One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

Kindle edition

I latched onto this book after reading Red, White, and Royal Blue by the same author. Loved that book! This one was different than the first one I read. I have to say right now, I loved this book!

I started reading it on May 2 and finished it on May 10. A quick read that I absolutely wanted to finish fast but didn't want to end.

This is a bit of a time-loop love story for August, a 23 year old girl who moves to New York City and her life takes some unexpected twists and turns. From random roommates, working at a pancake diner, to meeting an amazing girl on the train, Jane.

August sees Jane repeatedly on the same train, and she's always wearing the same thing. Peculiar. Fast forward a little and we come to learn that Jane is stuck on the train, and became stuck there in the 1970s. Insert time-loop drama here. August and her unique roommates have to figure out how to get Jane un-stuck from the train. Therein lies the rest of this book. It's so good!

Read it!

Post written on July 7, 2023. Publication date reflects date I finished the book.

Paris: The Novel, by Edward Rutherfurd

After finishing Los Angeles Stories, by Ry Cooder, on August 30, I moved right on to Paris: The Novel by Edward Rutherfurd.  I got this book soon after the husband and I returned from our vacation in May to Paris, Florence, and Rome.  I had never been to any of those places before so was super excited to go.  I had low expectations for Paris, but after getting there and being there for a day, I fell in love.  Paris was magnificent and I loved every moment we were there.  I also have a soft spot for historical fiction, so was excited to see this book at Costco one afternoon, and decided it should come home with me.

This book is quite lengthy - 805 pages - so it took me a while to get through it.  I finished it on October 26h.  The Husband and I had an ongoing joke about the book.  Every night he would ask me what the book was about, and every night I would tell him it was about Paris.  Clearly it was about Paris - it's the title of the book.  But it was so much more than that.  Rutherfurd told the story of Paris through several fictitious families that lived there at different times in pivotal periods of Paris' and France's history.

Rutherfurd provides an illustration of 6 family trees - these families all are intertwined throughout the book in interesting ways - the families Le Sourd, de Cygne, Renard, Blanchard, Gascon, and Jacob.  The illustration begins in 1282 and goes through 1968, so yeah, the book covers a lot.

I loved how Rutherfurd paints such real and vivid literary pictures with his rich and descriptive writing style.  As you are reading, it is so easy to visualize the people, the places, and the details that he writes about.  I loved how he would describe a place, and I could actually picture it because I had recently been there.

When in Paris, the Husband and I took a guided tour of the Eiffel Tower.  Our tour guide described how the tower came to be - a contest for a monument for the world's fair was opened with very specific requirements.  It it had to be a specific height (to top the Washington Monument in America), and the winner of the contest had to fund the construction of the structure themselves.  One option was a giant guillotine and another contender was a giant sprinkler.  The tower was submitted by Gustave Eiffel - an engineer - and it was selected.  Eiffel negotiated that he would pay for the construction if he could keep the profits the tower generated for the next 20 years.  The book echoed this sentiment as Rutherfurd wrote about the character Thomas Gascon, a poor boy who lived near Sacré Coeur, who needed a job.  He worked for Eiffel on the Statue of Liberty, and when the tower was starting to be built, Thomas got a job from Monsieur Eiffel himself.  In one of the many conversations between Thomas and Eiffel, Thomas learns from Eiffel about the reasons behind the tower's design:

     "What is the greatest threat to a tall structure, young Gascon? Do you know?"
     "Its weight, I suppose monsieur."
     "No.  Not really.  It's the wind.  The reason my tower has the shape it has, the reason it is constructed the way it is, all this is because of the wind, whose force would otherwise tear it down.  That is the reason.  Nothing else."
     "Is that why it is just iron girders, so the wind can blow through?"
     "Excellent.  It is an open lattice construction, so that the wind can blow clean through it.  An despite the fact that it is made of iron, which is strong, it is actually very light.  If you put the tower in a cylindrical box, as a bottle of wine is sometimes sold, the air contained in the box would be almost as heavy as the metal tower itself.  Amazing, but true."

Jumping to 1911, Thomas Gascon is married and has a few children.  He has taken his children for a walk around Montmartre:

There was a funicular, nowadays, that ran up the left side of the steep, high slope, but one had to pay.  Besides, as he told Monique when she complained, they wouldn't get any exercise if they didn't go up the steps.
     The sun was out, catching the soaring white domes of the church of Sacré Coeur.  High on its hill, it gleamed over the huge oval valley of Paris.
     "Most of my life," Thomas remarked to his children "this hilltop was just a huge field of mud and wooden scaffolding.  I used to wonder if I'd ever live to see the church finished.  They didn't take the scaffolding down from the big dome until you were born, Monique, when I was thirty-five."

Jumping back to 1877, Thomas is courting Édith, a girl he saw at the funeral procession for Victor Hugo and fell instantly in love with, despite not knowing her name, where she lived, or anything about her.  He found her many years later, and began courting her.  Thomas and Edith went for a walk at the Trocadéro, and some pleasure gardens nearby.  Rutherfurd describes the scene:

     On the slope below the Trocadéro's Moorish concert hall as it looked across the river to the site of Monsieur Eiffel's tower, there were some pleasure gardens, which contained two big statues, one of an elephant, the other of a rhinoceros.
     "I remember my father bringing me here to look at these," Édith told him, "when I was a girl."  She smiled.  "So I like to come and see them sometimes."  She shrugged.  "It brings back good memories."

I remember seeing these statues outside the Musee d'Orsay.  They were absolutely lovely!

Also in 1877, we follow Roland de Cygne after school one day going to see the tomb of Napoléon at Les Invalides near Champ Mars and the Eiffel Tower.

     Roland was a conscientious pupil.  It didn't come naturally, because he often didn't want to work.  It was only because of his mother, really, that he forced himself to do it.  "Promise me, Roland, that you will try your best at school."  It was almost the last thing she'd ever said to him.  And to his credit, he had always kept his promise.  Other boys in the class might be cleverer, but by working hard, he usually managed to get grades that were only a little behind the leaders.
     So when, during a history class that morning, the teacher had asked how many boys had been to visit the horror, and he was the only one not to raise his hand, and the teacher told him to go to see it, he'd decided to go at once.  After all, it wasn't far.
     ... Instead of finding a nave beneath the dome, one looked down from a circular gallery into a marble pit.  Twelve pillars of victory encircled this pagan crypt, and in its center, upon a massive, green granite pedestal, rested a stupendous sarcophagus of polished red porphyry, bulging with imperial pride.
    

     The tomb of Napoléon, child of the Revolution, conqueror of God's anointed monarchs, emperor of France.  This was the horror that Roland had been sent to see.

The book was so rich with descriptions of places, people, architecture, feelings, and historical events.  It is impossible to touch on them all.  I absolutely loved this book.  I think I would feel exactly the same had I not bought it in a post-vacation Paris-loving haze at Costco one afternoon.

Randomly, my in-laws were visiting the Husband and I after I just started the book, and my father-in-law, Jim, mentioned he was reading Rutherfurd's New York book.  I did not know that there were other books by this author out there (though I can't say I am surprised).  I asked Jim to please save the New York book for me to read.  If you like books rich in history that might help you learn a thing or many about what happened in that place over time, pick this book up.  You won't be sorry - and if you haven't already been to Paris - be prepared to want to make the trip.  You will absolutely love it!

Note: all pictures here were taken by me on our vacation to Paris

The Fault In Our Stars, by John Green

So, my husband reads probably more than I do - which is already a lot.  He reads all kinds of magazines -  the "articles" in Playboy and Maxim, he gets workout pointers from Men's Health, and stays up to date with articles in Cure Magazine, among others.  He reads a large smattering of websites - TMZ, ESPN, and various news and entertainment sites.  He likes to stay current with the people he follows on Instagram and FaceBook.  

And, he loves books - all kinds of books.  Every week on our grocery shopping trip to Costco, we have to stop by the book section to see if there is anything we want - there usually is.  He also makes good use of his Amazon Prime account.  Our bookcases are overflowing (literally) with books.  I'm to the point where I want to reinstate my Library Card rule - get a library card and check out books rather than buying them so we don't have to find more room to store them.  I'm not (yet) into buying books for an e-reader.  I treasure the feel of an actual book with actual pages in my hand.  I'm not sure that will ever fade.

A while back, he read The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green.  I asked him what it was about, and gave me a brief synopsis.  It didn't immediately peak my interest.  One day when he was close to finishing it, I observed him wiping his eyes.  He wasn't crying, he insists.  He just had something in his eye.  A lot of somethings.  When he did finish the book, he gave it to me and asked me to read it.  I said, "Yeah, yeah..." and put it in my pile by my night stand, and moved on to another book.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago.  I had just finished a Jack Reacher book (by Lee Child) and wanted the next in the series.  Husband said he would give it to me after I read The Fault in Our Stars.  Somewhat unenthusiastically, I picked it up and started it that night.  And about a week later finished it.  IT WAS SO GOOD!  I absolutely loved it.

The characters are rich and layered and seemed entirely relatable and real.  Now, I'm not going to spoil the book for those who want to read it, but this book is about young adults with cancer.  My husband is a 3-time cancer survivor and is a stereotypical man who doesn't talk about "stuff" pretty much ever.  I have to drag information out of him on some topics.  He wanted me to read this book because he said it would provide some insight into him and what he has been through in life.

I'm so glad he made me read it.  Not only did it provide insight into him, but it was also a beautiful book.  Win-win.  It isn't all doom and gloom cancer.  Yes, cancer plays a key role in the book.  But it is also about friends, relationships, love, and adventure.

I generally read before going to sleep - it helps turn my mind off from all of the things that occupy it during the day and gives me something else to focus on to put me to sleep.  Sometimes I can only get through a few pages before I do the head-nodding, book-dropping, read-the-same-page-3-times thing before I put the bookmark in, turn off the light, and actually go to sleep.  Other times, I can't put the book down and find myself still voraciously reading until the wee hours of the night (or morning).

That happened with this book.  I was nearing the end, and just couldn't put it down.  Instead of lulling me to sleep, this book had me wide awake reading and turning pages as fast as I could to find out what happened.  I think it was probably around 2am when I finished, with tears in my eyes, loving the book, and having an even deeper appreciation for my husband whom I love dearly.  I put the book down, turned off the light, wiped my tears, and kissed my sleeping husband.

A few weeks later, I saw an article on BuzzFeed about books that have been made into movies that are coming out soon - The Fault In Our Stars is one of them.  I CANNOT WAIT to see it.

Check out the movie trailer here.

Here is one passage (among many) that I absolutely loved from the book:

     "Okay," I said, and we clinked glasses.  I took a sip.  The tiny bubbles melted in my mouth and journeyed northward into my brain.  Sweet.  Crisp.  Delicious.  "That is really good," I said.  "I've never drunk champagne." 

     A Sturdy young waiter with wavy blond hair appeared.  He was maybe even taller than Augustus.  "Do you know," he asked in a delicious accent, "what Dom Pérignon said after inventing champagne?" 

     "No," I said. 

     "He called out to his fellow monks, 'Come quickly: I am tasting the stars.'"...

"Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book."  --John Green


Read this book - you'll love it!