Top Ten Tuesday: Honorifics

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books with Honorifics in the Title (“…an honorific is a form of address conveying esteem, courtesy or respect. These can be titles prefixing a person’s name, e.g.: Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms., Mx., Sir, Dame, Dr., Cllr, Lady, or Lord, or other titles or positions that can appear as a form of address without the person’s name, as in Mr. President, General, Captain, Father, Doctor, or Earl.” For more info, click here.) (Submitted by Joanne @ Portobello Book Blog)

I am always grateful for my handy dandy spreadsheet that I have been maintaining for 20 years or so for these kind of topics. Apply a couple of filters and you at least have the start of a list!

My first 5 books have a French connection in honour of the fact that we are half way through Paris in July. 

The Madamoiselle Network by Natasha Lester - This book tells the story of the only woman to lead a resistance network in WWII. It is a really interesting book, although I must confess I am not sure why it is called Madamoiselle given that the main character was married when the main part of the story started! Guess it just sounded better than the Madame Network which could be something completely different! (my review)

Madamoiselle Victorine by Deborah Finerman  - I hadn't thought about this book for years which probably isn't a surprise given I didn't really like it. Interestingly finding out what happened to Victorine Meurent is one of the strands of The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl which I was reading last week.

Mrs Harris goes to Paris by Paul Gallico - I love the movie of this book and have watched it several times. I did also listen to the audio. At some point I will listen to more of the Mrs Harris books. In future books she goes to New York, Moscow and Parliament! (my review of the movie and the book)

A Star for Mrs Blake by April Smith - This book tells the story of some mothers of soldiers from  WWI who were given money by the US government to travel to France to find the graves of their dead sons.

The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain - I thoroughly enjoy reading Antoine Laurain's books and this one was a lot of fun! (my mini review of this book and two others by Antoine Laurain)

Miss Graham's Cold War Cook Book by Celia Rees - I really enjoyed this book in which a young teacher is sent to post WWII Germany to help in the rebuilding process but she is also there to provide information, which she does by sharing coded recipes. (my review)

The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes by Jennifer Crusie, Eileen Dreyer and Anne Stuart - This is an older book now which when I read I thought was a super fun idea but I wasn't sure about how it turned out as a reading experience. I do still love the cover on that one though (my review)

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson - I have such fond memories of reading this book many years go. I recently read Simonson's latest book, The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club, and that was a lot of fun too! (my review of Major Pettigrew)

Sir Thursday by Garth Nix - This is part of the The Keys to the Kingdom series. I read all seven books in the series between 2007 and 2010 but I only ever reviewed the first three. 

Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon - This is part of the spin-off mystery series which features Lord John Grey who we originally met in the Outlander books.

Top Ten Tuesday: Paris books!

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Throwback Freebie (Pick a TTT topic that has been previously done. Maybe you missed it, weren’t blogging then, or you’d like to update an old list you made. All previous topics are listed below.)




We are part way through Paris in July (hosted by Emma at Words and Peace), so rather than do a throwback, I am going to choose the last ten books I have read with Paris in the title

A Love Letter to Paris by Rebecca Raisin - My review of this one will be up in the next couple of days! It was good though!

The Last Train from Paris by Juliet Greenwood - WWII, dual timeline and a really good read! (my review)

The Paris Agent by Kelly Rimmer - I have enjoyed all the Kelly Rimmer books that I have read so far

Mrs Harris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico - I fell in love with the movie and then read the book. Here's my review of both

Twenty One Nights In Paris by Leonie Mack - This was my first Leonie Mack but I have read everything she has put out since. (my review)

The Girl from Paris by Ella Carey - Ella Carey has a few books set in Paris (my review)

The Black Swan of Paris by Karen Swan - This is a WWII novel but it is more of a thriller than I would normally read.

An American in Paris by Siobhan Curham - Another WWII novel (my review)

Saint-Germain-des-Pres: Paris's Rebel Quarter by John Baxter - I really enjoyed this short non-fiction look at a specific area of Paris

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George - Books and Paris. Yes please.

Have you read any of these, or have any other Paris suggestions for me?

Six Degrees of Separation: Butter to Tales from the Cafe

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.

The starting point for this month is Butter by Asako Yuzuki, a book that I really want to read! Let's see where our journey takes us

My first link is based on the subtitle of Butter which is A Novel of Food and Murder. Recently I read Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge which features an amateur detective investing a murder.

For my second choice, I am focusing on the detective aspect, but fortunately there is not a body in sight. Instead, the detectives in the Kamogawa Food Detectives are searching for the perfect meal which lives in the memories of their clients

Next, I am taking a trip down my own memory lane and choosing to think about a memorable meal of my own. When we were in Paris we had a lunch at a Michelin star restaurant across the road from our hotel. So my choice is Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard

You know I wouldn't be able to resist a link to Paris. The question is which Paris book! In the end I decided to go with Mrs Harris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico.

My next link is to The Women in Black by Madeleine St John. The connection here is around high end fashion. One of the reason why this book came to mind is that there is going to be a new TV series inspired by the book. I love the movie so definitely plan to watch the TV series when it stars in a couple of weeks.

My final link is based purely on the colour of the cover, but I did like that it is from a Japanese author which ties back to the starting book for this month. My final choice is therefore Tales from the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. This is the second book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. As an aside I was very excited to see that the next book in the series recently became available to pre order. Its called Before We Forget Kindness.

Next month the starting point is Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck

Where did your chain take you this month?

Top Ten Tuesday: Backlist Titles

 

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme i

s Forgotten Backlist Titles (Spread love for books that people don’t talk about much anymore!). I am going to twist the theme a little bit and make my list the last 10 books that I have read that were published prior to 2020. Here we go!

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa - published in 2013

The Red Notebook by Antoine Durain - published in 2015

The Drifter by Anthea Hodgson - published in 2016

The Martian by Andy Weir - published in 2011

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne - published in 1872

Mrs Harris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico - published in 1958

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett - published in 1996

Working Class Boy by Jimmy Barnes - published in 2016

Act Like It by Lucy Parker - published in 2015

The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer - published in 2019

Have you read any of these?

Top Ten Tuesday - Last 10 Books I Have Read Which Were Set in France

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week is the theme is 

Ten Most Recent Books I Did Not Finish with the additional proviso of feel free to tell us why if you want, but if you do please be nice to the authors and don’t tag them when you mention your post on social media!). However, I have decided to do my own thing this week. As I am participating in Paris in July (hosted by Emma at Words and Peace), my topic is going to be the last ten books I have read set either partially or fully in France.



To be fair, I did start this post over the weekend, and I have just finished another book which was set in France!

Dreaming in French by Vanessa McCausland - loved this book! - (Review)

Chasing the Stars by Virginie Grimaldi - Planning to review this book later this week. It starts in France but then the characters head north!

A Month in Provence by Gillian Harvey - Have read a couple of books by this author (Review)

The French Chateau Dream by Julie Caplin - Read this a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it (Review)

One French Summer by Gillian Harvey - Another book by this author (review)

Mrs Harris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico - one of those rare occurrences where the movie is better than the book. I did enjoy the book but I loved the movie (review)

Twenty One Nights in Paris by Leonie Mack - Paris at Christmas. Yes please! (review)

 
A Year at the French Farmhouse by Gillian Harvey  - This is the last of the Gillian Harvey books...for now! (review)

Escape to the French Farmhouse by Jo Thomas - I started reading this one by accident but really loved it!

The Lost Sister of Fifth Avenue by Ella Carey - Somewhat surprised to see this is the last historical fiction book I read set in France. My more recent ones have all been set in Italy or elsewhere. (review)

I am super impressed that I have written a post about most of these! How unusual!

Paris in July: The Flower Market

Last week I posted about reading Mrs Harris goes to Paris by Paul Gallico. I originally listened to this on audio, but when I came across this passage I knew that I wanted to share it, so I then borrowed the book.

I loved the way that Mrs Harris accidentally"stumbled upon a certain paradise" as it kind of feels as though we did the same thing.  We were staying on Ile St Louis so each day we had to pick which way we were heading for the day. One day we were visiting Sainte Chappelle so we walked past Notre Dame and were wandering through the streets when we too stumbled across the Flower Market. Now, bear in mind we were visiting in early January so a lot of the stalls were closed, but it was still a lovely place!

Free to wander where she would during the day in Paris except for her fittings, Mrs Harris never quite knew where her footsteps would lead her. It was not the glittering shopping sections of the Champs Eleysses, the Faubourg St Honore, and the Place Vendome that interested her, for there were equally shimmering and expensive shopping sections in London which she never visited. But she loved people and odd quartiers, the beautiful parks, the river, and the manner in which life was lived in the poorer section by the inhabitants of the city.



She thus explored the Left Bank and the Right and eventually through accident stumbled upon a certain paradise in the Middle, the Flower Market located by the Quai de la Corse on the Ile de la Cite.

Often back home Mrs Harris had peered longingly into the windows of flower shops, at the display of hot-house blooms, orchids, roses, gardenias, etc., on her way to and from her labours, but never in her life had she found herself in the midst of such an intoxicating profusion of blossoms of every kind, colour, and shape, ranged upon the footpaths and filling stalls and stands of the Flower Market withiin sight of the twin towers of Notre-Dame.

Here were streets that were nothing but a mass of azaleas in pots, plants in pink, white, red, purple mingling with huge bunches of cream, crimson, and yellow carnations. There seemed to be acres of boxes of pansies smiling up into the sun, blue irises, red roses, and huge fronds of gladioli forced into early bud in hot-houses.

There were many plants and flowers Mrs Harris did not even know the name of, small rubbery-looking pink blooms, or flowers with yellow centres and deep blue petals, every conceivable kind of daisy and marguerite, bushy-headed peonies and, of course, row upon row of Mrs Harris's own very dearest potted geraniums.

 

But not only were her visual senses enthralled and overwhelmed by the masses of shapes and colours, but on the soft breeze that blew from the Seine came as well the intoxication of scent to transport the true lover of flowers into his or her particular heaven, and such a one was Mrs Harris. All the beauty that she had ever really known in her life until she saw the Dior dress had been flowers. Now, her nostrils were filled with the scent of lilies and tuberoses. From every quarter came beautiful scents, and through this profusion of colour and scent Mrs Harris wandered as if in a dream.

And then we headed on to our destination! Sainte Chappelle was one of my favourite things that we did in Paris. What a place.

I am sharing this quote and memory as part of Paris in July, hosted by Emma at Words and Peace.

Paris in July: Mrs Harris Goes to Paris

Around this time last year I saw the trailer for Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, and I knew that I wanted to see the movie. We ended up going to an opening night event where we had a glass of wine while we sat and watched. 

This is a movie that made me smile from beginning to end, and it is impossible to think about the movie without using words like charming and delightful. I then chose to re watch it a couple of times on my long haul flights to Europe because it just makes me happy. I have also watched it again recently because it happened to be on TV. It's become one of those movies where if I come across it, I will watch it even if it is already half way through

The title basically tells you the story. Mrs Harris lives in a small flat in London. She lost her husband during WWII, although his death has never been confirmed. She makes ends meet by cleaning for a variety of clients. There is the wealthy woman who never pays her the bills, the charming playboy with his never ending parade of beautiful young women and the aspiring actress who is looking for her big break.

Whilst going about her duties, she finds the most beautiful dress in a wardrobe. She then decides that she needs to own a gorgeous Christian Dior dress of her own. Never mind that the dress would be hundreds and hundreds of pounds, which even today is a lot of money, let along in 1950s! Mrs Harris finds ways to scrimp and save and soon she has enough money. Her plan....get on a plane, got to the House of Dior, pick a dress and then come home the same day. Easy!

When she arrived at the House of Dior it is made clear that she is not the kind of woman who is welcome at haute couture fashion parades, and certainly not the kind of woman who should wear a Dior dress. However, once she gets over the shock of the fact that she will need to stay in Paris long enough for her dress to be made, she begins to win over the the people at the fashion house, due to her caring nature, energy and endless positivity, winning over even the most disapproving characters. Along the way she plays cupid, sees Paris, meets a wealthy widower, goes dancing and helps save a business! Oh, and has an absolutely gorgeous dress made for her.

The movie is basically based on the book of the same title by Paul Gallico, which was originally published in 1958. Having seen the movie a couple of times, I decided that it was time to read the book, or more precisely, listen to the audiobook. Paul Gallico was an American author, and was actually quite prolific, having written more than 40 books, 4 of which tell the story of Mrs Harris.

Obviously, the story has the same fundamental details, but it is clear that the movie is true to the spirit of the book as opposed to the details of the book. I do think that you can tell that this book was written a long time ago. There were moments that I would like to think wouldn't make it into a book being newly published now. For example, some of the attitudes to the French were quite pointed. Another example was the descriptions of Mrs Butterfield who is Mrs Harris' best friend. She is portrayed as a quite large lady. There was a passage where he talked about her Mrs Butterfield laughing until her third chin stopped wobbling. Maybe I noticed this because I am a large lady, but you would think this wouldn't make it through the editing process.

It is quite a short story. I have the print book out from the library at the moment and it includes both this story and the next story of Mrs Harris Goes to New York, which I might read in due course. Mrs Harris Goes to Paris is only 120 pages. New York is around 180 pages.

The book was narrated by British actress Juliet Stevenson who does a great job of bringing the story to life.

Maybe I can sneak in another watch of the movie before the end of Paris in July. Watching the trailer again certainly makes me feel like I need to!

Top Ten Tuesday: Audiobooks

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is book by debut authors that I am excited to read, but I have got nothing, so I am going to focus on the last 10 audiobooks that I have listened to. 

All This Could be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews - This is the book I am currently listening to.

Mrs Harris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico - I listened to this after watching the movie. It is different from the movie, and it probably shows it's age in some ways but it was still fun!

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett - I have listened to this in the run up to Christmas over the last couple of years.

Book Lovers by Emily Henry - Loved this audiobook. So much so that I recommended it to my boss who is now on an Emily Henry audiobook binge!

The Stand-In by Lily Chu - This was narrated by Philippa Soo, who starred in the musical version of Hamilton, and it was a lot of fun. I might listen to the next Lily Chu book next. Maybe.

Working Class Boy by Jimmy Barnes  - Jimmy Barnes is an Australian rock legend who had a rough start to life. This is his story of growing up in poverty with violence and alcoholism.

Love Stories by Trent Dalton - During the pandemic, Trent Dalton sat at a desk with a typewriter in the city and asked people to tell him their love stories, about all sorts of things, not only limited to romantic love

Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - This is the second book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series.

Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne Valente - a very odd story, told in a very compelling way.

Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci - Listening to Stanley (yes, we are on first name basis) narrate this book was such a pleasure! Highly recommend

There's a bit of a mix of genres there. Surprisingly there is no historical fiction, Must fix that!

This week...

I'm reading...

I haven't made very much progress with the book that I started last week unfortunately. I need to make some time so that I can start the next book ready for next week. The pressure is on!

I did finish listening to Mrs Harris Goes to Paris this week. I decided to try something else before I listen to Mrs Harris Goes To New York. I did have some trouble deciding what to listen to though. I feel like I am very indecisive at the moment. So many choices and yet nothing really calling to me. In the end, I decided to start listening to All This Could be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews. It's pretty different to what I tend to read which could be a good thing...or not.

We had our first bookclub meeting for the year on Saturday. Out next theme for the next meeting is books that have been adapted for the screen, whether it be big or small screen. Surely I should be able to find something to read right?

I'm watching...

See the above comment about indecisiveness. I need to get totally swept  up in something so that I can binge it from beginning to end!

We did watch a couple of episodes of Only Murders in the Building. We are just over half way through the second series, so we should finish that this week. 

Life

Not a lot to talk about this week.

Max

Look at this angelic face. Unfortunately he has decided that he really likes digging up the camellias that we planted down the side of the house. While we were away he dug them all up. We bought more and planted those, but he started digging those up too. My husband was really not happy.

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Books that were reviewed 3 times for HFRC

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: February 

Weekend Cooking: What I Baked (In My Kitchen) in January

Six Degrees of Separation: Trust to Lords of the White Castle

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date