Book Review: Every Single Secret
Emily Carpenter wrote an interesting suspense novel that takes place in a therapist's Victorian office/home. Creepy and strange.
Death in Provence, a Fun Mystery Romp in France
The book Death in Provence by Serena Kent (a.k.a. Deborah Lawrenson) offers a fun mystery romp set in France. It centers on Penelope Kite, a British divorcee, who buys an old country house with dreams of renovations and dinner parties but instead finds a dead body in her swimming pool. A former forensics doctor’s assistant, Penny embarks on solving the case…
The Alchemist and Aleksy
My daughter is reading The Alchemist, a classic by Brazilian writer Paul Coehlo, which tells the tale of an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago. It’s a mystic story about his adventures that will help you follow your true path. Since our cat Maddie had her spotlight, my daughter read the book beside our other cat Aleksy. He likes to hang…
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…
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…
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.…
