The Content Reader

Tamara at Thyme for Tea  is hosting another Paris in July. I am happy to participate again. One of my favourite challenge. Looking forward to seeing fellow Paris-bloggers to see what you are up to this year.  Simple rules; we talk about everything Paris and French. Ill-prepared this year, so no high-level plans for the month. Here are some ideas I might fulfil.  Usually, I do a French dinner, but considering the times, this will be out of the question this year. I might make up a dinner menu at least.  I still have an unfinished post from last year(!) about saloons in Paris in the 1920s, which I will finalise. Someone recommended R.A. Scotti's Vanished Smile, about the theft of Mona Lisa at the beginning of the 20th century. I have never heard about this theft, but it sounds interesting. Especially, since I know the painting came back to the museum. Will try to find the book.  I will go to the library and see what French they have. Maybe I will try two of my fa...

" A whirlwind romance. A perfect marriage. Hannah Reilly has seized her chance at happiness. Until the day her husband doesn't come home... Can you ever really know what happened before you met?" Hannah goes to Heathrow to meet her husband, en route from the US.  It is his usual weekend visit. However, this weekend he is not on the plane and he is not available on his phone. Hannah naturally worries that something has happened. When he finally contact her by message, she is relieved. When she by chance is told that he is supposed to be with her in Rome, her mind moves towards the idea he is having an affair. She starts investigating and more and more mysterious details are detected. This is a kind of 'Gaslight' story. Is Hannah just imagining things? Everybody seems convinced that she is the love of his life. The more she detects an unknown part of his life, the more the mystery is shrouded in darkness. This is a story keeping you hooked and guessing unt...

A while now since my last post. I don't know what is happening, but time seems to go very fast. We are still self-isolating, although we do venture out a little bit more. Being careful and keeping distances. It is quite comfortable to have no demands on you because there is not so much you can do in comparison to normal times. I recently asked my husband how we will be able to cope with all the things to do, once we are back to normal. These days I am only capable of concentrating on the few daily tasks that we have. I do long for normal times, misunderstand me right, and hope that the lack of energy I feel now, will come back. It is heavy to think that we might have to stay like this for another year. We are continuing our walks in the area and have discovered a lot of nice national parks and areas to walk or bike. If this situation would not have occurred, I don't think we ever would have had time for these discoveries. I read 11 books in May. Many of them very good. So ...

Another fantastic book from my bookshelves. The Andalucian Friend by Alexander Söderberg was published already in 2012 (in Swedish, 2013 in English). While reading, I realised it is the first part of a trilogy. I remember it got excellent reviews when it was first published, although I did not realise it was such a long time ago. This is one of the best thrillers I have read. Quite different from anything else in this genre. Once finishing the first book I downloaded the following two e-books from the library;  The Other Son  and  The Good Wolf.  I read them both in two days. Simply could not put them down. "When Sophie Brinkmann meets Hector Guzman, she knows everything that she needs to: he’s handsome, he’s charming and he makes her happy.  But what she doesn’t know is that Hector has some nasty friends, some even nastier enemies, and an unscrupulous police operation relentlessly following his every move.  With her house under surveillance by the law ...

Gabriel Farago is an international, bestselling Australian author of the Jack Rogan mysteries. I have already enjoyed several of his books, among them  The Kimberley Secret  and  Professor K: The Final Quest . His hero, Jack Rogan, is a man entirely to my liking. He is an Australian journalist, interested in history and mysteries. Charming, talented, and with a certain kind of humour, he seems to fit in anywhere.  It was nice to meet him again in two books I read during my Caribbean holiday over Christmas and New Year:   The Forgotten Painting and The Curious Case of the Missing Head . The Forgotten Painting I divide the books about Jack Rogan into the earlier ones and the later ones. The earlier ones, of which The Forgotten Painting  is one, is of a more 'simple' structure, than the newer books by Farago. I classify them as an old fashion mystery book à la Agatha Christie. They are based on a mystery in the past which Rogan is trying to solve. ...

This book Die Strauß- Dynastie  was published in 1993, so it has been a long time with me. I love classical music, and some of the best and most beautiful music comes from the Strauß family. It seems that Peter Prange wrote the book from a manuscript. That is maybe why, at least in the beginning, it is a bit difficult to come into. A bit of static writing. However, as I came further into the story, the exciting, and rather sad, history of this family took over. It is an unusually talented family, all the sons were into music. Maybe Johann was the most talented, but the other two brothers, Joseph and Eduard, made their marks at the time. Johann Strauß, the elder, left his wife and family to move in with his mistress. It was a big change for the family, even if the husband/father paid for them. The mother, Anna, became a rather miserable figure. Although one must admire her stamina, she was a powerful woman and reigned her family, that is, her children with an iro...

Another excellent book from my own shelves, The Book of Secrets by Tom Harper. It just shows how many good books are hiding there. The book covers two separate stories, one in the past and one in the present. This structure I find very appealing, maybe because I love historical fiction. It is a mystery and thriller and it holds you captured to the very end. "In a snowbound village in the German mountains, a young woman discovers an extraordinary secret. Before she can reveal it, she disappears. All that survives is a picture of a mysterious medieval playing card that has perplexed scholars for centuries.  Nick Ash does research for the FBI in New York. Six months ago his girlfriend Gilliam walked out and broke his heart. Now he's the only person who can save her - if it's not too late. Within hours of getting her message Nick finds himself on the run, delving deep into the past before it catches up with him.  Hunted across Europe, Nick follows Gillian's trail int...