Wednesday, July 22, 2009

2 great books for this summer!

while at the cottage I have the chance to do a lot of reading...we have a fabulous little library out here that gets in a great selection of current materials and delivers them with a smile! What more could you ask for!

I thought I would share 2 AMAZING books that I read this week and thoroughly enjoyed...

the first was Sarah's Key by Tatiana deRosnay



here is the review from Publishers Weekly

De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down.

the second one....be sure you are not hungry when you crack it open as it is mouthwatering good!

The Lost Recipe for Happiness by Barbara O'Neal



...while this book did not garner the same rave reviews as Sarah's Key...I would class it as a great "Beach Read"... entertaining & enjoyable if not predictable. There are some delicious recipes shared throughout the novel making it a book worth checking our of your local library!

Hope you enjoy them!

3 comments:

nic said...

ooh, i LOVE a nudge in the direction of a good read...i could kiss you right now. lucky for you we're long distance friends.

Rebekah said...

These both look great - thanks for the recommendations!!

sweetfunkyvintage said...

My book club read the book "Sarah's Keys" and I cried and cried and cried. What a moving book!
missy