The Most Beautiful Walk in the World

The Most Beautiful Walk in the World:  A Pedestrian in Paris by John Baxter

Published:  2011 by Harper Perennial

Source:  Received from the publisher for review

Paris belongs to its piétons – the pedestrians



   Regular readers of this blog, tell me:  is there any doubt as to what I think of this book?

   It's about Paris.  About walking in Paris.  About viewing the history of Paris on these walks through the eyes of some of the writers and other cultural luminaries who made their mark in the city:  Hemingway, Picasso, Sylvia Beach, to name just a few.  It's a book written by a Parisian resident who,  I think because he is not a native of the city,  still has a bit of the tourist in him to be able to express his wide-eyed admiration of the city and all that has happened to it.
 
  That's not to say that the book is all sunshine and roses about the city -- Baxter describes a few incidents typical of life probably anywhere, but for me, since they take place in PARIS, they seem so much more bearable. 

  Although not really a travel guide, for those interested in visiting Paris for the first or fortieth time is full of information disguised as narratives that would only enhance the experience;   my copy is covered in Post-It flags and highlighted throughout so that WHEN I can plan my next trip I will have new resources available to me.  Even for the armchair traveller, though, this book is simply a wonderful escape into one of the world's great cities.

  Highly recommended. 

  I also recommend another John Baxter memoir set in Paris:  Immoveable Feast:  A Paris Christmas; an account of his attempt to prepare a traditional French Christmas meal for his French in-laws.  A wonderful holiday read.

My Year with Eleanor

My Year with Eleanor:  A memoir by Noelle Hancock

Published:  2011 by Ecco

Source:  Received from publisher for review as part of the TLC Book Tour

  Yes, this is another "project" memoir.  After losing her job as an entertainment blogger, Noelle Hancock is unsure of her future; however at her local coffee shop she sees a quote on the wall that inspires her:

"Do one thing every day that scares you."  Eleanor Roosevelt

As she is about to turn 29, Hancock takes it upon herself to follow Mrs. Roosevelt's advice and create a "Year of Fear" before her 30th birthday. 

  Most of the book details the "big" things Hancock did that scared her -- trapeze lessons and skydiving, for example -- but throughout we see her growth as a person as she deals with less glamorous issues like her dependence on sleep medication and the status of her relationship with her boyfriend.  And as it becomes clear to her -- and to me -- that scary things aren't always big things, she also makes important realizations about what it means to conquer a fear-inducing feat:

"If I could take this kind of risk maybe then, if I had a chance to make a difference in someone's life someday, I'd have the courage to do it."

"The scariest thing I'd done in my life so far turned out not to be all that scary - fun even.  It made me wonder what else I was missing out on.  Also, what other things in my life was I unnecessarily wasting time and energy worrying about?"

  At first I thought this book was going to be shallow - I blame my preconceived notions of the writing style and interests of an entertainment blogger.  However I was pleasantly surprised by Ms. Hancock's account of her exploits and by the inspiration she took from Eleanor Roosevelt's life.  Most books I read usually lead me to add one or two more books to my to-read list, and this one is no exception, as I do want to read more about Mrs. Roosevelt myself.  And in addition to the quote that started Hancock on this journey, I have several other quotes (including the two noted above) that I hope to use as motivation myself to attempt at least some of those things that scare me.

Highly recommended.

Be sure to check out the other stops on the blog tour of this book:

Monday, July 11: Book Reviews by Molly
Tuesday, July 12: Bibliosue
Wednesday, July 13: 2 Kids and Tired Book Reviews
Thursday, July 14: Melody & Words
Tuesday, July 19: Scandalous Women
Wednesday, July 20: Unabridged Chick
Monday, July 25: One Book Shy
Tuesday, August 2: “That’s Swell!”
Wednesday, August 3: The Book Chick
Thursday, August 4: Cozy Little House
Wednesday, August 10: Kahakai Kitchen
Thursday, August 11: Stephanie’s Written Word

Europa Meme

 
Ok this might be a little repeat of my initial post for the Europa Challenge, but I'm a joiner so I'm also participating in the Europa meme.  The rules:

• Go to the Europa Editions- From 1 to 100 page,
• Create a post on your blog with the title "Europa Meme."
• Copy/Paste the list of books into a new post on your blog.
• Now:
• Bold the books you've read (you can link to reviews on your blog if you want),
• Italicize the ones you own but haven't read,
• Underline the ones you'd like to buy, and
• Link to The Europa Meme page!

  Now I am aiming to read all of the titles, but I'll start with the ones already on my radar:

1. Elena Ferrante, The Days of Abandonment
2. James Hamilton-Paterson, Cooking with Fernet Branca
3. Benjamin Tammuz, Minotaur
4. Wolf Erlbruch, The Big Question
5. Jean-Claude Izzo, Total Chaos
6. Massimo Carlotto, The Goodbye Kiss
7. Patrick Hamilton, Hangover Square
8. Sélim Nassib, I Loved You for Your Voice
9. Edna Mazya, Love Burns
10. Chad Taylor, Departure Lounge
11. Ioanna Karystiani, The Jasmine Isle
12. Matthew F. Jones, Boot Tracks
13. Wolf-Belli, The Butterfly Workshop
14. Alicia Giménez-Bartlett, Dog Day
15. Jane Gardam, Old Filth
16. Carlo Lucarelli , Carte Blanche
17. Elena Ferrante, Troubling Love
18. Jean-Claude Izzo, Chourmo
19. Massimo Carlotto, Death's Dark Abyss
20. James Hamilton-Paterson, Amazing Disgrace
21. Stefano Benni, Margherita Dolce Vita
22. Wolf Erlbruch, The Miracle of the Bears
23. Alfred Hayes, The Girl on the Via Flaminia
24. Sélim Nassib, The Palestinian Lover
25. Christa Wolf, One Day a Year. 1960-2000
26. Massimo Carlotto, The Fugitive
27. Gene Kerrigan, The Midnight Choir
28. Altan, Here Comes Timpa
29. Carlo Lucarelli, The Damned Season
30. Peter Kocan, Fresh Fields
31. Jean-Claude Izzo, Solea
32. Alicia Giménez-Bartlett, Prime Time Suspect
33. Altan, Timpa goes to the Sea
34. Alessandro Piperno, The Worst Intentions
35. Edwin M. Yoder Jr., Lions at Lamb House.
36. Jean-Claude Izzo, The Lost Sailors
37. Jane Gardam, The Queen of the Tambourine
38. Michele Zackheim, Broken Colors
39. Steve Erickson, Zeroville
40. Altan, Fairy Tale Timpa
41. Carmine Abate, Between Two Seas
42. Katharina Hacker, The Have-Nots
43. Elena Ferrante, The Lost Daughter
44. Gene Kerrigan, Little Criminals
45. Stefano Benni, Timeskipper
46. Peter Kocan, The Treatment & The Cure
47. Carlo Lucarelli, Via delle Oche
48. Alicia Giménez-Bartlett, Death Rites
49. Gail Jones, Sorry
50. Jane Gardam, The People On Privilege Hill
51. Roma Tearne, Mosquito
52. Helmut Krausser, Eros
53. Jean-Claude Izzo, A Sun for the Dying
54. Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog
55. Amara Lakhous, Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio
56. James Hamilton- Paterson, Rancid Pansies
57. Francisco Coloane, Tierra del Fuego
58. Amélie Nothomb, Tokyo Fiancée
59. Joel Stone, The Jerusalem File
60. Domenico Starnone, First Execution
61. Shashi Deshpande, The Dark Holds No Terrors
62. Salwa Al Neimi, The Proof of the Honey
63. James Hamilton-Paterson, Seven-Tenths: The Sea and its Thresholds
64. Alberto Angela, A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome
65. Giancarlo De Cataldo, The Father and the Foreigner
66. Roma Tearne , Bone China
67. Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, The Most Beautiful Book in the World. Eight Novellas
68. Muriel Barbery, Gourmet Rhapsody
69. Valeria Parrella, For Grace Received
70. Lia Levi, The Jewish Husband
71. Boualem Sansal, The German Mujahid
72. Massimo Carlotto & Marco Videtta, Poisonville
73. Romano Bilenchi, The Chill
74. Jane Gardam, The Man in the Wooden Hat
75. Helmut Dubiel, Deep In the Brain.
76. Ioanna Karystiani, Swell
77. Valerio Massimo Manfredi, The Ides of March
78. Daniele Mastrogiacomo, Days of Fear
79. Alina Bronsky, Broken Glass Park
80. Linda Ferri, Cecilia
81. Caryl Férey, Zulu
82. Jenn Ashworth, A Kind of Intimacy
83. Leïla Marouane, The Sexual Life of an Islamist in Paris
84. Lorcan Roche, The Companion
85. Carmine Abate, The Homecoming Party
86. Laurence Cossé, A Novel Bookstore
87. Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, The Woman with the Bouquet
88. Massimo Carlotto, Bandit Love
89. Fay Weldon, Chalcot Crescent
90. Rebecca Connell, The Art of Losing
91. Damon Galgut, In a Strange Room
92. Amélie Nothomb, Hygiene and the Assassin
93. Jane Gardam, God on the Rocks
94. James Scudamore, Heliopolis
95. Yishai Sarid, Limassol
96. Milena Agus, From the Land of the Moon
97. Luis Sepúlveda, The Shadow of What We Were
98. Anne Wiazemsky, My Berlin Child
99. Kazimierz Brandys, Rondo
100. Alina Bronsky, The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine

  I also just purchased French Leave by Anna Gavalda, and I have an ARC of An Accident in August by Laurence Cosse; I am excited to read both of these as well.

  How many of these are on your read or to-read lists?

The Battle for Spain

The Battle for Spain:  The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 by Antony Beevor

Published:  2006 by Penguin Books

Source:  Purchased

  Back in university (many many years ago) I wrote a paper in my 1st year international relations class about the Spanish Civil War.  Since the focus was only on the diplomacy (or lack thereof) surrounding the conflict, though,  I did not do much research outside of that topic, but I retained a curiosity of that war and tried to learn more about it over the years.  Some wonderful novels, Guernica by Dave Boling, and The Return by Victoria Hislop provide emotional images of the war and its effects on the civilian population, but I hadn't read a good non-fiction account of it; so when I was browsing a bookstore in a college town and saw Antony Beevor's book The Battle for Spain I picked it up.  It took me about two years to finally read it (thank you 2011 TBR Pile Challenge) and I still don't know if I understand the Spanish Civil War any better.

  It's not that the book isn't good -- it is thorough, but perhaps too thorough for a "general" reader like me.  Beevor provides a lot of detail about the two sides of the conflict - the Republicans and the Nationalists, and though there is an index of abbreviations at the beginning I still found it difficult to keep track of all of the organizations that fell under the two sides, and in fact to keep track of which side was which (The Republicans were the government of Spain at the time and received support from the Soviet Union and Communist/anti-fascist volunteers from around the world; the Nationalists were led by General Francisco Franco and were supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy).  The book also goes into a lot of detail about specific battles and I have to admit that my attention waned during these descriptions.  Beevor is an objective writer, though, and his account of the war is balanced;  he shows the good and bad of both, which I believe exists in any war.

  If and when I read another novel set during the Spanish Civil War, I think I will have this book at my side as a reference for any actual events depicted.  For me, it was not a book that I enjoyed reading as I normally do, but I appreciate its value as a resource for detailed information.

Quarantine by Rahul Mehta

Quarantine:  Stories  by Rahul Mehta

Published:  2011 by Harper Perennial

Source:  Received from publisher for review

  I have to admit that I have not read a lot of short stories and I don't know why.  The logical side of me thinks that having a book of short stories around would be ideal when I want to read but don't have enough time or inclination for something longer.  In addition, the curiosity seeker in me should be more inclined to short stories that allow me smaller glimpses into topics that spark my interest.

  This short story collection by Rahul Mehta, Quarantine, attracted me initially because of the fact the author is Indian-American and I am drawn to literature of the Indian diaspora (have I ever mentioned that I have eclectic tastes?).  This collection was made even more interesting (and curious) to me when I saw that it was about gay Indian-American men and I wanted to look into that life.

  My expectations of the stories were that they would be about families' shame and embarassment with having a homosexual in the family, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was not in any of the stories.  My pre-conceived notion of Indian families being rigidly conservative and not willing to accept anything outside of their traditional view of family life was definitely removed.  Though all of the stories have gay men as their main characters, the themes of the stories -- family loyalties, romantic relationships, cultural differences -- are ones that we all can relate to.  My favorite story of the collection is "The Cure", a story about a man who compulsively burns cash; to him, money does not change anything. 

  The stories might not be for everyone, as there are some explicit scenes, but they were for me a fascinating and eye-opening window into this community.  And I hope to find some more story collections to do the same.

  Recommended.

5 Best Books about Patriotism

The 5 Best Books is a meme hosted by Cassandra at Indie Reader Houston

  To coincide with the celebration of Independence Day in the United States on July 4, this week's topic is to list our 5 Best Books about patriotism.

  

  July 4th is a significant day in my own personal history.  I am a born and bred Canadian girl, but on this day in 1999, I moved to the United States to be with my now-husband (a long story in itself).  I became an American citizen in April, 2008, and while I feel privileged to live here and especially to have the right to vote, I am still a proud Canadian.  So my list reflects my dual citizenship:

1. Band of Brothers:  E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest by Steven Ambrose.  I did read this after I saw the amazing HBO miniseries, but I loved its story of this group of men from all over the United States coming together for a common goal.
2. The Greater Journey:  Americans in Paris 1830-1900 by David McCullough.  Yes, this book is primarily set in Paris, but it highlights how that city contributed to the accomplishments of many Americans in a variety of arenas.
3. How to Be a Canadian (Even if You Already are One) by Will & Ian Ferguson.  We Canadians have a great ability to laugh at ourselves.  Despite the title, the book might only be fully appreciated by those of us already Canadian, but anyone reading it will get a fun look into life in the Great White North (eh?)
4. The Best Laid Plans and The High Road by Terry Fallis.  Two wonderfully entertaining novels about Canadian politics featuring reluctant MP Angus McClintock.  I am eagerly awaiting (hoping for) a third installment in this series.
5. Oh Canada!Oh Quebec!:  Requiem for a Divided Country by Mordecai Richler.  In 1995, Canada came dangerously close to losing the province of Quebec.  This book was written in 1992 in the heat of the separation debate and likely helped intensify the situation.

July Reading List

  I'm a little late in posting my to-read list for July.  I took a few days off work to make an extra long holiday weekend and the laziness was just too enjoyable to interrupt; alas, since I must return to the grind on Tuesday I thought I'd bring back some discipline and let you know what's on my reading agenda for July:

  For Reading Groups:

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (a re-read)
• Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

  For Reading Challenges:

• Fabulous Small Jews:  Stories by Joseph Epstein (I know -- this has been on my list for a few months now.  I PROMISE I will read it in July)
• The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston
• The Factory Voice by Jeanette Lynes
• Hygiene and the Assassin by Amelie Nothomb

  For Review:

• The Most Beautiful Walk in the World:  A Pedestrian in Paris by John Baxter
• The Things We Cherished by Pam Jenoff

  What's on your reading agenda for July?