*******

A Paris Apartment

 

Paris Apartment

In full compliance with FTC Guidelines,
I received this book for free in exchange
for a fair and honest review.
I was in no way compensated for this post
as a reviewer,
and the thoughts are my own.
A Paris Apartment
By
Michelle Gable
PublisherThomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press
Pub. Date: April 22, 2014
ISBN:  978-1250048738

Pages:  384
Genre:  historical fiction
Source: Received
from the publisher for a
virtual book tour on France Book ToursGoodreads

Buy the book:

     Amazon A Paris Apartment        Barnes & Noble     IndieBound

This book counts for the following Reading Challenges:

      books-on-france-14   2014 historical fiction

 New author challenge

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS BOOK

Rating systemRating systemRating systemRating systemRating system

A Paris Apartment is based on a true story that recently came to light: in 2010 I believe, a 7-room apartment was discovered in Paris, 9th arrondissement. No one had entered it in 70 years, and it was crammed with precious pieces of furniture from all kinds of periods and provenances, that the family finally wanted to auction.

This historical novel features April Vogt, PhD in art history, an American furniture assessor working for the Sotheby company. She is urgently called by her boss to go spend the month of June in Paris to prepare that auction. It might be also a good time to get away for a while from her husband Troy. After 7 years of married life, their situation is rather shaky.
When April enters the apartment, she not only finds amazing furniture, but also a painting her expert eye recognizes right away as a work of the most famous portraitist of La Belle Époque, Giovanni Boldini, and even more intriguing: a bunch of letters dating back to 1898. Avidly reading these letters, April connects deeply with this mysterious woman, Marthe de Florian, and finds in this unique experience messages for her own life. Let me tell you why this was such an amazing historical novel.
Click to continue reading

Advertisement

Sunday Post #9 – 10/5/14

Sunday Post

 

 

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by
Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer.
It’s a chance to share news.
A post to recap the past week on your blog,
showcase books and things we have received.
Share news about what is coming up on your blog
for the week ahead.
See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

***

 

This post also counts for
Mailbox Monday2 it's Monday www wednesdays

Mailbox Monday,
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
and WWW Wednesdays

Oh my, already in the 40s in Chicago, I’m not ready  for that –not that I’m ever ready anyway for the cold.

BOOKS JUST READ

  Everyday Saints  Seven Letters From Paris

click on the covers to know more about them

 

CURRENTLY READING

Taking the Cross cover    The Crown

Delirium

  1.  Taking The Cross, by Charles Gibson. Review scheduled for France Book Tours on Oct 16
  2. Listening to: The Crown, by Nancy Bilyeau. Awesome! Almost done
    3. Delirium: The Rimbaud Delusion, by Barbara Scott Emmet,
    who will publish a guest-post on Oct 20!
    4. And a few more!!

BOOKS UP NEXT

Sharp Hook of Love     Unlikely Pilgrimage

LAST WEEK ON WORDS AND PEACE
and FRANCE BOOK TOURS

  1. Bitter Greens, by Kate Forsyth (review + giveaway)
  2. October books of the month giveaway: 3 great novels for grab!
  3. September wrap-up: so many awesome books!
  4. 4th Blogiversary giveaway winners
  5. 4th Blogiversary: stats after 4 years of book blogging
  6. New tour posted: Journeys Through France And Life, by Glenda de Vaney (memoir) – still some spots available!
  7. New tour posted: The Beautiful American, by Jeanne Mackin (historical fiction) – some spots available
  8. Taking the Cross, by Charles Gibson: release day
  9. September book of the month giveaway winners
  10. And we still have spots available to review We’ll Always Have Paris: A Mother-Daughter Memoir, by Jennifer Coburn
  11. and to review this thriller: The Shiro Project, by David Khara

COMING UP ON WAP and FBT

  • 10/5, later on today: Crossing The Line, by Frédérique Molay (review + giveaway)
  • 10/6: A Paris Apartment, by Michelle Gable (review + giveaway)
  • 10/7: release day of The Sharp Hook of Love, by Sherry Jones; and of Seven Letters From Paris, by Samantha Vérant
  • Some time this week, you should receive the Newsletter #2. Did you know that by opening it, you are entered into an exclusive giveaway? Sign up now if you have done it yet!
  • Also, I’m revamping my rating system, to make it more obvious, still my Eiffel Towers, but in a simplified way, so it will be one of these 5 possible lines. Everyone knows but are usually rated between 1 and 5. What d you think?
    Eiffel-Tower#1
    Eiffel-Tower#2Eiffel-Tower#2
    Rating systemRating systemRating system
    rating systemrating systemrating systemrating system
    Rating systemRating systemRating systemRating systemRating system

BOOK REVIEW MOST READ THIS PAST WEEK

Bitter Greensclick on the cover to know more about it
and enter the giveaway!

POST MOST VIEWED ON FRANCE BOOK TOURS

Paris Apartment click on the cover to know more about it
and enter the giveaway!

 

CURRENT GIVEAWAYS

    Crossing the Line   Church of Tango  Paris Apartment

  Sharp Hook of Love  Bitter Greens
click on each cover to access the giveaway entry form

BOOKS ADDED TO MY GOODREADS TBR

   The Beautiful American  20410154  20731176

The Beautiful American is a histfic about Lee Miller, set in the 1920s in Paris!
Review copies available, click on the cover!

BOOKS RECEIVED THIS PAST WEEK

none, but no problem, had so many last weeks!

CHECKED OUT AT THE LIBRARY

17725354

HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?

2014: September wrap-up

September was another awesome reading month. Interestingly, I read and listened to the same amount of books as in August, but longer books!

Here is what I read in August:

10 books.
= 8 books
with 3,007 pages, that is: 100 pages/day.
+ 2 audiobooks = 16:29 hours, that is an average of  33 mn/day

 3 historical novels:

  1. Lies Told in Silence, by MK Tod
  2. Bitter Greens, by Kate Forsyth – review scheduled for 10/3
  3. A Paris Apartment, by Michelle Gable – review scheduled for 10/6

3 in nonfiction:

  1. The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus, by Jen Bryant – children book
  2. Hymns of Divine Love, by St Symeon the New Theologian
  3. Everyday Saints, by Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov

2 in  literary fiction:

  1.  The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin – audio
  2. Sodome et Gomorrhe, by Marcel Proust – ebook.
    Yes, I’m now in book 5 of A la recherche du temps perdu!! = In Search of Lost Time. Slowly but surely.
    Actually book 5 is much better than 3 and 4, according to me

2 mysteries:

  1. Still Life, by Louise Penny – audio
  2. Crossing The Line, by Frédérique Molay – ebook – review scheduled for 10/5

 

My favorites this month:

A Paris Apartment cover      Bitter Greens

This is terribly hard to choose:
I enjoyed a lot ALL of the books I read this past month, except Sodome et Gomorrhe…

***

Reading Challenges recap

Audiobook: 11/12
Books on France: 45/24 – DONE
Ebook challenge: 17/25
Historical fiction: 26/25 – DONE
Japanese literature: 2/6
New authors challenge: 57/50 – DONE
My Kind of Mysteries: 17/20
TBR challenge: 2/12
What’s in a Name: 3/5
Where Are You Reading?: 16/50 – to be finished in 2014

Total of books read in 2014 = 76/105

Number of books added to my TBR in September = 40

***

Blog recap

  1. 4 of the 10 books read this month were received for review.

  2. 83 reviews for my Books on France Challenge, don’t forget to link yours.

  3. I organized 5 giveaways this month. There’s always one going on at France Book Tours.. Be sure to check the October Giveaway! 3 books offered!

  4. I celebrated my 4th blogiversary, with 3 special posts and a giveaway. Thanks again to all my followers.

  5. I participated in the #30Authors event.

***

Most popular book review in September

Edwinclick on the cover to access my review

Most popular post last month – non book review

Sunday Post #7

Book blog that brought me
most traffic this past month

Caffeinated Book Reviewer

please go visit

Blog milestones

953 posts
over 1,870 subscribers
over 69,300 hits

***

Blog plans for October

Lots of reviews scheduled, and lots of books to read!

I’m finally going to join some affiliates programs… Any special recommendations on tips to know??

I would like to get more active as for memes such as Teaser Tuesdays of First Chapter First Paragraph, and redo some videos, but I’m in the process of translating into French a 3rd novel this year, so with this and my insane number of French online students, there are not too many hours left in the day, lol

And I’m preparing to change the look of France Book Tours. I will switch to a white background, but definitely would love to keep 2 columns on the right… If you know of a good wordpress.COM theme with these features, please let me know, merci!
After that, I will ask your opinion, if you would like that change also on Words And Peace

 

***

How was YOUR month of  September?