Paris by Edward Rutherford
This was suggested to me by a friend and coworker. She knew that I went to France this past autumn and am going back again this summer, and thought that I would enjoy this because many of the places mentioned, I had been to. She was correct. I loved when they mentioned Montmartre and the Lapin Agile, Pont Neuf, Notre Dame, St. Chapelle, the Louvre, Versailles, and so many more places. It's also no secret that I am a sucker for history, and this book is full of history.
What I loved about this book is that it is about the same families over the centuries and how those families interacted in the various time periods in this book. I was partial to the de Cygne family as I was reading, and hated the Le Sourd's. I so wanted Marie Blanchard to end up with Roland de Cygne in the early twentieth century, and it broke my heart when his father died and he wouldn't be able to see her again. I was especially taken with the history of the building of the Eiffel tower, and the intricacies of that amazing landmark.
In truth, the only parts that I didn't love were the chapters that took place during World War I and the ones during the occupation in World War II. Comparatively, those were such a small part of the book, that it was ok that I didn't love it, and didn't take away from my enthrallment.
I had no idea how long this was when I bought it. The day I started reading it, I looked at the time left in the book and it said 29 hours. That was a little daunting, but only a little--I have no fear of long books. This was one I couldn't put down during Spring Break, and didn't want to put down when I went back to my real life as a teacher. I know that this is a author I will revisit soon.
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