This week...

I'm reading

Do you ever feel like it doesn't matter how much you read, the amount of books that add to your TBR is always far greater than the number of books that you actually read! That is definitely the case for me at the moment.

I did get get through several books last week, and then I started or picked up other books that I had previously started and put down. 

I finished reading Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann. We went to see the Movie of The Sheep Detectives a few weeks ago and I picked up the book after that. It is fair to say that this is one of those rare occasions where the movie is better than the book. To be fair, they have two completely different story lines which only have some character names and the basic premise of the sheep doing the investigating in common but still.

The I sped through First Time Caller by B K Borison. I have only read a couple of her books so far but I have loved them both and I know that I am going to enjoy whatever she puts out!

I also read The Maid by Nita Prose. This was a selection for one of the Goodreads challenge categories. It's not my normal genre but I did enjoy it!

I then read Piglettes by Clementine Beauvais. I swear I saw that someone had read it for a previous iteration of Paris in July but I can't find who. It has been years since I read a YA book, and there were a couple of things that bothered me but overall it was a fun read. My review will be up in July as part of Paris in July

I am on the blog tour for Charlie's Last Angel by Maggie Christensen this week so I need to get on and write the review. 

I then started This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page. I am not very far in but I am loving it already. Can't wait to get back to it!

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon is another Goodreads challenge selection, so this is the book I am reading when I can't sleep at night!

I am making a concerted effort to finally finish War and Peace. My aim is to finish it by the end of this month! Currently I would need to read an average of 8 pages a day to get there. Wish me luck.

I was sorry to see the news that Iranian/French author Marjane Satrapi has passed away at the very young age of 56. Many years ago her Persepolis books were doing the rounds in the blogosphere. I also loved the movie adaptation of her book Chicken with Plums. In particular there is a montage scene towards the end of the movie which I still remember with fondness now.

I'm watching

A couple of months ago we re-watched the first two seasons of Ted Lasso. This week we started re-watching season 3 so it should be relatively fresh in our minds for when the next season comes out in August.

I did go to the movies this week to see a Mexican/Uruguyan film called Nothing Between Us which is showing as part of the Spanish and Latin American Film Festival. It is about two people who have an affair while on a work trip to Mexico. I am going to see a Spanish film this week so I will post about both of them soon.

Life


It was my birthday on Sunday so we went to our favourite afternoon tea destination. As always it was an exceptional experience with amazing customer service!

My husband bought me this cute booknook for my birthday! Now to find the time to start to put it together!

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Author names - Jane who?    

20 Books of Winter: 2026 reading list

The Seaside Book Club by Helen Rolfe

In My Kitchen: April/May

Six Degrees of Separation: The Post-Office Girl to Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens







I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date, Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and the Good Book and a Cup of Tea link up hosted at Boondock Ramblings

Six Degrees of Separation: From The Snow Child to The Bookstore Sisters

 

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best.  The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links.  I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz. 

 

This month the starting point is The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.

The Snow Child is a fairy tale retelling. I do love a fairy tale retelling, although I haven't read this one. The first book that came to mind was Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. I am aware that I have used this book before and when I looked at the next book, I realised that I am in danger of choosing the same books as I have before.

Therefore, for my second book I am going to twist a little and choose something a little different and choose a graphic novel. There are a whole series of graphic novels that feature well known fairy tale characters such as Snow White, Prince Charming and Old King Cole. Years ago, I read about 15 of these books but I chose Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall by Bill Willingham.

Another graphic novel author I have read and enjoyed is Marjane Satrapi. I have read her Persepolis books but this time I am choosing to focus on her book Chicken with Plums. I have watched the movie adaptation of Chicken with Plums. There is a section of the movie which is 20 minutes of montage and it is exceptional.

For my next book I am choosing a book called Die for Me by Amy Plum. This is a YA book featuring all sorts of paranormal characters. It also has an amazing cover. The book is set in Paris and you can tell that the author loves the city. In fact, there is one place that I am planning to visit in our upcoming trip to Paris because I read about it in this book.

A recent book that I read which had me salivating over the city of Paris was Twenty One Nights in Paris by Leonie Mack. And it had the added bonus of being set at Christmas.

Both of these books have an image of the Eiffel Tower, because let's face it there's not many books set in the city that doesn't. This is another.

Whilst I have a gazillion other books set in Paris that I could finish this chain with, instead I am going to choose a short story that I read last month by Alice Hoffman, called The Bookstore Sisters. I know that I really should read more of Alice Hoffman, but this is the only story I have read so far.

This month felt a bit harder than normal, but mainly because there were so many connections to books that I have already used before so I had to find different connectsion! I have, however, managed to get to the end!

Next months chain starts with Beach Read by Emily Henry, which I am super excited about because I love her books. I am not 100% sure that I will be able to do a Six Degrees post because I will be in Paris then, but let's see how we go.

Next month's 

Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon by Marjane Satrapi

Even though my favourite book of last year was a picture book, I don't often read them. My reason for reading this one was simple. I loved the two Persepolis books by Marjane Satrapi and I was hoping to read some of her other books as well, but the only one my library had was this one!

This is very much a book aimed at say a 6 or 7 years old. There are quite a lot of words in it for a picture book. The drawings are boldly coloured, and simple - very easy on the eyes. The message is a good one too. Marie is scared of the monsters that come out at night, but the monsters are scared at the light, so Marie decides to cut the moon from the sky, but there are consequences of her actions, for everyone, but especially for the cats and rats, so there needs to be another solution.

A fun read. My 10 year old read it in the car to me as I drove along, so it didn't take very long at all to read.

I don't read enough picture books to give a true rating, but I liked this one!

Persepolis Film News

Saw today on the Powell's Book blog that Persepolis is being made into a film - written and co-produced by Marjane Satrapi. I wonder if this film will make it here. You can have a look at some stills from the film here.

Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi

In Persepolis, heralded by the Los Angeles Times as "one of the freshest and most original memoirs of our day," Marjane Satrapi dazzled us with her heartrending memoir-in-comic-strips about growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Here is the continuation of her fascinating story.

In 1984, Marjane flees fundamentalism and the war with Iraq to begin a new life in Vienna. Once there, she faces the trials of adolescence far from her friends and family, and while she soon carves out a place for herself among a group of fellow outsiders, she continues to struggle for a sense of belonging.

Finding that she misses her home more than she can stand, Marjane returns to Iran after graduation. Her difficult homecoming forces her to confront the changes both she and her country have undergone in her absence and her shame at what she perceives as her failure in Austria. Marjane allows her past to weigh heavily on her until she finds some like-minded friends, falls in love, and begins studying art at a university. However, the repression and state-sanctioned chauvinism eventually lead her to question whether she can have a future in Iran.

As funny and poignant as its predecessor, Persepolis 2 is another clear-eyed and searing condemnation of the human cost of fundamentalism. In its depiction of the struggles of growing up--here compounded by Marjane's status as an outsider both abroad and at home--it is raw, honest, and incredibly illuminating.

I read Persepolis a while ago, and it was always my intention to read the follow up to it. And this week I did!

This book picks up where Persepolis left off. Marjane has moved to Austria to go to school, but she struggles over a long period of time to deal with the fact that she is an outsider there. She has to deal with prejudices and loneliness, and find herself drawn to the fringes of society, to the point that she eventually finds herself homeless.

Upon returning to Iran, she once again finds herself the outsider - she is seen as too Western, and eventually finds herself conforming to the expectations of Iranian society.

As a study of young girl trying to find her way in two different cultures, two completely different worlds, this is a very touching and emotional read. Having said that there were some true laugh out loud moments!

Highly recommended...but start with Persepolis first!

Rating 4.5/5

Other Blogger's Thoughts:

Things Mean A Lot
B & b Ex Libris
Katrina Reads
The Daily Pugle (The Complete Persepolis)

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

A friend of mine originally read this book several months ago and loved it, and I intended to read it eventually, but it slipped my mind. When Heather reviewed it more recently, it jogged my memory and I went and borrowed it and actually got around to reading it this time!

Originally published to wide critical acclaim in France, where it elicited comparisons to Art Spiegelman's Maus, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran: of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life and of the enormous toll repressive regimes exact on the individual spirit. Marjane's child's-eye-view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a stunning reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, through laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.

A graphic novel, the story is quite simple, telling the story of Marjane's childhood in Iran, particulary focussing on her life between the ages of 10 and 14, at an incredible turbulent time in her country's history. A young girl, Marjane is trying to understand the changing political and religious landscape, including the loss of freedom and the imposition of the veil, and then the war with Iraq.

I was so surprised by the emotions that this book generated. Whilst I was expecting to like this book, it really touched me in ways I did not expect. I was tearing up on the train, I physically cringed as I saw and read about her uncle, and I laughed at the idea of her parents smuggling in Kim Wilde posters.

Very powerful, and highly recommended.

I can't wait to pick up Persepolis II!

Rating 4.5/5

Other Blogger's Thoughts:

Hidden Side of a Leaf
Things Mean A Lot
B & b Ex Libris
SomeReads
The Bluestockings
Katrina's Reads