The Best Books I've Read in France

Well its January and theres not much going on, so I have been doing a lot of reading. Really the whole time I've been in France I've been doing a lot of reading. Frankly its been wonderful to be in a mood to read again. My whole life I've been a voracious reader (I think it must be inherited!) and always had to be reading something. That was until last year when I somehow was never in the mood to read or never had time. I think part of it was that after working long hours in a kitchen I was usually too exhausted to read much at night. But whatever the reasons I'm glad to be back in the groove of my reading addiction.



Being here in France my options have been somewhat limited to the books Matt and I brought with us and the English section at the local library. Matt and I both brought some of our favorites that we could see reading again (Into Thin Air, Sometimes a Great Notion) and new books we hadn't read before. The selection at the local library has been quirky to say the least, but I've encountered some enjoyable books that I don't think I would have ever picked up before.

Here's some of the Books I've enjoyed most in the past 6 months:

1. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
Maybe this book was made more poignant by the fact that I am actually living in France but I think reading about the Nazi invasion and occupation of France from the point of view of someone that was actually going through it would have been interesting at any time. This book was written by Nemirovsky in 1940-1942 while she was experiencing the same events that she was writing about in her fictional novel. She intended the book to be a 5 part masterpiece that chronicled the invasion of France, occupation,war and eventually peace. Even while she was writing it she had no idea what her fate or the fate of her fictional characters would be. She was sent to Auschwitz in 1942 and the 2 completed parts of her novel was not discovered by her daughters until a few years ago. Really a fascinating read.



2. The World According to Garp by John Irving
I've always enjoyed John Irving. He has an odd quirky sense of humor and makes characters who are truly unforgettable. The World According to Garp is about T.S. Garp, a writer, and his family. You never really know where this books going to go and it almost always makes you laugh. Definetly the best humorous novel I've read in quite some time.

3. Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
This is one of the best books I've ever read. It doesn't hurt that it was written in and about Oregon, a place I love. I love this book not only for its story about a independent family of loggers living on the Oregon coast and for its vivid imagery of wet and wild Oregon, but for its unique narrative style. Kesey uses a narrative style that is hard to get used to but traps you in its beauty. Throughout the entire novel he abruptly changes narrators 3 or 4 times within a page or a paragraph without much indication of who is speaking. It sound difficult but just makes this story of a standoff both between Hank Stamper and the town of Waconda over a timber strike and Hank Stamper and his own family all the more interesting. I've read it twice this year and just want to keep reading it again and again. ( I believe its a far better novel than Kesey's most well known work One Flew Over the Kuckoo's Nest, which I incidentally also read while here. I enjoyed it also, but its style and content is completely different from Sometimes a Great Notion)

4. Into Thin Air by John Krakauer
I don't think I will ever get tired of reading this book. John Krakauers account of the doomed 1996 expedition to Everest is such addictive reading. I think it was one of the first books that ever kept me up late into the night reading. Something about Everest is just mesmerizing...in its beauty and in the great risk that people take to climb it.




5. The Stand by Stephen King
I've always been kind of biased against Stephen King. I don't like horror and have assumed I would dislike most of his books. Matt however really likes Stephen King and clued me into the fact that he also writes fantasy and interesting fiction that isn't always scary. The Stand is an epic 1000+ page novel about a superflu which wipes out 99% of the world population. The survivors of that flu and the battle for the fate of society that will exist in the new United States. Really a gripping and fascinating book. A little overly long with an ending that could have happened 100 pages earlier, but great characters and an interesting story.

6. Emma by Jane Austen
I am a huge fan of Jane Austen and while no Jane Austen book will ever be more loved by me than Pride and Prejudice, I did thoroughly enjoy Emma. Emma is conniving and self interested and plays games with peoples emotions but becomes a better person by the end of the book. Like most of Jane Austens novels Emma is all about marriage, and the social role of women in the 19th century England. The 1990's movie Clueless was based on Emma and it was fun to read the novel and note the comparisons.

7. The Lying Days by Nadine Gordimer
I hadn't even heard of Nadine Gordimer when I stumbled upon this novel at the Privas Library. It was an interesting read about a young white woman growing up on a mine in South Africa in the 1950's. The story focuses on her growing awareness of race and her role in the world. This is Gordimers first novel, and she later went on to win the Nobel Prize for literature and write extensively about South Africa.

8. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I first picked up this novel years ago and couldn't get past the first 50 pages. There was something about the magical reaslism and all the hundreds of names that all sound the same that I just couldn't get. This time I really enjoyed reading the novel, which chronicles 100 years in the life of the Buendia family. It involves love, war, everyday life, and lots of magic. Not like any book I've ever read

I've read many more books while here, both those 8 are the ones that really stick out. Hopefully I'll keep reading more great books the rest of the year. Suggestions are appreciated!