Tag Archives: Italo Calvino

Sunday Post #86 – 06/04/2023

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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      Mailbox Monday2

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

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

Click on the logos to join the memes

I have been ctaching up with several things, so I am trying to come back more regularly on this meme.

I posted 4 times this past week:

A reminder:
If you can read and write in French (no need to be perfect), please join Lory at Entering the Enchanted Castle and myself, as wel start reading Voyage au centre de la Terre, by Jules Verne, on June 15.
We are planning on reading one chapter a day, so until end of July.
And we’ll be commenting in French on this Discord channel.
You are most welcome to join us. There’s one channel per chapter, so you can read at your own pace. 

I finished 2 books this past week.
And I’m done (for a while hopefully!) with books I requested and didn’t like.

📚JUST READ / LISTENED TO 🎧 

The Book of Stolen Dreams

📚  The Book of Stolen Dreams
(The Book of Stolen Dreams #1)
by David Farr
Published in 2021
384 pages
Middle grade fantasy

Oh wow, I can’t remember how I heard about this book, but am sure glad I did!
It’s about life under a dictator. He’s bad news to all, and especially to children, whom he hates.
And to top it all, he may get the key to make his dictatorship last forever, if he manages to put his hand on a very very special book.
But he didn’t count on a courageous librarian and his two very brave kids: Rachel and Robert.
But will they be able to secure the book, and save their country from the evil one, when they are not sure whom they can trust?

A book about a book and a library, a book with lots of suspense and awesome imagination, a book about poetry, and what dreams and love can do.
Some elements made me think of The Secret Garden, but with lots more adventures.
This is so beautiful, and also a warning about dictators.
Definitely one of my best reads of 2023.
I can’t wait for book 2, to come out in September 2023.
And I’m really amazed this is the author’s first book for children. Impressive.

The Ferryman🎧 The Ferryman,
by Justin Cronin
2023
538 pages
19H55
Scifi / Dystopia 

I am probably gong to make enemies here (though I have read some disappointed revews too). Here we go:

I again wasted my time accepting an audiobook for review.
I thought it might be good to try this new to me author, especially as I enjoy scifi.
The 2 narrators are good at least, but I basically wasted almost 20 hours, as I have really no idea what this was about! And it was too long as well.
Going back to books on my TBR!

📚  CURRENTLY READING / LISTENING TO 🎧 

Highlighting here only a few:

Is the Algorithm Ploting Against Us📚 Is the Algorithm Plotting Against Us?
A Layperson’s Guide to the Concepts, Math,
and Pitfalls of AI,
by Kenneth Wenger
May 1, 2023
264 pages
Nonfiction / Artificial intelligence
Received for review

I received the offer to read this book from the author at the perfect time when I thought I needed to read more on the topic.

Very serious stuff, with a lot of technical details.

Why Read the Classics📚 Why Read The Classics?
by Italo Calvino
Perché leggere i classici
was published in 1991
306 pages
Nonfiction / Book on Books

I am back (not sure why I had stopped) reading a few pages daily of this book in its original Italian.
Besides being a great novelist, Clavino is an incredible literary critique. The problem with the goodness of his essays, is that I add several books to my TBR after each one!
I was blown away by the latest essays I read here on Robinson Crusoe, on Candide (sounds like I should reread it. It seems so much better than what I remember from my French education days!), and on authors I had never heard on: Gerolamo Cardano (1501-1576), on the real Cyrano (de Bergerac) and his early (1657!!) scifi book on the moon, and Giammaria Ortes (1713-1790).

An Astronomer in Love📚 An Astronomer in Love,
by Antoine Laurain
Literary fiction
US expected release: June 23, 2023
218 pages
Received for review

Having fun with Laurain’s usual great writing.

“From the best-selling author of The Red Notebook comes the enchanting story of two men, 250 years apart, who find themselves on separate missions to see the transit of Venus across the Sun.
In 1760, astronomer Guillaume le Gentil sets out on a quest through the oceans of India to document the transit of Venus. The weather is turbulent, the seas are rough, but his determination will conquer all.
In 2012, divorced estate agent Xavier Lemercier discovers Guillaume’s telescope in one of his properties. While looking out across the city, the telescope falls upon the window of an intriguing woman with what appears to be a zebra in her apartment.
Then the woman walks through the doors of Xavier’s office a few days later, and his life changes for evermore . . .
Part swashbuckling adventure on the high seas and part modern-day love story set in the heart of Paris, An Astronomer in Love is a time-travelling tale of adventure, destiny and the power of love.”

Sur la dalle📚 Sur la dalle (Commissaire Adamsberg #12),
by Fred Vargas
Mystery
Expected publication May 17, 2023
521 pages

I’m only 10% in, but It feels so good meeting again Adamsberg and the team, as well as the usual pace and atmosphere.
I can’t believe her last one in this series was 6 years ago!
And as expected, there’s a lot of concern about climate changes and the environment in the background, soulds like.

Adamsberg went recently to a small village in Brittany. He heard about a weird local legend. Each time they hear this sound of a man walking with a wooden leg, it’s followed by a murder. Last time was fourteen years ago.
Now some villagers just heard it again, so Adamsberg is not surprised when he hears about a new murder. This is far from his Parisian area of responsibility, but how could he stay away and not try to understand what’s really going on here?

Wildcard🎧 Wildcard (Warcross #2),
by Mari Lu
Narrated by Nancy Wu
2018
352 pages
10H51
Scifi / Dystopia / YA / Gaming

I launched this one with vengeance right after I finished The Ferryman (see above).
So I am only like 5 minutes in, but it felt good to go back to a book I really wanted to read, as I so enjoyed book 1, Warcross.

The following synopsis has major spoilers about book 1, so ignore if you have not read Warcross yet.

“Emika Chen barely made it out of the Warcross Championships alive. Now that she knows the truth behind Hideo’s new NeuroLink algorithm, she can no longer trust the one person she’s always looked up to, who she once thought was on her side.
Determined to put a stop to Hideo’s grim plans, Emika and the Phoenix Riders band together, only to find a new threat lurking on the neon-lit streets of Tokyo. Someone’s put a bounty on Emika’s head, and her sole chance for survival lies with Zero and the Blackcoats, his ruthless crew. But Emika soon learns that Zero isn’t all that he seems–and his protection comes at a price.
Caught in a web of betrayal, with the future of free will at risk, just how far will Emika go to take down the man she loves?”

Here is the list of all the books I am currently reading/listening to,
if you are curious.

📚  BOOK UP NEXT 📚 

Voyage au centre de la terre📚 Voyage au centre de la terre
by Jules Verne
Science fiction
1864
304 pages

Starting on June 15, I will be reading this classic in French with a bunch of other Francophone readers.
We are planning on reading one chapter a day, and we will be commenting in French on Discord.
Clickon the link to join us – all levels of French accepted, this is not a class, we won’t be correcting mistakes.

I am planning on reading the introduction before we start the book itself on June 15.

“Dans la petite maison du vieux quartier de Hambourg où Axel, jeune homme assez timoré, travaille avec son oncle, l’irascible professeur Lidenbrock, géologue et minéralogiste, dont il aime la pupille, la charmante Graüben, l’ordre des choses est soudain bouleversé.
Dans un vieux manuscrit, Lidenbrock trouve un cryptogramme. Arne Saknussemm, célèbre savant islandais du xvie siècle, y révèle que par la cheminée du cratère du Sneffels, volcan éteint d’Islande, il a pénétré jusqu’au centre de la Terre !
Lidenbrock s’enflamme aussitôt et part avec Axel pour l’Islande où, accompagnés du guide Hans, aussi flegmatique que son maître est bouillant, ils s’engouffrent dans les mystérieuses profondeurs du volcan…
En décrivant les prodigieuses aventures qui s’ensuivront, Jules Verne a peut-être atteint le sommet de son talent. La vigueur du récit, la parfaite maîtrise d’un art accordé à la puissance de l’imagination placent cet ouvrage au tout premier plan dans l’œuvre exceptionnelle du romancier.”

📚  LAST BOOK ADDED TO MY GOODREADS TBR 📚 

I have recently added an insane number of classic mysteries to my BR. Here is the latest”

Death of a Bookseller

📚 Death of a Bookseller, by Bernard J. Farmer
1956
256 pages
Mystery/ Book about books

“An honest policeman, Sergeant Wigan, escorts a drunk man home one night to keep him out of trouble and, seeing his fine book collection, slowly falls in to the gentle art of book collecting. Just as the friendship is blossoming, the policeman’s book-collecting friend is murdered.
To solve the mystery of why the victim was killed, and which of his rare books was taken, Wigan dives into the world of ‘runners’ and book collectors, where avid agents will gladly cut you for a first edition and then offer you a lift home afterwards. This adventurous mystery, which combines exuberant characters with a wonderfully realised depiction of the second-hand book market, is sure to delight bibliophiles and classic crime enthusiasts alike.“

📚 MAILBOX MONDAY 📚 

I received this book for review:

An Astronomer in Love

    Please check its presentation above.

Please share what books you just received at Mailbox Monday

📚📚📚

HAVE YOU READ ANY OF THESE BOOKS?
HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?
BE SURE TO LEAVE THE LINK TO YOUR POST

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The top 8 books to read in April 2023

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Here are
The top 8 books
I plan to read in April 2023

Here is a sample of what I am planning on reading this month, a nice mix of genres, of classics and review books.

📚 CURRENTLY READING 📚

Les trois mousquetaires

📚 Les Trois mousquetaires,
by Alexandre Dumas
Historical fiction
1844
896 pages
Reading with French student E.
It counts for The Classics Club

I have read this one decades ago.
I was really thrilled to revisit it when my French student E. expressed the desire to read it together.
As usual, I’m getting so much more out of it than when I first read it.
First, a few years ago I reread Don Quijote, and it’s fun to see the parallels, especially at the beginning of the book.
And as usual when I reread classics, I see so much humor that I didn’t see back then. At least in the first 10% I have reread so far, this is totally hilarious, at so many levels.
It should keep us busy for close to three months.

I am also currently reading:

  • Why Read The Classics? by Italo Calvino
  • L’Arabe du futur #2 : Une jeunesse au Moyen-Orient, 1984-1985, by Riad Sattouf (with French student F. We are planning to read the 6 volumes)
  • Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind, by  Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou (slow weekly reading with the catechumens of my Orthodox parish)
  • The Transfiguration of Christ in Greek Patristic Literature from Irenaeus of Lyons to Gregory Palamas, by Christopher Veniamin

📚 READING NEXT 📚

Hag's Nook📚Hag’s Nook (Dr. Gideon Fell #1),
by John Dickson Carr
Mystery
1932
161 pages
It counts for The Classics Club

This is the book I got for Classic Spin #33.
And finally be my first book by John Dickson Carr.
He wrote 23 books in this series, so who knows if it may be another good series?

In his detecting debut, larger than life lexicographer Dr. Gideon Fell is entertaining young American college graduate Tad Rampole at Yew Cottage, Fell’s charming home in the English countryside.
Within sight of his study window is the ruin of Chatterham Prison, perched high on a precipice known as Hag’s Nook. The prison’s land belongs to the Starberth family—whose eldest sons must each spend an hour in the prison’s eerie “Governor’s Room” to inherit the family fortune.
Rampole is especially interested in the family, having met the young and beautiful Dorothy Starberth on the train from London. He readily agrees when Fell and the local reverend, Thomas Saunders, ask him to accompany them as they watch and wait for badly frightened Martin Starberth to complete ‘his hour’ in the prison.
Martin has every reason to be afraid; more than one Starberth heir has met an untimely end. Will his turn come tonight?

Descent into Hell

📚 Descent into Hell,
by Charles Wiiliams
Literary fiction/fantasy/Christianity
1937
208 pages
It counts for The Classics Club

This is the result of my jar pick.
And my first book by an Inkling I have yet to discover.

“In this provocative, classic metaphysical thriller, a group of suburban amateur actors plagued by personal demons and terrors explore the pathways to heaven and hell.
Certain inhabitants of Battle Hill, a small community on the outskirts of London, are preparing to mount a new play by the neighborhood’s most illustrious resident, the writer Peter Stanhope. Each actor struggles with self-absorption, doubt, fear, and sin. But “the Hill” is not like other places. Here the past and present intermingle, ghosts walk among the living, and reality is often clouded by dreams and the dark fantastic. For young Pauline Anstruther, who is caring for an aging grandmother and frightened by the specter of a doppelgänger who gets closer with each visitation, the prospect of heaven exists in the renowned playwright’s willingness to bear the burden of her terror. For eminent historian Lawrence Wentworth, the rejection of his desire pulls him deeper inside himself, leaving him vulnerable to the lure of the succubus and opening wide the entrance to hell.
A brilliant theological thriller, Descent into Hell is an extraordinary fictional meditation on sin and personal salvation by one of the twentieth century’s most original and provocative literary artists. Charles Williams, a member of the Inklings alongside fellow Oxfordians C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Owen Barfield, has written a powerful work at once profoundly disturbing and gloriously uplifting, an ingenious amalgam of metaphysics, religious thought, and darkest fantasy.

Hide and Geek

📚 Hide and Geek (Hide and Geek #1),
by T.P. Jagger
Mystery / Middlegrade
Jan 4, 2022
320 pages

This is the random book from the titles I added to my TBR last month.
Don’t you love the title? That’s what attracted me to the book in the first place.

“A puzzlemaker’s last clue. A friendship’s last chance.
The GEEKs:
Gina, Edgar, Elena, and Kevin have been best friends for as long as they can remember. So when their arch-nemesis points out that their initials make them literally GEEKs, they decide to go with it.
The problem:
The GEEKs’ hometown of Elmwood was once the headquarters of the famous toymaker Maxine Van Houten. Her popular puzzle sphere, the Bamboozler, put the town on the map. But Maxine passed away long ago. Now the toy factory is shutting down, and Elena’s mom and Kevin’s dad are losing their jobs. They might have to move–and that would mean splitting up the GEEKs!
The quest:
Maxine left one final puzzle, a treasure hunt that could save the town and keep the friends together. But only those who know and love Elmwood best will be able to solve it. GEEKs to the rescue!”

Skin Deep

📚 Skin Deep
by Antonia Lassa
Translated by Jacky Collins
Llevar en la piel
was first published in Spanish in 2023
Mystery
To be published on 4/30/2023
by Corylus Books
136 pages
Epub received for review – book tour

“When police arrest eccentric loner Émile Gassiat for the murder of a wealthy woman in a shabby seaside apartment in Biarritz, Inspector Canonne is certain he has put the killer behind bars. Now he just needs to prove it.
But he hasn’t reckoned with the young man’s friends, who bring in lawyer-turned-investigator Larten to head for the desolate out-of-season south-west of France to dig deep into what really happened.
Larten’s hunt for the truth takes him back to the bustle of Paris as he seeks to demonstrate that the man in prison is innocent, despite all the evidence – and to uncover the true killer behind a series of bizarre murders.
Skin Deep is Antonia Lassa’s first novel to appear in English.”

A History of the Island

📚 A History of the Island,
by Eugene Vodolazkin
Translated by Lisa C. Hayden
Оправдание Острова
was first published in 2020
Historical fiction
To be published on May 23, 2023
by Plough Publishing
320 pages
Ebook received rhough Netgalley

I was very impressed by Laurus, by the same author, and it seems this is some kind of sequel.

“Monks devious and devout – and an age-defying royal pair – chronicle the history of their fictional island in this witty critique of Western civilization and history itself.
Eugene Vodolazkin, internationally acclaimed novelist and scholar of medieval literature, returns with a satirical parable about European and Russian history, the myth of progress, and the futility of war.
This ingenious novel, described by critics as a coda to his bestselling Laurus, is presented as a chronicle of an island from medieval to modern times. The island is not on the map, but it is real beyond doubt. It cannot be found in history books, yet the events are painfully recognizable. The monastic chroniclers dutifully narrate events they witness: quests for power, betrayals, civil wars, pandemics, droughts, invasions, innovations, and revolutions. The entries mostly seem objective, but at least one monk simultaneously drafts and hides a “true” history, to be discovered centuries later.

And why has someone snipped out a key prophesy about the island’s fate?
These chronicles receive commentary today from an elderly couple who are the island’s former rulers. Prince Parfeny and Princess Ksenia are truly extraordinary: they are now 347 years old. Eyewitnesses to much of their island’s turbulent history, they offer sharp-eyed observations on the changing flow of time and their people’s persistent delusions. Why is the royal couple still alive? Is there a chance that an old prophecy comes to pass and two righteous persons save the island from catastrophe?
In the tradition of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, Julian Barnes’s A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, and Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant, Vodolazkin is at his best recasting history, in all its hubris and horror, by finding the humor in its absurdity.

For readers with an appetite for more than a dry, rational, scientific view of what motivates, divides, and unites people, A History of the Island conjures a world still suffused with mystical powers.”

🎧 CURRENT AND NEXT AUDIOBOOKS 🎧

Babel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

🎧 Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence:
An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution,
by R. F. Kuang
Fantasy / Historical fiction
8/23/2022
544 pages
22 hours
Narrated by Chris Lew Kum Hoi

I have a couple more hours of this one, very impressive!

“1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world’s center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.
For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .”

🎧  The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy ,
(The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy #1),
by Douglas Adams
Science fiction
1979
216 pages
5H51
Narrated by Stephen Fry

Last time I tried this, I gave up, not sure why, as I enjoy a lot scifi.
Let’s try this again, in audio this time.

“Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.
Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide (“A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have”) and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox–the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod’s girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.
Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time between wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don’t forget to bring a towel!”

Eiffel Tower Orange

HAVE YOU READ OR ARE YOU PLANNING TO READ
ANY OF THESE?
WHAT ARE YOUR READING PLANS FOR APRIL?

https://linktr.ee/wordsandpeace

Sunday Post #83 – 03/19/2023

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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      Mailbox Monday2

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

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

Click on the logos to join the memes

Nothing really special this week, except I am happy I managed to find the time, in the midst of lots of hours of teaching (French, online), to finish the lecture I’ll be giving to the sisterhood at my church on March 25.
And one result of exhaustion is reading more manga and comics!

I only posted once since last Sunday:

📚JUST READ/LISTENED TO 🎧 

Arvo Pärt_Out of Silence

📚 Arvo Pärt: Out of Silence,
by Peter C. Bouteneff
Published in 2015
231 pages
Nonfiction / Biography / Music / Eastern Orthodoxy

This was really excellent.
I really enjoyed how the author closely connected Arvo’s art with Orthodox theology.
Though his section of tintinnabuli could have been a bit clearer.
I discovered so many layers in his music I didn’t know were there.
Definitely making me want to relisten to so many pieces.
I wrote a review, with excerpts.

Éclipses japonaises📚 Éclipses japonaises,
by Éric Faye
2016
240 pages
Historical fiction

I finished this one late Saturday night, so I haven’t had time to write a review.
This is an excellent and quite eye-opening historical novel focusing on (mostly Japanese) people kidnapped and taken to North Korea, to use them as teachers to teach Korean spies to speak and behave as real Japanese people.
And possibly to perform some “special missions.”
This is very good, and it confirms I need to read more books by the author of Nagasaki.

Department of Mind Blowing Theories

📚 Department of
Mind-blowing Theories,
by Tom Gauld
2020
160 pages
Comics / Humor/ Science

This author/illustrator is absolutely amazing!
This time, this is not about authors/books/editors, but about science, all kinds of sciences, and all kinds of invention.
It’s both so hilarious and so smartly done, plus the illustrations are fabulous.
Very neat and detailed, the type of art I really enjoy.

Baking With Kafka

 

📚 Baking With Kafka,
by Tom Gauld
2017
160 pages
Comics / Humor/ Book about books

Maybe I like this volume slightly less than the others, because it’s not on one particular theme. And I’m afraid there are a few pages I actually didn’t understand.
Still, it’s always great to open a book by Tom Gaud: I love his humor (here on books, pop culture, and various themes) and his beautiful art is totally on target for the messages he wants to convey.
This is the kind of books I would love to own and revisit often, but I’m fortunate that my public library is walking distance from my house!
If you want to give a beautiful and smart book, Tom’s books are gold, lol.

Astra lost in Space 5

 

📚 Astra Lost in Space, #5
by Kenta Shinohara
彼方のアストラ 5
was originally published in 2018
Translated from the Japanese by
Adrienne Beck
12/4/2018, by VIZ Media LLC
288 pages
Manga / Science-fiction

Oh wow, this was a fabulous series.
I really enjoy all the events, discoveries, revelations of the last volume, and how things turned out at the end.
This is a very positive series, illustrating the difficult stages of growing up, but how a group of friends can stick together to make it eaier and even enjoyable – even if some pain is involved.
It’s also about finding one’s own identity, and learning to think – which may imply not always taking for granted what adults have told us.
There are very few books these days inviting people to think, this was refreshing.
There’s also the hope that newer generations could find better solutions to major problems than what previous generations did.
I also loved all the scifi and scientific details.
My only regret: this is already the last book in the series.
Shinohara says it’s the first time he writes scifi manga, he should definitely keep going, plus the last pages make me hope more discoveries could be in store for at least a couple of the main characters.

What's Michael Fatcat collection 1📚  What’s Michael?:
Fatcat Collection Volume 1,
by Makoto Kobayashi
Volumes 1-6
originally published 1990-2000
Translated from the Japanese by
Alan Gleason &  Hisashi Kotobuki
2/25/2020, by Dark Horse Manga
528 pages
Manga / Cats / Humor

This is a great collection of the first 6 volumes of the What’s Michael? manga series – though this collection is not presented in the usual manga manner, in the sense that you read it as a Western book, from left to right.
It’s full of hilarious details on cats’ personalities and quirky behavior, and common scenes for cat owners.
There are really funny passages, like with these 2 tough Yakuza members: Yakuza K has a cat, but works hard to hide the fact from his rival Yakuza M, for fear of looking too weak or sentimental.
The drawings are so well done, very detailed and with clean lines.
Every cat owner should have this book!
I hope to be able to read volume 2 of the fatcat collection soon.

Not done yet with my long but fabulous current audio – see below.

📚  CURRENTLY READING/LISTENING TO 🎧 

Why Read the Classics📚 Why Read The Classics?
by Italo Calvino
Perché leggere i classici
was published in 1991
306 pages
Nonfiction / Book on Books

Hmm, I don’t think I have read any pages from this one this week, too tired I guess.
Though it’s really good
and I’ll definitely keep going.

I am currently reading the essay on Orlando furioso, an Italian epic poem by Ariosto (early 16th century).

L'Arabe du future #1📚 L’Arabe du futur :
Une jeunesse au Moyen-Orient, 1978–1984
(L’Arabe du futur, #1)
by Riad Sattouf
Published in 2014
158 pages
Available in English as
The Arab of the Future:
A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984
French nonfiction / Graphic novel / Memoir / History
Reading with French student F.

Almost done with this one. Really fascinating to see the evolution of his father’s ideas, as he decides to take his young family back to Syria.
Some scenes of daily life are quite appaling!

“The Arab of the Future, the #1 French best-seller, tells the unforgettable story of Riad Sattouf’s childhood, spent in the shadows of 3 dictators—Muammar Gaddafi, Hafez al-Assad, and his father.
In striking, virtuoso graphic style that captures both the immediacy of childhood and the fervor of political idealism, Riad Sattouf recounts his nomadic childhood growing up in rural France, Gaddafi’s Libya, and Assad’s Syria–but always under the roof of his father, a Syrian Pan-Arabist who drags his family along in his pursuit of grandiose dreams for the Arab nation.

 

Babel 🎧  Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence:
An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution,
by R. F. Kuang
8/23/2022
544 pages
22 hours
Narrated by Chris Lew Kum Hoi
Fantasy / Historical fiction

OMG, I can see now why all the hype on this one, and definitely well deserved!
I love linguistics, and I almost made it my career, so there’s so much to enjoy for me in this book.
I love all the explanations, examples between languages, and data on research.
The author did an awesome job at finding a fantasy element that would fit with languages and with world history – here the growth and decline of the Birtish Empire. A very brilliant idea.
And the characters are so well described, you can’t but feel with them.
I’m glad I decided to listen to it, the narrator Chris Lew Kum Hoi is excellent, plus other voices insert words pronounced correctly in various foreign languages. This is unusual in an audio production and so so refreshing!

📚  BOOK UP NEXT 📚 

Les trois mousquetaires📚 Les trois mousquetaires,
by Alexandre Dumas
1844
896 pages
Historical fiction
I’ll be reading it with French student E.
It counts for The Classics Club

I read this novel a few decades ago, and at this point, I was actually not considering rereading it.
But my French student E. thought it would be good for her to read it, as she bumped into so many references to this novel.
I’m actually delighted to revisit it with her!

“Alexandre Dumas’s most famous tale— and possibly the most famous historical novel of all time.
This swashbuckling epic of chivalry, honor, and derring-do, set in France during the 1620s, is richly populated with romantic heroes, unattainable heroines, kings, queens, cavaliers, and criminals in a whirl of adventure, espionage, conspiracy, murder, vengeance, love, scandal, and suspense.
Dumas transforms minor historical figures into larger- than-life characters: the Comte d’Artagnan, an impetuous young man in pursuit of glory; the beguilingly evil seductress “Milady”; the powerful and devious Cardinal Richelieu; the weak King Louis XIII and his unhappy queen—and, of course, the three musketeers themselves, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, whose motto “all for one, one for all” has come to epitomize devoted friendship. With a plot that delivers stolen diamonds, masked balls, purloined letters, and, of course, great bouts of swordplay, The Three Musketeers is eternally entertaining.”

📚  LAST BOOK ADDED TO MY GOODREADS TBR 📚 

 

Fenêtres sur le Japon

📚 Fenêtres sur le Japon : ses écrivains et cinéastes, by Éric Faye
2021
330 pages
Nonfiction

I did mention above how I definitely wanted to read more books by Faye.
So I added this one to my TBR: a portrait of old and new Japan, through its famous authors and movies. Perfect for me.

📚 MAILBOX MONDAY 📚 

A History of the Island

📚 A History of the Island, by Eugene Vodolazkin
Оправдание Острова was first published in 2020
Translated from the Russian by Lisa C. Hayden
To be published on May 23, 2023 by Plough Publishing
320 pages
Historical fiction

I enjoyed a lot Laurus, so when I discovered there was a type of sequel, to be soon published in English, and that it was available through Netgalley, I didn’t hesitate.
My thanks to the publisher!

“Monks devious and devout – and an age-defying royal pair – chronicle the history of their fictional island in this witty critique of Western civilization and history itself.
Eugene Vodolazkin, internationally acclaimed novelist and scholar of medieval literature, returns with a satirical parable about European and Russian history, the myth of progress, and the futility of war.
This ingenious novel, described by critics as a coda to his bestselling Laurus, is presented as a chronicle of an island from medieval to modern times. The island is not on the map, but it is real beyond doubt. It cannot be found in history books, yet the events are painfully recognizable. The monastic chroniclers dutifully narrate events they witness: quests for power, betrayals, civil wars, pandemics, droughts, invasions, innovations, and revolutions. The entries mostly seem objective, but at least one monk simultaneously drafts and hides a “true” history, to be discovered centuries later. And why has someone snipped out a key prophesy about the island’s fate?
These chronicles receive commentary today from an elderly couple who are the island’s former rulers. Prince Parfeny and Princess Ksenia are truly extraordinary: they are now 347 years old. Eyewitnesses to much of their island’s turbulent history, they offer sharp-eyed observations on the changing flow of time and their people’s persistent delusions. Why is the royal couple still alive? Is there a chance that an old prophecy comes to pass and two righteous persons save the island from catastrophe?
In the tradition of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, Julian Barnes’s A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters, and Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant, Vodolazkin is at his best recasting history, in all its hubris and horror, by finding the humor in its absurdity. For readers with an appetite for more than a dry, rational, scientific view of what motivates, divides, and unites people, A History of the Island conjures a world still suffused with mystical powers.

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