The House of Goodwill book club is wrapping up for the month
of July, an exciting month featuring French-themed livres. Tellement interessant!
First up: The House I
Loved by Tatiana De Rosnay.
It’s a novel set in Paris in the 1860s, about a woman (with
secrets, oh mon!) whose family home is about to be torn down due to the
restructuring/modernization efforts of the emperor, who is redesigning Paris.
I liked it; it was enjoyable, I’m glad I read it. It will be available for your reading
pleasure as well on the shelves at The House of Goodwill, whenever this
#@&! dark molding finally all
transforms into white.
I’ll give it 3 out of 5 etoiles. ⭐⭐⭐
Wizard and Shiloh, the two very discriminating canine
members of The House of Goodwill book club, give it 2 etoiles. ⭐⭐ (Wizard says his vote should be highly
considered, as he boasts French ancestry through his basset hound bloodline.)
Next: Madame Bovary
by Gustave Flaubert.
A famous French novel written in 1856, Madame Bovary tells
the (scandalous!) story of a bored housewife who embarks on a series of
affairs. The 50 Shades of Grey of its time, this novel caused quite a sensation
when it was published.
Definitely interesting!
Are you bored in your relationship and considering stepping out? Read this book! I promise you, you won’t. This book is the cure for marital complaints,
for sure.
Have a friend who’s considering an affair? Recommend him this! (Though it may not work as he may be more
interested in having a drink at a bar “alone” or cruising anonymous websites as
opposed to sitting at home reading French literature.)
Depressing for sure, but listening to it got me through many
hours of spindle painting.
The dogs and I agree once more on 3 etoiles. ⭐⭐⭐
And finally, A Year
in Provence by Peter Mayle.
Note my very pretty pink flowerpot I found at Goodwill this week for $4!
Have you ever read a book that you hoped would NEVER
end? If not, read this! I have two chapters, or months, left. (The book tells the story of the author’s
first year living in Provence. Each
chapter details a month.)
It’s funny, it’s enlightening, it makes me want to go to
France and EAT.
I picked this book up at an estate sales a few months
ago. While I’d heard of it before, I
only learned its back story after I began. Apparently the author, Peter Mayle,
is the guy who put Provence on the map for people outside of Europe. An advertising executive, he and his wife
decided to ditch the rat race and the crappy weather of England to restore a
home in the French countryside, while he wrote a novel. Being too distracted with home restoration to
write, his agent suggested he write a book about the distractions, which became
A Year in Provence.
The book became a massive international success, and
functioned for Provence as its own original Instagram – just with words instead
of photos. Formerly well known as a
vacation spot mainly for other Europeans, the popularity of the book caused
worldwide masses of people to descend on the area in droves – so much that
seven years after writing the book, the author had to sell his house and leave
to escape the hordes of fans who were constantly knocking on his door.
And now I want to be one of them.
Hmm, maybe there’s something to this…perhaps ruminations on
endless molding painting would be scintillating in book format? (That’s a rhetorical musing by the way – no
response required by you.)
Anyway, A Year in
Provence DEFINITELY earns 5 etoiles. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Due to heavy canine representation in the book, Wizard and Shiloh
agree.)
What am I going to do with myself next week? Which livre will be paired with the coffee
next?
Stay tuned for the next exciting edition of The House of
Goodwill book club to find out.
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