We’re reading the most delightful book these days, about a fabulously eccentric Parisienne called Mademoiselle Oiseau who lives alone with 42-cats and many birds in a bizarre and grand apartment on the Avenue des Temps Perdus. The illustrations –– by one of Scandinavia’s best known illustrators, Lovisa Burfitt–– are pure whimsy. Her painterly sketches of poppies and macarons, chandeliers and shoes, and an an attic filled with Schiaparelli-like frocks, hats and cobwebs, bring Andrea de La Barre de Nanteuil’s weird and wonderful imagination to life. (Please note the swimming pond with fountain in the salon where MO takes frequent dips / and one of those cats is named Senorita Chachacha)