The Perks Of Being A Book Addict discussion

One of our winning group reads for August 2022 is The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure. Please discuss here and remember to use spoiler tags as needed, as everyone reads at different speeds and may start at different times.



Like most gentiles in Nazi-occupied Paris, architect Lucien Bernard has little empathy for the Jews. So when a wealthy industrialist offers him a large sum of money to devise secret hiding places for Jews, Lucien struggles with the choice of risking his life for a cause he doesn’t really believe in. Ultimately he can’t resist the challenge and begins designing expertly concealed hiding spaces—behind a painting, within a column, or inside a drainpipe—detecting possibilities invisible to the average eye. But when one of his clever hiding spaces fails horribly and the immense suffering of Jews becomes incredibly personal, he can no longer deny reality.

Written by an expert whose knowledge imbues every page, this story becomes more gripping with every life the architect tries to save.

I have this book for a year now. Good that we're gonna read it together.
This would be my first read with the group so are there any suggestions or guidelines by the group?

Glad you'll be joining us, Abdul. You can read at your own speed, but make sure comments with spoilers are tagged or clearly labeled early in the post. People come on to check comments throughout their reading and don't like to find out anything that's going to happen accidentally. Also, it helps if you state where you are in the book before your spoiler so people know when they can read it. Let me know if you need help creating a spoiler tag.

Other than that, you decide what you'd like to comment on and just add it to the thread. I hope you enjoy your read and your first group discussion.

First time participating in this group and just for my copy of this book from my library.

Glad you'll be joining us, Christine!

Got this from the library today. Looking forward to reading with everyone!

Okay, I just started chapter 3 and I REALLY don’t like Lucien!!!

Finished it, thought it was great! Kept me guessing!

Wow. I just finished reading and can I just say I didn’t think there was ANY way for me to come around to Lucien, but I was 1000% wrong! I ended up loving the book I’m so glad I didn’t just stop reading!

I just started reading. I am on chapter 12 and I agree 100% about not liking Lucien. I will be interested to see how he becomes likeable!?

Just getting started!

Just finished. I am not going to say much so I don't give any spoilers. I understand why Jess came around about Lucien, but I didn't quite get there. Definitely worth the read, just left me with a lot to be desired!

I finished the book. This is something I typically would pass on a bookshelf, which is why I’m grateful for this group for allowing me to expand my reading palette. I thoroughly enjoyed the read and it’s suspense. I agree with the majority in that I wasn’t completely sold on Lucien and glad he turned around. Would definitely recommend. Onto September!

This is the first book I have nominated which was selected! So I have been nervous about reading it. I’ve read a lot of WWII historical fiction and this one was unique - unique angle, and somehow made the atrocities of that war and living in occupied Paris more real. Also a good amount of suspense. The only thing that would have made it better was to discover that some of the characters were based on real people - no such revelation at the end of the book but I’d like to think there could have been. A 5 star read for me.