THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG

I think it's unanimous...we all loved LOVING FRANK. We could have talked about it all nite...

And kudos to MB for her fabulous apple crisp, and huge thanks too for sending several of us home with fabulous cups and saucers from her vast collection of gorgeous dinnerware! Rest assured, you'll get your tote bags back soon.

The Thin Book Club will next meet on Novermber 25th...just two days before Thanksgiving. I've drawn a blank...where are we meeting next? At one of the Janes I think. Which one???


We'll be reading THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG by Muriel Barbery, a book RK bought me for my recent birthday.


Here's what Amazon has to say about this international bestseller published by Europa Editions.


Editorial Reviews
Review“The formula that made more than half a million readers in France fall in love with this book has, among other ingredients: intelligent humor, fine sentiments, an excellent literary and philosophical backdrop, good taste, sophistication and substance.”—La Repubblica“Enthusiastically recommended for anyone who loves books that grow quietly and then blossom suddenly.”—Marie Claire (France)“An exquisite book in the form of a philosophical fable that has enchanted hundreds of thousands of readers.”—Elle (Italy)“Nobody ever imagined that this tender, funny book with a philosophical vein would have enjoyed such incredible success. For some, it is part Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder, part Monsieur Malaussene by Daniel Pennac. While for others it resembles a written version of the film Amelie. Either way, readers are responding in vast numbers.”—Le Monde Product DescriptionThe enthralling international bestseller.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.