I read the first two and really liked them, but never even heard of the last one. I'll have to pick it up. Thanks for the heads-up!

Portia, the only downside of tempting perfume blogs and all the other wonders of the internet is that I have little free time left for books. I owe being remanded to bed rest following dental surgery for the time to plunge into Denyse Beaulieu's wonderful book The Perfume Lover. I think the previous one that I finished was Liza Dalby's Tale of Murasaki, an imagined autobiography of the 11th century Japanese author, based on her poems and Tale of Genji (the world's first novel). It's wonderful! I've read most of the Emperor of Scent, and The Perfect Scent is on my list as well, and thanks to your reviews I've added You or Someone Like You.

I am so glad you wrote about The Emperor of Scent, and The Perfect Scent, as they are such great and educational revelations of our preferred addiction of scent. What a service both books are! I've passed Emperor of Scent on to my dentist and doctor, and any one who has a slightly inquisitive mind about the much neglected aspects of smell. I can't wait to read You, Or Someone Like You now! Thank you Mr. Burr, and thank you Portia!

The number of books I have waiting to be read on my kindle is insane. The first two you wrote about are already on it. I find that other than checking the blogs and Twitter I just don't read as much in the summer. I always laugh at the term summer reading list because I never seem to have the time with housework and gardening to sit down and read. That outside stuff takes up a ton of time. I read far more in the fall and winter. Thanks for these reviews Portia.

I like all the Australian book jackets better than the American ones. Great and interesting post!

Hi Portia. I'm really honored you read three of my books, and I'm so glad you liked them. I know "You Or Someone Like You" is intense. On Basenotes a few days ago, in a discussion of the crucial need to apply intelligent language to perfume, I quoted Luca on that need for language, and I'll quote him again here on intensity and the search for Truth, which "You" certainly is for me. “I really do not think that a ‘balanced view’ is derived from tepid opinions. It comes from having extreme opinions and seeing the most extreme sides. In a lecture on Cervantes’s Quixote Vaclav Czerny said, ‘Forgive us our madmen, and we will forgive you your idiots.’" I've always felt this way. So it's the way I wrote the novel. Judaism and all organized religions, to me, kill Truth, each in its own way. I just wrote about Judaism because I'm Jewish, but I feel the same about Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam. When it comes to tribalism, bigotry, and racialism most of us give religion this weird pass, an automatic bow of the head. I don't believe in that. I loved the statement-- I don't remember off-hand the name of the guy who said it, an Arab, former-Muslim Frenchman-- who calmly said he'd like to propose the shocking, astonishing, radical idea that religion should get our respect to the degree to which it is respectable. (Excellent.)

Hey hey it's Friday and Portia! My reading list is positively ginormous and the first two are already on it and now I will add the third. I am just starting The Night Circus and next up is Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children which looks really interesting. Will let you k ow how they are!

I'm about half way through The Perfect Scent. You're right, lots of fascinating glimpses into the whole process!

Howdy, Portia! Always a treat to read you on Fridays. Thanks for this excellent roundup of books. Although I read every day for my job, it's often hard to get around to reading for pleasure in my off-hours with a pre-teen. But one of these days ...