I thought I’d post a few times today and tomorrow about the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and what it means to me and to some of the authors and fictional and actual characters that I have on my bookshelves. I’m going to take turns blogging and house-cleaning and see how …
Category Archive: France
Feb 09
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo’s epic novel is divided into five volumes: Volume 1: Fantine Volume 2: Cosette Volume 3: Marius Volume 4: Saint-Denis Volume 5: Jean Valjean In January I read, or rather re-read, the first two volumes, but I’m sort of stuck. I first read the entire novel when I was in college. This reading was …
Feb 01
Mira’s Diary: Lost in Paris by Marissa Moss
Time travel at its most historically teach-y. I learned a lot about the Dreyfus affair, but the time travel elements of this story were too unbelievable. Mira keeps traveling back and forth from our time to various times in the late nineteenth century, and she meets many of the same people at different key points …
Jun 21
The Summer of Katya by Trevanian
A couple of weeks ago when we played Book Tag with the theme of Summer Setting, Summer Reading, Debbie at ExUrbanis recommended this novel, saying that is was “part mystery and part love story.” So I borrowed a copy from the library. And it is part mystery and part love story with a bit of …
May 14
Advanced Reading Survey: Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac
I’ve decided that on Mondays I’m going to revisit the books I read for a course in college called Advanced Reading Survey, taught by the eminent scholar and lovable professor, Dr. Huff. I’m not going to re-read all the books and poems I read for that course, probably more than fifty, but I am going …
Dec 23
For Freedom: The Story of a French Spy by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
“This book is written as fiction but tells a true story.” Suzanne David Hall was thirteen years old in 1940 when the Germans invaded France, and she later became a spy for the French resistance. While training to become an opera singer, she relayed messages that helped bring about the Allied invasion of Normandy. The …
Sep 26
1916: Art and Entertainment
On May 20, 1916, artist Norman Rockwell publishes his first cover for the magazine Saturday Evening Post. The picture was called Boy With Baby Carriage., and it shows a boy who is having to push a baby in her carriage while his friends go off to play baseball. Also, during 1916 and until his death …
Oct 27
The Death-Defying Pepper Roux by Geraldine McCaughrean
One of the oddest children’s books I’ve ever read. The story isn’t a fantasy, but it is fantastical. Pepper Roux, age fourteen, isn’t exactly a hero or an anti-hero, but some Gilbert and Sullivan-esque admixture of Don Quixote, The Great Imposter, and Tom Jones. On the morning of his fourteenth birthday, Pepper had been awake …
Oct 07
No and Me by Delphine de Vigan
I got an ARC of this YA novel, originally published in French, several months ago, but I’m just now getting around to reading it. The atmosphere and feel of the story was very European, very French. It’s a story about a thirteen year old, intellectually gifted girl named Lou Bertignac and her friendship with a …
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