3/5
I really liked the historical parts about the Holodomor, the man-made famine in Eastern Ukraine orchestrated by Stalin. It's a subject I knew nothing about, and quite depressing to read. To counterbalance this, the author brings us back to the present, but unfortunately does a pretty bad job with conveying feelings. The present parts read like a Hallmark movie...

4/5
In this short book (90 pages), Annie Ernaux recounts the life of her mother, a woman with ambition, who like her daughter, changed social status (one of the major theme of Annie Ernaux).
Ernaux's writing is very factual, bare, distanced. Some parts read like photographs, a description of a short moment in life.
Another theme: mother-daughter relationship in this context of socio-economical growth.

Here is my current read with my favorite chocolates from France, and a glass of chai with my homemade chai concentrate! I started with three bottles of water, I added ten bags of Bengal spice herbal tea, then I filled out three tea bags with black pepper, cloves, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon and cayenne pepper... The result: two bottles of chai concentrate and a little extra for two cups of chai. And, it's quite spicy 🔥🔥 Just like I like it.

Usually, I'm not a fan of feel good books as they tend to be very cheesy. But this one I very much liked. I enjoyed how Libby Page writes about time passing. It's a book filled with nostalgia which also talks about what a community is made of. Well written, she's definitely written about what she knew, and it helped her staying away from clichés.

My current read ;)

Still have a lot of pages to read for my book club tomorrow morning... But with a warm chai, I should be able to make it.

And you, what is your current read?

Striking art in black and red, unfortunately the story didn't work for me... The references to the mythology aren't integrated well to the plotline. It's actually hard to make sense of this graphic novel: the plot itself, but also the message the author wanted to pass on.

3.5/5
Short feel good novel.
Guylain's job is destroying books. Each morning, in the RER heading for work, he reads out loud random sheets that escaped the destructive machine.
We follow Guylain, the atypical characters he meets.
Overall, an interesting and somewhat funny read.

#wondrouswednesday @eggs

- Paperback for convenience
- Fiction in French, but nonfiction in English
- Historical fiction, but world fiction would be my favorite, love to travel through books
- I like reading classics, but I actually read more recent releases...
- 100% tea
- 100% physical books
- Print, I just can't do audiobooks

Currently reading tagged book... 65 pages in, not sure where the writer wants to take me...

3/5
Étienne Klein recounts his search to discover what came of Ettore Majorana, a brilliant physicist who chose to disappear in 1938. Suicide, new life? Klein covers Majorana's impact in the field of physics, how he's still quite relevant today.
Despite Klein's efforts to simplify the science, I must admit having been lost in some parts because I don't have the basics...
Overall, Klein brushes an interesting portrait of a complicated man.

Quick read about Sophia Glock's teenage years spent living abroad because of her parents' job. Also about her difficulty dealing with the secrecy of their job.
The feeling of belonging nowhere expressed in this book is relatable, but I couldn't care less about her adolescent drama.

4/5
Interesting first book in a mystery series set in Ghana where modernity clashes with tradition and superstitions. In this first book, we get to know detective inspector Darko Dawson: his family, his past, his good and bad qualities. I'm quite curious about reading the next book in the series (on hold at my library).

Another excellent choice by #EuropaCollective
Very well written book about a dark time in our history, the Holocaust, and how it impacted the author and her family. Identity, antisemitism, loss, legitimacy are themes present in this book. When trying to find the author of the postcard, she actually learns about her lost relatives, she talked about their aspirations, which is quite touching. And the end... just a well-needed slap in the face.

3/5
Soft pick. Feel-good read with humorous parts, some rom-com, it could easily be the next Hallmark movie. I've read it at the beginning of March, and I had to read the summary to refresh my memory, so it didn't leave much of an impact... No wow effect, but an enjoyable read nonetheless. Perhaps some of you could choose it as a palate cleanser.

First tome in this manga series. It was an interesting read, and I'm definitely interested in the rest of the series. This tome focuses on the education of the future emperor of Japan, Showa Hirohito, in the early 1900s.

At around 100 pages from the end, I just had to bail...
I think the writing style is really what I didn't connect with. I couldn't enter into the story, I wasn't interested enough to know the end.

4/5
Excellent book about the rise of the ku klux klan in the 1920s. The author gives a lot of information about the creation of the klan, how they grew, how they organized, and focused mainly on Stephenson, aka the Grand Dragon: from his rise inside the movement, to his influence in American politics, and most importantly his debauchery, which will lead to his fall.

The subtitle is somewhat misleading... But it's well worth the reäd.

Morning hot chocolate... So good...

Programme of the day:
Morning - read
Afternoon - non-fiction bookclub
Night - read

The perfect day planned!

2/5 - Very light so-so
I would have preferred a story only focusing on the past, as the modern story is 1) a pseudo self-help disguised as fiction (a crisis in the marriage, she leaves to be alone, after not even a week, she's on the mend, all that peppered with self-analysis 🙄), and 2) highly unrealistic (in relation to the studies in Cambridge).
The story of the apothecary is interesting, but the end is... disappointing.

5/5
Excellent retelling of a Breton folktale.
It's a dark tale about the rise and fall of Ys with beautiful illustrations. I find it also to be a nuanced tale about power, with metaphors about all the sacrifices it may entail.

4/5
Very good historical fiction, well-written and well-researched.
I really enjoyed traveling through time, and learning more about Chinese history and eastern medicine. It's a very good story about friendship and about women supporting other women.
I feel like Lisa See really did her research to write a realistic historical fiction, which I appreciate.

2.5/5
Some interesting info, but I was quite put off by her way of looking at their life through our modern prism, and then explaining how it was at the time, these parts reading as if it was written for middle schoolers.
Also, what I see as a marketing ploy to sale more books by focusing only on the female siblings didn't work for me. Churchill's son is barely mentioned, and it would have been great to see the whole dynamic between the siblings.

3/5
During Lebanon civil war, Zeina and her brother wait for her parents to come back from visiting their grandmother. As the bombing grows in intensity, we are waiting with them & their neighbors. Tension is palpable, past events are shared, allowing us to get a little more acquainted with the neighbors.
Some illustrations worked well to express the tension. But the book shortness makes it harder to create a deep connection with the characters.

3/5
Dany Laferrière chronicles his first year in Quebec through short free verses. He evokes a lot of topics (weather, immigration, solitude, men/women relationships, integration, etc.), vignettes after vignettes, with the five senses very present throughout.
Overall, an interesting read.

3.5/5
In Seeing Red, we follow Lina whose bleeding in her eyes is making her blind. Doctor appointments, family worries, her relationship with her partner, her anguish, her fantasies, her hopes, her fears: we're witnessing it all.
Lina Meruane is very good at materializing a scene through her writing. This book is definitely an experience to be read.

Just finished the 4th of the novellas in the Murderbot series! Yeah. Overall, it's an entertaining series to read (didn't like much the 2nd one). I may try later the first novel in the series, but I actually liked that they were novellas... Probably because I'm not a big fan of sci-fi. But I'm curious about the evolution of Murderbot. We'll see, so many books I want to read.

A ceremony and a minute of silence are organized in memory of Stella Petersen, an English teacher at a highschool. During this ceremony, Christian, one of her students, remembers their story together, up to her accidental death.

Very well written, this short story is about loss, memories, first love, forbidden love. I liked the rhythm of the story, the coming back and forth. Overall a beautiful read.

2/5
- Badly structured, ideas not well organized
- Too much auto flagellation. Recognizing privileges is good, but here it's just too much, nearly caricatural
- What is the point of this book? Not clear. Her experience working at a public library is actually a small portion of this book...
- She points interesting issues, but her thought process seems unfinished, blurry.
This book is lacking on so many levels, wanted to bail...

#europacollective

I read it in French, not in English. Now, I have a reading list of mostly French books to read, yeah! Did the translator chose mostly English books? I see myself borrowing the book at my local library just to get the list of books, haha.

Loved the questions this book is asking: how would you curate your ideal bookstore? What constitutes a good book?

The past couple of years, I participated in a lot of book clubs, always trying to read the books. But looking back to my 2023 reading, I must confess being disappointed. So my New Year resolution is to only read books that I'm interested in.
This book, for example, I knew it wouldn't be a pick for me, and my instinct was correct for most of the books picked by my book clubs.
Now, I'm sure 2024 will be a more rewarding year for my reading.

Interesting plot, but I felt that some characters or parts of the plot were underdeveloped. It's well constructed, I see why the author chose the flashbacks and the different voices to write her book, but the end of the book (last 100 pages) seems rushed.
I don't think it's a story that'll stick with me. Mainstream/beach read category to me.

Who is Sankofa, that young girl who sometimes radiates a dangerous green light around her, and who kills any technology by just touching it?
Excellent novella, perfect for a book club as it deals with numerous themes (technology, guilt, society...). At my book club, a member asked what was the message of the book, but there isn't a clear one, I LOVE that, it's a book that will make you think, not one that's going to tell you how you should think.

First off, western isn't my cup of tea. The plot was okayish, but the ending of the book seemed rushed, quite unsatisfactory. My ending thought: "all this drama for that ending!?"

Excellent book that is not available in English (to my knowledge).

In a supermarket, Bertille asks Victor Kessler if he has time for a survey when he collapses and is brought to the hospital. In his bag, she discovers a handwritten confession about a 40 year old crime for which Kessler spent 30 years in jail. Was he guilty or innocent? Bertille launches into an investigation that won't only shed light on Victor's past.

Interesting book that offers food for thought and breaks some stereotypes about serial killers (notably the one about them being unable to stop). It also shows the real work of the police, the toll this exposure to violence can cause, and unfortunately how bad the judicial system is (petty competition between police forces, the underfunding of the justice system, etc.) It led to an interesting conversation in my book club 📚

It's getting addictive... You just want to know what happens next.

Rachel Smythe integrates very smoothly phones and social media into her stories, which actually few authors manage to do well. It's really a plus for me.

A lot of interesting themes too: sexual violence, toxic relationships, boundaries, love, friendship, etc.

As the title suggests, in this book, Catherine Millet recounts her sexual life, her experiences, but what makes this read quite interesting is that she reflects upon it. Images play a big role (she's an art critic after all). Definitely not for prudish people (orgies, public sex, swingers, etc.), I feel this book is to be read with no judgement, as an exploration of a world that is unknown to most of us.

I would have never picked this book if it weren't for a bookclub, and it was a good surprise (3.5).

It was an interesting read, well-written and well-constructed. Erin French shares with total honesty her journey that will finally lead her to create The Lost Kitchen in Freedom, Maine. She talks openly about her toxic marriage, about her drug abuse, and her nasty divorce.

It's a story of resilience, that may resonate with a lot of women.

Catching up on my reviews this morning with a chai. Today I'll be taking a relaxing day to read and relax after two weeks of crazy work.

I read this book for my French bookclub (meeting in San Antonio, TX), and as all poetry collections, some poems I liked more than others. The themes in these poems are Congo, exploitation, violence, immigration, among others.

The poems are well-written, accessible, and interesting to read.

As a reader who is not drawn to science-fiction, I feel this novella is a great introduction to the genre. I already checked out the other three novellas of the Murderbot Diaries ;)

The plot was interesting, it reads like an episode of a series. And most importantly, when finished, we want to read what comes next...

Excellent book

It's a scary dive into the world of undiagnosed diseases and misdiagnosis. Susannah Cahalan was privileged in her ordeal: she was well surrounded by her parents who had the financial means to cover whatever the insurance didn't cover, she went to a great hospital in New York. Without these, her outcome would have been very different.
She did a great job spreading awareness about a rare disease that wasn't actually that rare.

Soft pick

If you want to know more about the pétanque game, it's an interesting read.

Some mistakes in the French parts of the book 🙄 and it's important to note that his time in France was in the 90s, in a very touristy village.

Honestly, when one of my book club chose this book, I wasn't thrilled, and when I started reading it, I first thought that it would be bad, but surprisingly it wasn't. Of course, it remains in the "mainstream" category with some predictability, some clichés, the happy ending of course, but the plot was entertaining enough. The dog as a character was also a nice touch.

So-so read for me, some parts I found interesting, others not so much. Sometimes, I had problems following the story, trying to remember who is who...
A lot of small dramas in this book, a lot of drugs too, with characters making what seems to me to be very bad decisions...

What a great start for #EuropaCollective - 5/5

What does it mean to be the only survivor of a family massacre? How to live with being related to a man capable of such atrocities? How to make sense of such a tragedy? What could have been done differently? How to live with ghosts?

All these questions are present in this beautifully written book. Every word, every sentence rings right, feels true. This novel is a tour de force. It's just perfect.

3.5/5

Very good travelogue, very well-written touching on interesting subjects: traditions, poverty, crime, immigration, family, etc.

More than a travelogue, it's a book of encounters. Paul Theroux shares the stories of people he meets along the way.

It was a very slow read for me, I could only read a few pages at a time (not sure why). I loved when he referred to other books. The only thing missing for me was a map...

Reading time!!!

The book is ready, my spicy chai tea latte is ready, but is my brain ready!?

2/5

Disappointed. Some made me smile slightly, but overall I guess I was expecting more, or rather better, from it. Not my cup of tea...

Love the title though, haha 😆

If you want to escape present time, then pick up this book.

It was a pure pleasure to read. Willa Cather's writing is so beautiful, especially when she describes her surroundings.

It's a tale about immigration, multi-faceted, set in a harsh environment, but it's also a friendship story, a story about neighbors helping each other out. You'll witness the difficulties faced by the immigrants in the late 1800s, but also how resilient they were.

2/5

Quite disappointing. Despite very well written parts, the way the book was constructed made it hard to read and to follow the story.

The way the book was constructed was a disservice to the interesting themes presented in the book: expatriation, homecoming, the feeling of not belonging (especially for the future generations), etc.

Solid 3/5
Read during the month of August.
Do I remember the stories? No... but I remember finding them quite well written and well plotted. And most importantly, I remember having a good time ;)