It is with great sadness that I learned that Sophie Kinsella lost her fight with brain cancer today at the age of 55. She was the author of the Shopaholic series and many other standalone books. I was lucky to have met her at a book signing in 2007 for the release of Shopaholic & Baby. Sophie had a great sense of humour, and her novels always made me laugh!…
Author: Cecile
Cécile Sune was born in Lyon, France, and her obsession with books started when she was 14. Her grandparents had lent her Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, and she spent part of the summer indoors reading. Needless to say, her tan didn't really improve that year! It was also around that time that Cécile fell in love with the English language. Several years later, in 1999, Cécile moved to Toronto, Canada, with her cat and 5 suitcases. Her love of reading greatly increased when she discovered that English books were much cheaper than French novels. In 2013, she decided to start a blog to share her passion. Cécile now lives in Ottawa, Canada, with her husband and their daughter, and works as a freelance translator (CS Revision).
Historical Fiction
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The Island – Victoria Hislop
Summary While on vacation in Crete, Alexis Fielding arrives in Plaka to find out more about her mother’s secret past, linked to the abandoned island of Spinalonga, Greece’s former leper colony. Quote “This was not the start of a short trip to deliver supplies. It was the beginning of a one-way journey to start a new life. Life on a leper colony. Life on Spinalonga.” Interesting Facts 1 Source: Life…
Janice Hallett
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The Appeal – Janice Hallett
Summary While a small-town amateur theatre group is trying to raise money for a young girl’s experimental cancer treatment, a murder is committed in their midst. Two law students are examining the evidence to determine if the person who was sent to prison was wrongfully accused. Quote “Her neediness borders on obsession, and where obsession is concerned, isn’t there a fine line between love and hate? Obsessive love – if…
Valérie Perrin
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Three – Valérie Perrin
Summary In 1986, Nina, Etienne and Adrien are 9 years old when they end up in the same class and become inseparable. They spend their teenage years together and have dreams of moving to Paris to start a band. Thirty years later, a body found in a car submerged in a lake brings them back to their childhood town in France. Quote “[…] how the pain of a sudden death…
Cormoran Strike
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Career of Evil – Robert Galbraith
Summary When Robin receives a woman’s severed leg by courrier at work, four suspects emerge from detective Cormoran Strike’s past. As the police seems to focus on the wrong suspect, Robin decides to lead her own investigation. Quote “A vast unfocused rage rose in her, against men who considered displays of emotion a delicious open door; men who ogled your breasts under the pretense of scanning the wine shelves; men…
Book Trivia
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Book Trivia – Jane Austen
“Jane Austen sold her first novel, Susan, to the publisher Crosby & Co. for £10. Six years later it still had not released the book and told her (in a mean-spirited letter) she could buy the rights back for the same £10 sum. She couldn’t afford it at the time, but finally, after four of her other novels had been successfully published, she did so. After her death, her brother…
Chris Bohjalian
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The Flight Attendant – Chris Bohjalian
Summary Cassandra Bowden, a flight attendant on a lay over in Dubai, wakes up with a hungover in a hotel room next to a dead man. As she tries to piece together what happened the night before, she must decide what she will do next: will she call the authorities to report this murder, or will she go home to New York without telling a soul? Moreover, who was the…
Historical Fiction
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The Indigo Girl – Natasha Boyd
Summary In 1739, 16-year-old Eliza Lucas’ father leaves her in charge of three plantations in South Carolina while he goes to Antigua to advance his military career. Eliza, who has a passion for botany, decides to try to grow indigo to better her family’s finances. However, extracting the dye from the plant is not a simple process, and she needs help which is hard to get when men don’t take…
Literary place
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Pat Conroy in Beaufort and Daufuskie Island
“No man or woman has the right to humiliate children, even in the sacrosanct name of education. No one has the right to beat children with leather straps, even under the sacred auspices of all school boards in the world.” – The Water Is Wide, Pat Conroy Last November, my husband and I spent 5 weeks in South Carolina, and we had the opportunity to visit The Pat Conroy Literary…
Event
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Event: The Knowing – Tanya Talaga
Introduction A few months ago, I went to the book launch of The Knowing by Tanya Talaga at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa. I wanted to read the book before I wrote this blog post. Now that I have, here is some information about the event. Quote “Our families were broken apart for decades by everything outlined in this book. But we are putting ourselves back together again. That…