This is a very slim volume containing two short novellas, Le Bal and Snow in Autumn by Irene Nemirovsky.

Le Bal is set in early 1930s Paris where the Kampfs have at last made it in society as far as they are concerned. When Mr Kampf married his wife he promised her that she would live in luxury before long but it was a painful twelve years before he became successful in business.

Unfortunately the relationship between Mrs Kampf and her teenage daughter Antoinette is fraught, mainly because the mother is one of those silly women who can’t cope with their daughter growing up and is determined to keep the youngster firmly in the background, just in case she steals the limelight from her. Antoinette exacts her revenge.

This was an enjoyable story with believable if uncomfortable characters. I ended up feeling sorry for all concerned.

Snow in Autumn was originally published in 1931 and the story begins in Russia not long before the Russian Revolution. It’s about a White Russian family and their servants, and how the Revolution affects them all.

I really like Nemirovsky’s writing and when I saw this book in the library I didn’t think twice about borrowing it, but I still haven’t got around to reading Suite Francaise, despite actually owning a copy of it. That’s typical of me, concentrating on library books whilst ignoring my own. Maybe I should stick a post- it note with an expiry date on it on my own books, then I can pretend that I’m going to be fined if I don’t get it read by that date!

Speaking of library fines – the libraries which I worked in in the past did not have fines for overdue books. If a reminder notice had to be sent out then a charge was made for the postage stamp but that was all. The other day I was in a local library in Fife and I was stunned to hear a member of staff telling a reader that he had £12 to pay in overdue fines. At that rate I’m surprised that people choose to take overdue books back at all. I think it costs 40p per day per book, and I suppose that mounts up fairly quickly. I’m dead against fines, I think they’re counter-productive. What do you think, and does your local library use a fine system?