The Mistress of the Ritz / Melanie Benjamin / 369 pages

This is an historical fiction book based on real people and events during World War II in France.  Claude Auzello is the director of the Ritz Hotel in Paris.  He and his wife, Blanche, live at the hotel.  The Ritz is host to many famous guests such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Coco Channel, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor until 1940 when Germany marches into Paris and sets up their headquarters at the Ritz. Now the Auzellos, the mistress and master of the Ritz, have a new and dangerous reality in their lives.  I was attracted to this book because it is based on true events and people.  It was suspenseful told the story of a turbulent time very well.

The Little Paris Bookshop / Nina George / 392 pgs

I just finished this book for my next book club meeting, and honestly, it was really ho-hum to me. Perhaps I'm not such a lover of French sensibilities and would have preferred the setting of England and a bit more of an uptight Englishman as the main character. Perhaps I just didn't have much empathy for a guy who had an affair with a married woman who left him over twenty years before. Perhaps I could barely relate to the books and authors mentioned in Ms. George's book. Many of the titles and books mentioned were fake, not even real, and that annoyed me. I think I'm being generous giving this book three stars. I should probably give it less, but I can't say it was the worst book I've ever read, just one that I never care to pick up again.

The book concerns a 50 year old man named Jean Perdu who runs a Literary Apothecary on a barge on the Seine in Paris. Mr. Perdu has the ability to be able to ask a few questions of a customer and instantly figure out which book will cure what ails them, even if they don't know that they have an ailment. However, Mr. Perdu's ailment is that he still grieves the woman who left him 20 years before without saying good-bye. When he finds a letter she wrote him that he never opened, he discovers that things were not as they seemed two decades before. Along with some new friends, Mr. Perdu unmoors his bookshop barge and takes it down the canals and rivers of France all the way to the Provence.

The Conspiracy of Us / Maggie Hall / 336 pages / 8 discs

  Who doesn't secretly hope for some royalty in the family line? What little girl doesn't dream she is a lost princess and is waiting for her family to come get her? Avery West has moved frequently in her life. Her mother receives a 'mandate' and then the packing starts again. She longs to settle in one place long enough to make friends and to feel a part of something. At yet another new school, a new boy has attracted her attention. His name is Jack Bishop. Then he does the unthinkable he asks her to prom! When Avery tells her mother the reaction is quite unexpected. Her mother begs her not to leave the house, to stay and pack for the new move. Avery reluctantly promises but after her mother leaves decides "Why not? It is probably my only chance." Little does she know that decision will change the course of her life.
   Turns out Avery's unknown father is part of a secret society that runs the world. He has never met her and has sent Jack to bring Avery to Paris to meet the family. But another family has sent different young man for Avery and his name is Stellan. What happens next is a wild and exciting ride through Paris. A visit to the Prada store, a private airplane ride to Istanbul for a party and a trio of bad guys not far behind relentless in their pursuit of the 'girl with the violet eyes'. There is a puzzle Avery must solve and I found it almost an afterthought. It provided the author the ability to show off some Parisian history. It was a small irritation though. I loved the action in this book. The novel moved quickly and kept the reader guessing as to where they would go next. There is a cliffhanger ending. Be patient as the author hasn't published the second one yet.


Six Degrees of Reading: The Selection by Kiera Cass, The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black, I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios.  

A Small Indiscretion/Jan Ellison/323 pages

Annie Black sits down to write a letter to her son to explain everything that led up to his tragic accident and how life has changed since. Her story goes back to the year before she met her husband when she was living in London trying to save money to study in France. She had fled her colorless life in the States looking for adventure. Her memory of what happened may be skewed by time and guilt. Ultimately, she has to face what happened all those years ago and how it effects the present.

A very good first novel. This is our book club selection for the month, and I look forward to the discussion.

Hundred-foot Journey / Richard C. Morais 245 p.

Hundred-foot Journey / Richard C. Morais 245 p.

Now a motion picture, this is the story of Hassan Haji, a boy from Mumbai, India. Hassan narrates his own story beginning with his grandfather who starts a restaurant during World War II which his father inherits. The father expands and grows the business.  When his mother dies in a fire, the entire family migrates to London.  There they languish, in sorrow, until his father takes them on a tour of Europe where they discover a small village in France.  There his father turns to what he does best, running an Indian restaurant; and, evokes the ire of the 2 star French chef.  There develops a war albeit a culinary war where Madame Mallory seeks to oust Hassan's father.  She has met her match as he counters each of her moves until a disaster happens.  Madame Mallory finds herself offering a chef position to Hassan and the die is cast for him to pursue his own Michelin stars and, ultimately, his own Parisian restaurant.  Morais rich descriptive prose gives life to the story.  The sights, sounds, and smells float off the page as he describes the trek of the Haji family from Mumbai to Paris. 

French Pastry Murder/Leslie Meier/280 pages

Tinker's Cove, Maine has been the setting of over twenty murders in the Lucy Stone series, so to give the small town a break and keep that pesky title of "Most Violent City in the USA" in Detroit or St. Louis, Meier's newest novel is set in Paris. Lucy and her three best friends have been given a two-week all expenses paid trip to Paris with their husbands by Norah (think Oprah) for their philanthropic work for the town. The trip includes a week of cooking classes by Chef Larry, a young and charming pastry chef. When Chef Larry is brutally murdered after one of the classes, and Lucy finds the body, the group is questioned and forced to give up their passports until the authorities are satisfied with their findings. Faced with an extended stay in Paris, Lucy decides to solve the murder so they can go home  as planned. Lucy's daughter, Elizabeth, is working at a luxury hotel in Paris and helps her mother figure out what's going on.


Meier highlights the differences between our legal system and France's and what Americans sometimes take for granted. She also touches on the cultural differences between the two countries. Her characters sometimes take on the persona of the "ugly American" but not until they are threatened with being held indefinitely with no legal recourse.

Paris Match/Stuart Woods/311 pages

Stone Barrington is back for the third or four or maybe even fifth time this year! Now he's in Paris for the opening of l'Arrington, part of the hotel chain named after his late wife, the very unfortunately named Arrington Barrington. Dino and Viv are with him attending a conference. Holly shows up to keep Stone busy at night. Stone buys, at a bargain price of course, a charmingly perfect home in Paris. A small problem with a Russian mobster and a corrupt Paris police officer are minor annoyances.


Typical Woods and Barrington.

Bringing up Bebe / Pamela Druckerman / 284 pgs.

Pamela Druckermann, an American journalist writes about her time living and raising her children in France.  Druckermann, believes that French children are extremely well-behaved and eat well rounded meals without complaint; so she goes out in search of what makes this so.  The result is the very entertaining and informative book about French values and parenting styles.  Basically, Druckermann feels that Americans are overwhelmed with parenting theories and are too overprotective (ie helicopter parenting) and also to lenient with discipline so as not to crush our child's souls.  There is also a big difference on how the French view their roles as parents versus Americans.  American moms tend to give up their old identity and take on their new role as "mom".  While the French feel that they are parents, but they are still the person they were before the baby and they try to continue to cultivate that persona. 
Druckermann, feels we need to be more like the French and let our children be more independent to discover the world and to handle their own problems.  She also writes about sleeping, mealtimes, the education system, and motherhood. 

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay - 294 Pages

Book Discussion title at Kathryn Linnemann

This is another book that I consider 'book club gold'. There was so much to discuss in this book - many of us had not heard of the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup in France during World War II. Without giving too much away, the book switches back in forth in time from Nazi-occupied France to 2002 (60th anniversary of this incident). Old family secrets and modern domestic issues blend together in a suspenseful, well-told story. If you enjoy World War II fiction, historical fiction, or just an all-around great book, you'll love Sarah's Key.

Our discussion covered everything from the Holocaust to reincarnation. Now how's that for variety?

Happy Reading!

A motion picture based on Sarah's Key was released in 2010, see Internet Movie Database at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1668200/

Discussion questions available from Reading Group Guides at: http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_S/sarahs_key1.asp#discuss

Melanie - KL Book Club

Legacy / Danielle Steel / 326 Pages

Brigitte works for a college in the admissions dept, but wakes up to a shock when her life changes overnight. Her boyfriend of six years up and move to Egypt, and the next day she gets let go at work because a new computer system can do her job for her.  With nothing to do and no one hiring, she turns to her mother, who is tracking her family's geneaology back as far as she can.  Her mother hits a wall when she can't find any more records from before her family left France.  Brigitte, wanting to please her mother and with nothing better to do, tracks down some more records for her, first going to Salt Lake City and then South Dakota, where she discovers that one of her relatives was a Sioux Indian girl who somehow ended up in France and married a Marquis.  Now interested in the geneaological project, Brigitte flies to Paris to find out more.  While there, she meets a French professor, and they enjoy each other's company.  But after Brigitte goes back home and has no real life left, she decides to take a job in Paris, where she will have the time and resources to write a book about the little Indian girl, Wachiwi.  Several chapters of the book are about Wachiwi's life and how she was taken from her family to another tribe, meets a Frenchman, and makes it to France, where she falls in love and gets married.

While the underlying story line was interesting, I found this book to be difficult to read and very repetitive.  What took up 326 pages could have been made into a much shorter, better-written book, and I found myself getting irritated with it throughout my reading of it.  I think the characters were under-developed and could have blossomed into memorable people who felt real to the reader with a little more effort.  It was very disappointing, as I had heard the Danielle Steel books were very good.  I guess I will have to read some of the older ones to find out.