Author: Tatiana de Rosnay

This book was on my list for ages; I even had it downloaded to my Kindle. But during a Texada Library sale I was able to pick up the real thing. It sat in the cupboard on Texada for ages but I finally pulled it out. It didn’t take long to read.

Julia and her family are about to move into the Paris apartment that was previously the home of her husband’s grandmother. In the course of research for her job she came to learn of the Vel’ d’Hiv – the rounding up of Jewish citizens in Paris during the occupation. Little did she know that her husband’s family were living in an apartment that had been the previous home of a Jewish family. Sarah was one of the thousands of children that had been rounded up and sent to various camps.

I’ve read so many books about the occupation and the treatment of the Jewish people that maybe I was a bit desensitize. It seemed to me though that the actions of Julia were quite selfish and indulgent, although there was a good conclusion to the story.

Goodreads Rating: * * *

Update: December 12, 2022

I recently came across a review of this book from an older version of my website. Most obvious from the two reading is that the first time around “I found the ending a bit contrived” whereas on the second reading I liked the conclusion.

Here is the original review:

The book starts out telling the story of a young French girl, Sarah, living in Paris during the Second World War. She and her family, with the exception of her brother, are arrested and sent to concentration camps in Poland. Sarah’s story is alternated with the present-day story of Julia Jarmond, an American journalist who has married into a well-to-do French family. These two stories intersect in a most interesting way. I loved the book, but I found the ending a bit contrived.

Author: Anna Quindlen

Maybe it’s because I haven’t read a really good book in so long that I rushed through this one. It wasn’t necessarily one that I couldn’t put down but I was truly interested in the characters and their story.

Rebecca is a sixty-year old photography artist who had great success in her earlier years. But she has gone out of style and she has money troubles for the first time in her life. She decides to rent out her expensive New York apartment and moves to a cabin in the woods. The people she meets in the town are quirky but she comes to love her new life. The photos she takes in her new environment bring her back into the artistic spotlight.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

Author: Umberto Eco

I read another book by this author and really like it but I sure didn’t like this one. In fact, I think I liked it less than Moby Dick.

Here’s what Goodreads had to say about the book:

“Three clever editors (who have spent altogether too much time reviewing crackpot manuscripts on the occult by fanatics and dilettantes) decide to have a little fun. They are inspired by an extraordinary fable they heard years before from a suspiciously natty colonel, who claimed to know of a mystic source of power greater than atomic energy.

On a lark, the editors begin randomly feeding esoteric bits of knowledge into an incredible computer capable of inventing connections between all their entries. What they believe they are creating is a long, lazy game – until the game starts taking over… “

Can you see how I might have been fooled?

Goodreads Rating: *

Author: Robert James Waller

This had been on my Kindle for a long time and I was in the mood for a quick read and something light.

Carlisle McMillan arrives in the small town of Salamander near Wolf Butte. His arrival is not celebrated, with the exception of a Native American and two women. Carlisle, a master carpenter, buys a rundown farmhouse and begins to rebuild it. Just as it is finished the state plans to run a road directly through his house. Can the few people opposed to the new highway stop it before it destroys his home and the endangered birds living near his property?

Goodreads Rating: * * *