Saturday Spotlight

Today's author is Muriel Barbery.


1. She was born May 28, 1969 in Casablanca, Morocco.
2. She earned her philosophy degree from the École Normale Supérieure de Fontenay-Saint-Cloud.
3. She has taught philosophy at the Université de Bourgogne and at the Saint-Lô IUFM.
4. She has written 2 novels: L'Élégance du hérisson (translated into English as The Elegance of the Hedgehog) and Une Gourmandise (translated into English as Gourmet Rhapsody).



5. She now lives in Japan and is working on her third book.

Have you read either one of her books?

Feature Fridays

Today's classic is Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864) by Jules Verne.

The intrepid Professor Lindenbrock embarks upon the strangest expedition of the nineteenth century: a journey down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the Earth's very core. In his quest to penetrate the planet's primordial secrets, the geologist - together with his quaking nephew Axel and their devoted guide, Hans - discovers an astonishing subterranean menagerie of prehistoric proportions. Verne's imaginative tale is at once the ultimate science fiction adventure and a reflection on the perfectibility of human understanding and the psychology of the questor.

You can read this classic online for free at The Literature Network.

Did you know there was a movie adaptation (sort of a current day sequel or follow-up) released in 2008 starring Brendan Fraser?


Have you read Journey to the Centre of the Earth or anything else by Jules Verne?

Thoughts for Thursday

What book is on your nightstand right now?

I have quite a few on mine (mostly from my 100 books list), but at the top of the pile right now is Three Junes by Julia Glass. It's on my 100 books list of prize winners because it won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2002.

An astonishing first novel that traces the lives of a Scottish family over a decade as they confront the joys and longings, fulfillments and betrayals of love in all its guises.

In June of 1989 Paul McLeod, a newspaper publisher and recent widower, travels to Greece, where he falls for a young American artist and reflects on the complicated truth about his marriage. . ..Six years later, again in June, Paul’s death draws his three grown sons and their families back to their ancestral home. Fenno, the eldest, a wry, introspective gay man, narrates the events of this unforeseen reunion. Far from his straitlaced expatriate life as a bookseller in Greenwich Village, Fenno is stunned by a series of revelations that threaten his carefully crafted defenses. . .. Four years farther on, in yet another June, a chance meeting on the Long Island shore brings Fenno together with Fern Olitsky, the artist who once captivated his father. Now pregnant, Fern must weigh her guilt about the past against her wishes for the future and decide what family means to her. In prose rich with compassion and wit, Three Junes paints a haunting portrait of love’s redemptive powers.

Wednesday Wish List

Scent of the Missing: Love and Partnership with a Search and Rescue Dog by Susannah Charleson

In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, Susannah Charleson clipped the powerful news photo of an exhausted handler and his search-and-rescue dog. A dog-lover and pilot with search experience herself, Charleson was so impressed by the extraordinarily important work these dogs did that she decided to volunteer.

Once Susannah qualified to train a dog of her own, she got Puzzle, a strong, bright Golden Retriever. From the start Puzzle exhibited a unique aptitude for search-and-rescue work, but the puppy’s willfulness challenged even Susannah, who had raised dogs for years.

Scent of the Missing is the story of Susannah and Puzzle’s adventures and the complex relationship they forge as they help in the pursuit and recovery of people who have fallen prey to crime,misadventure, or catastrophe—a teen gone missing, an Alzheimer’s patient wandering in the cold, the debris of the space shuttle Columbia disaster. From the earliest air-scent lessons to her final mastery of wholebody dialog, Puzzle emerges as a fully collaborative partner. Along the way Susannah and Puzzle learn to read the clues in the field, and in each other, to accomplish together the critical work neither could do alone.

I'm always a sucker for a book with a dog on the cover! I think this book would have fascinating stories. Maybe I'll order it for my Kindle.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays (started on Should Be Reading) asks you to:

Grab your current read (or a book on your shelf that you've read or been wanting to read). Let the book fall open to a random page. Share two (or a few) teaser sentences from that page. Don't forget to share the title and author of the book in case someone is teased into reading. Please avoid spoilers!

I've posted my teaser below. Post yours in the comment section if you'd like to share as well!

Oh, he could not believe his bravery; it drove him on and wouldn't heed the fear that called him back; he was brave despite himself. His finger moved down her nose.

from The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

The Inheritance of Loss is one of my three books for the Spring Challenge.