What is a Classic?

Posted on March 21, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I’ve been struggling with this question lately. I think my concern began in contemplating the Classics Challenge which I have NOT been active on. But it’s an interesting question generally. I was thinking yesterday’s post might aid us. Is everything on this list-of-lists (-in-cloud-form) a classic? How many classics are there in this crazy world? Too many to list, right? Is everything by one classic author then a classic? (Nabokov wrote Lolita; is Pnin then also a classic?) How about timing? Do we have to muse over a title for a decade or several, or can we declare in its publication year that it is a classic? (Is there a waiting period, time for us to cool off and see if the fire still smolders?)

Courtney, who is hosting this challenge over at her blog, Stiletto Storytime, does define it for us:

What is a classic you ask? A classic to me is a book that has in some way become bigger than itself. It’s become part of culture, society or the bigger picture. It’s the book you know about even if you have not read it. It’s the book you feel like you should have read.

This sounds like a pretty forgiving definition to me – and thank goodness, since as stated, I haven’t made much progress on this challenge yet! But I yearn to hear your definition, too. What is a classic?

(And by the way, I’m hanging in there; I’m currently really enjoying Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. That’s a classic, right?)

Filed under: book reviews, challenges | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

Information is Beautiful Consensus Book Cloud

Posted on March 20, 2011 by pagesofjulia

You can read the article, too (and definitely go there for a zoomed-in view), but look at this beautiful graphic, would you?

It’s a compilation of many different top 100 book lists, in cloud form, so we can see where they most agree. I think it’s rather gorgeous, and also instructive – not only in what is printed larger and smaller, but also in the fact that there’s such diversity in these lists. I’m going to be coming back to this one. (By the way, I had no idea The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was so important! Did you?)

Filed under: book reviews | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

how to blog, cont’d

Posted on March 19, 2011 by pagesofjulia

So I’ve been wanting to share with you another how-to-blog kind of post I found quite a while ago. In fact, this one is so good I feel the need to make very little comment.

I found this post by Thomas at My Porch at about the time it was posted, at the end of 2010; I don’t know how I came across it, but I liked it so much I have been following this blog ever since. The parts that dictate what blogs he does, and doesn’t, find interesting were the best parts for me; I took his tips to heart because they made so much sense to me. I’ve reproduced the relevant bits over here in short:

Blog posts I am most likely to read?

1. Anything to do with a list. Even if I don’t agree with the criteria or the subject, a post about lists will always get my attention. Lol. I, too, enjoy lists, and here I’ve just been given permission to go crazy with them.

2. Anything with pictures of books. I prefer the stacks of owned books. For some reason piles from the library fail to inspire me. I did indulge on this one this week, but I don’t very often do stacks of book, let alone the just-acquired stacks so popular in blog posts. Frankly, I can’t get excited about someone else’s shopping, whether at a bookstore or a library. I want to hear about these books when you read them; until then I don’t much care.

3. The more personal and newsy the better. I love hearing about your hobbies, your travel, your cooking and baking, your pets, and even your kids (unless it falls into the “children are our future” camp of over adulation). This is the one I have most taken to heart; I felt encouraged by this statement. I, too, care about the personal aspects. I’m not trying to read your diary; I’m interested in a reading blog first and foremost. But, I think our reading lives do bleed into our personal lives and vice versa, and if I get to read some personal musings (like what Sheila does, over at Book Journey), I feel a bit better-connected.

Blog posts I am least likely to read? These are mostly good for an lol.

1. Anything with vampires. I just don’t dig the paranormal and I find this genre tedious.

2. Young adult fiction being read and reviewed endlessly by grown women. I am not dissing YA, and I am not dissing those who have a professional interest, those who review them for a YA audience, or those who review one or two of them in passing. But this year I was a judge for the YA category in a blog beauty pageant and it really soured me on the legions of twenty-something females who appear to be frightened of leaving their tween years behind them. One expects them to have Justin Bieber posters on their walls and fluffy pom-poms on the ends of their purple pens.

3. Reviews of audio books. I read and enjoy reviews of TV shows and films, but I just pass over audio book reviews. Interesting. I don’t do a lot of audiobooks, so fair enough; but I’m not sure I’m against reading about them especially. As long as it’s still about the book, it’s a book review to me – unless you’ve spent a bunch of time discussing the reader’s voice, I guess.

4. The one million Booker Prize recaps. I used to pay attention to these, but there just seem to be too many of them these days.

5. Anything by bloggers who seem to be completely devoid of any sense of humor.

6. ARC reviews. I won’t say that I never read them, but I prefer to see what bloggers read when they get to choose for themselves. (Full disclosure: I have reviewed one ARC. But I would have picked up the Maggie O’Farrell novel anyway.)

Biggest shortcomings as a book blogger?

1. My over the top, intolerant, un-nuanced pronouncements that make me feel temporarily smug (see the answers to the previous question).

2. My inability to recap plots in a way that isn’t boring or overly reductive. Here, here. I’m also conflicted about plot summaries. Part of me feels like if you’re interested in this book, you have 1,000 plot summaries at your fingertips (if you know how to read blogs, I’m assuming you’re also comfortable with google, amazon, b&n…). Why do I need to re-summarize it for you? But then, I would hate for any post or review to seem gapingly incomplete. I, personally, go back and forth on the necessity of plot summaries at all. Perhaps you’ve noticed?

3. I am sure there are more…but I am too lazy to think of them.

4. I get lazy.

One thing I wish every blog included?

Geographic location of the blogger. I don’t need to know the street you live on, but I really like knowing where a blogger lives. And unless you live in Gibraltar it would be nice if you could be a little more specific than just noting the country. Again something I took to heart – I immediately went back into my blog and confirmed that I do have my hometown of Houston, Texas clearly stated. I share this feeling; I like reading about what kind of weather you’re having, for instance, and then I need to know where you are, don’t I? It’s snowing, really, where? (It’s about 80 degrees here right now.)

Things that puzzle me (good for more lols)

1. British bloggers tend to get lots of influenza. What’s up with that? I worry about you all.

2. Mailbox Mondays. Who is sending all of these books? Is there an international directory of mailing addresses that I don’t have access to? I don’t necessarily want to get books, but I sometimes want to send books. But I feel like sending books unsolicited would seem a little creepy. How does one ask for an address without seeming to be a stalker? Thomas, thank you for addressing the elephant in the room. I have never understood either. However, I work in a giant world of books and really would not want them to start flowing in through the mailbox, too, so I am NOT soliciting, thank you.

3. Feeds.

4. Mincemeat.

5. Why I am using up months’ worth of blog post topics in one out of control stream of consciousness.

Well, anyway, some of that got a little silly, but I couldn’t resist borrowing Thomas’s humor for a laugh over here! (Take it as a compliment, please, sir.) Since we addressed the question of How To Blog earlier this week, I wanted to include some of the tips I found and appreciated at My Porch. Do you have any agreements or disagreements with his ideas?

Filed under: musings | Tagged: | Leave a comment »

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

Posted on March 18, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Ahhh. This was really a joy and a pleasure to consume. I’m just sorry it’s over.

(Let me apologize in advance for a lengthy post today, but I have a lot to say about this book.)

Ernest Hemingway is my greatest literary obsession; I’ve certainly loved, and returned to, and reread, and studied other authors, but Hemingway has been the love of my reading life. Certainly, that was a large part of the appeal of this book: to come home to familiar and much-loved territory. We all know that feeling, I think: visiting an old neighborhood, hearing a song from one’s happy youth, telling old friends the same old stories of shared memories.

So, as I’ve said, part of the luxuriant pleasure of this book was all the intertwining threads of familiarity. I have recently been reading By-Line: Ernest Hemingway, a collection of his newspaper and magazines stories and dispatches, many from the Hadley era of his life. I’ve read 3 or 4 biographies, and piles of his novels and short stories, and nonfiction/memoirs like Death in the Afternoon (about the bullfights he saw) and A Moveable Feast (about his life in Paris with Hadley). And I just yesterday purchased The Garden of Eden, a novel published posthumously (and controversially edited by his surviving family), about a couple who becomes a triangle on the beaches of France and in Spain. I read it years ago but wanted to own my own copy. I remember really loving this book, although it’s surrounded by critical ambivalence and debate; this is where Hemingway most directly ventures into gender-changing, gender ambiguity, cross-dressing, bisexuality, threesomes… and all sorts of interesting and disturbing subjects linked by some biographers to Hemingway’s mother’s tendency to dress him up as a little girl when he was young. I find it all fascinating.

my Hemingway library at present


Hadley Richardson was Hemingway’s first wife; they married when he was just 22, and she was 29, and surprised at herself for landing such a vibrant, popular, ambitious young man. They took off for Paris quickly, and shared the early years of Hemingway’s career, including the publication of Three Stories and Ten Poems, In Our Time, and The Sun Also Rises, his first novel and the one that really launched his career. They also shared poverty and insecurity, a number of hardships, an unstable but scintillating circle of famous friends, and an unplanned pregnancy. Their story ends (I’m not giving anything away here, it’s history) when Hemingway begins an affair with Pauline Pfeiffer, who will be his second wife (who will be thrown over for the third, who will be thrown over for the fourth, who will hear the gunshot when he commits suicide just before his 62nd birthday).

So, as I’ve said, a large part of the joy of this book for me was sharing so intimately in the life of someone I feel I know well, and whose work I love. But there was a real danger there; for if it had been done badly or in poor taste (overly sentimental or maudlin, or vindictive towards Hem the womanizer) or inaccurately, imagine my upset! With this subject being so near to my heart, the standards were very high.

Paula McLain has my gratitude and admiration, because she’s done beautifully! This is a gorgeous novel. Her writing style (in Hadley’s voice, in first person) is a bit like Hemingway’s, although not quite so sparse. She paints pictures with short brush strokes. Hadley’s character is an interesting blend of strength and weakness (which is an observation she makes about Hem, too); she repeatedly bemoans her un-modern tendency to obey and bow to her difficult husband, compared with the women around her and their new-age relationship rules. She “lets him go” to Pauline without a fight, from the perspective of several mutual friends. But I think she maintains a certain dignity, and not just in her defeat at the deceitful Pauline’s hands. And at any rate, her voice is clear and authentic and emotionally revealing without being sappy. She seems to be honest with herself, and with the reader. In many ways this is a novel about a woman struggling to find and maintain her own identity in the unique setting of 1920’s expatriate Paris, and while being a loving wife and mother. In this sense it wouldn’t need to be about Hemingway; it’s a woman’s story, and it’s important without the celebrity. It reminded me a little of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, or The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham.

I loved how McLain (or Hadley) used some of Hemingway’s own rhetoric about truth and turned it back around on him. For example, on page 230, Hadley is dealing with her feelings about being completely left out of the book, The Sun Also Rises, when all the others present made it in as characters (none flattering):

I was incredibly proud of him and also felt hurt and shut out by the book. These feelings existed in a difficult tangle, but neither was truer than the other.

Hadley was a complex and mostly sympathetic character; I got frustrated with her here and there for not standing up for herself a bit more, but she was so authentic and real and human, I mostly was able to take her as she was. Hemingway was not so sympathetic, which is also very authentic and real. He was a cad towards the men and women in his life, pretty consistently. He was also very lovable, which is why so many men and women came back to him over and over for more fun and abuse. He was, as Hadley says on page 311,

such an enigma, really – fine and strong and weak and cruel. An incomparable friend and a son of a bitch. In the end, there wasn’t one thing about him that was truer than the rest. It was all true.

Again with the truth of the thing, which Hem himself loved to cite.

What a work of art this book was, and how evocative of emotions. It was exhausting and cathartic. Is my reaction colored by my love of all things Hemingway? Yes. But my standards were also raised almost impossibly high, so please take me seriously when I give McLain an A+, and thank you, ma’am.

Filed under: book reviews | Tagged: , , , | 10 Comments »

Britannica bookshelves, improved

Posted on March 17, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Much nicer all full-up, aren’t they? This is my TBR bookshelf now. 🙂 (notice how I left room for joiners!)

Filed under: miscellaneous | 2 Comments »

medicinal use

Posted on March 16, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I left work today just before lunchtime because I’m sick (poor me, ok moving on) and expect to be home at least tomorrow, hopefully no longer. I left Dethroning the King at work but brought home The Paris Wife because I have been SO excited about it.

But then, even sick, I couldn’t help stopping by the half price bookstore on the way home. I’ve been trying to get over there for days and even though I felt awful and needed to crawl in bed, I couldn’t help myself. I had a gift card to spend!!

Of course I wanted just one or two things 😛 and so hadn’t picked up a hand cart, but you know I had to go back and get one…

A large part of what inspired this trip was actually a need for some Anita Brookner, so I can play along with Thomas over at My Porch as he presents International Anita Brookner Day! I was not really familiar with her til he proposed this mini-challenge/celebration of Brookner’s birthday, but the terms were just far too easy to pass up: read at least one of her many books by her birthday this July? Sounds like a breeze! Why pass up a friendly encouragement to try a new author? (On this note, I want Thomas over at Stuck in a Book to know that his Barbara Comyns recommendation, Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead, is not two feet from this laptop as I type and I have ever intention of trying her soon, too. Perhaps I need a deadline a few months out like Thomas assigned! :))

But I didn’t stop there. I got all sorts of goodies:

That is:

the store’s entire stock of Sharon Kay Penman (Devil’s Brood, Here Be Dragons, and The Sunne in Splendour) – I love her so much and want to read everything she’s written!

True at First Light, The Garden of Eden, and The Torrents of Spring by Hemingway – I’ve read the first two of the three but want to own them; the third I know to be mid-early and critically understood to be “meh” but, you know, I want to be fully expert in ALL things Hemingway

Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence, because I’ve never read it and I need to get cracking on the Classics Challenge 🙂 and Moll Flanders by Defoe for the same reasons – I believe I saw some sort of television miniseries made from it many years ago, and enjoyed it, but haven’t read the book, which I have no doubt will be massively superior.

Hotel du Lac by Brookner, for the event mentioned above

Replay by Ken Grimwood was recommended just days ago by my librarian and sci-fi enthusiast friend Amy, so I picked that up when I saw it…

and finally, a book of Frida Kahlo postcards, because I owe some Postcrossings.

(yes, if you were wondering, I exceeded the amount I had on my gift card.)

All this, on top of my visit to the (bigger, public) library yesterday yielding the next two books in the Maisie Dobbs series for the read-along I’m participating in…

…I might make it through my sick day(s). 🙂

Filed under: book reviews | 4 Comments »

How To Blog (I’m still learning, myself)

Posted on March 15, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Today I was fascinated by a post I found on Eva’s blog, A Striped Armchair. (By the way, welcome back Eva! Missed you!) A commenter asked her about how she composes posts – mostly, how quickly, and with how much editing. This question caught my attention because I was asked the same thing recently (out loud, in the real world, but still). My answer is similar to Eva’s: I mostly write off the cuff, and almost always publish in the same session as I compose. But that’s in the nature of my blog; I intended it to be about my personal responses to the world, mostly books, but occasionally other stuff, too. I (try to) always check first for typos and broken links, but generally I then click “publish” and move on. This is not my full-time job.

Interrelated to this question, for Eva, is the question of whether she “reviews” or “recommends” books. This question spoke to me as well. I conceived of a reading blog initially while taking a class in Readers Advisory services – meaning, the service librarians provide in helping readers find books they might enjoy. This art-science involves listening to what readers have enjoyed in the past, and seeking books that share similar qualities. It definitively excludes making a personal judgment or statement about these books. I enjoyed my Readers Advisory class (the second I’ve taken in fact) and love the idea of the service; but as it turns out, my blog never really went that way. Because this is my personal space, I like to keep my voice, and it just feels natural to tell you how I feel about the books I read.

I follow about 40 blogs, ideally checking in every day. These are mostly reading blogs (a few writing blogs, and one or two miscellaneous/funny ones I just can’t resist). And the ones I enjoy most are the ones in which I can hear a (preferably hilarious and/or thoughtful and reflective) personal voice describing that reader’s reaction to a book or a life event. I find real people and personal reactions far more interesting than clinical book reviews. Perhaps that’s part of why I’m comfortable letting my personal perspective live in my blog.

Eva directs her readers to another post here, in which The Boston Bibliophile debates the appropriateness of a personal voice in a bibliophile’s blog. I don’t disagree one bit with her conclusion to keep her personal life out of her blog. I mean, golly, in a world of blogs, personal websites (I have one of those, too), facebook, twitter, and the rest, I fully support someone seeking a little privacy. And maybe The Boston Bibliophile has other reasons for keeping that blog a bit anonymous; she does mention that she has another, private, more personal blog for friends & family. All of that makes sense to me, for her.

But for me, it makes sense to do it this way. For example, to respond to one of The BB’s questions, yes, I think one’s religious sensibilities does color our reading of at least those books that overtly involve religion. Every book I read is filtered through my own set of experiences, beliefs, and understandings of the world; how could it possibly be otherwise? Since I’m not speaking for a corporation or anything, I feel most comfortable recognizing my own perspective when I write about books. I find other bloggers’ “reviews” (or recommendations) most interesting when they involve the personal. But, I’d never seen The BB’s blog before today. Maybe I’ll find it fascinating; I’m not judging, but merely responding to the two above posts.

Thank you to Eva and The Boston Bibliophile for giving me the chance to consider my style here at pagesofjulia. These are my pages, and I’m comfortable with the influence of julia on them, but it’s always a good idea to think one’s position through!

Filed under: musings | Tagged: , | 5 Comments »

Teaser Tuesdays: Dethroning the King

Posted on March 15, 2011 by pagesofjulia


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

You got the book beginning(s) on Friday; today you get a teaser from the middle. I did a fair amount of reading this weekend and am halfway through. I promise this one won’t take me weeks like Mr. Playboy did! I hope to be done by the weekend, because The Paris Wife is here teasing me, along with so many other good ones stacked all around…

“Randomly” selected from page 191, where I am reading today:

When she inherited her father’s Modelo ownership, Maria had been unemployed and raising two children, and had almost no business experience. She decided to throw herself into the family business rather than letting others control her fate, and from an office the size of a broom closet, she made two of Modelo’s bankrupt yeast companies profitable within a year of taking them over.

I liked this quotation because it highlights two things: one, author Macintosh’s attractive ability to treat the players in this nonfiction tale as interesting, engaging characters, painting them as complete people who we learn to care about (one way or the other); and two, the rare female character in this extraordinarily (but not surprisingly) male-dominated story.

I raved about this book last Friday upon beginning it, and I’m no less enthusiastic today. This is a story that fascinates me, both personally because of my relationship with beer and the beer industry, and as an important story in our national history. Macintosh writes in an accessible, narrative style that draws me in and just sneaks all the learning about economics, business, and politics right past without me noticing. I can’t over-recommend this book, really.

Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

An Incomplete Revenge, by Jacqueline Winspear. and, tattoos

Posted on March 14, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Another very enjoyable Maisie Dobbs book! I am definitely hooked on the series at this point. Immediately after finishing An Incomplete Revenge, I started reading Pardonable Lies – that is, the third book in the series that I skipped over. Good stuff.

In this episode, Maisie ends up following Billy Beale and his family on their “working vacation” out to Kent, to pick hops and enjoy the air away from “the Smoke” (which apparently is London – I’m learning some Britishisms from these books, for sure). James Compton, the son of her original patroness and supporter, has come looking for her help in his business dealings in the small town of Heronsdene. His concern is with the strange events there, including petty crime and a fairly regular occurrence of arson. Since the Beales were already to be in the area, Maisie can use her assistant as usual.

I really liked the way this book opened with another woman’s perspective on Maisie – the weaving instructor, Marta, observes her and makes some guesses about her life. I appreciated an outsider’s view of her, since I think we often get Maisie’s point of view, even in third person.

We quickly learn some new and, I think, important details about Maisie’s personal history and past that I found valuable in understanding her, as well as entertaining in their own right. I’m glad Winspear gave her this new dimension. As I’ve said throughout the series, if Maisie lacks anything, it’s dimensions; perhaps Winspear is wise to mete them out sparingly like this, though, since I’m so interested and on the edge of my seat. Give me more! MORE!

The story itself (avoiding spoilers here) I found heartwrenching. I was surprised at the degree of forgiveness shown in the end – although the offended party does not call it forgiveness (he says, “that is not for me to do”), he does forbear to take (ahem) Complete Revenge. It was a satisfyingly complex and twisting story, with Winspear’s characteristic overarching, large-scale, human-condition themes, and I found the exotic addition of the gypsies to be a point of interest, too.

A few things caught my eye in this book. I really enjoyed the beautiful, sensual description on pages 219-220 of the War Office Repository. The polished dark wood floors, hushed tones, and onionskin papers, along with the emotions of the people doing their research (as imagined by Maisie), and the helpful clerk, “reminded [Maisie] of a library.” (They did me, too.) I’m a librarian, and am always excited to get a mention. 🙂

Another connection in this book that I REALLY enjoyed was the hop-picking! I’m a big fan of beer – I used to sell it for a living, and I’ve made pretty significant plans over it (like flying overseas), and it’s pretty important in my family – both my parents, and the Husband, and I are all beer people. And the HOPS are my favorite part. I’ve never picked any, but I have munched on fresh-dried ones, and, yum. I even have a tattoo: …because our littlest dog is named Hops, so now I have a tattoo for each dog. Here is Ritchey:

…and the two real-life models.

At any rate. Thanks for bearing with me through the tattoo gallery 🙂 (there’s more where that came from, but I shall spare you). I’ll be commenting, as well, over at Book Club Girl‘s discussion post. Come on over! I’m so glad I’m participating in this read-along; it’s been great fun and I’ve discovered a new series I really enjoy.

Filed under: book reviews | Tagged: , | 3 Comments »

book beginnings on Friday: Dethroning the King

Posted on March 11, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Thanks to Katy at A Few More Pages for hosting this meme. To participate: Share the first line (or two) of the book you are currently reading on your blog or in the comments. Include the title and the author so we know what you’re reading. Then, if you feel so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line, and let us know if you liked or did not like the sentence. (You might also consider visiting the original post where you can link to your own book beginning.)

I am so very excited about the book I’ve just started! Dethroning the King is my favorite kind of nonfiction: narrative nonfiction, written by an author (in this case, a journalist) who gets personally involved in her story and becomes a real voice in it. I’m only 30-ish pages in, but I’m really enjoying the style in which Macintosh tells the story, as well as the story itself.

You get three beginnings today, oh joy! First, from the Author’s Note:

The summer of 2008 is one many people wish they could forget. In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of Bear Stearns in March, the global financial markets briefly looked as though they might stabilize.

And from the Prologue:

Some men golf when they’re looking to unwind. Others take their sports cars out for a drive or toss a few steaks on the grill. August A. Busch III liked to shoot things – ducks in the fall and quail in the winter.

And from Chapter 1:

Wednesday, June 11, 2008, was forecast to be hot and sticky in St. Louis, with afternoon temperatures rising well above 80 degrees. None of the Anheuser-Busch executives who pulled into the parking lot of the soccer park in Fenton that morning expected to see much sunlight for the next 48 hours, however.

Now, if you think three book beginnings is overkill, please bear with me. I think all three beginnings illustrate my point: that Macintosh writes in an accessible, narrative style. Don’t all three sort of grab you and make you wonder what comes next? As opposed to a nonfiction book that starts off, “X was born on Monday, November 3, 1942. His parents were X and X.”

I’m very excited about reading this book because I am especially interested in the beer industry, used to work in it, and have a friend who worked for A-B for years and has (at least a little bit) an insider’s view. I think this story is fascinating. While I don’t actually like the product A-B makes, I have respect for the business and, more so, find the lifespan of it relevant and interesting. Macintosh makes a fair case that the fate of A-B is a metaphor for our country’s economic and political well-being in a changing world, and that both entities fell victim to hubris in a class Greek tragic sense.

What are you reading today? I have my eye on Heather Gudenkauf’s These Things Hidden next, but I also have to admit that the moment Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife shows up, I’m all over it! Happy Friday!

Filed under: book beginnings | Tagged: , | 8 Comments »

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