Clouds, Coffee & Classics discussion

I'm on chapter 4 and while it is a cute little book, I do hope it picks up a little. The recipes sound lovely, but with 4 children, I will have to save them for another time in life ;) I really like the author's writing style - it's easy to read and keeps you involved in the story, but like I said - I don't really want to read a book about some other ladies ideas and thoughts about meandering through love...

I just finished 1000 gifts and am jumping into this today! More feedback to come ASAP. :-)

Sat down to begin this lovely little memoir today and am currently on Chapter 6. I'm entranced. Utterly. I for one, am entirely obsessed with the idea of travel and the romantic notion of someday actually LIVING in one of these far off, often dreampt of places. I quickly found that Elizabeth and I have approximately one million things in common and even THINK alike. This girl speaks my language. From the very beginning her descriptions of the cobble stone streets of Paris and the ornate carved archways, her love of museums and all things old, that she always felt she should have been born in a different era altogether. Yup. That's me! I found a knowing smile spread across my face over and over again as I related to her feelings and could vividly picture every "boulangerie", market and flower shop in living color. So much descriptive beauty! And all that even before the FOOD. Mmmm... the food. I've been in an extremely culinary mood lately and am "eating up" (pun intended) all of this food talk! The recipes are absolutely mouth watering. And, as Annie mentioned, I probably won't make (or would even be able to find the ingredients to) all of them, but some are very doable and just expanding my knowledge of French cooking I find interesting!
On the love story side of things, I think the whole thing is perfectly charming. Mr. Gwendal is enchanting. I love the way she talks about getting to know him and the cultural differences. Her story about "learning the true measure of a man" and the "bird poop incident" was very cute. I like the way their relationship seems to quietly and easily develop as the story moves along.
The author's love of Austen, Bronte, Dickens and the like has crept up in the novel several times. Such as quoting P&P while gutting fish! How funny! Loved it. Another one of my particular favorite bits thus far was on page 77 - "My vocabulary is a disorganized closet full of ...phrases plucked from my favorite nineteenth-century novels. Why be funny when you can be "deeply amusing" instead?" Hehehe. I can relate. Yet another reason to love Mrs. Bard. :-)
That's all for now. To sum up, I'm enjoying every second of this little escape into Parisian food and culture. As a matter of fact, I think I'll head back for another hour or so of the sights and sounds of Paris right now...

Great little review! And you're only on chapter six! Which is exactly where I am... I, however, am having a very different feeling towards this book and now I am baffled! Maybe because I haven't been there, maybe because Paris/France is not a place I have on "The List" of places to go and thus am not so enthralled with her descriptions, but I find it to be too different from me to relate!
I find it hilarious and absolutely fascinating that we can have such different ideas of the same book! This is exactly why I love this book club :)