Book Report: Sarah's Key

Yesterday on the bus ride home, I finished my latest book. I received the book at Christmas from my parents and was really excited to get started reading it. 


The book is Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.

The brief summary of the book is 
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.
Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life. 


The book really made me want to keep turning the pages. 'just one more page, just one more chapter,' I kept egging myself on to find out what happened next. The author does a really decent job of weaving in the old story and the new story, although I felt she left the little girl's story somewhat unfinished. It would have been a little more complete, in my eyes, if she would have given Sarah's story one more chapter before finishing off the book in the present day perspective. 


The author has written two more books: A Secret Kept and The House I Loved (not out until Feb 14, 2012). I want to get my hands on A Secret Kept to see if that one is just as good as this one. I need to be careful though, that I don't get sucked into reading the same type of story line book after book just because I think I like the author. I made that mistake with Nicholas Sparks. I  understand the theory about "writing what you know," but when EVERY SINGLE book he writes is in the SAME place, has just about the SAME characters, it gets old. Nevertheless, I have just about all of his books...if anyone's interested. 


Now the choice of what to read next. I have two big options, a Marilyn Monroe book Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe by Randy Taraborrelli or the Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. That will be a tough decision! All I know is, that I need to choose one of these and get it read by mid February, when a couple of books I have been waiting for come out in stores! 


Happy Reading,
LD