Friday, December 19, 2008

Friday Finds

What great books did you hear about / discover this week?

I found:

Actually, Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik found me. I received a copy of this book via my book club's gift exchange.

Excerpt:

My first images of Paris had come from the book adaptation of The Red Balloon, the wonderful Albert Lamorisse movie about a small boy in the Parisian neighborhood of Menilmontant who gets a magic, slightly overeager balloon, which follows him everywhere and is at last destroyed by evil boys with rocks. Curiously, it was neither a cozy nor a charming landscape. The Parisian grown-ups all treated Pascal, the boy, with a severity bordering on outright cruelty: His mother tosses the balloon right out of the Haussmannian apartment; the bus conductor shakes his head and finger and refuses to allow the balloon on the tram; the principal of the school locks him in a shed for bringing the balloon to class. The only genuine pleasure I recall that he finds in this unsmiling and rainy universe is when he leaves the balloon outside a tempting-looking bakery and goes in to buy a cake. The insouciance with which he does it--cake as a right, not a pleasure--impressed me a lot. A scowling gray universe relieved by pastry: This was my first impression of Paris, and of them all, it was not the farthest from the truth.

I'm eager to read this book. After all, it's a memoir which I love and it'll transport me to Paris. Ooh la la...

Share your finds either by leaving a link to your own Friday Finds post or if you don't have a blog, in your comment. ~Thanks~

Eager for more finds? Sashay over to Should Be Reading.

7 comments:

Heather J. @ TLC Book Tours said...

I look forward to seeing what you have to say about this one - it sounds quite different from anything I've read recently.

I can't wait to see what I end up with in my book club's book exchange on Sunday. I'll tell you a secret ... I'm giving away my copy of the Lost Diary of Don Juan, wrapped in lingerie box filled with leopard print tissue paper! Fun, right?!

Eidin said...

Way fun! Want to join our book club?

Marie Cloutier said...

sounds like an awesome book for a francophile like me! :-)

Eidin said...

Marie, you may be right! It has this quote on the cover:

"The finest book on France in recent years." - Alain de Botton, NYT Book Review

Alyce said...

This one sounds good! I might get to go to Paris later this year, and I'm so excited! Anything about Paris catches my eye right now.

Anonymous said...

I read this one awhile ago. Gopnik has since written a follow-up (which I haven't read).

Have you read Almost French, by Sarah Turnbull? I really enjoyed it.

Eidin said...

Alyce - Lucky, lucky Alyce. Good for you! Thinking about Paris is going to get you through the cold and rainy months ahead.

SoftDrink - I haven't read Almost French. Thanks for the tip!