April TIOLI - April in Paris

This thread has been set up to complement Challenge #3 of the April 2011 TIOLI Challenge: Read a book which takes place in Paris, France or Paris, anywhere.

To everyone spending some time in Paris this April via your book selection, I've set up this thread to discuss your book. There are many of us reading the same book and rather than jump around the threads trying to discuss it, please feel free to use this thread for your comments. Bonne lecture! (hope that means happy reading)

Thanks for setting this up Lynda. I'm looking forward to finishing Hemingway: The Paris Years and getting to A Moveable Feast in April and also to hearing about what everyone else is reading.

I've already borrowed A Moveable Feast from the library as The Paris Wife was serialised on the radio and I wanted to compare accounts. I also have an Amazon Vine copy of Paris Wife.

I don't know how much else I'll fit in as my priorities are review books and this year's Orange longlist, but I'd like to try Cara Black and read/reread Daniel Pennac's crime series which includes The Fairy Gunmother and The Scapegoat.

Hi Pat and Luci, glad you stopped in. I'll be reading A Moveable Feast and I hope to begin as soon as I finish my last TIOLI for March. I'm really looking forward to it and I'll check the web for any informational and interesting tidbits to post.

Here is a short video from Simon and Schuster with Hemingway's son, Patrick and his grandson regarding a newer edition of A Moveable Feast

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/ernest-hemingways-son-and-grandson-discus...

Some further information regarding A Moveable Feast provided by enotes. Check out the side bar on the right to navigate to chapter summaries and analysis.

http://www.enotes.com/a-moveable-feast-restored-edition/

For readers of The Paris Wife, here is a link to a recent NPR story with audio.

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/01/134132944/the-paris-wife-dives-into-hemingways-fir...

Thanks for all these links, Lynda. I'll have to check them out later when I have more time. I ended up ordering the original rather than the newer version of A Moveable Feast because most of the reviews on Amazon said the newer one didn't read as well. The newer one is more accurate to what Hemingway originally wrote but whoever edited the original supposedly did a better job.

I've long been eager to start the Cara Black mystery series set in Paris. I believe that each one is set in a different part.

This might be just the thing to actually nudge me to start. The first in the series is Murder in the Marais.

I've got two others planned, though I may not get to both. One is about the 1910 Paris flood. The other is about the Eiffel Tower and the 1899 Paris World's Fair.

Murder in the Marais sounds interesting, if I can fit it in I may read it too!

I've added Parisians: An Adventure History by Graham Robb to the list. I'm not sure that I'll be able to get to it this month, but I have half a dozen or so books on Paris or France that are high on my TBR list.

So far I've wishlisted every book in challenge 3 that I have not already read. What is it about Paris that intrigues me so?

I started A Moveable Feast this afternoon and I think it really is a good companion read to The Paris Wife. Fun to see the other half of the story told through Hemingway's eyes.

Ooh, I think I will try this one. I have Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery and the second book in Cara Black's Paris mystery series, Murder in Belleville, in my TBR pile. I may also get And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris.

Oh, I also wanted to say I have a copy of Paris: The Secret History that I'm willing to send to someone if anybody wants it.

I am loving A Moveable Feast. I think it's wonderful. Might be my favorite Hemingway ever.

#16 I've got to agree with you Jenn! I just finished A Moveable Feast and discovered that I like Hemingway, the man. I like his wit and insights. I thought the chapter entitled Scott Fitzgerald was the best in the book. I'll be reading Hemingway in a new light after this book.

Actually, I was thinking back to when I was in high school and we were just given books and told read this. But I think I would have gotten so much more out of English classes if we had studied the author first and then read his/her works.

At A level English literature we were encouraged to read more about the writers, and the French lit teacher made me read extra books (in French as well). I'm not sure how well it would have worked in some cases though - I think it might have been just as well to read Philip Larkin's poetry properly before learning too much about him - I knew he was right wing but I don't think we learned at that point about his father being an Adolf Hitler fan - and the publication of Larkin's letters and the level of racism and other nasty stuff contained therein was much later (I think he died during the period I was studying him for A level).

I need to get back to A Moveable Feast. I was enjoying it and then got distracted by Down and Out in Paris and London which, based on the first 50 pages, I would highly recommend.

Lynda, I agree with you about getting more out of a book by knowing something about the author. I think this is especially true for me with Hemingway.

I just finished The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff. Part of it takes place in Paris (the rest in Copenhagen and Dresdren).

Here's one you may not wishlist unless you're a fan of children's/YA lit, Carmenere: The 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan. I have to read it this week for school, and clue #1 surprised me by leading straight to Paris, where over half the book is set.

I was hoping to join with A Hermit in Paris by Italo Calvino, but only about 9 pages of the book took place in that city!

#17 - I really liked the Scott Fitzgerald chapter. I also really liked the one titled A False Spring.

I agree that it can help to get to know an author before reading their works, but maybe there is a balance. It definitely colors the reading. For example, Pat's discussion in her Stegner class about the plagiarism charges and so on. That would have been discouraging to me had I not already been seduced by his gifted writing.

I just started The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen, which contains some incredibly vivid descriptions of Paris itself (even though it mostly takes place indoors!) -- the kind of description I was hoping for and didn't find in The Paris Wife. I'm about midway and loving it. Reminds of what a great and overlooked author Elizabeth Bowen is.

>23 Chatterbox:, Oooh, I totally have The House in Paris sitting on my shelf! I should try and get to it this month.

#21 Actually Megi, I just wishlisted The Maze of Bones. I have wanted to begin reading the 39 clues series for quite along time so thanks for this incentive.

#22 Yes Jenn, A False Spring was another very good chapter as well as the final, though bittersweet, chapter There is never any end to Paris. Oh, drat, I just loved the whole book!