#68 A Hero of France

A Hero Of France by Alan Furst takes place in Occupied Paris, and by extension, Occupied France. In 1941, Mathieu is the head of a Resistance cell operating in Paris and elsewhere in France. Mathieu and his collaborators rescue fallen RAF pilots and help them escape to Spain or back to England. Mathieu is joined by Chantal; Lisette, a 17 year-old student and courier; Daniel, a Jewish teacher driven by revenge; Max de Lyon, a Parisian nightclub owner, and AnneMarie, an aristocrat whose family's French roots run deep. On the edge of the Resistance cell is Joelle, Mathieu's neighbor who falls in love with him.

As the war progresses, the German military police step up their efforts to infiltrate Resistance cells and capture those involved. Mathieu and the members of his Resistance cell are threatened by a traitor.

Based on fact, A Hero of France is a work of historical fiction.

#67: The Little French Bistro

Yesterday I finished The Little French Bistro, the latest by Nina George. I read The Little Paris Bookshop last month. The Little French Bistro has some similarities to the Little Paris Bookshop and on the whole I think I preferred the Bookshop, mostly because of the discussions about books and reading.

The Little French Bistro: On a trip to Paris, 60 year old Marianne decides that she has had enough: enough of her loveless marriage, of never being able to do what she wants, scrimping, and of life. Dramatically she tries to drown herself in the Seine but is rescued by some good Samaritans. During her hospital stay, she finds a painted tile of the Breton village of Kerdruc and decides to journey there and subsequently end her life.

The land and the sea in Kerdruc prove to have an irresistible hold on Marianne and she is quickly drawn into village life there. She begins work in the local bistro and befriends the locals (Jean-Remy the cook, Genevieve the hotel owner, Camille, and Yann. She also develops a reputation as a white witch because of her love of the sea. Marianne also finds love and happiness. However, a t.v. bulletin from her husband and a chance citing cause her to question everything. When the opportunity arises, will Marianne return to Germany and her former life or will she stay in France?

Kerdruc is the tiny circle on the map. There is quite a bit about Breton folklore in the novel, and some use of Breton. The novel appears to have been published under the title The Little Breton Bistro as well; this is fitting given the historical attitudes and disputes between the people of Brittany and France (this is mentioned in the novel). 

I found this link for a BookTrail of the novel. The Booktrail allows readers or travelers to trace Marianne's journey across France. http://www.thebooktrail.com/book-trails/little-breton-bistro/

Paris 500 Photos

I'm a day late posting this and this isn't part of my 1,000 books total. Yesterday I finished looking at and enjoying the pictures in Maurice Subervie's Paris 500 Photos. I picked this up for $0.25 at a garage sale (great price) and flipped through it yesterday to mark Bastille Day. The 500 photographs are organized into: The Seine and Its Islands, The Right Bank, Passageways, The Left Bank, and Gardens. I liked looking at some of my favorite places and scoping out new places to visit on my next trip to Paris. I want to check out some of the passageways next time I am there. Some of my favorite places are the parks and gardens--the Tuileries, the park at Bercy, and the Park des Buttes-Chaumont.

# 66 Law and Author

Law and Author by Erika Chase is the latest in the Aston Corners mystery series. I read this one out of order; Book Fair and Foul is number 4 in the series and I still have that to read.

Bob's granddaughter Darla suddenly makes an appearance in Ashton Corners. Bob hasn't never met Darla and has been estranged from his daughter (Darla's mother) for years. Molly is immediately taken in by Darla's sad plight and Bob desperately wants a relationship with his granddaughter. The other members of the book club are not drawn in so easily by Darla as she tests the limits of their southern hospitality. Lizzie sees Darla arguing with a strange man and the next day the man is found murdered in Molly's backyard. Darla claims to have been assaulted by the man, but her story doesn't quite add up. Lizzie and her friends work to clear Darla's name and to find out who the stranger was before more victims turn up.

I hope there will be another book in this series before too long.

1 year anniversary post

One year ago today I started my 1,000 books project. The very first book I read was At the Edge of Summer by Jessica Brockmole. My most productive month of reading has been January--I read 10 books that month. February was close with nine books, and the rest of the year is averaging out to about six books a month. July is off to a slow start. I am happy with my progress so far, and I hope to read my 100th book before the end of 2017.

After reading the Woman on the Orient Express, I decided to re-read Murder in Mesopotamia because I wanted to see how Mrs. Woolley was the inspiration for the character Mrs. Leidner. There were a number of similarities. Murder in Mesopotamia is narrated by Nurse Amy Leatheran. Nurse Leatheran is hired by Dr. Leidner to look after his wife on the archaeological dig. Mrs. Leidner suffers from anxiety and paranoia; she has received several letters from her supposedly-dead first husband. One afternoon, Mrs. Leidner is found dead in her room. Her window was closed, as was her door, Father Lavigny was working in the courtyard of the house, and no one, well no stranger, could have entered the courtyard without being noticed. Suspicion falls to the members of the dig. Poirot happened to be in Baghdad finishing up another case and he and Captain Hastings join the household and solve the murder. I also re-read her short story "The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb".


The other day I finished Agatha Christie's memoirs about her time spent in the far East helping her husband Max on digs. Come, Tell Me How You Live was funny and informative. The title is based on looking at ancient artifacts and wondering how people lived long ago, but also from having friends ask Agatha and Max how they lived during the archaeological digs. Her memoirs cover a couple of digs in Syria; the first dig was in 1930 and the memoir concludes in 1944 (they did stop digging during the Second World War). She describes several towns in Turkey and Armenia was well.

Finally, to round out my foray via Christie into archaeology, in this month's issue of National Geographic, there is a photo taken by Agatha Christie of one of the artifacts her husband Max found on a dig at Nimrud in Northern Iraq sometime between 1949 and 1957 (page 29). 

National Geographic article: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/07/explore-adventure-agatha-christie-iraq-artifacts/

The Woman on the Orient Express

#63 The Woman on the Orient Express by Lindsay Jayne Ashford

I think this novel could also have been called "They Came to Baghdad on the Orient Express".

Newly divorced from her husband Archie, Agatha Christie boards the Orient Express in disguise. She hopes to escape the lingering scandal from her disappearance in 1928 and avoid London when ex-husband Archie remarries. On board the Orient Express she meets the enigmatic Katherine Keeling. Katherine's first husband committed suicide under unusual circumstances only six months after their wedding. Katherine works on the archaeological digs in Ur. She is soon to marry the head of the digs, Leonard Woolley. Agatha also befriends Nancy Nelson, who has just married but is pregnant with another man's child.

As the train heads east, Agatha, Katherine, and Nancy begin to share secrets and unravel the mysteries surrounding their individual journeys. They form a friendship and their lives become forever intertwined. In the words of Hercule Poirot, they must learn to trust the train, for it is Le Bon Dieu who drives it.

I enjoyed this fictional account of part of Agatha Christie's life. Agatha Christie really did travel on the Orient Express in the fall of 1928, immediately following her divorce. Two years prior (1926), she disappeared for 10 days when Archie announced he loved another woman. She met Katherine Woolley when she visited the dig at Ur in 1928. A few years later she met her future husband Max. The character of Nancy is based loosely on Archie's second wife.

The inspiration for several of Christie's novel can be found within Ashford's narrative. Katherine Woolley is said to be the inspiration for Mrs. Leidner in Murder in Mesopotamia. Agatha (the character) takes notes for a novel she will write about a murder on the Orient Express. Ashford was also inspired by The Mystery of the Blue Train and They Came to Baghdad.

I think July will be a slow month for posts; I have two other books I want to finish with about 600 pages to read between the two.