Catching Up

Long time no see!  It's been a little crazy with work and home and going places - but I'm back!  And I've finished another book!  The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. 

This fictional story details the life of Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley.  They fell in love at a young age, married quickly, and moved to Paris.  She stayed home, her piano and music the only thing to occupy her time, and he wrote.  They had marvelous adventures and went on romantic and fascinating trips all over Europe - ski trips in Austria, get aways on the French coast, running of the bulls in Pamplona, and many more.  But writing was always Ernest's first love.  He rented a separate room to write and left Hadley to her own devices.  As soon as they made friends with the literary elite, Ernest would have it out with them and the friendship would be destroyed.  Hadley desperately tried to be what Ernest needed her to be - she didn't have an identity without him.  The book is about her struggles with her life and how she finds herself in spite of, and because of her relationship with Ernest. 

I particularly enjoyed this book because of the descriptions of Europe during this time period.  The romantic life they led, despite their near poverty - talking about books and writing in little cafes, drinking wine and staying out with friends.  It's just this romanticized idea of Paris, and I would have loved to have been a part of that time period!

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Here is my book group's list of books we're going to read this year.  I'm so excited!  They sound fantastic!

Entwined by Heather Dixon

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

The Flint Heart by Katherine Paterson

The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke 

Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt

Daughters of Jared by HB Moore

Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

Princess Academy AND the sequel (to be released this summer) by Shannon Hale

The Mansion by Henry Van Dyke

The Five Love Languages (pick your version) by Gary D. Chapman