The Elegance of a Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (3 1/2)

We are in the center of Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families. Renée, the concierge, is witness to the lavish but vacuous lives of her numerous employers. Outwardly she conforms to every stereotype of the concierge: fat, cantankerous, addicted to television. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, Renée is a cultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. With humor and intelligence she scrutinizes the lives of the building's tenants, who for their part are barely aware of her existence.

Then there's Paloma, a twelve-year-old genius. She is the daughter of a tedious parliamentarian, a talented and startlingly lucid child who has decided to end her life on the sixteenth of June, her thirteenth birthday. Until then she will continue behaving as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocre pre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not an outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter.

Paloma and Renée hide both their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. They discover their kindred souls when a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building. Only he is able to gain Paloma's trust and to see through Renée's timeworn disguise to the secret that haunts her. This is a moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us.

Purchased it Because: Book Club Choice

Well this is abit of mixed book for me .... There was some parts of it I hated and some parts of it was really good ... It would cause me to pause to think and then other parts I would laugh out loud ....

I think because I left it to a week before Book Club nite I found some parts of this book really slow and tedious mainly the start ... My advise would be to not have a time constrict on reading this novel as some chapters you will you probably find yourself in deep thought over ... This book would be perfect for a Literary class to do a thesis on but in some area's I have to admit I kinda skipped over ....

OK the book is mainly about the concierge Renee who looks after a Parisian apartment Building ... And a twelve year old girl called Paloma who lives in one of the apartments ... And for some reason I pictured this novel set in the 1940's .... like the whole way through it ... ( The girls in book club kept reminding me that they use dvd's and electrical devises ) but it still do not deter me from imagining Paris and these lovely building in the 1940's ... lol ...

For me the book really didn't really start until a good half way through .... When a new tenant arrives at the building ... The first half of the book tells about Renee well actually what Renee thinks on certain deep subjects .... That is what I felt frustrating at times I really wanted to know Renee but not what 'uncovering the final sense of science by becoming immersed in science qua noematic phenomenon' was duh !!! .... I did have a dictionary out at the beginning of the reading this book but at the rate I was looking up words it would take me forever to read the book ...

I really liked the character of Paloma although I didn't at the start ... I loved the scene with the doctor :) ... It did make me appreciate to look more closely to those around me as sometimes we are so caught up in our own world we fail to notice what is right in front of us ...

Can I just say that all in all I did enjoy this book and it will be one book that I will pick up again and re-read a few of the chapters ... Although I hated the ending .... and felt I went through all this for that ..... grrrrrrr .....

I did mark the book with post-its notes of thoughts or comments which I found interesting and fascinating ... Which puts me into a dilemma .... What to rate this book .... Did i find it boring? ... Yes ... Did I find it insightful? .... Yes .... Did I find I wanted to throw it against the wall? ..... Yes ..... Did I want to keep reading to see the outcome? .... Yes .... And it did make me pause for thought on numerous occasions and write notes down .... And isn't that what a good book does .... This book may not be an easy read but it is well written and not easily forgotten .....

So you will either love this book or hate it .....

Some of my favourite quotes ... 'Then suddenly I remembered that I had decided to build and not destroy. I looked all around me for something positive ...' pg 123

'this is the first time I have met someone who seeks out people and who sees beyond. That may seem trivial but it is profound all the same. We never look beyond or assumptions and, what's worse, we have given up trying to meet others, we just meet ourselves. I implore fate to give me the chance to see beyond myself and truly meet someone' pg 140

'Maybe that's what being alive is all about: so we can track down those moments that are dying' pg 269

I rate this book between a 3 1/2 and 4 ****

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (4)

"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."—Randy Pausch

A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?

When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave—"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"—wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have…and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living.

In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.

Ok when I heard we where reading this book and read what it was about I thought it was going to be really depressing !!! ..... Boy was I wrong .... I really liked the book and it is inspiring !!!

I was really pleased that as a book club we had the opportunity to read this book and overall I think most of us really liked it ...

It is an easy read ... With small chapters and fun inspiring stories ... I laughed with the air balloon ( mainly because that would be something that would happen to me ) and loved the car stories ... If anything this book made me think about the importance of journal writing ... It is the only think that we can actually leave behind in order for future generations to really get to know us !!! ... And don't take life to serious and reach for your dreams .....

This is a great wee book that turned into a wee gem !! So if you want a pick me up book this is it !!!

I rate this book 4 ****

Eat, Pray, Love - By Elizabeth Gilbert (2)

I was excited when this was picked as a bookclub book as I had already purchased it as I seen the writer on Oprah and it looked really good ...

It is about a woman's journey of self discovery as she travels to 3 different countries in order to find some balance in her life ... I don't really know what I was expecting from this book maybe some inspiring stories and some of my own light bulb moments ... Instead I found this book difficult to read ( to be honest I only ever kept picking it up again and again because it was a book club book ) There where moments that I could quite happily have thrown the book against the wall because I was that frustrated with her ... And found her totally selfish even at the end of the book I found her focusing on herself again ... And I found that it was amusing and telling that the three countries that she visited started with "I" ( Italy, India and Indonesia)

I did think that the way the book was divided into the three sections was clever and also the way that each section had their own 36 tales just a shame that I felt it was rambling at times ... Ok Italy section I really just wanted to scream at her .... I found it really depressing ... This is not a book that is easy to read and put down and pick up again ... Obviously she has just suffered the painful effects of a divorce which she says she will not write about but in the next breath tells you all about it ... I didn't find that much Eating really in Italy and was so relieved when she finally got on the plane to India .....

India is actually alot better reading and flows alot better ... But found it tedious with 36 chapters on Yoga sometimes boring ... There is one good character and that was the Man from Texas who if it hadn't been for him I would have fallen asleep ....

By far Indonesia was my favourite ... There are some really cute stories about the Island and their culture which where fascinating ... And by far loved the character of the Medicine Man and was hoping that there was going to loads of stories with him as that was the main reason she went there ... But know once she found a man on the Island he was dumped ...

I have been reflecting on why I did not really enjoy the book as much I had I hoped that I would and how loads of people are calling this book the "New Bible" for them ... And the only conclusion I can come up with is that reading this book as a Latter Day Saints woman alot of the "Light bulb Moments" that Elizabeth Gilbert was experiencing where life changing to her but where something that I already knew ... I was really hoping to have some of them moments myself but found I was thinking "Yup Ok I know that" - which left me frustrated ...

It is not a bad book to read just really difficult to get through ... It will be interesting to see what the movie will be like with Julia Roberts playing the part !!!

I rate this book 2**