Saturday Photo: Reading Lists....

Well,  it really isn't a photo, but a painting  done by the Hungarian painter Mihály Munkácsy in the 1890s.  Called "Paris Interior" in some places, it captures an era, as well as the calm delight of reading. Even the child on the floor seems to have escaped the heavy (if rather lovely) atmosphere of the salon.

Which brings me to reading lists.  I animate (the French word for moderate which I like a lot better) five book discussion groups in Montreal libraries, and this is the time to come up with reading lists for the season beginning in the fall.  Below you'll find what the groups will be reading, with the books in no particularly order. Note that these are not the only good books out there, but four of the five groups provide copies for the members, which means that only books for which there are 10-15 copies in local libraries make the cut.


A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Bone and Bread   by Saleema Nawaz Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf Lost in September by Kathleen Winter Swing Time by Zadie Smith The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall The Seven Sisters by Margaret Drabble The Human Stain by Philip Roth Indian Horse by Richard Wagemese Daughter of Fortune by Isabelle Allende The Widow by Fiona Barton The Door by Magda Szabo 419 by Will Ferguson Larose by Louise Erdrich The story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. Exposure   by Helen Dunmore Indian Horse by Richard Wagemese The Women by T.C. Boyle The Free World by  David Bezmozgis The Road Past Altamount by Gabrielle Roy A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson The Perfect Nanny by Leïla Slimani One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez The Little Red Chairs by Edna O'Brien The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy  Pachinko by Min Jin Lee  Norse Mythology by Neil GaimanSélections en français
Nana de Émile Zola
Petit pays de Gaël Faye.
Le Mystère Henri Pick de David Foenkinos
La servante écarlate de Margaret Atwood
Le plongeur de Stéphane Larue
Un pedigree de Patrick Modiano
Un long retour de Louise Penny
L'heure mauve de Michèle Ouimet
Les sirènes de Bagdad de Yasmina Khadra