|
|
Post by mossie on Jul 3, 2011 13:29:34 GMT -5
Geordy, regarding the supposedly safer countryside. At the time I lived in deepest East Kent about 6 miles from Dover. At the beginning of the war we had women and children from London evacuated to the village. However, when the Germans invaded Belgium and France in spring 1940, these people were swiftly taken away. We stayed put until the V1 onslaught in June 1944 when the authorities offered to evacuate children. None left our village, we were having a great time watching the fighters and AA shooting down the doodlebugs, as we called the V1. incidentally we had 19 V1s down in the parish, which was mostly open fields of course. But the very last one, in March 1945, landed on the edge of the village and damaged 150 houses. A morning I shall never forget  |
|
|
|
Post by Happygoin on Jul 3, 2011 17:29:00 GMT -5
geordy, I have Blood, Bones and Butter on reserve at the library. Really looking forward to it now. The Hundred Foot Journey was indeed a good read, btfly. I enjoyed it a lot.
My word, Mossie. What a witness to history you've been! I love your stories...
|
|
|
|
Post by Jody on Jul 4, 2011 6:36:34 GMT -5
FInished the Paris WIfe earlier this week, really liked it. But Hemingway was a S**T to Hadley.
Finished The True Story of Hansel and Gretel yesterday, 2 young Polish Jews who escaped the ghetto and are kept by an old woman in secret during the Nazi occupation of POland while awaitng the Russian army. Really some terrifying moments and it describes other atrocities beside the camps that the Poles endured.
|
|
|
|
Post by geordy on Jul 4, 2011 7:38:02 GMT -5
I just put Hansel and Gretel and the Morais book on hold ...so many good ideas here! They don't have "a Girl's War" listed yet.... Echo Happy..love the stories Mossie...and keep having the wine!  |
|
|
|
Post by mez on Jul 6, 2011 5:41:37 GMT -5
Definitely not Paris related but I have started reading 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' by Betty Smith.
I am only a few pages in but I am enjoying it. How could I not with sentences like this...
'Mama said that the Jews had never looked on Jesus as anything but a troublesome Yiddish boy who would not work at the carpentry trade, marry, settle down and raise a family.'
;D
|
|
|
|
Post by cigalechanta on Jul 6, 2011 13:37:13 GMT -5
La Seduction, How the French play the game of life by Elaine Sciolino
|
|
|
|
Post by Jody on Jul 6, 2011 13:48:39 GMT -5
Mimi,I just started that too. I love it so far. Thought it was funny when the library called to tell me it was in. She said we have the book you ordered, La Seduction. giggle, giggle!Guess she thjought it was some trashy sex novel!!
Loved the thought..The French like the Sizzle as much as the steak
|
|
|
|
Post by Happygoin on Aug 11, 2011 10:59:44 GMT -5
Well, geordy, I finished Blood Bones and Butter last week. I have mixed feelings about it. I ended up not liking the author too much. She seemed a bit...self-involved I guess (for lack of anything better). But the book was interesting, I'll say that. What an unconventional upbringing!
Here's one I just finished for all you who follow WWII history. It's a very difficult book, but excellent nonetheless. It's called The Liberators and it's by Michael Hirsh. Gosh was this gut-wrenching in places! It's basically interviews with American GI's, and some females who were nurses, most of whom stumbled on the death camps. I say stumbled on, because in most cases these guys knew very little about concentration camps and nothing at all about the death camps. I hadn't realized this previously. You can't even imagine their reactions.
Another tidbit, in case you don't read it: Patton tossed his cookies on touring his first death camp. Eisenhower, who was with Patton and seeing a death camp for the first time as well, disobeyed a direct order from FDR to get on with things. Eisenhower told the president that he wanted to see every corner of the camp and meet every prisoner in it, in case anyone in the future thought the idea of the death camps was untrue, just propaganda. How prescient!!
I'd love to see this become required reading for high-schooler's who study the Holocaust. An excellent read.
|
|
|
|
Post by cybee on Aug 11, 2011 13:54:55 GMT -5
We are currently on page 31 of the OPF "What are we all reading at the moment" thread (fyi). "Blood, Bones and Butter" sounds very interesting, Happygoin. Yikes....death camps.....inconceivable but true horrors.
I am currently reading "The Greater Journey" by David McCullough. It is about Americans in Paris...and at first I thought the author was trying to cover too many people/ incidents ...but now I have accustomed myself to this format and am learning some interesting orts! Not quite to the middle yet...but it only covers the years from 1830 to 1900...so sadly, I fear there will be no mention of OPFers! Triste.
|
|
|
|
Post by Shoesy on Aug 14, 2011 21:39:22 GMT -5
I've just completed reading "The Help" after having seen a screening of the movie (in N.Y.). I wouldn't mind seeing the movie a second time once it is released here in Israel.
|
|
|
|
Post by Happygoin on Aug 15, 2011 8:58:49 GMT -5
I just saw The Help yesterday, Shoesy. I normally won't go see a movie if I've read the book. But I'm happy I made an exception. The movie was true to the book and done very well.
For those of you old enough to remember little Opie on the Andy Griffith Show, his daughter plays one of the lead roles, Hilly Holbrook. She looks exactly like a female version of her father. She wasn't hard to pick out! And whoever cast Octavia Spencer as Minny should get an award. Those eyes!
|
|
|
|
Post by PariS on Aug 15, 2011 9:51:18 GMT -5
I'm going to see The Help with my girls this week. Now that it's gotten the OPF Stamp of Approval, I'm really looking forward to it!  Edit: Saw it last night and loved it! |
|
|
|
Post by geordy on Oct 9, 2011 6:44:30 GMT -5
Just finished Seduction which I enjoyed..DSK..is mentioned and he is the poster child(there is a photo..and of course the book was published before the most current mess) for a rogue reputation in a politician/public figure!
Am now enjoying French Lessons by Ellen Sussman..about 3 French tutors and 3 Americans taking a French lesson in Paris. Having fun following the first pair around the left bank !
|
|
|
|
Post by Jody on Oct 9, 2011 9:12:31 GMT -5
Enjoyed the French Lesson and just finished Le Divorce. It had too much extraneous stuff in the story and I had a hard times finihung it without looking at the end!
|
|
|
|
Post by denise on Oct 9, 2011 12:41:14 GMT -5
:)Trying to read Hemmingways "a moveable feast" but getting a bit bored! Don't know why he is supposed to be such a good writer. I find him very stilted and such a name dropper!! LOL!
The only attraction about this book is that he talks about Paris and you can identify the places.
I keep thinking to myself, "why don't these people get a proper job! LOL!
Also, re reading, "Love in a time of Cholera" by Gabriel García Márquez, Now Theres a book you can get your teeth into and a writer with a beautiful descriptive style.
Denise
Lve from England
|
|
|
|
Post by mez on Oct 10, 2011 5:55:51 GMT -5
:)Trying to read Hemmingways "a moveable feast" but getting a bit bored! Don't know why he is supposed to be such a good writer. I am glad you wrote this. I have tried several times to read his books - thinking my opinion may change over time. But nope, I still find them boring. |
|
|
|
Post by PariS on Oct 25, 2011 16:21:03 GMT -5
:)Trying to read Hemmingways "a moveable feast" but getting a bit bored! Don't know why he is supposed to be such a good writer. I am glad you wrote this. I have tried several times to read his books - thinking my opinion may change over time. But nope, I still find them boring. I'm late to the party, but I will confess that I didn't enjoy A Moveable Feast all that much either. I even gave it a second shot after reading more rave reviews...nope, still didn't do it for me I just finished The Secret Diary of a Princess by Melanie Clegg--historical fiction about Marie Antoinette's childhood, ending at her marriage. Light, easy read, very similar writing style to Sandra Gulland's "Josephine trilogy". For those of you with an eReader, you can download the Kindle version from Amazon for $3.00. I got it last week for only 99 cents. |
|
|
|
Post by Belladonna on Oct 25, 2011 21:37:51 GMT -5
I just picked up The Most Beautiful Walk in the World by John Baxter from the library. It is basically how he came to be a tour guide in Paris paris-expat.com It is not written in a style I like but the information and historical stuff he has included is interests me. Not sure if I'll try his other Paris based books at this point but who knows. I also read Paris Was Ours a few months ago which has a great mix of writers. |
|
|
|
Post by Happygoin on Oct 26, 2011 7:25:17 GMT -5
You ladies who admit to not liking Hemingway aren't alone. Many people don't. It seems as though people either love him or hate him. No in-betweens... Although I have to say, I like Denise's opinion of some of the folks in it... they ought to get a proper job I'll pick up French Lesson's on an OPF-er's recommendation. |
|
|
|
Post by btrflyrfree on Nov 3, 2011 7:51:22 GMT -5
Just finished Madame Tussaud, A novel of the french revolution (a historical novel) by Michelle Moran. Just about everyone knows how the revolution started and ended but this book as the author says "it is sometimes not about the kings and queens who make for the most fascinating history but the shadowy souls who happen to be in the right place at the right time". Marie Grosholtz Tussaud has learned the craft of wax modeling from her uncle Curtius where on Boulevard du Temple they have their Musee de Cire. She is asked to go to Versailles to be a sculpting tutor to the King Louis XVI's sister Princess Elisabeth where she forms a friendship with the royal family and at the same is hosting meetings in her salon with the revolutionaries. Extensive research by the author made this a great read. I recommend it.
|
|
Let the riot begin! LOL - 
hahahha