My friend, Bill, had given me this book in April.  He thought it would be the perfect book to read on my flight over to Paris in May.  But that trip got canceled.  However, I put the book aside, and I knew we'd be going to France in October so I've saved it to take with me this time.  So this will be in my backpack to read across the Atlantic.

Since I usually devour any book having to do with France or Paris, I was surprised I actually hadn't read this one.  And it looks good.  It's non-fiction and about Adam Gopnik, (who wrote Paris Journal for the New Yorker) his wife, and their infant son leaving New York City for the urbane glamour of living in Paris.  A perfect book to read enroute to the City of Light and I know I'll enjoy it.

My friend, Mary, over at Across the Pond (the one I'll be meeting for the first time in Caunes-Minervois, the village we're both staying in) had told me about Shors first novel, Beneath a Marble Sky.  So I went to Amazon to check it out.  While it did sound interesting, about the building of the Taj Mahal, his second book seemed to capture me more.  So I ordered this one and I'll be taking it with me as well.  This one has to do with the WWII hospital ship, Benevolence, in the South Pacific on a mission of mercy.  It's split in two by a torpedo and a small band of survivors.....including a Japanese soldier and a young American nurse........make it to a deserted shore of nearby island.  The back cover says, "Shors reveals a powerful tale of redemption focusing on unlikely lovers, heroes and villains, and war-torn countries--all in their own ways, fighting to survive."  Sounds like a great story.

Reviews of both books will follow when I finish them.

See you here next time...............