Diana Lesire Brandmeyer

Diana Lesire Brandmeyer

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Category: reading

Monday Review: The Paris Dressmaker

Posted on August 30, 2022August 30, 2022 by Diana Brandmeyer

We can sum up The Paris Dressmaker by Kristi Cambron up in one word—hope.

This book has been on my to-be-read list for quite a while and to be honest, it was because of the cover. I love that dress against the backdrop of the Eiffel tower. One shouldn’t judge a book by the cover, so they say, but we all know that’s not 100% true. The cover invites us to come in and discover what’s inside, a gift to be unwrapped.

This book settles you right into the lives of two women in Paris. The timeline weaves between before the Germans invade Paris and during the occupation. I found that confusing because it’s only a difference of a few years, not centuries, like most time-slip books. Cambron writes beautiful, and the story is compelling enough that I had to keep reading.

At the beginning, two normal women see what’s happening to their city but don’t really believe Paris will be involved. Before long, they discover no matter how much you hope evil things do happen.

Both women end up working for the resistance in different ways. They are called upon to dig deep for courage and hope for things they aren’t sure will happen.

One woman hopes she’ll see her French husband again. The other hopes to rectify a wrong she’s caused a man she loves.

To live in such a time that you don’t know if your neighbor or even your friend is someone you can trust, fearful that even an uttered phrase could endanger you and your family is unthinkable. Cambron shows you it isn’t. Using history and fiction, she brings us an awareness that we must be strong in our conventions and never fall asleep to what is happening around us.

What struck me while reading this is how my view of rationing has changed. Before 2019, I would read about food being hard to find and not have a vehement reaction. Reading this book now, I have a much different perspective on how scary and tiresome it would be to stand in long lines for a loaf of bread.

I said this book is about hope, and it is. Evil doesn’t succeed. This is a book I will recommend reading to anyone who enjoys a clean read, history and women of strength.

Based on true accounts of how Parisiennes resisted the Nazi occupation in World War II—from fashion houses to the city streets—comes a story of two courageous women who risked everything to fight an evil they could not abide.

Paris, 1939. Maison Chanel has closed, thrusting haute couture dressmaker Lila de Laurent out of the world of high fashion as Nazi soldiers invade the streets and the City of Light slips into darkness. Lila’s life is now a series of rations, brutal restrictions, and carefully controlled propaganda while Paris is cut off from the rest of the world. Yet in hidden corners of the city, the faithful pledge to resist. Lila is drawn to La Resistance and is soon using her skills as a dressmaker to infiltrate the Nazi elite. She takes their measurements and designs masterpieces, all while collecting secrets in the glamorous Hotel Ritz—the heart of the Nazis’ Parisian headquarters. But when dashing René Touliard suddenly reenters her world, Lila finds her heart tangled between determination to help save his Jewish family and to bolster the fight for liberation.

Paris, 1943. Sandrine Paquet’s job is to catalog the priceless works of art bound for the Führer’s Berlin, masterpieces stolen from prominent Jewish families. But behind closed doors, she secretly forages for information from the underground resistance. Beneath her compliant facade lies a woman bent on uncovering the fate of her missing husband . . . but at what cost? As Hitler’s regime crumbles, Sandrine is drawn in deeper when she uncrates an exquisite blush Chanel gown concealing a cryptic message that may reveal the fate of a dressmaker who vanished from within the fashion elite.

Told across the span of the Nazi occupation, The Paris Dressmaker highlights the brave women who used everything in their power to resist darkness and restore light to their world.

Buy it or read in KindleUnlimited

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Monday Review of The Great Alone

Posted on September 28, 2020August 30, 2021 by Diana Brandmeyer

Is there someone in your life that is also a reader?

Do you share the same love for certain genres?

My mom is responsible for helping me learn to read at an early age. She spent hours reading to me, helping me pick out the words for myself and even walking with me to the bookmobile because we didn’t have a car. I was four or maybe five when we did that. At the time, for someone who couldn’t leave her yard, the trip there was exciting. We had to walk along the side of the road and cross a bridge!

The way back was harder. I was hot, tired, thirsty and couldn’t wait to read my books. How long was that walk? Round trip about a mile. That used to impress me until I had kids and realized just how far they will walk if they are having fun.

Mom loves reading true crime, mysteries, and things that make me want to hide under the covers. Stories were people do terrible things to each other. She says it’s human nature. I think in a different time she might have been a forensic psychologist.

I love the puppies and rainbow kind of books. Happy endings give me great joy, books with endings that end with possible good in the character’s future are my second favorites.

We have found a few places where we connect. The books aren’t true (for me) and the story is well-written and could have happened in real life.

When I finished reading Kristin Hannah’s book The Great Alone I knew it was one of those books mom and I could connect over. I ordered a paperback for mom. She’s reading it now and we are having our own little book club moment discussing it every day.

It’s set in the 1970s so that decade is a familiar one to me as I was in high school then. The angst of being a teenager and moving to another state and not having the right clothes is universal but what follows in this book I pray isn’t a normal life for anyone.

While the relationship between Leni and Cora is unhealthy it brought me back to living with my own mom. The closeness that grows between a mother and daughter when there is sadness and problems they can’t control is what kept me reading page after page. Peas in a pod is her mother’s favorite saying.

If stories of abuse are a trigger for you then please give this book a pass. If not, it’s a book full of relationships, the beauty, and roughness of Alaska, and the possibilities of hope.

Alaska, 1974. Ernt Allbright came home from the Vietnam War a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes the impulsive decision to move his wife and daughter north where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.

Cora will do anything for the man she loves, even if means following him into the unknown. Thirteen-year-old Leni, caught in the riptide of her parents’ passionate, stormy relationship, has little choice but to go along, daring to hope this new land promises her family a better future.

In a wild, remote corner of Alaska, the Allbrights find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the newcomers’ lack of preparation and dwindling resources.

But as winter approaches and darkness descends, Ernt’s fragile mental state deteriorates. Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within. In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in eighteen hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: they are on their own.

The book is $9.99 for ebook or paperback but it is also in KindleUnlimted if you have a subscription this book almost pays for your month, read one more and you’ve saved money. 🙂

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Musings of a Procrastinating Writer

Posted on February 21, 2020February 28, 2020 by Diana Brandmeyer

If you can’t finish it don’t start it. That’s been my hidden mantra for way too long. It’s a mantra for procrastination and you could add to it, if you can’t do it perfectly don’t do.

Until this January, I’ve been a fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to living the author life. The last few years have derailed my production and I thought I had good excuses.

  1. I work part-time
  2. I was watching my grandkids one day a week–who could resist that? 🙂
  3. I have to get the housework done–who am I kidding? It never got started because I didn’t have time to finish it.
  4. Grocery shopping and menu planning –can I get an Amen? Well no. I can order groceries online and my husband picks them up.
  5. The cat is too needy today. I can’t get to my keyboard because he wants attention.
  6. If you make a plan it something will always change it.
  7. I’m tired. I need to take care of myself and rest.
  8. Sitting in my chair makes my back hurt so I’ll write when that goes away.
  9. Math. Yes, math, figuring out what my ROI (return on investment for those of you who are like me and had no idea what that was) is too hard.
  10. Writing blog posts are great but I have the most boring life.

Pretty pathetic when I look at my list of reasons–Okay okay! They are excuses and nothing more.

book cover of atomic habits

So what happened in January? I read finished reading Automic Habits for the 2nd time (slow to pick up or rather I didn’t want to follow the advice). the idea behind it is to start one task and do it daily but add to it the next day. For instance, I want to write so I make sure the first thing I do when I sit at my desk is open my file and read yesterday’s work. The book explains the method well. It’s not just for writers it’s for anyone who struggles to maintain good habits. Because let’s face it maintaining those bad habits is so easy one doesn’t need to read a book on how to do that.

Another thing I started to use is a word tracking spreadsheet made by Jamie Raintree. If you are a writer and terrible at spreadsheets check out her tracker. It’s $10 and amazing. And I bought a planner from Audrey Hughey You can find my post about the planner here and here.

So back to what made the change. I picked a few habits to try–easy ones. I plan our meals for the week and I sprint (that is: write as fast as you can no editing) with a friend I met on the plane to a conference. Thank you Sally Henson! She and I also share photos of our planners on Sunday evening. Accountability plays a bit part in getting things done.

Has it worked? Yes! Those 15 minutes aren’t long enough for me to think I can finish anything but I found I can do between 500-700 words during those minutes. We sprint early in the morning and that either gets me going for more time if I’m not working that day or I have a feeling of success because I’ve written on a book I want to write.

And ta-da the book is now coming up to being halfway finished!

The meal planning has gone well! I follow the Trim Healthy Mama way of eating or I did and had great success, then life got to busy and I went back to old habits like Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups. Sugar is a mean beast once it gets a hold on you. Now I make them at home with stevia and I’m satisfied. I’ve been back on plan now because I have our meals planned and sometimes my snacks.

Am I seeing great success in other areas of my life? Not as many as I want but I’m getting more done than I let myself believe that I can. And guess what? Plans can be easily changed by writing in pencil or erasable pens. I like these from Fixon.

How about you?

Have you tried breaking things into small chunks of time?

Were you surprised by the results?

Be sure to pick up your free book if you haven’t already!

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Tidying Up? Cozy Minimalist?

Posted on March 14, 2019March 15, 2019 by Diana Brandmeyer

It’s spring weather sort of…rainy, gloomy and partly sunny.

Over the winter I’ve watched some of the Netflix series Tidying Up and read the Cozy Minimalist. I’ve been inspired to remove some of the things in my home.

But…

The idea of piling all my clothes on the bed and donating the ones that don’t bring me joy sounds like a bad idea. I’m tired of wearing my winter clothes and it’s not warm enough to switch over for the next season. If I followed Marie Kondo’s advice next winter, I’d have to shop for an entire new wardrobe. Sounds like fun.

But…

My bank account has been following the minimalist life style too long for me to purchase much of anything new.

Then there are the books. So many books in my house and I’ve donated a lot of those already. I’m going to say the ones that remain all bring me joy or like the ones my laptop sits on earn their keep.

Collections to pair down? I had to think about that one. I don’t seem to have those either unless you count the millions of files and photos on computer. I suppose I could take the next ten years and tidy those up. Nah. Can’t see those so they can’t possible count as clutter, right?

There is one room in my house that could use some tidying.

The sewing room. 

Shudder. That room is a scary mess. So many things were piled in there when my son and his wife and my grandkids moved in while their house was being built. Sure they took their stuff out but the room is ‘out of sorts’ in a major way.

This is where following these plans becomes tricky. It seems to be the area that I’m not ready to let go of that causes me and maybe others to hold back from letting go.

That room will take a long time to go through and I’ll have to evaluate if I want to keep sewing. I think I do but honestly, I haven’t sewn anything in five years. But I want too, I think. I don’t have time until summer to tackle this issue, but it is weighing on me. And that’s when the tidying up and minimalist people say it’s time to get to work and find out what’s important enough to stay.

I’m giving going to set a deadline for next September to have that room back together or packed to donate. Pray for me!

What about you? Have you hopped on this crazy train of living like a minimalist?

I’m giving going to set a deadline of next September to have that room back together or packed to donate. Pray for me! What about you? Have you hopped on this crazy train of living like a minimalist?

Leave me a comment to help me get started on cleaning out that room and On April 1, 2019, I’ll use Rafflecopter to pick one winner in the United States to send an autographed copy of The Rails to Love Collection.   

This is a blog hop so click the links below to visit other author blogs and enter to win gifts. And don’t forget to leave a comment on this page for your chance to win!

*hint if there aren’t comments below look up at the top left side of the post there will be a link for comments.

creative, novel, to read, faith, for women, romance, historical
Leave a comment to win this book!

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO GO TO OTHER AUTHOR PAGES FOR CHANCES TO WIN!

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January Reading List

Posted on January 16, 2019August 24, 2021 by Diana Brandmeyer

I just finished reading the latest book in the Raleigh Harmon Series. The Wind Will Howl by Sibella Giorello. What a ride!

Raleigh is a forensic geologist and she works/doesn’t work for the FBI. She has a mom with mental issues and an aunt who loves acting and is often quoting lines from plays she’s been in. That makes me want to find the movies on Netflix or Amazon.

Raleigh has a dead body on her mind, Jack wants a wedding date and her mom is released into her care. Never a dull moment.

And then there’s Jack.

Jack. Not saying more but…you have to love Jack.

I’ve been following Raleigh since The Rivers Run Dry

The Raleigh Harmon Series fascinates me because she uses rock and dirt to solve crimes, very clever and Giorello knows her stuff. And you might learn a few things too. I did.

I hope there is another book coming because I can’t get enough of Raleigh and Jack.

ocean in the evening, waves , birds in sky, woman standing on the beach

And next up on my reading list is book 2 in the Home Town Hero’s series, Flash Point by J.L. Crosswhite. It’s about a firefighter that was introduced in book 1 Protective Custody.

Say it with me FIREFIGHTER!

Captain Joe Romero–doesn’t the name melt you? Is battling blazes in California and fires burning in his heart.

silhouette of fire fighter on pier, ocean, silhouette of a man and woman

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all in good time book lake with a pier

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