Garlic, Mint, & Sweet Basil (2003) by Jean-Claude Izzo #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

🧄 This short book is an essay written by Jean-Claude Izzo, a native Marseilles poet and writer. The main theme of the essay are his love of Marseilles - its sea, its cuisine, its people and culture; and the subject that made him famous: Mediterranean Noir. Izzo wrote three noir novels of the Marseilles Trilogy: Total Chaos (Total Khéops), Chourmo, and Solea. 

🧄 You would get how Izzo loved and was proud of his Marseilles from what he wrote in this essay. I loved how he described the view of the sea from uphill; but especially how he described the food! He titled this essay garlic, mint, and sweet basil not for no reason. To Izzo, the three ingredients symbolized the simple unpretentious dishes you'll love in Marseilles: "I like to feel Marseilles pulsating beneath my tounge." Family atmosphere in restaurant is what Izzo looked forward to. He talked a lot about fish and vegetables, Boullabaise, pizza on the sea, and bread rubbed in garlic.

🧄 Izzo loved garlic and talked a lot about it! First girl he kissed smelled of garlic, one summer, when he's 15 years old. Garlic reigned supreme in Izzo's kitchen, because:

"Garlic welcome all the flavors."

"Nothing goes better with garlic than wine. Preferably red wine."

"[It's] like the intoxication of first kisses."

🧄 Imagine reading about mouthwatering food in the poetic beauty that poets usually writes. That's what this essay is about. Of course Izzo talked about mint and sweet basil too. Can you imagine mint as a love potion? Well, reading what Izzo wrote will change how you see mint. "Spread mints around you. Breath in those peppery smell, and you'll add 1001 nights to your dreams."  And do you know that basil frighten away insects? Putting it on your kitchen's window sill, will keep the insects away. But will that make you house full of basil's fragrant? Well, believe Izzo when he said: "An excess of basil is like an excess of love, (it) will not damage the heart." He's a sweet dear, wasn't he?

🧄 This essay might be light and and short, but I guarantee, you'll want to go to Marseilles right away! A tip from Izzo: The best time to arrive in Marseilles is by sea, in the morning, in certain sunshine. Because Marseilles plays with perspective. And remember to visit the markets when you're there, because it's in the markets where Izzo had found "the wonders of the world" - "Here's where you'd find basis of taste... Pleasure of the day - the happiness of living in the south." What a refreshing read this had been for me - loved every single sentence in this little essay! - and what a perfect read for #ParisInJuly!

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The Greengage Summer (1958) by Rumer Godden #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

💚 The titular greengage summer is the summer when five siblings were staying at Hotel Les Oeilletes in a French seaside village. The story is narrated by Cecil Grey (13 y.o.), girl number two. The rest of the siblings are Joss, the eldest girl of 16; Hester (third girl); and the Littles, Will and Vicky. But wait, are they holidaying to France unchaperoned? Initially, their widowed mother took them there to see the Battlefield of France, however she got very ill on the way, and collapsed right upon arrival at the hotel. The proprietress, Mademoiselle Zizi almost let the family away - what hotel would receive a very ill woman with five children anyway? - but her charming and mysterious lover Monsieur Elliot interfered, and rescued them. He put Mrs. Grey into hospital, and the children are staying under his care.

💚 Without their mother's care, Joss and Cecil turned to womanhood, faster than any would expect. Especially Joss, she turned to be a very attractive woman, and this brought the children, previously left alone and unnoticed, to be under limelight. I loved all the children, from Hester who's always honest, to Will with his fashion aficionado. Even Vicky, who has the least role in the story - I loved how she's always hanging out in the kitchen with the old cook (and who always supplies hot news to her siblings!).

💚 At first, it seems like a perfect holiday for the siblings - loitering leisurely around the orchard, among greengage trees, picking and eating the fruits, and be free. But of course it's not that. I knew instantly that Elliot wouldn't have received them without reason, there's a catch somewhere. The children were drawn to Elliot instantly, and also with few of the other residents. Monsieur Armand the painter is my favorite! However, little by little they noticed strange, inexplicable things, mostly concerning Elliot. You'll be wondering all the time, whether he is a good man (he really took care of the children) who was misunderstood, or a genius villain hiding his crime behind his kindness? 

💚 I won't reveal further of the plot, because what happens next is the key to enjoy this book. In short, it is, unexpectedly, a rather intense coming-of-age story with a hint of mystery and a sinister plot twist at the end. It was an evocative reading, not the lazy one you'd enjoy during summer holiday - but definitely a perfect one for #ParisinJuly; it celebrates the glorious summer of a French seaside village!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
 

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A Picture of Murder (2018) by T.E. Kinsey #20BooksofSummer2025

📽️ T.E. Kinsey's Lady Hardcastle's Mysteries is one of the cozy mystery series I love to read through. Besides being a period cozy mystery (the early 1900s), I like it because for once, the amateur sleuths (Lady Hardcastle and her maid/companion Florence 'Flo' Armstrong) are women with strong characters, and without any personal 'problem'. Most cozy mysteries I've read these days seem to depict a 'broken' heroine, who had endured some sort of problems in the past, and now they must juggle between solving a murder and their own problem. I'm tired of it all, for once I want sound-minded heroines who solve murders just because they love doing it, not for saving someone or something. Lady Hardcastle and Flo are just that.

📽️ We are back at the small village of Littleton Cotterell. Lady Farley-Stroud asked Emily (Lady Hardcastle) to host a group of movie maker and actors on her behalf, due to a little fire that had just happened at the Grange (the Farley-Stroud's abode). Emily agreed to that readily; in fact both Lady Hardacstle and her maid Flo and the servants were all excited. For Lady Hardcastle especially, as she had been nurturing a new hobby: moving picture. The first night of screening would play a movie called The Witch Downfal, to mark the coming Halloween. But not everyone in Littleton Cotterell was excited; a group of church-fanatic were against it, and even put protest signs during the first screening. That night, one of the actors died, murdered, the same way as a character on the movie died. Then another was following, with the same pattern; this time the murder even happened at Lady Hardcastle's house.

📽️ As usual, Inspector Sunderland from Scotland Yard, who was supposed to lead the investigation was busy, so he called upon Lady Hardcastle and Miss Armstrong to help him (it's nice that for once it's the police who wanted the amateur sleuth, instead of the amateur sleuth who interfering with the the police work!). Who could be the murderer? The main suspects were the church-fanatic leader and another movie maker who claimed that the group had stolen his idea. But of course, the victims' friends were also suspects. But what was their motive? Would a movie maker or actor murder his friends and jeopardizing his work?

📽️ I loved this fourth book of the series; in fact, I think it's my favorite so far. Not only the story is compelling, it provides a backstory of Lady Hardcastle and Flo's past adventures. It had been a mystery so far - we only know that something happened when they were on a mission in Shanghai, China, but what mission, how dangerous it was, or how they have escaped it, were mystery to us from first book. I'm glad that Kinsey finally fulfills our curiosity. In short, I loved every single element of this story - Lady Hardcastle and Flo Armstrong's dynamic relationship; their mocking and teasing of each other were constant entertainment to us, with dry humour that made you chuckle - and the unexpectedly dark nuances of the case - all provide the perfect element for a not-too-cozy mystery to read for Halloween!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

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The Elegance of the Hedgehog (2006) by Muriel Barbery #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

🦔 The story takes place in an elegant apartment building in central Paris, where two of our heroines live. One is a genius teenage girl from a bourgeois family, the other is the concierge. Paloma, the little girl, is planning to end her life by committing suicide, because she feels she'd never fit in the world. Nobody understands her - neither her family, her schoolfriends, nor her teachers. Paloma feels she would never manage to be whatever the world expect her to be. So, ending her life seems the only possible solution.

🦔 Having the entirely different background than Paloma, Renée, the concierge, is also having the same predicament. She is actually an intelligent and cultured woman, though autodidact. She loves art, literature, and even Japanese culture. However, the apartment tenants regards her as a server. So, she hides her talents as best she could, and appears to be the dumb concierge everyone expect her to be. Both Paloma and Renée hide into obscurity, because the world would not have them to be different from themselves.

🦔 Paloma and Renée would have lived through their lives as usual, albeit separately - if Monsieur Ozu, a wealthy Japanese man, hasn't arrived in the building as a new tenant. From the on, both lives change completely, because Mr. Ozu isn't like everybody else. He is himself an intelligent and cultured man, and on his first encounter with both souls, Mr. Ozu noticed right away, both Paloma's and Renée's hidden talent. 

🦔 Someone has given me a hint before, that at the start the story seems boring, but it would get much interesting after Mr. Ozu's appearance. I must thank that hint, since without it, I might have stopped reading after several chapters. They were so boring (I skipped a lot of the philosophy stuffs), and yet I felt that Barbery could have made it that way purposely. It was like the kind of life Paloma and Renée had expected they would have to endure the rest of their lives. But if they waited a little longer, something unexpected, more exciting and meaningful might come from the next corner. It's a lesson for us all to never lose courage.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

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Agatha Christie Short Stories 2025: Reviews for JULY #AgathaChristieSS25

The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb

It is always a treat when Christie indulged in her fascination about archeology and ancient Egypt. In this short but engaging story, an excavation of the tomb of the Pharaoh Men-her-Ra had suddenly became public's fascination after two men involved died one after another in just a fortnight - one of a heart failure, the other blood poisoning. People had been questioning whether the curse of the Pharaoh hunted the excavation, when the third death occurred, this time a suicide.

The widow of the excavation's leader, Sir John Willard, asked Poirot's help to protect her son, who now led the excavation. So Poirot and Hastings left for Egypt, and stayed the night at the camp. They felt the forces of evil in the air - Christie used this a lot in her novels. Things began to be out of control when Poirot choked on the tea brought by the servant. Was he being attacked by the desperate murderer, or this was just one of Poirot's theatrical acts to reveal the murderer?

On the whole, it's fun to read. The exotic expedition in Egypt, the superstitions, and the little dramatic act. It was what I always expect from Christie's shorties.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger

It's a boring day at Blunt's International Detective Agency. The blue letter or number 16 that they must be wary of, had, so far, never come. But three arrivals broke the dull; the first was a package, the second a letter, and the third a client. The package contained Tuppence's purchase, a silver cigarette case with "to Francis, from Tuppence" engraved on it, which was a gift for a General Francis, whom Tuppence drove for at war. The letter was the blue Russian letter that they've been looking forward to. However the client's arrival checked their discussion. Moreover, the client seemed to be eyeing on the letter, longer than he should have been. Was he a real client, or the disguised enemy?

This one was a highly entertaining story, a reminiscent of The Secret Adversary, albeit the tiny-weeny version of it. Friend-turned-foe, deception, decoy, fast-paced action - all was packed into a well-proportioned short story. My favorite part is the different fictional-detective-style that the Beresfords always adopted on each case. This time they adopted Francis and Desmond, the Okewood Brothers, created by Valentine Williams (1883-1946). Usually these were just to add humor to the story, but this time, it was key to their victory. A clever move by Christie!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Jacqueline in Paris (2022) by Ann Mah #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

🔻 A little confession... I have picked this book just because of the title (everything with "Paris" attracts my attention) and the cover (again, every images of Paris will catch my attention).  I knew vaguely that this was set in post World War II, but had no idea what (or more importantly who) this was about. Although the heroine's name: Jacqueline Bouvier seemed vaguely familiar, I must have been almost mid way through before I caught 'White House' being mentioned casually. I thought, why would Jacqueline go to the White House, and what was the significance? I then browsed about this book, and just realized that this book is actually a historical fiction about the inimitable Jacqueline Kennedy!!

🔻 The story covered Jacqueline's earlier life, when she, in her twenty, spent one year in post-war Paris to study. Away from her mother's pressure to find a brilliant match, and the rigid social circle of New York, Jacqueline found freedom in Paris. She and some of her friends from the college were billeted with de Renty family. She soon found that Madame de Renty and her deceased husband had been spies during the war - Madame had even spent time in a women's concentration camp. It was unimaginable for Jacqueline, and so, instead of spending much of her time with her friends to museum, theatre, or dances, Jacqueline started to have interest in the war. She visited the poverty stricken post-war Germany, where she met John.

🔻 John was an impoverished writer, and for his new novel, did many researches on Communist communities - which were starting to emerge during the post-war. From de Renty family, she came to know that Communist spies had been spreading their wings around France. It's difficult to know the difference between real friends (or lover) and enemies. Was John, with whom Jacqueline was falling in love, the man he told her he was? Or was he a communist spy which one of de Rentys accused him of? Even if he's not, how would her mother react to their relationship?

🔻 At first, this book seemed to be about a girl's having fun in post-war Paris for a year. It was, until midway. After that it's a mixture of semi-political story with a tiny bit of mystery. But on the core, it was a coming of age re-imagining of Jacqueline Bouvier's earlier life. That one year in France touched and influenced the girl who would become one of the most famous first lady of the United States. I felt related to Jacqueline's first love to France, and I'm happy for her that she could always bring that in the next stage of her life. I loved that Ann Mah didn't stopped at Jacqueline's departure from Paris, but ended the story with her coming back there after she became Mrs. Kennedy. It was a bitter sweet way to end a book!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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The Red Notebook (2014) by Antoine Laurain #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

📕 Antoine Laurain has become a staple author for me. His books (so far) are always highly entertaining, and so I had decided two or three years ago that I will read at least one Laurain's every #ParisInJuly. This year, The Red Notebook was my choice - red is my favorite color too - and again, I loved it! Laurain never disappoints, and I can't wait to read more of his next year. Now to the story...

📕 The red notebook belongs to a Parisian woman in her forty, who had been mugged one morning, and lost her handbag. Her head got hit quite hard from the incident, and for several days she was in hospital, having a coma. Meanwhile, the thief thrown the bag (after stealing the smartphone and purse, of course) on nearest garbage bin.

📕 That morning, bookstore owner Laurent Letellier was on his morning stroll when he noticed a mauve handbag discarded on top of a garbage bin. On impulse, he saved the bag, intended to drop it at the police station. But one thing led to another, he ended up taking the bag home to his apartment. Searching for any identification (which was none), he was fascinated to read the contents of the red moleskin notebook, which was a diary. Little by little Laurent came to "know" the woman, though not her name or address. Laurent was then on a mission to track down the woman, using some of the bag's contents as clues: a dry cleaner's receipt, a key ring with hieroglyphics, and a signed copy of Patrick Modiano's book. Would he succeed in his quest? 

📕 A little mystery, a quest, and a budding romance are the best ingredients for a lovely light book, and this one has all of them. Rare glimpses of the exotic profession of a Gilder added the charm; not mentioning the everyday life in Paris' apartment buildings, streets, and cafés which seeped through every lines of the story. Together, they create a little bubbling of happiness I always feel during #ParisInJuly, especially while reading Antoine Laurain's! ;)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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A Year in Provence (1989) by Peter Mayle #ParisInJuly2025 #20BooksofSummer2025

🍷 A Year in Provence became my first entry for #ParisInJuly2025, hosted by Emma @ Word and Peace. It's the first of a series of memoir written by Peter Mayle, an American guy who moved to France with his wife and two dogs in the 1980s. My initial choice had been Toujours Provence (the second book in the series) - planning to read it for A Century of Books project, but unfortunately I couldn't find any available ebook. So, I picked the first book, which was available, and someone has commented that it was slightly better than the second. In the end, I'm quite happy with the book - it was an entertaining read.

🍷 The premise is quite cliché - a foreigner found Provence a charming place, fallen in love with the Francophile life, decided to move in, then struggle to adapt at first, but loved the adventure anyway. There are more than a dozen books similar to this, I believe. And so, it's the narrative that would make one book different from the other. In this case, I loved Mayle's witty and humorous prose, with steady pace, alternating between frustrating and triumphant moments.

🍷 The Mayles chose a small and remote Southern French country called Lubéron as their new homeland. They found a 200-year-old dilapidated stone farmhouse, and bought it. And this book is a yearlong story of their introduction to the new Provençal life. They not only endured the mistral or frosty winter, but also with the fact that living in a farmhouse means never-ending repair works to be done. And with the Provençal laissez faire way of life, it may frustrated town people on their first arrival in Provence, but little by little Peter and his wife got used to it. Mrs. Mayle even came up with a clever way to get the repairmen worked their house faster - a gentle kick it was - and very efficient, and wonderfully hilarious!

🍷 On the whole, it might not be an enlightening book (you'll read many of these kinds), but if you are yourself a Francophile, this would be a charming and delightful book to read. It'd transport you to Provence, And together with the Mayles, you'd experience the charm and beauty of living in a Provençal farmhouse. You'd be imagining harvesting your own grapes, or hunting your own truffles, or cooking your own French cuisine. I loved this book, and enjoyed every page of it. It's rather difficult to convey the nuances I got from this book, but I found a passage that might describe it well:

"And, as for the oil, it is a masterpiece. You’ll see.” Before dinner that night, we tested it, dripping it onto slices of bread that had been rubbed with the flesh of tomatoes. It was like eating sunshine.”

Well, can you imagine what I have felt, and why I think his is a perfect book to read for #ParisInJuly2025, n'est-ce pas?

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Mid-Year Check-In Book Tag

I found this book tag at Cathy's 746 Books (it originated with Eric Karl Anderson at Lonesome Reader on YouTube), and thought what fun it would be to do it to mark the midway through this turmoil year! 

How many books have you read so far this year?

I have finished 34 books, with 30 reviews already reviewed, 3 on the queue, and one DNF. I originally planned to read 45, but... things happened, as always... 

What’s your favourite book so far this year?

It's between The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher, Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa, and Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns. But after long consideration, I think Sweet Bean Paste is the most poignant of them.

What’s the most disappointing book you’ve read this year?

Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love. Actually John Irving's The Hotel New Hampshire was worse, but then I DNF-ed it, so it didn't count, did it?

What genre have you read most this year?

Literary Fiction, with Crime/Mystery closely following.

Name a new favourite author that you’ve discovered this year.

Rosamunde Pilcher - After The Shell Seekers, I am most definitely going to read more of her! What's your favorite from Pilcher?

What’s the most surprisingly good book you’ve read so far this year?

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa. From the title (not mentioning the cover), I have thought this was a bitter sweet story of life struggle, with a hint of romance, perhaps. But boy, how wrong I was! It's far deeper than that.

What are your favourite and most anticipated 2025 releases?

Since my taste has been switching to the 20th century lately, I haven't read many newly published books, so... my favorite's got to be The Venice Murders by Merryn Allingham, because that's the only one I've read so far that's been published this year. The most anticipated release? I don't follow new releases, but there's one book (it's been released very recently) that I can't wait to read: Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jessie Sutanto - it's the second in a cozy mystery series that I loved! Here's the first book, if you're curious. 

What’s your next big priority for your reading?

I'm still behind schedule of my reading plan, especially for A Century of Books - my project to read one book for each year in the century - which I have started last year. I've been through 49 at the end of 2024, and intended to read the rest this year. Right now I'm still about 6 books behind, and is hoping to catch up soon!

What’s been your bookish highlight of the year so far?

The 1952 Club back in April. The club is one of my most favorite events of the year, and now I can't wait for the upcoming #1925Club next October!

Agatha Christie Short Stories 2025: JULY #AgathaChristieSS25

This post marks the end of the first semester of 2025, and that we are entering the second half of the year. how have you been doing so far? I'm personally proud of myself to have read all the twelve stories intended for 1st semester. Some I adored, but some are 'meh'. But now, let's see what we are going to read this month. Both are adventures (by title), and so I hope we are going to have some fun, with Poirot and our beloved couple: the Beresfords!

The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb

(A Hercule Poirot story)

Here Christie brought one of her favorite themes: ancient Egypt. An ancient Egyptian curse is murdering anyone who evacuated the tomb of Pharaoh Men-her-Ra. And it depends on the little grey cell of Hercule Poirot to solve the case. It reminded me instantly of one of my favorites in Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin: The Prisoners of the Sun. So, hopefully this story is at least as fun as I have expected.

The story was first published as a book in the collection Poirot Investigates, 1924, by Bodley Head. In 2004 the story was adapted for the Japanese anime series Agatha Christie's Great Detectives as a two-part episode, titled The Riddle of the Egyptian Tomb, where Poirot teams up with Miss Marple's great niece to solve the mystery. How exciting it sounds!

The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger

(A Tommy & Tuppence story)

This time the Beresfords must solve a mystery of some seemingly unrelated incidents: a mysterious cigarette lighter, the first anticipated blue Russian letter, and a doctor who keeps receiving hoax calls. Are they really unrelated? 

This story was published by Collins in the collection Partners in Crime, 1929, where the Beresford’s adopt the style and methods of Francis and Desmond, the Okewood Brothers, created by Valentine Williams (1883-1946), writing as Douglas Valentine. The Okewoods’ methods typically involved Desmond getting into a life-threatening scrape, only to be rescued by Francis, who “turns up as the gardener or something in the nick of time, and saves the situation.” In this case Tuppence unwittingly takes Francis’s role. Can't wait to read this one!