The Little Paris Bookshop

This novel by Nina George (who has written dozens of books and stories, but only this one has been translated from German by Simon Pare) is a luscious little cruise through the Rhone River valley of France aboard a book barge called the Literary Apothecary. It even comes with a swell map opposite the title page, something for which I am always grateful. There are delicious descriptions of food, countryside, people, cats, and feelings. Jean Perdu considers himself a literary therapist and prescribes books to help people sort out their emotions, and he is remarkably astute in figuring out just what people are feeling and needing at a given point in their lives. Except for himself, of course. For the last 20 years he has lived a frozen statue of a man, even since the love of his life, Manon, left him. He knew she was married to a farmer in the south of France, but was happy to have her in his life for the few weeks a year she spent in Paris. He never read the letter she left him, until a new tenant, Catherine, moved into his building and needed a table; he was happy to be rid of it, having rid himself of almost everything else in his life. But in the drawer of this table, he had stuffed the letter. And now he learns that Manon left him in order to go home and die from a cancer she had not disclosed to him. She asks him to come and see her before she dies. Of course it is 20 years too late for that.
Still, Jean, must seek forgiveness and so he unties the barge and heads south. He's not alone. There are the two resident cats, and at the last minute, his neighbor, the reclusive author, Max Jordan, jumps aboard, losing most of his belongings to the river in the process. It is a journey of discovery in many ways. Jean finally begins to deal with his grief and to realize how he has cut himself off from life. He starts paying attention again to the smells, tastes, sights, and sensations of life. When he reaches the town where Manon lived, he finds her husband has remarried, has a daughter, runs a vineyard and makes a wine named Manon. Jean still isn't ready so he leaves the barge in the hands of other fellow travelers, and drives even further south to put himself back together. Eventually he comes to allow Catherine in as a new love in his life, goes to visit Manon's grave--where she is clearly NOT there in any way, shape or form--and connects, not only with Manon's family, but reconnects with his own parents as well. Pleasant read. Good reviews available from Kirkus, the NYT Sunday Book Review, the Toronto Star, The Guardian, etc. It spent 13 weeks on the NPR bestseller list for hardcover fiction and was also on the NYT Bestseller list.

Once a Crooked Man

I had to read this book because it is by David McCallum, who played Ilya Kuryakin on "The Man from U.N.C.L.E series many years ago and is now Dr. Mallard in NCIS, one of our favorite TV shows. It is a competently written tale with some quirky characters, but I would not go out of my way to read another book by him. This one centers around 3 brothers (Sal, Max, and Enzo Bruschetti) who have run several illegal businesses and made a lot of money but now want to get out and go legit. In the process of shutting down, however, there is the inevitable cleaning up to do. Like getting rid of people who know their names and illegal activites. An actor, Harry Murphy, just happens to overhear their plans to get rid of some people connected with their operation in London and takes it upon himself to warn the targets of their impending demise. He does, in fact, initially save one man from being assassinated, but in process becomes a target himself, and also gets enlisted by the police to help them find the Bruschetti brothers. Harry turns out to be remarkably resourceful--he is an actor after all so he can tell a pretty convincing lie when needed. He manages to throw a real monkey wrench into the Bruschetti works, but in the end, it hardly seems like much has changed.