Sunday Post #47 – 1/2/2022

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Sunday Post

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by
Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer.
It’s a chance to share news.
A post to recap the past week on your blog,
showcase books and things we have received.
Share news about what is coming up
on your blog for the week ahead.
See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

*** 

This post also counts for

Sunday Salon    Stacking the Shelves  Mailbox Monday2

 It's Monday! What Are You Reading2  IMWAYR  WWW Wednesdays 2

#SundayPost #SundaySalon
#StackingTheShelves #MailboxMonday
#itsmonday #IMWAYR
#WWWWednesday #WWWWednesdays

Click on the logos to join the memes,
and on the book covers to access synopsis or review

Happy New Year to all, and to a great new year of bookish discoveries!

📚  JUST READ / LISTENED TO 🎧 

A Single Rose Les Mystères de Paris3

📚  A Single Rose, by Muriel Barbery
Published in 2020
Literary fiction

You may have read The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which I found fantastic.
This one is very different, and each word is there to enjoy!
I’m starting my 2022 plans, that is, reading more from my TBRs. I wanted to read this one by Barbery for a while and ended up listening to it.
Oh the writing!
I have never been to Japan, but listening to this book, I feel so nostalgic of a country I have never been to and would so much love to discover, that it hurts.
Each word seems chiseled. The result is an amazing gem.

🎧  Les Mystères de Paris, volume 3, by Eugène Sue
Published between 1842-1843
Literary fiction
Read it for the Classics Club 

A huge book that inspired Victor Hugo to write Les Misérables.
The audiobook is being published in many parts. It is fabulously narrated by Loïc Richard.
It is great fun discovering what elements Hugo took and transformed. You have the same sample of population, a man trying to spread social justice, bad and good people, poor and rich, but with different combinations and evolution than in Les Misérables. And an interesting story about a man and his daughter!
It’s also a more popular book, with no real historical background, but the focus definitely on the social circumstances.
Sue is here the first author to describe the injustices and miserable situation of the people, and to openly criticize the institutions. He thus became the spokesman for the humanitarian and socialist ideals in vogue in the 1840s, with the ultimate result in the 1848 Revolution.
And his portraits of his characters are excellent.
The style may sound overly romantic to some. I actually do enjoy it a lot.
If you love Les Misérables, I highly recommend you to try it. It’s available in English as The Mysteries of Paris.

📚  CURRENTLY READING/LISTENING TO 🎧 

The Three Body Problem  Gravé dans le sable

📚  The Three Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #1), by Cixin Liu
Published in 2006
Chinese science-fiction

Every winter, my awesome public library organizes a Winter Challenge: you answer a few questions, and the staff picks a book for you to read and review.
Lucky me, this is actually not a challenge! I have so much loved Supernova Era, that I meant to read this one.
This is so far very different in setting and themes. Curious to see where this is going.

“Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.”

🎧  Gravé dans le sable, by Michel Bussi
First published in 2007
Historical thriller
Sorry, not available in English

So far, excellent historical thriller. I can’t believe this was his very first novel, so good already. It’s about what happened on D Day: a group of soldiers draw lots to know which ones will go first – as the first twenty or so won’t have much chance to survive.
One of them gets number 4, but then…
Hopefully, it will soon be translated into English, so I’m not going to reveal any spoiler.
I did a video some years ago to present Michel Bussi to my English speaking freinds – lots of his books are available in English translation.

📚  BOOK UP NEXT 📚 

Red is my Heart📚 Red is my Heart, by Antoine Laurain
Expected publication: January 18th 2022 by Gallic Books
Literary fiction –  received for review

Click on the cover to access my video, where I speak about it, show you a few cool pages, and present all my January TBR!

📚  LAST BOOK ADDED TO MY GOODREADS TBR 📚 

The Aleph

📚   The Aleph and Other Stories, by Jorge Luis Borges
Published in 1949
Short stories – magical realism

I recently read Ficciones and posted notes on each of the stories of the collection, and now want to reread The Aleph collection.

“Full of philosophical puzzles and supernatural surprises, these stories contain some of Borges’s most fully realized human characters. With uncanny insight, he takes us inside the minds of an unrepentant Nazi, an imprisoned Mayan priest, fanatical Christian theologians, a woman plotting vengeance on her father’s “killer,” and a man awaiting his assassin in a Buenos Aires guest house.  This volume also contains the hauntingly brief vignettes about literary imagination and personal identity collected in The Maker, which Borges wrote as failing eyesight and public fame began to undermine his sense of self.”

📚   LAST BOOK RECEIVED  📚 

A Brush With Birds

It is so gorgeous, I decided to use a bigger picture format.
This one was under the Christmas tree!! I show you a few pages of it in my video.

📚  GIVEAWAYS  📚 

Constellation   The Queen's Lover

📚  BOOK AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW 📚
Review in your own time!

1 copy available: first come first serve!
Alina_A Song For the Telling

📚📚📚

HAVE YOU READ ANY OF THESE BOOKS?
HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?

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46 thoughts on “Sunday Post #47 – 1/2/2022”

  1. I loved the Elegance of the Hedgehog and like Japan, so I’ll be reading A Single Rose! Bussi is my favorite French thriller writer. His Black Water Lilies was my first book of his, in French. Grave de Sable he wrote a long time ago, before his best sellers that follow, I believe. Le Soleil Redoute is fabulous, his most recent. I reviewed it on my blog. Do visit!

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  4. I think I would like the Muriel Barbery book. I will see if I can find it here.

    I also like the look of your bird book. Lucky you, getting that for Christmas.

    You are certainly starting off the year well, with books from your TBR and short reviews and posting on Sunday!

    Happy New Year, Emma!

    Like

    Reply ↓

  8. I haven’t read any of your books no, but I always love your diverse selection.

    I also need to do more social networking this year. YouTube? Gosh I don’t know… Will get the kids at school to do it! LOL. Oh they will love it!

    Have a fabulous week and good luck with all your endeavours.

    Like

    Reply ↓

  18. Welcome to #IMWAYR, Emma! It looks like you’ve been reading some great books—I’ve heard really good things about The Three-Body Problem in particular. Thanks so much for the wonderful post, and happy new year!

    Like

    Reply ↓

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