THE ESSENCE OF FRENCH ELEGANCE.

When in Paris, buy your flowers in an original French flower shop.

I enjoyed visiting "Au nom de la Rose", a wonderful flower shop on Rue Daniel Stern in Paris.  There is something effortless and always chic about Parisian style.  Next time you are in Paris, you must go!

LYNETTE’S BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:

I have chosen these books as they would be wonderful to take on vacation.  If not a vacation, then an unhurried read sipping your favourite brew, while catching a little sun.  All three books have a common thread – history.  Let me know how you enjoyed them. 

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PINK LADIES AND CRIMSON GENTS

PORTRAITS AND LEGENDS OF 50 ROSES - By Molly and Don Glentzer.

This gorgeously photographed collection of fifty exquisite roses reveals how some of the world’s most storied roses received their names.

Every old-fashioned rose possesses a unique character – shaped like a miter’s cap or delicately hued like the pearl-coloured petticoats of a duchess, scented like honeyed almonds or nodding heavily in the wind, every old-fashioned rose possesses a unique character.  And their names – often drawn from history and mythology.  Each beautifully researched story is as enchanting and evocative as the flowers themselves.   This is a beautifully written book, a treasure that you will find yourself reading for years to come.

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PEOPLE OF THE BOOK – By Geraldine Brooks.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

People of the Book is an intricate, ambitious novel that traces the journey of a rare illuminated Hebrew manuscript from convivencia ('coexistence' of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities in Spain during the Middle Ages) to the ruins of Sarajevo, from the Silver Age of Venice to the sunburned rock faces of northern Australia.

Inspired by the true story of a mysterious priceless and beautiful codex known as the Sarajevo Haggadah, People of the Book is a sweeping adventure through five centuries of history. From its creation in Muslim-ruled, medieval Spain, the illuminated manuscript makes a series of perilous journeys: through Inquisition-era Venice, fin-de-siecle Vienna, and the Nazi sacking of Sarajevo.

In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed manuscript, which had been rescued once again from Serb shelling during the recent Bosnian war. Through Hanna’s story the reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the book’s journey from its creation to its salvation. Brooks is a skilled storyteller who casts a spell of intrigue and evil in which demons feign divinity.

The actual Haggadah came to rest in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, and Geraldine Brooks, who covered the war in Bosnia for The Wall Street Journal, imagines its perilous journey. A great read!

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THE FLANDERS PANEL - By Arturo Pērez-Reverte.

A great mystery set in Spain, as an art restorer tries to solve a mystery when she discovers a message hidden in an old oil painting she had been asked to restore. The painting shows Knights playing chess.  The mystery revolves around their chess game, pushing her to seek the help of a Chess Master. Like most of Perez-Reverte's works, the atypical detective story includes information you don't normally get in this genre; here, it is a lesson on art, history and chess. The characters are all unique and the setting is a nice change for those of us living in America.   

Overall, the threads of the mystery draw tighter and tighter, and the author leaves a few surprises for the reader. Some may find intrigue in the chess aspects or the art aspects...I found myself primarily drawn into the strategizing of the villain and those trying to unmask the villain's identity. The suspense is based on the unfolding strategy, such as in a game of chess. And, I was captured. Check and mate.