The Little Paris Bookshop

A while back my Washington State sister and her husband recommended this book to me, by author, Nina George. I read it and enjoyed it so much I chose it for both of my book clubs to read. One of the cool things about the book was a map in the front showing Monsieur Perdu’s trip down the Seine and his further travels after he left the river.

Only six of our members were there at Roby Lee's that day.

The Third Thursday Book Club meets at a December Christmas party at a member’s home, and picks out the books we’ll read in the following year. It’s kind of nice knowing what book we’ll be reading so we can get it ahead of time. At my suggestion we chose The Little Paris Bookshop, for our May meeting at Roby Lee’s restaurant, where we discussed the book for that month and as usual many of us stayed for lunch after we were done.

Almost everyone is in this picture at another member's home.

I also chose it for the August meeting of the Red Read Robin book club at my house. In that book club, each month we meet in the evening. Someone is the hostess and picks the book for the month. Some have it in their home and serve dinner, and others choose a restaurant where we eat and then discuss the book. This is the club that usually has wine at our meetings, too.

Book blurb on the inside cover: “Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. The only person he can’t seem to heal through literature is himself; he’s still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared. She left him with only a letter that he has never opened.” (One of my fellow bloggers told me perdu means lost. I thought that quite interesting and appropriate for this character.)

“After Perdu is finally tempted to read the letter, he hauls anchor and departs on a mission to the south of France, hoping to make peace with his loss and discover the end of the story. Joined by a bestselling but blocked author and a lovelorn Italian chef, Perdu travels along the country’s rivers, dispensing his wisdom and his books and showing that the literary world can take the human soul on a journey to heal itself.”

“Internationally bestselling and filled with warmth and adventure, The Little Paris Bookshop is a love letter to books, meant for anyone who believes in the power of stories to shape people’s lives.”

The author, Nina George works as a journalist, writer, and storytelling teacher. She writes science thrillers, novels, feature articles, short stories and columns. The Little Paris Bookshop spent more than a year on bestseller lists in Germany, and was a best seller in Italy, Poland and the Netherlands. George is married to the writer Jens J. Kramer and lives in Hamburg, Germany and Brittany, France.” The American version was translated by Simon Pare, and published by Crown Publishers, New York, in 2015.

This book had one of our liveliest discussions. We used some of the questions for discussion from Lit Lovers (http://www.litlovers.com).

“Memories are like wolves. You can’t lock them away and hope they leave you alone.” Towards the beginning of this book, Monsieur Perdu opens a door to a room, he has sealed for two decades. We discussed why he would do this and not open a letter he’d received. Most of us thought he’d been foolish and how much his life would have been different if he’d opened the letter when he’d received it.

Perdu was an unusual bookseller because he felt that contrary to belief that booksellers only cared about books, but they looked after people. He helped people find books that would heal them. We discussed this concept, and thought it was interesting that he would refuse to sell books to some people because he didn’t think it was right for them. It also was fascinating, that he seemed to be able to read people well enough to know what was right for them.  I asked if they’d ever had a book that made changes in their life. Answers varied in both book clubs.

In one chapter, Perdu refuses to sell a copy of Max Jordan’s Night to a customer even though Mas was right there. Purdu felt it would upset the woman who wanted it. Whether or not there is such a thing as a dangerous book, we had to laugh at what happened in that scene with Max open mouthed.

“Time to mourn, or “hurting time,” was a time for almost every character in the book to some extent. We discussed this in both book clubs, and many of us could relate to that because we had lost someone important in our lives – two of us had lost sons.

We discussed different aspects and questions in both book clubs. One was it possible to love two people at the same time. There were a lot of opinions of that. Some really loved the book. Some liked it but found certain parts dragged for them. Only one member said she hated it, but then that’s not too unusual from her. Some were annoyed with Perdu over some of the things he did, but most weren’t, and overall the book created good discussions and those who finished it liked the ending. Those who hadn’t gotten there yet, planned on reading the rest of it. As for me, I liked it. I must have liked it since I read it three times although I mostly skimmed it the third time.

This month I’ve been in The Third Thursday book club for ten years. Next February I’ll have been with the Red Read Robin book club ten years, too. I was with both book clubs since the beginning, and it’s been a wonderful time with them. Sharing books creates friendships, I’ve found. I’ve read books I’d never heard of before, and found most of them good, although there were a few I didn’t care for, but still reading books I normally wouldn’t read expands my knowledge and way of looking at things. And I enjoy being introduced to new authors, too.

Do you belong to a book club?

If there was a literary apothecary near you, would you visit it?

Has there been a book that made a big difference in your life?

What was it if there has been such a book?