a new path for the book club

dearest readers, oh how i regret my absence and i do apologize for it.
I have recommitted myself in making this  a monthly thing and feel so grateful for all your emails
pertaining to La Porte Rouge read with me. I am not sure if you feel the same way but i have chosen the classics because they are so well written, epics of a time i long to have lived in, but i also know as i begin to read things for the four or fifth time i am doing myself a disfavor, for out there pen has been put to paper by some incredible story tellers so i have decided with your permission of course to alternate from classic to contemporary novels every other  month. so please join me in discovering new places, people and lives.

for the first novel non classic ( but maybe one day to future generations) i asked a dear blogger who's love for books is inspiring. Vibeke from the beautiful blog a butterfly in my hair has graciously excepted to give  us our first title. Please enjoy, i know i have promised myself this time to read away from other distractions.

please let me know how you feel about this change i would love to hear about it.

our new book for the month of may is

our new book is

Dear readers, i have been a little behind, thank you for your emails. I am also looking for ideas for upcoming months, is there a book out there you have always wanted to read?

this month's book is a short one but simply a beautiful read, i enjoy this book very much and have picked it up a few times  in my life . The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.

Member shares post on the Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Idiot

Thank You Marti for your wonderful post. If you have never visited Marti blog please do, she has so much to share and reading it will transport you.

The Idiot

This month's book selection sponsored byOne Silent Winter was the Idiot, a classic Russian novel. As with many Russian novels it is a dark look into 19th century Russia.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky is best known for his novels Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov. His literary works explore human psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th-century Russian society. He is often acknowledged by critics as one of the greatest and most prominent psychologists in world literature.  The Idiot looks into the life of a troubled prince.

Twenty-six-year-old Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin returns to Russia after spending several years at a Swiss sanatorium. Scorned by the society of St. Petersburg for his trusting nature and naivete, he finds himself at the center of a struggle between a beautiful kept woman-- Nastassya Filippovna--and a virtuous and pretty young girl--Aglaya Yepanchin, both of whom win his affection. Myshkin is torn between his romantic love for Aglaya Yepanchin and his compassionate love for Nastassya Filippovna, but in the end he loses both of them. Unfortunately, Myshkin's very goodness precipitates disaster, leaving the impression that, in a world obsessed with money, power, and sexual conquest, a sanatorium may be the only place for a person such as he.

This was a very well written novel, characteristically Russian in its somber timbre.  Within the first few pages, the author had set your view of the characters.  You felt that you knew them well.  Like a symphony, the action rose and fell, sweeping you along until the bitter conclusion.
Throughout the book many of the conversations revolved around tea. Tea was taken with all meals and pretty much any other time of the day. Samovars were present in all the homes, Tea was appealing to the Russian life-style because it was a warm and hearty brew. They preferred a strong, dark brew which was sweetened with sugar, jam or honey. 

Our New book is and the winner

Dear readers, The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky has followed me everywhere. i even left it on a park bench for someone else to take it  only find it three weeks later on another bench with note. i had put it on the bench originally because real life was breaking my heart and this book seemed a witness to it, so i left it there but always regretted that i did, so to find it again well.......

People who know me know my love for the great Russian writers, some of you have even wrote in surprise that i had not choose one to read. You see one day while complaining about how i could not get into so many american writers a friend told me " ah nadia i see, the Russians they ruined it for you, they are masters at details and human behaviour" that was true, it is the writing language i love the most 

( even in it's translation) my heart belongs to tolstoy and others like him.

this is long read, six weeks instead a month for this book.

The winner for Madame Bovary review post by a reader is

Marti, Congrats please send me your address!

for your sunday enjoyment

Hello dear readers,

I wanted to share some of the readers post on Madame Bovary. I find myself reading these post over and over to say i have not felt like emma at times would be lying but i am so very different too.

Below is a few links- if you have a post to share please email me and remember i will be announcing the winner of our giveaway for a reader who posted on Madame Bovary this week!

arty marti

in the ravens wood

rhubarb in the garden

if you would like me to post your post on read with me- let me know! would love too!

A giveway from one of our readers, Up Gemini!

How wonderful it is to be able to share the beautiful photographic journey on the trails of Venice  from Nicoletta of Up Gemini.

this is her very first zine, a photographic journey on the trails of Venice.

One lucky reader will receive the issue #1, a 16 page full-color stapled booklet!

How? Just leave a comment on this post or at Up Gemini and she will choose a random winner on Feb 1st.

Please, make sure to add your contact info in your comment.

Good luck! ;)

a reader share's her post on Silas Marner

Dear readers,

Mary from in the Raven's Wood shares her post with us on Silas Marner.

Read with Me: Silas Marner
As this month's Read with Me selection from Nadia marked my first foray into George Eliot, I could hardly wait to begin- Eliot was one of those authors that I'd always heard about but as she tends to get overshadowed by the other, larger figures of her time period, such as the Brontes, Dickens, and Elizabeth Gaskell, I'd never made my way to her. So, it was with a deep sense of refreshment that I picked up Silas Marner and lost myself in the weaver's tale.

I found Silas Marner to be an odd and unassuming little book, and yet ultimately enjoyable. Admittedly, there was a point early on (the first scene in the Rainbow when Silas appears there after the theft of his gold) where I was beginning to think that George Eliot may be the only author who deserved to be abridged, but happily, she proved me wrong and I found myself finishing the tale with a degree of contentment and appreciation. What I ultimately enjoyed about Eliot's tale was the way in which she metes out the fates of her characters without too much of the sense of contrivance which sometimes plagues Victorian writers- with Eliot there is the overwhelming sense that while there may be a higher force in play, the choices and decisions of the characters matter, they shape their own destinies just as much as any external force.


Of course, while Eliot's sense of order and justice gives Silas Marner a satisfying conclusion, it's her characters which really propelled the story forward and kept me reading even when I found my attention waning. Eliot's ear for the vernacular is unexpectedly pleasant and atmospheric, and her shaping of Silas is brought to perfection through this; I enjoyed the small changes in Silas' language as he came out of his own darkness and into the daylight, a little mole of a man brought to life again through the light of a little golden haired child. Semantics, of course, are only evidence of Silas' transformation and it's his transformation in itself which really leads the reader to like him. From the moment old Silas picks up the fair haired child and looks at her closely, the reader can sense the shift in him, the change grabbing hold, and it's hard to not be gripped by it, held tightly until the end. Perhaps it's the bit in us that hopes so fervently for our own transformations that falls in line with Silas, feeling ourselves grow and expand outward as he changes and Eppie grows, two strange figures moving in opposite directions and yet individually enhanced for it. As the relationship between Silas and Eppie deepens and grows, the reader cannot help but see the joys of life laid out, the capacity for change and growth alongside of the small pleasures of simple meals and lives shared, the beauty of nature, the joys of ones first romance, the satisfaction of caring for those we love, and the deep and devoted love between a parent and child, between the old and the young-- between those starting out on the journey and those finishing it. As Eliot is so intent on illustrating, it's the simplicity of life, not it's complexities or wealth, that make the journey worth taking, because the greatest treasure can't be bought and because as the feeble wills and opinions of men fade leaving no truly lasting mark, it's our choices that matter-- and the intangible yet lasting evidence of them in the hearts of those we leave behind.


Thank  you mary, how i loved reading your thoughts on Silas Marner and George Eliot i must admit i found myself having trouble staying focused while reading the first few chapters. soon i started to understand Eliot'way and appreciated this new language. i am happy to have finished, it was worth it. I hope to read another by George Eliot again soon.

Dearest readers please visit Mary's blog it is worth the trip!

Visit the post below this one for details on our giveway and our new book which i am loving!