When I was nine years old I was a good little girl, though this hadn’t always been the case. Have you ever noticed that the books you really enjoyed reading - a lot - and would like to read again, are the ones you find the hardest to write something about? The Inseparables has been … Continue reading The Inseparables | Simone de Beauvoir #FRAfiction
Some images you record unconsciously, with the precision of a camera, and when you find them later in your memory, sometimes you rack your brains to recall where you saw them. Maigret Goes to School is my ninth Maigret. I'm well and truly hooked! This story sees Maigret leave Paris to help out with a … Continue reading Maigret Goes to School | Georges Simenon #ParisinJuly
May featured some wonderful, interesting stories, but I still don't feel up to writing about them in any length. I would like to acknowledge Cathy @746 Books and her glorious review of Claire Keegan's novella, Small Things Like These, last year that was the impetus for me picking up this book as soon as it … Continue reading May Mini Reviews
The President of the Chamber remained standing until the faint stir caused by his entry subsided. Then he took his seat, saying rather nonchalantly, in a quiet voice:'The sitting is open.' As always, I am facsinated by translation choices. Above are the opening lines from Brian Nelson's recent 2018 translation of Son Excellence Eugène Rougon, … Continue reading Son Excellence Eugène Rougon | Émile Zola #Zoladdiction
Last month I feature a few of the prayer/poems from Carmen Bernos de Gasztold's collection called Prayers From the Ark. These simple French poems had been rediscovered by Rumer Godden and then translated into English during the 1960's. The second collection of poems, The Creatures' Choir (1965), errs more on the side of poetry than prayers. … Continue reading The Creatures’ Choir | Carmen Bernos De Gasztold #poetry
Committed Writings by Albert Camus contains Letters to a German Friend, Reflections on the Guillotine and The Nobel Speeches (Acceptance Speech and Create Dangerously) with a Foreword by Alice Kaplan. Books come into my life for all sorts of reasons. Before working in a bookshop, I bought books for myself very deliberately and carefully. I … Continue reading Committed Writings | Albert Camus #FRAnonfiction
It's not yet eight. Stefan Valeriu can tell by the sunlight, which has crept only as far as the edge of his chaise lounge. He can sense it climbing the wooden legs, feel it caressing his fingers, his hands, his naked arm, as warm as a shawl... Such a sensuous, delicious, lazy way to open … Continue reading Women | Mihail Sebastian #ROUfiction
There was a moment, between Quai des Orfevres and Pont Marie, when Maigret paused, so briefly that Lapointe, who was walking beside him, paid no attention. Happy Bastille Day! Joyeux Quatorze Juillet! Picking up a Maigret is like falling into a soft, cosy blanket with a tray of strong cheeses, biscuits and a robust red … Continue reading Maigret and the Tramp | Georges Simenon #FRAfiction
La Teuse came in and popped her broom and her feather duster against the alter. Confession one: this story ended up being a chore to read. After six engaging, enthralling Zola's I have hit my first dud with the seventh. Confession two: for the past week I have been trying to read three books that … Continue reading The Sin of Abbé Mouret | Émile Zola #FRAclassic
April is Zoladdiction month with Fanda @ClassicLit! This year I am up to book five in the Rougon-Macquart series - La Faute de l’Abbé Mouret (1875) The Sin of Father Mouret. I will be reading the Oxford University Press edition translated by Valerie Minogue, the President of the Émile Zola Society in London. 'I really don't … Continue reading Zoladdiction 2021
An Indiscreet Journey was a short story written in 1915 by Katherine Mansfield but published posthumously in the 1924 collection, Something Childish and other stories by her husband John Middleton Murry. Initially it reads like a fairly straight forward story about a woman on a train journey to visit her aunt and uncle in the middle … Continue reading An Indiscreet Journey | Katherine Mansfield #ShortStory
Je ne Parle pas Français, or I Do Not Speak French was written in early 1918 and published in Bliss and other stories (1920).There is a rather long and complicated story about the publication of this particular short story. It started life as a pamphlet published by Heron Press, which was run by John Middleton … Continue reading Je ne Parle pas Français | Katherine Mansfield #ShortStory
Book Stop is an occasional meme that allows me to travel and indulge in a good bookshop browse, during these strange, strange times when we cannot travel outside our home state, let alone the country. I plan to combine my bookish instincts with my itchy feet and explore the world via bookshops. I have a … Continue reading Book Stop #2
Miss Brill is a short story by New Zealand author Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in Athenaeum on 26 November 1920 and later included in The Garden Party and Other Stories (1922). I knew I wouldn't have the time or reading energy to tackle a novel published in 1920 for this week's 1920's Club with Kaggsy and … Continue reading Miss Brill | Katherine Mansfield #1920Club
Mirka & Georges: A Culinary Affair is a beautiful book and hard to define. Is it an art book? Is it a biography? Or is it a recipe book? I guess the subtitle that Harding & Morgan chose gives us a clue to their intentions - that food is the central idea around which the … Continue reading Mirka & Georges: A Culinary Affair by Lesley Harding & Kendrah Morgan
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