If you're after something light and romantic, but not stupid, sweet but not saccharin(ny), the Red Notebook is the perfect novel. Can you experience nostalgia for something that hasn’t happened? We talk of ‘regrets’ about the course of our lives, when we are almost certain we have taken the wrong decision; but one can also be enveloped in a sweet and mysterious euphoria, a sort of nostalgia for what might have been.”

Story is told on the third person, alternating impressions from Laure and Laurent’s mind. Even if the dialogue is not that present in the book, the reader feels as if being part of the character’s thoughts. I love the way the characters complement each other: her name “Laure” is part of his name “Laurent”; she has a red notebook to store her emotions, while Laurent’s bookstore is called “Le Cahier Rouge” (“The Red Notebook”). The ending is the most delicate part of the book and it clearly defined the refined talent of the writer. Laurent is the owner of bookstore. In search of his morning coffee at the local cafe, he finds an obviously abandoned handbag sitting on top of a bin, sans owner.

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On his customary morning walk to procure his morning coffee, Laurent Letellier finds an expensive handbag atop a trash barrel. Being of high moral character, he takes it to the police station where he realizes the bag will succumb to massive bureaucracy and become eternally lost. He leaves it at his home before he goes to work and ponders the best course of action. Thus begins Antoine Laurain’s delightful novel: what would you do if you found an abandoned handbag? How far would you go to try and find the rightful owner? It isn’t something that falls into your lap. You earn it. It takes hard work, determination and the right tools. Sure, it can be tough. But for over 50 years, our notebooks have been there, offering so much more than a home for notes. View the Range With Parisian charm, what starts with the petty crime of a bag snatching, results in bringing two people together. Laure is the victim of this crime. Arriving home after a night out to dinner with friends, she doesn't even make it to her front door, when a hand reaches out of the darkness, and her bag is stolen. They come in all shapes, styles, and sizes and are very different. A notebook is great for, obviously, taking notes, but what about those disciplines that need a specific format? Your journal is definitely going to be used for different ends compared to your jotter , so you need the right product for you!

He drank some more wine, feeling he was about to commit a forbidden act. A transgression. For a man should never go through a woman's handbag - even the most remote tribe would adhere to that ancestral rule." In equal parts an offbeat romance, detective story and a clarion call for metropolitans to look after their neighbours. . . . Reading The Red Notebookis a little like finding a gem among the bric-a-brac in a local brocante’ The Telegraph When Laurent finds a handbag thrown away in the street without a purse but filled with other belongings he is immediately fascinated by it. The next days he spends trying to figure out how to find the owner of the bag and to return it to her. Amongst the belongings in the bag, Laurent finds a book penned by a reclusive legendary author, an author who hadn’t done any signings or interviews for years, personally signed to the owner of the bag. He now at least knows her first name. If you plan to use your notebook for university note-taking, you’ll find a project book particularly useful. For younger students, on the other hand, an exercise book would be better suited. Choose from graph paper for maths or lines for writing - great for home learning and homework practice!

There are some will they/won't they meet moments that made me catch my breath with how charming the writing is. I loved everything about the Red Notebook. The writing is simple but has a beautiful flow. The main characters, Laurent and Laure, are well drawn and interesting. It was refreshing to read a romantic book with middle-aged protagonists. The plot was lovely and romantic, in a realistic way. Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie.The President's Hat shows the author to be more than adept at such entertaining, short novels. You might also enjoy his The Readers Room. There are more twists in the tale – some predictable and some not – before it reaches exactly the right ending. The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain, Emily Boyce (translator) and Jane Aitken (translator) is in the Top Ten Literary Fiction Books of 2015. As for the other characters, the combination between a teenage daughter, a gay best friend and a financial analyst help to complete the book in an amazing way. However, the crown of it is the abundance of books, writers and artists mentioned or present in the story. From classics to contemporary, novelists to pets, French authors are frequently mentioned.

Being a good citizen, he drops it off at the local cop shop. With the police being too busy to attend to him, Laurent takes the mystery bag home. Determined to do his own detective work, with the intention of re-uniting the bag with its rightful owner, he opens the bag... There are so many things that I liked about this book and one that I did not enjoy: I finished it. I am in awe of the story, the writing, the way it made me feel and in awe towards the creator of this great novel. I liked the people. The two leads were nicely balanced, and they were well supported by a jealous girlfriend, an opinionated teenage daughter, a helpful colleague …. It’s a very well balanced cast. Instead of losing interest in what seems a hopeless case, his obsession to find Laure grows and grows. It’s a format that has been done many times before and needs to be exceptionally written for it to rise above the other books of similar ilk. I am delighted to say that this is the case. As it is such a short novel, I don’t want to say any more for fear of spoilers, the narrative is brilliantly crafted, but to explain why would spoil the story. A thoroughly enjoyable read, which is very hard to put down once you start. It set the author off on an obsessive quest to find out everything he could about Dora Bruder and why during the most dangerous period of the German occupation of Paris, she had run away from those protecting her. But that's another story and book, so see Helen's review below for more on that extraordinary tale.In Dora Bruder, Modiano tells how in 1988 he stumbled across an ad in the personal columns of the 1941 New Year's Eve edition of Paris Soir. The ad had been placed by the parents of 15-year-old Jewish girl Dora Bruder, who had run away from the Catholic boarding school where she'd been living. She must have recorded her thoughts in the notebook as the whim took her, on cafe-terraces or on the Metro. Laurent was fascinated by her reflections which followed on one from the other, random, touching, zany, sensual. He had opened a door into the soul of the woman with the mauve bag and even though he felt what he was doing was inappropriate, he couldn't stop himself from reading on."(30)