"AMOUR: How the French Talk about Love" is one of the most candid, refreshing, and deeply affecting books I've read in a very long time. The book is the author's labor of love and is made up of the various interviews she had across France and in Martinique and Guadeloupe (which are legally parts of France itself) with single individuals, heterosexual couples, and single sex couples (men and women alike) of varied ages. There are also in the book photographs of many of the interviewees and of the places where they reside, which I much enjoyed seeing, for they gave me a better feel into the lives of these people.

I first heard of this book from an interview Stefania Rousselle had with BBC Radio London a short time ago. Anyone who reads this book -- even if he/she has yet to experience the stirrings of love in their lives -- will find something with which to relate. For example, the following remarks by a 24 year old organic farm volunteer struck a deep chord and made me feel sad for him, especially given his youth:

"I think girls want a dominant, strong type of guy, not the sensitive man who is too emotional, like me. I am always overthinking things. I want to love one person.

"I think I have waited too long now. I have a friend who I fell in love with two years ago. I said, 'I like you a lot,' and she told me she liked me too, but she had another boy, and she's not a polygamist. ... I had big expectations and put too much pressure on myself...."

"Most of the time, I am happy. But I am sad in the evenings. It's sad to be alone. It would be nice to sleep and wake up next to somebody and be like: 'Good morning, it's gray outside.' "

These are real-life stories -- many of which probably parallel our own individual experiences of being in love and in romantic relationships with that special person or persons over time --- that show love in its various manifestations and its varied impacts on the heart, soul, and everyday life. Some of them made me joyful and others made me deeply sad to the point of tears.

"AMOUR" is one book that I would gladly read again and again and again. After all, love is the most basic need anyone has as a way of finding and maintaining lasting and meaningful fulfillment in life. 

Here's a tight, well-written story of a man (Major James Brionne, formerly of the U.S. Army) whose home in Virginia was torched and his wife killed by a gang set on destroying him because of his previous work which led to the arrest, trial, conviction, and hanging of the murderer Dave Allard.

The time is the early 1870s. Brionne with his son Mat (who had barely managed to escape the clutches of the Allard Gang in Virginia) make their way out west to Utah Territory to eke out a new life there in the desert landscape. There they are tracked down by the Allards and the outcome is not without its thrills and chills.

A very compelling and eloquent account by Iris Origo which conveys both the tempo and temper of life that existed in Italy as she went from being a sometimes uneasy German ally and neutral to a full-fledged co-belligerent with Germany after June 10, 1940. The diary begins on March 27, 1939 and ends on July 23, 1940.

Well, this was different...

A noir-style mystery set in alternative version (one hopes!) of Aberystwyth, where a Druid mob silences its opposition by making them ... disappear or just kills about anyone who knows too much.

And all because the Grand Wizard is...

Ah. Hehe. 

The mystery in this one started off intriguing. A schoolboy has disappeared. Then other schoolboys turn up dead. So, when Aberystwyth's finest ... and only ... private eye is hired to investigate, the mystery turns into a spoofy, yet, gritty detective story that tries and tries.

This issue I have is that I am not sure what it tried exactly.

The noir feel was there, certainly, but the spoofiness didn't really work for me. Maybe it was the lack of subtlety, maybe it was the abundance of schoolboy humour (gaah...), maybe it was abrupt (and somewhat predictable) ending. I don't know. What I do know is that this book made me want to pick up a Thursday Next novel again...which, btw, also features Wales in a special light, even tho slightly differently.

I'm glad I read this, and parts of the book were funny, but I'm not going to continue with the series.

WTH did I just read???

I didn't hate it, but WTH???

I can't say I loved it either. It will take a day or two to digest this one.