It was pure coincidence that Sarah's Key was our book club choice this month and I will get to that part in a minute. As an avid reader, I had seen this Sarah's Key in bookstores but when I would read the synopsis I would bypass it simply because it seemed such a sad subject matter and sometimes I just can't do sad when it relates to little children. But, I am a diligent book club reader even if I am late to this bestseller and I downloaded Sarah's Key and then noticed that author Tatiana de Rosnay had just released A Secret Kept on Sept. 15th which sounded like a juicy story to ease me into the sad Sarah's Key one. Within a few pages of the newly-released A Secret Kept I was so hooked to the way this author-journalist writes, the history, the characters, the compelling story, all the Paris references, that I was going to read everything she wrote, sad or not. It doesn't matter in which order you read these two books, just make sure you read them............both of them. And when you are done reading Sarah's Key tell me if you see a subtext to this story as well. I am dying to know if I was reading too much of a moral message into the intertwining (past and present) narrative of this story.
I say it was coincidence because when I started A Secret Kept I didn't realize that this book club choice would be so perfectly timed to my return from Paris. Both books take place in Paris for the most part (and Noirmoutier Island in A Secret Kept which was fascinating) and I have to tell you I felt like I was still walking down Rue du Bac or through the Marais. Not only will both (or either) books have you turning the pages long into the night, the author compelled me to do several things that tell me it has captured my full attention, take discussion notes, download a book group guide, look up geography, google history, download all her books, turn pages so fast it annoys my husband (the click, click of e-reading on a laptop), hold off the end chapter as long as I can, and feel incredibly lucky that someone made me read these books. And even better, the upcoming Sarah's Key movie stars my favourite actress Kristen Scott Thomas. No US release date yet but it opens in France on October 13th.
I am really good at reading, not so good describing them and I don't want to even come close to spoiling it for you. Just trust me on this............and read them both if you haven't already. If you have read Sarah's Key (like the rest of the world) then you know you are going to love A Secret Kept which is totally unique in it's own right. But I am quite certain I don't have to tell you that anyways. Titiana de Rosnay is just one good storyteller.
Just head to your nearest bookstore or e-reader store. Personally, I haven't bought a real book since I jumped onto e-reading last spring. Our Canadian bookstore named Indigo/Chapters introduced a Kobo e-reader. It is not as fancy as Kindle (books have to downloaded to laptop, then synced to reader but they just introduced a wireless version)) but in my opinion their e-bookstore is far more attractive than Amazon and I love the look of my colour library on my laptop. Surprise, surprise, Canadian Kobo often has new release e-books not available in Amazon. I would know this because I also download Kindle Books to my Mac laptop. So yes, two e-bookstore sources and a library of books so I will never run out of reading material. The laptop reading method is presently beating the smaller e-reader for a couple reasons: props up in bed nicely, bigger screen, and can check for blog comments (hint) with a click of a tab. Happy reading, however you do it.
