THE BEST PLACE ON EARTH by Eyelet Tsabari

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TIKKUN

Tikkun, a story of lasting love. Life separates lovers as it often does, taking us to new places, new partners, new lives. Sometimes love reawakens under unexpected circumstance. This is the story of Lior and Natalie.
5.5

SAY IT AGAIN, SAY IT 

This short story is about immigrants to Israel.Lily and Lana are teens in a new world. Lily from Canada, Lana from Belarus.
Lily a shy girl, Lana a Russian beauty without fear.
I loved this story for it's strength and innocence.

5.5

BRIT MILAH

Reuma's daughter Ofra is expecting her first child, not wanting to miss meeting little Yonatan,his grandmother's first male, grandchild. Reuma flies from Israel to Vancouver on a visit of love and great expectations... will she get her wish? Or will she be in for an unacceptable surprise?
5.5

THE POETS IN THE KITCHEN WINDOW

This short story is among my favorite, yet I love them all. What a beautiful book...yes, it is
A boy, Uri's first experience with war. Sirens, gas mask and shelter...Tel Aviv...Saddam Hussein's war against Kuwait reached far...
5.5

CASUALTIES

Sometimes two years of military service might be more difficult than one expected.
4.5

INVISIBLE

Rosalynn is a Philippina working in Israel in order to support her family back home. Just as her permit runs out, love walks in...
5.5

BELOW SEE LEVEL

Josie and David are flying towards Israel from Canada. A difficult journey for David.
Will he find peace with himself and his overbearing IDF father.
5.5

A SIGN OF HARMONY

After the initial two years in the army, Israeli like a time to travel, this time it is India.
4/5

BORDERS

What happened to Israelis who left Sinai after it became Egyptian territories? A young woman recalls her life in the Sinai desert where she lived with her mother. 
5.5

WAR PLANES 

Teens and how death during war time affects their life. Loosing a parent to illness rather than war could change their lives for the better or worse.

4.5

THE BEST PLACE ON EARTH

Naomi and Tamar, two sisters, separated by miles. Tamar in Vancouver, Naomi in Jerusalem.

5.5

I loved these stories so much, the sheer humanity found in each, the beautiful prose. Eyelet Tsabari is a talented to watch for.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the opportunity to get to know this author in return for an honest review.

LUCY BARTON by Elizabeth Strout

A


A new book by Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout is cause for celebration. Her bestselling novels, including Olive Kitteridge and The Burgess Boys, have illuminated our most tender relationships. Now, in My Name Is Lucy Barton, this extraordinary writer shows how a simple hospital visit becomes a portal to the most tender relationship of all—the one between mother and daughter.

Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn't spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy's childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy's life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters. Knitting this powerful narrative together is the brilliant storytelling voice of Lucy herself: keenly observant, deeply human, and truly unforgettable. 

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Elizabeth Strout knows how to reach into your heart ever so softly regardless the emotions, gentle or raw.
In this novel she excels. 
Mother and daughter exchanges will often touch upon subjects grown daughters put to rest, or so we feel. 
While Lucy recovers in a hospital, a surprising visit by her mother takes place. Lucy's mother brings to the surface Amgash, a town her daughter put out of her mind the day she left home. Lucy's life now revolves around New York, two daughters and her husband.
Slowly, memories surface...Elizabeth Strout handles this difficult situation beautifully.
I loved this novel, at times feeling I was reading a biography, so true did this novel feel.

For readers familiar with Elizabeth Strout, you already love this author.
For readers not familiar with the author, this novel is a must read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this advance copy.

5/5

THE HIGH MOUNTAINS OF PORTUGAL, by Yann Martel

5+

THE HIGH MOUNTAINS OF PORTUGAL is a wonderful novel, not to miss, Yann Martell has achieved a beautiful story, spanning three generations starting in 1900. Unlike " The Life Of Pi " the story is concise from begining to end. I loved this book. A beautiful journey for the mind and heart.

A must read


My thanks to Random House and NetGalley for this advance copy in return for an honest review

Paris November 13, 2015

Paris is where I was born,
where a Parisien surgeon saved my life,
where my family on my papa's side has resided since ever
where my American grandfather made a life for himself in his twenties
where he raised my maman with his French wife, my grandmother Lisette

As my brothers and I grew into adults, we took to travelling, I now reside in Virginia, USA because this is home to my 3 sons.

Paris will always be home, my roots...

I can't begin to express my sadness, so many souls lost their lives, so many are fighting for their lives, so many grieve for their loved ones.

AFTER THE CIRCUS by Patrick Modiano

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 ARC Copy

Pub Date October 25, 2015                                                   

Synopsis;

One of the hallmarks of French author Patrick Modiano's writing is a singular ability to revisit particular motifs and episodes, infusing each telling with new detail and emotional nuance. In this evocative novel the internationally acclaimed author takes up one of his most compelling themes: a love affair with a woman who disappears, and a narrator grappling with the mystery of a relationship stopped short. Set in mid-sixties Paris, After the Circus traces the relationship between the narrator, a young man not quite of legal age, and the slightly older, enigmatic woman he first glimpses at a police interrogation. The two lovers make their uncertain way into each other's hearts, but the narrator soon finds himself in the unsettling, ominous presence of others. Who are these people? Are they real, or simply evoked? Part romance, part detective story, this mesmerizing book fully demonstrates Modiano's signature use of atmosphere and suggestion as he investigates the perils and the exhilaration of young love.

My view

This novel takes place in Paris, reading Patrick Modiano is like getting lost in Paris for a day or two....

Jean, at eighteen is still a naive young man..until a beautiful young woman agrees to a cafe at Jean's invitation. Gisele, is all of 21 years of age to Jean's eighteen, a fact he will change by adding three years. 

Both Gisele along with Jean had been interrogated by detectives, and let go however on different cases.

Needing a home to stay, until Gisele finds a new place, she entrusts her two suitcases to Jean who although invites her to stay at his dad's apartment. Jean's dad having left permanently to Switzerland. And so a friendship begins.

And an odd friendship it is...Jean never questions Gisele's strange friends to whom he is introduced, or Gisele's strange disappearances...until the day she asks him to do her a favor for these friends.

Jean is narrating this story now thirty years later, trying to make sense of what happened to him at eighteen. Was Giselle in love with him, or was she using him unscrupulously?

At eighteen a beautiful woman can lead an eighteen year old  astray.  It is important to remember while reading this little gem of a book, the story takes place in 1960, when we all where much more impressionable than today.

I can't emphasize enough how beautiful Patrick Modiano's written word is. Nobel Prize winner, Patrick Modiano is a prolific author, the next move!s I will read in it's original language, French. This is an ARC from NetGalley, translated into English, which is wonderful, quite a few of Patrick's novels are translated.

A must read...for the story and for the beautiful writing.

Thank you NetGalley and Yale University Press