Monique de Vré Libros

When the exotic stranger Vianne Rocher arrives in the old French village of Lansquenet and opens a chocolate boutique called “La Celeste Praline” directly across the square from the church, Father Reynaud identifies her as a serious danger to his flock. It is the beginning of Lent: the traditional season of self-denial. The priest says she’ll be out of business by Easter. To make matters worse, Vianne does not go to church and has a penchant for superstition. Like her mother, she can read Tarot cards. But she begins to win over customers with her smiles, her intuition for everyone’s favourites, and her delightful confections. Her shop provides a place, too, for secrets to be whispered, grievances aired. She begins to shake up the rigid morality of the community. Vianne’s plans for an Easter Chocolate Festival divide the whole community. Can the solemnity of the Church compare with the pagan passion of a chocolate éclair? For the first time, here is a novel in which chocolate enjoys its true importance, emerging as an agent of transformation. Rich, clever, and mischievous, reminiscent of a folk tale or fable, this is a triumphant read with a memorable character at its heart. Says Harris: “You might see [Vianne] as an archetype or a mythical figure. I prefer to see her as the lone gunslinger who blows into the town, has a showdown with the man in the black hat, then moves on relentless. But on another level she is a perfectly real person with real insecurities and a very human desire for love and acceptance. Her qualities too - kindness, love, tolerance - are very human.” Vianne and her young daughter Anouk, come into town on Shrove Tuesday. “Carnivals make us uneasy,” says Harris, “because of what they represent: the residual memory of blood sacrifice (it is after all from the word "carne" that the term arises), of pagan celebration. And they represent a loss of inhibition; carnival time is a time at which almost anything is possible.” The book became an international best-seller, and was optioned to film quickly. The Oscar-nominated movie, with its star-studded cast including Juliette Binoche (The English Patient) and Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love), was directed by Lasse Hallstrom, whose previous film The Cider House Rules (based on a John Irving novel) also looks at issues of community and moral standards, though in a less lighthearted vein. The idea for the book came from a comment her husband made one day while he was immersed in a football game on TV. “It was a throwaway comment, designed to annoy and it did. It was along the lines of...Chocolate is to women what football is to men…” The idea stuck, and Harris began thinking that “people have these conflicting feelings about chocolate, and that a lot of people who have very little else in common relate to chocolate in more or less the same kind of way. It became a kind of challenge to see exactly how much of a story I could get which was uniquely centred around chocolate.” Rich with metaphor and gorgeous writing...sit back and gorge yourself on Chocolat.

Cuatro años después de "Chocolat", Yanne se ha instalado con sus hijas en una pequeña bombonería escondida en medio de Montmartre. Allí pretende vivir lejos de cualquier problema... y así es hasta que llega Zozie, que irrumpe en sus vidas como un huracán, con sus zapatos rojos y vestidos llamativos. Ayuda en la tienda, la pinta de arriba abajo, se convierte en la mejor amiga de todos... o por lo menos eso es lo que parece. Zozie, tan despiadada como seductora, tiene sus propios planes: quiere apoderarse de la vida entera de Yanne que, para defender lo suyo, tendrá que renunciar a la discreción y luchar con todas sus armas contra una enemiga cuyos poderes son tan fuertes como los de ella misma.

Érase una vez unos marcianos y unas venusianasque se conocieron, se enamoraron, y fueron felicespor que respetaron y aceptaron sus diferencias. Luegovinieron a la tierra y olvidaron que pertenecían adiferentes planetas.... Basado en los años de experiencia del Dr. John Grayen asesoramiento de parejas e individuos, Los HombresSon de Marte, Las Mujeres Son de Venus le ha ayudadoa millones de parejas a transformar sus relaciones. Considerado hoy en día como un clásico moderno,este revolucionario libro le ha ayudado a hombres y mujeresen el mundo entero a darse cuenta de lo diferentes que son, y a comunicar sus necesidades sin necesidad de conflicto, dejando florecer la intimidad en la pareja.

ay Mackintosh koopt in een opwelling een vervallen chateau in het Franse dorpje Lansquenet. Met weinig meer dan een paar flessen vruchtenwijn vertrekt hij uit Londen. Het zijn de ongewone eigenschappen van deze wijn die hem helpen een plekje te veroveren in de harten van de dorpsgenoten, in het bijzonder dat van de mysterieuze Marise...

Sam is nog maar kort moeder terwijl ze haar eigen moeder Iris onlangs heeft verloren. Hoewel ze zich geen leven meer kan voorstellen zonder haar dochtertje Ella, blijft ze ook twijfelen over haar rol als moeder. En ze mist Iris meer dan ooit. Als ze op een dag een doos met Iris' spullen krijgt toegestuurd, ontdekt ze brieven en een foto van Violet, een meisje dat in 1900 op elfjarige leeftijd in haar eentje van New York naar het Middenwesten reisde.