By A Slow River by Phillipe Claudel

By A Slow River is a French mystery. I have found that the French literary style is not a particular favorite of mine. I have a difficult time with novels that do not have one sympathetic character (or at least one that isn't too awful). The French authors I have read tend to have a writing style that creates an emotional distance from its characters. Oddly enough, I find this interesting and compelling in French movies. Can't explain why but I will give it some thought.

Anyway, because the murders take place during WWII which creates lots of interesting opportunities for plot twists and turns and I found the mystery a bit unusual, which given the number of mysteries I have read, is saying something. Ultimately though I did not find this compelling or interesting enough to keep me riveted.

My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme

Although this book describes Julia's love of France and the time she and her husband spent there, it is really about the creation of "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking" 1 and 2. After falling in love with the food (and the country), Julia takes a cooking class at the Cordon Bleu and finds her true calling as a chef, teacher and advocate of French cooking.

This was such a fun read. Julia's personality shine through and you get a very real sense of who she is. It also vividly shows the loving and happy relationship she has with her husband who was enormously supportive of her newly discovered career while at the same time maintaining his own very prestigious career.

The Mystery Guest: An Account by Gregoire Bouillier

This is one of those very "French" novels that is hard to describe but I will do my best. Basically this is the story of a man who has been invited by his ex-lover to be the mystery guest at an artists home. The man agonizes over the meaning of the invitation since the ex-lover left him with no explanations about why she was leaving him. Asking himself such questions as "Why did she invite him?" "What could she be trying to tell him?" and even analyzing the meaning behind the number of flowers at the party. (And I thought women were the only ones who over analyzed things.)

This is not a novel that captivated me but it was interesting and had a very old fashioned literary feel to it, similar to Virginia Woolf in tone.