Ti | Book Chatter

The pup Last week I was MIA because I was trying to familiarize myself with the message that I was scheduled to give at church! I used to have a photographic memory but now, not so much. It took me all week to get it down. This is how I did it, on the couch with the pup on top of me. You can see her wondering when I am going to be done so we can go for a walk. The message went well. So happy that I was able to share.

This week I am playing catch-up with my reading because that took a backseat too as I worked on my message. Finishing Black Cake, which I wasn’t able to finish for book club last week. I am also reading Nightcrawling for March’s club pick. I’ve got a couple of review copies that I am dipping in and out of too.

This week, the city I live in is expecting SNOW. Can you believe it? It’s happened before but that was like ten years ago. We’ll see if it happens but the rest of this week is supposed to be full of weather and cold temps. I don’t have much going on this week except for a BP check at the doc’s office on Friday. My BP continues to be elevated. I need to walk more but these knees and all the trauma they’ve sustained are a real challenge.

Barring weather, this Saturday I’d like to go somewhere. Maybe a museum. The last few weekends we’ve not been able to do much because of our schedules. I’ve also been missing the harbor too but we can’t go there without the pup and she does not like rain or the cold in general so we will probably try to stay indoors somewhere.

I have a question for you. Are the malls where you are doing well? Our local mall is slowly dying. Stores close every day. But big shopping venues in Los Angeles continue to do well. I like having a local mall but it’s depressing to see its decline.

That’s it from me. I hope you are all doing well. I would like to slow everything down a bit because even with the weather coming, I am seeing hints of spring. I love spring but I do not love the hellish summers we have, so can we just sit in this season for a bit?

The Perfect Nanny
By Leila Slimani, Sam Taylor (Translated by)
Penguin Books, 9780143132172, 2018, 240pp.

The Short of It:

This is a one-sitting read.

The Rest of It:

Myriam is offered a job at a law office, doing what she loves and misses, but what about her two young children? After having her son, she pretty much removed the topic of work from the conversation but the everyday routine of kids, house, errands, with little mental stimulation if any, begins to tear at her sanity. While talking to her husband about the opportunity, the possibility of a nanny comes up. Could that work?

No. It couldn’t possibly work. Who would be able to spend all that time with the children, raise them well, AND take care of all the other stuff too? Louise, that’s who. Louise is perfect. She’s tidy, a natural organizer, efficient, reliable to a fault, and she does what many do not. She plays with the children. She gets them. Understands their wants and moods and more importantly, she understands their parents too. She is the envy of all the other families at the park because she is too good to be true.

Let that sink in. Too good to be true.

As perfect as Louise is, everyone has a breaking point and Louise’s is very subtle at first. Her backstory gives you just enough to know that Louise wasn’t always perfect and things were not always storybook worthy. This little bit of info is enough to have you flipping the pages because from the very first line, you learn that things go terribly wrong.

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I did not expect to be sucked into the story so quickly but that opening line! I was supposed to be reading this with a friend but once I started, I just kept going. All that said, the ending was a bit of a shock. I seriously need to talk to someone who has read it.

If you need a book to escape into, this is it. Another blogger just pointed out to me that this is based on a 2012 case. REAL events. Wow.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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