France - BOOKS by French Authors (or set in France)

[Chris]

Thanks for recommending Le French Book! I wasn't aware of that.

 

[phirhon]

I have only had a kindle for a year, and before that, I never bought books new. I visited the library and picked up bargains at op shops. So even now, I do not like to spend a lot of money [ I need to save so we can actually visit France again!!!] , so look for bargains on the kindle as well. I looked up Kindle unlimited and it is not available here in Australia. I have found several books free or for .99 cents. The Third Girl , the first in the series by Nell Goddin was free. Another was Winter Tears by Susan Finlay. These are also set in France, but I am not sure what part . I have yet to read it as well. Of course it will be hard to beat martin walker. Even my husband who is not a big reader enjoys the Bruno books.

Happy reading.

 

[Roz]

Someone on Slow Trav told me about the BookBub site which sends out an email every day with a list of free or cheap e-books. A lot of them are junk, of course, but occasionally there are some good ones.

 

[Pauline]

Steve just finished a detective trilogy by a French writer. He read them in French (bought them for the Kindle on the Amazon.co.uk site) but they are available in English for the Kindle on Amazon.com. The Commandant Camille Verhoeven Trilogy by Pierre Lemaitre.

Boy the things you don't know about your own husband! These books are horrible! Steve read the series of three in French and recommended them to me because I like detective novels. And we both like Fred Vargas, a French detective novel writer. The first book is all about violence against women - hookers being killed in a way to imitate murders in famous crime/detective novels. And there are no interesting tidbits about France, and hardly any character development of the detectives. Ugh!!

I like detective novels, but not ones that focus in on grisly murders. Steve says "what about the TV show The Bridge"? Yes they are gruesome murders, but of both men and women and there is great character development of the detectives.

 

[phirhon]

I am with you on this, Pauline. I enjoy detective novels but not ones that are especially violent or gritty. I like reading books set in France for the little bits and pieces about French life I can absorb , descriptions of villages and countryside, mentions of food all mixed in with a good story. Martin Walker ticks all the boxes for me.

 

[KeithfromVA]

I love the Bruno books. I am not a hunter, but the books make me want to hunt with Bruno and enjoy his cooking afterwards.

I also enjoyed Death in Bordeaux by Allan Massie. It is the first in what I think is a series of 4 books about a police detective in Bordeaux set during the Vichy regime. I struggled a bit with the pace in the beginning but really enjoyed the depiction of life in WWII occupied France.

 

[Pauline]

... I also enjoyed Death in Bordeaux by Allan Massie. It is the first in what I think is a series of 4 books about a police detective in Bordeaux set during the Vichy regime. I struggled a bit with the pace in the beginning but really enjoyed the depiction of life in WWII occupied France.

Good find @KeithfromVA ! He lives in Scotland and has written about World War II, ancient Rome, and these crime novels set in Vichy France. I am going to read the first one.

Death in Bordeaux, 2010
Dark Summer in Bordeaux, 2012
Cold Winter in Bordeaux, 2014
End Games in Bordeaux, 2015

This is what it says about him on Amazon: "Allan Massie is the author of twenty novels including the critically acclaimed World War II trilogy: A Question of Loyalties, The Sins of the Father, and Shadows of Empire. He read History at Cambridge and, as a political and literary journalist, has contributed to most national newspapers including The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Scotsman and The Spectator."

Article - Herald Scotland - Allan Massie's latest Bordeaux novel is another fine vintage, by Rosemary Goring, 15 February 2014

 

[Roz]

Keith, thanks for the Allan Massie recommendation. I see I can get his books free via my Kindle Unlimited account, and I'm always looking for good books that are available on Kindle Unlimited.

 

[KeithfromVA]

Hope you enjoy them, Roz. I'm curious about the Kindle Unlimited. Have you figured out how many books you need to read to get your money's worth?

 

[Pauline]

I finished the first one and liked it. Am on the second now. I took out the one month free trial of Kindle Unlimited when I saw these books are available on it. It seems to me that it costs about $10/month, so if you got one book a month you would break even. But usually when I go to buy a book it is not on Kindle Unlimited - but I am going to have a better look. @Roz do the books disappear from your Kindle after a month?

 

[Karen Frerichs]

I, too, am curious about getting Kindle Unlimited.... any opinions about how it works, or is it worth it would be appreciated.
But do you all know about Overdrive? My library (San Francisco) has e-books, which are lent out for 3 week periods just like regular books, and I use it a lot, especially when traveling. They do expire, so am curious about Pauline's question above.
The Allan Massie books sound good, but are not available in any format from the library (just his histories), so maybe the free test of Kindle Unlimited would be a good way to get them... if they don't expire quickly.

 

[Roz]

I'm not sure if I actually break even cost-wise on Kindle Unlimited -- I've never tried to figure it out. But I like the convenience of being able to download as many books as I want from their list, and not having to pay anything extra. If I really don't like the book after starting it, I haven't lost anything. I just return it and try something else. I do read a lot and very quickly.

I'd say I get more enjoyment from my Kindle Unlimited for $10 than my cable TV, which costs over $50/mo for the cheapest basic service here. In fact we just got an antenna for our TV which pulls in a lot of the local stations very well. I am hoping I can convince Mike we should drop the cable TV altogether since almost all of what we watch on our TV set is streaming movies, or PBS which I can get over the air.

I still get most of my books, especially the new ones, from the library. But I find that most of the books I want to read aren't available in electronic form, or the waiting list is very long, and maybe when I do finally get it, I don't have time to finish it in the 3 weeks. So I generally use the library only for print and audio books.

You can keep the Kindle Unlimited books as long as you want -- they do not expire. But you can only have 10 out at a time. So if you try to download an 11th, it will tell you that you need to return one first. They make it easy for you by suggesting the book you've had out on your account the longest.

I will say a lot of the KU books are total junk, and you can't get many of the most popular recent books that way. But there are enough I have enjoyed reading that for me it's worth the $10 a month. And as Karen said, some of the KU books aren't even available in the library.

Go to the Kindle Books page on Amazon and click on Kindle Unlimited on the left side to see a selection of their books. There are thousands more of course. When I'm searching for something on Amazon, I also keep my eyes open for books that have the "Kindle Unlimited" designation on them.

I've started the first Allan Massie book, by the way, and think it's very good so far.

 

[Kathy]

We should start an Allan Massie book club... I'm reading along in the first one too and enjoying it. (Thank you Keith!)

 

[Pauline]

You can keep the Kindle Unlimited books as long as you want -- they do not expire. But you can only have 10 out at a time. So if you try to download an 11th, it will tell you that you need to return one first. They make it easy for you by suggesting the book you've had out on your account the longest.

Thanks for explaining that! It is like taking books from the library, but without the due date.

I am liking the second book.

 

[SusanSeattle]

My library also has kindle books so I tend to get most of mine that way. I'm lucky in that our library system serves all of King County (most populous county in Washington) so it is well stocked. One trick I've found is that if you turn off wi-fi on your kindle, the borrowed books don't get deleted when they expire. I've found this helpful when I'm traveling.

 

[Karen Frerichs]

Sorry I lost track of this thread for a while, but Pauline just listed the Iain Pears art history mysteries in the Italy section, and I remembered another Iain Pears book, set in Provence, over the course of several centuries, with several protagonists: Dream of Scipio. I was in Avignon last week, and some of the history from that book came back to me; might want to reread it now.
And get back to the Allan Massie series, even if my library doesn't have them!

 

[Roz]

For anyone who hasn't yet read any of the wonderful Bruno books by Martin Walker, set in the Dordogne, the first in the series is on sale for $1.99 today at Amazon. Bruno, Chief of Police. Not sure how long the special deal will last.

 

[Roz]

A book recommendation, on sale now for 99 cents on Kindle: The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain. I had this out of the library some time back and enjoyed it so much that I just bought it. I thought The President's Hat was even better, but it's not on sale.

 

[Debra]

Recently I read book one in Mark Pryor's Hugo Marston series. I'm going to download book two, from the library to my kindle, to see if I like it well enough to continue with the series. It will depend on his love interest. The first mystery, "The Bookseller" deals with the "bouquinistes" in Paris.
I realized why I love Louise Penny and Gamache so much (and Simenon and Maigret). He's happily married and has a warm, kind relationship with his wife. Even Bruno and his romantic escapades can sometimes get a bit tiring.
I just finished "The Paris Wife", Paula McLain, next on the stack is "A Moveable Feast"
I also just put a "Used, Very Good" edition of "A Place in the World Called Paris" (no kindle available) in my cart.
Another lucky find at the $5 bookstore was "A Literary Paris". I will be packing that one for my visit next month.

 

[Roz]

Poor Bruno -- it isn't for lack of trying that he isn't happily married with a couple of kids. That's what he really wants, but he can't find a woman who wants to share a life like that.

But I agree with you, Debra, about liking mysteries where the main characters have happy marriages. Not French, but Guido and Paola in the Donna Leon books are another example.