Happy #Caturday! We’re Reading About Trees.
My cat Maddie snuggled up to a book I left behind this morning. She’s apparently interested in reading Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees. It’s a wonderful little book that posits stands of trees are like human families. They protect each other, communicate through roots, send nutrients to the ill, and a bunch of other amazing things. If you read this, you’ll be seeing beeches and birches and all trees in a whole different light. Have a great Saturday!…
20 Books of Summer! Focus: Provence. Did I Make It?
Earlier this summer, I gathered together a stack of books about France to inspire me as I wrote my novel set in Provence. In June, I lengthened the list and jumped on the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge bandwagon. The collection included novels and memoirs and I made a few substitutions along the way. It was fun to spend the summer dreaming about life in the French countryside. Results of the Challenge Overall, I’d say the challenge went well. I…
The Most Insightful Memoirs About Life in France: Part 2
In my first article on memoirs about life in France, I covered stories of romance, food, gardening, and motherhood. Today, I’ll talk about some classics and my favorite memoir about the French lifestyle. Paris to the Moon Adam Gopnik lived out a lifelong dream of moving to Paris in the late 1990s, then wrote about it for The New Yorker. This is a more high-minded book, packed with Parisian history and cultural facts but full of humor too. Gopnik wittily…
The Most Insightful Memoirs About Life in France: Part 1
English-language memoirs about life in France usually follow a common trajectory: an American or Brit or Australian somehow lands in France and must cope with the unfamiliar culture while learning the language and navigating a new job or life situation. They often cover settling into that new life, fixing up a home, shopping at local markets, cooking food, discovering romance, etc. They are mostly light-hearted affairs with only a touch of drama. In short, they can be formulaic. But I…
