Tag: The Paris Wife

Booklist

Lauren3 Comments

Aka “Books I’m Dying to Read.”  Or “What I Should Be Doing Instead of Watching TV.”

Seven months ago, I lost my Kindle.  Well not “lost,” but severely misplaced.  Tip: Don’t pack and move in a hurry.  And since then I’ve been slacking on reading.  Not that the first three Harry Potter books, Rick Steves and a re-read of my favorite detective novel don’t count as reading (they do!), but I’m ready to get back into the habit of reading new (to me at least), mature (sorry, Harry Potter) and enticing (non-fiction isn’t my cup of tea) things.  Oh, and I found my Kindle, so that helps!

Here’s what’s on my current “booklist.”

Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan

This book caught my attention for two reasons.  One, it’s by the same author as Loving Frank, which I absolutely loved and two, Paula McLain had good things to say about it and if there’s one book I loved more than Loving Frank it was McLain’s The Paris Wife.  I take her opinion seriously.

Under the Wide

The Sun Also Rises by Earnest Hemingway

Methinks reading about Spain when I’m headed there in September will make me extra excited.  More excited than Rick Steves’ writing makes me (sorry, Steve!).  Plus, see above about my love for The Paris Wife and my subsequent interest in Hemingway.

The Sun

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Okay, totally meant to read this during the winter, but: lost Kindle, lost reading motivation, lost extra time.  Maybe reading a book with “snow” in the title in the dead of summer will help me cool down on those 100+ degree days?

Snow Child

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I’ll be honest, I don’t really know anything about this book except that I’ve heard a million people sing its praises, so it must be good!  I’ve also heard that the ending is a real tearjerker so maybe I shouldn’t save this one to read on a public plane flight…

photo

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Because everyone and their mom is reading it!

The Goldfinch

What’s on your booklist?

 

 

 

A Book Review: The Paris Wife

Lauren2 Comments

The Paris Wife

I’ve had The Paris Wife by Paula McLain on my “Reading List” for nearly two years, but I finally got around to reading it while we were up at the cabin last weekend. So I can finally say, with conviction, that I loved and adored every page, sentence and word of this book. Joey might have me committed if I continue to talk about it. On Monday, I was so engrossed in telling a story about Ernest Hemingway that I didn’t even notice we were running up the torturous hill that usually kills me. Which was a good distraction for me, but it was probably just extra torture for Joey.

Although I knew from the beginning, middle and end that I was in love with this book, I had a really hard time putting it into words, so I decided to give it a few days to sink in. I couldn’t decide if it was the fact that I basically read it cover to cover with very few breaks and was therefore totally engrossed and transported into 1920’s Paris, or if it was Hadley (Hemingway’s first wife and the narrator of the story) and her endearing personality or the way she talked about the relationship between the two of them or if it was Paula McLain and the way she filled in the gaps of this real life story in such a natural and believable way or how she was able to end it all in such a heartbreaking, yet triumphant manner.

In the end, the answer is easy. It’s all of those things, of course. And so many more. I always say if a book is able to make me feel then it has my heart forever and this one made me feel so much. And I think I’ll leave it at that. Before you want to have me committed too.