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Dilara

Dilara

Joined July 2019

LibraryThing member Dilara86

TinyCat library

Literary fiction, poetry, social sciences, food, nature writing, art. Oh and cookbooks. All the cookbooks... #Litsolace #naturalitsy #foodandlit
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Dilara
Story of Hong Gildong | Minsoo Kang
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Our Korean meal was Ojingeo Bokkeum (Korean Spicy Stir-fried Squid), Korean Cucumber Salad (Oi Muchim), and kimchi from lidl (not buying it again - it was bland and seemed cooked, for some reason?) Will make everything again.

#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

batsy That's unfortunate about the kimchi, but all of that looks delicious! 23h
Catsandbooks Looks tasty! 🇰🇷 2h
35 likes2 comments
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Dilara
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“Faisant, dit-il, quelque effort en sautant, ses membres virils se produisirent : et est encore en usage entre les filles de là, une chanson, par laquelle elles s'entravertissent de ne faire point de grandes enjambées, de peur de devenir garçons“

16th-century philosopher Montaigne thought - as did other contemporaries - that too much jumping (or long walking strides), or thinking about it too much, could make a woman grow a penis. Easy!

Suet624 Wow. 2d
Soubhiville Uuhhhhhhh… 😂 2d
LiseWorks Oh really. Haha 😄 2d
bthegood 🤦‍♀️ 20h
31 likes5 comments
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Dilara
The Tiger: Ferocious Feline | Stphanie Ledu-Frattini
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And for something completely different from my current reads - a young children's non-fiction book about tigers. It was a chance find (1 euro second-hand), it's a bit tattered, but the content is perfectly pitched: neither too complex nor too babyish. I think I'll see if I can find others in the same series.

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Dilara
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A young heiress plays gender-bending domination games in life and in bed with a young working-class man, who's trapped and unwilling. I can see how revolutionary and subversive this is for a 1884 novel written by a then 24-year old female writer, but it is a bit of a slog for me: decadent, fin-de-siècle works aren't my cup of tea. I can see that it would appeal to others, as it did to Oscar Wilde, who made a hidden reference to it in Dorian Gray.

Bookwomble Thanks for the article link 😊🏳️‍⚧️ 2d
Dilara @Bookwomble You're welcome!
And now that I think of it, this book's author - Rachilde - was a cross-dresser. She had a certificate from the Paris police allowing her to dress as a man in public places. She was safe in a way that Fanny and Stella weren't - because she had money and connections.
2d
Bookwomble @Dilara Money and connections are a shield for most things society (rightly or wrongly) chooses to censure 😒 2d
32 likes1 stack add4 comments
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Dilara
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Thank you Wikipedia for this useful graph recapping the various right-wing parties found in France from the 19th to the 21st century. The tagged book is very enlightening, but it's easy to get confused between all the different names and flavours of nationalism and economic liberalism. Also, the chapters on the thirties are scary - I can see parallels between now and then...

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Dilara
Les deux Beune: roman | Pierre Michon (romancier).)
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Oh look, a book where “it“/“this“ is used for a woman, described as if she was livestock for sale. I'll read on to see if that is due to the character's voice, or the writer's, but I am not impressed.

#Dordogne

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Dilara
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A non-fiction graphic work about the former workers' neighbourhood of Annikki in Tampere (#Finland) that's both informative and graphically creative, with a wide range of styles. Loved the art. Slighly sad that the solution to save the old houses was to have them bought and done up by arty newcomers, displacing former poor(er) residents. #gentrification

Will definitely read more by Tiitu Takalo

Photo by Eino Ansio: Annikki Poetry Festival 2018

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Dilara
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Just started this - very happy about it so far!

#Finland

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Dilara
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Apparently, it's World Book Day today! Anybody sending their child off to school dressed up as a character from a book? I feel I am missing out: my child is an adult and my grandchild is too young, LOL. (Although to be fair, admiring cute dressed-up children is a lot less stressful than actually devising a costume and getting them ready in the morning!)
https://www.worldbookday.com/

#WorldBookDay

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Dilara
The Nine Cloud Dream | Kim Man-Jung
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Gochujang chicken, stir-fried leek and rice. Very nice 😁
I haven't started The Nine Cloud Dream, and I'm not sure I'll manage to before the end of the month, but I did read another Korean book last week: The Story of Hong Gildong

#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Texreader Yum!!! 2w
Catsandbooks Looks great! 🇰🇷 2w
TheBookHippie Yummmmm. 2w
44 likes3 comments
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Dilara
Moss | Klaus Modick
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Spring has sprung! At least in vases, because in the fruit bowl, we're still firmly in winter. I could buy hothouse strawberries but I'd rather wait for the local ones.
And I started Moss yesterday. I didn't do it on purpose, but this is my 5th book originally written in German since the start of the year - more than any other language bar French and English.

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Dilara
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Following a post by LolaWalser on LT, I read The Old Lady Comes to Call in preparation for watching Djibril Diop Mambéty's 1992 film Hyenas, where Dürrenmatt's play is seamlessly transposed to Senegal. I can recommend both warmly.

Jari-chan How interesting! I need to check if our library has this movie. 2w
Dilara @Jari-chan I hope it does! 2w
Jari-chan @Dilara I checked, and sadly they don't 😢 I might ask them to get it, if that's still possible 🙏 2w
23 likes3 comments
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Dilara
Story of Hong Gildong | Minsoo Kang
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I finished the Story of Hong Gildong, a classic tale first written by anonymous Korean authors in the 19th c. It relates the woes, adventures and rise to power of the son of a high-born minister and his lowly concubine. The story was very interesting for its cultural/historical insights (Kang Minsoo's translation, notes and introduction are invaluable), but I can't say I was taken by Hong Gildong as a hero.

#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Dilara Ambitious young men and boys who feel their worth is not being recognised might feel some kind of kinship with Hong Gildong.

#SouthKorea #Korea
(edited) 3w
Catsandbooks Terrific! 🇰🇷 2w
TheBookHippie How wonderful. It looks good. 2w
35 likes1 stack add3 comments
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Dilara
Story of Hong Gildong | Minsoo Kang
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I am all set for #FoodandLit in #SouthKorea in March! And in #Venezuela in April 😁
I must say the animé-type illustration on the cover of a classic work is rather disconcerting, but then the hero is compared to Robin Hood, and I can think of plenty of cartoon representations of him, so...

@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Texreader Nice way to get prepared!! 3w
Catsandbooks Yay! 👏🏼 ❤️ 3w
42 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Dilara
Que notre joie demeure | Kevin Lambert
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I am reading Que notre joie demeure, Kevin Lambert's latest, multiple prize-winning novel, and I have been so confused by his use of the word “plusieurs“ I had to google “plusieurs + québecisme + définition“ to get to the bottom of this. 😂 Here's what the Office québécois de la langue française has to say. Now I know that “plusieurs“ means “some“ or “several“ in Europe, but can be used to mean “many“ in #Québec. Live and learn...

LiseWorks I could have told you that as I'm a French Canadian lol 3w
IuliaC This is good to know. I had no idea it could also mean "many" 3w
Kitta Learned French in Canada and yes we use this to mean some/many lol 3w
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Dilara @LiseWorks lol, I'll think of you next time I am bewildered by a Canadian French turn of phrase 😁 3w
Dilara @IuliaC Two nations divided by a common language 😜 3w
Dilara @Kitta Ah just rub it in, why don't you 😂 3w
IuliaC @Dilara 😂👍 3w
kwmg40 Interesting comment! I'm an Anglophone who grew up in Quebec, and while I can read novels in French (albeit slowly), I still struggle with vocabulary. However, I tend to have trouble with French books from France and not so much with French Canadian books. 3w
Kitta @dilara haha my French is terrible but this word I know!! I want to start reading in French again though. I‘ll try and hit up the French bookstore here! 3w
27 likes1 stack add9 comments
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Dilara
The Last Summer | Ricarda Huch
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Turgeniev and Chekhov loom large in this epistolary novella written by a German author, but set in Russia at the turn of the 20th century, at a time of social unrest, when university students were revolutionaries and the upper class held the lower classes in easy contempt. Every character is self-absorbed but thinks they're more observant than the others. I wanted to knock their heads together 😂
Peirene Press always make interesting choices

Dilara Photo of Turgeniev's estate by Сергей Свердлов, via Wikimedia Commons 4w
Crazeedi I can still sound out the Cyrillic words!! 4w
Dilara @Crazeedi Oh good! I copy-pasted the author's name mentioned with the photo because attribution is important, but since I can't read Cyrillic letters, I really hoped it was a real, non-inappropriate, name 😊 4w
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Crazeedi Sérgei Svedliov is the English.( Roll the rrrrrrr's ) 4w
Crazeedi Sverdliov (forgot the r) 4w
Dilara @Crazeedi Thanks! 4w
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Dilara
Le miroir de l'oubli | ???? ????????? ??????, Youri Rytkhou
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This might be my favourite Rytkheu to date, although Unna is also very special to me. It is a novel, but you can tell he is working through personal stuff: the constraints of being a writer in the USSR, your work falling out of fashion, forgotten people, racial prejudice, the way the Russian/USSR system put minorities back in their place, alcoholism, & of course, Chukotka!
I wish the minority authors he mentions were available in translation

Dilara I'll definitely be reading more from him, preferably from his later years, when he could write more freely

photo of St Petersburg's Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, mentioned in the book, by Ad Meskens via Wikimedia

BTW, the book's description is not quite accurate: the MC (a Chukchi writer) does not slide into alcoholism & alienation. He kicks the habit and I got the feeling his regular returns to Chukotka gave some balance to his life.
(edited) 4w
31 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Dilara
Les fruits du soleil | Dominique Mwankumi
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A children's picture book with lush illustrations. This one is a very good non-fiction about exotic fruit (exotic to Europeans, that is), written & illustrated by Dominique Mwankumi, an author originally from the #DemocraticRepublicOfTheCongo shortlisted 5 years in a row for the #AstridLindgrenMemorialAward. Given the number of copies of his various books in my local library network, he is well-known & loved, but I've only discovered him recently.

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Dilara
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What a delightful book about a grandmother who crosses the jungle to go see her daughter and grandchildren! I read it online on everand, but will buy the paper version for the grandkid. I think it will speak to her just as much as it spoke to me.

#India

batsy Lovely artwork 😍 1mo
Dilara @batsy Isn't it just! 1mo
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Dilara
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This is clearly the author's PhD thesis, and so far, not as informative as I'd hoped, but as I've only read 1/4, it might still change. It is centered on 6 French female translators of the Renaissance, only 1 of whom I'd read before, & 1 I'd heard of.

Picture of Anne de Graville offering her translation of Boccaccio's Teseida to Queen Claude of France, from Graville's wikipedia page

32 likes1 stack add
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Dilara
Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman | Friedrich Christian Delius, Delius
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The mother is the heavily-pregnant bride of a Lutheran pastor and somewhat reluctant nazi soldier. She is stuck in Rome in 1943, looked after by the local German community, while her husband has been unexpectedly sent to fight in Africa. She is very young, ignorant and evidently torn between her jingoism and her religious values. She was 1 of the most annoying characters I've encountered these last few months, but I also felt pity for her.

Dilara photo from https://www.romanjews.com/gold-of-rome-incredible-story-nazi-occupation/
The book is set when fascist Italy and nazi Germany were allies, some 6 months before Italy called for an armistice and the nazis descended on the country (and the photo above was taken, presumably).
1mo
22 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Dilara
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A young man feels hard done by because he can't find work or love. He despises his father (too servile, too poor!), women and the world in general. He falls hook, line & sinker for an unnamed fascist/nazi ideology and volunteers as a soldier. The sense of pride and comradeship he gets from it won't last, however.
So much of what this book published in 1938 describes is applicable today to the alt-right/incel community it's scary.

JenniferEgnor Fascists look for vulnerabilities and use that as a way to get in. I‘ve seen a lot of people that were once in it who are now out, say that that is what happened to them. Mr. Vile will be in Charleston tonight and I wonder how many open Nazis will be in his audience. 1mo
Dilara @JenniferEgnor I really hope Mr. Vile gets stopped in his tracks. The fact that you know people who were in and are now out gives me hope. 1mo
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Dilara
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Apparently, this is how gay men are born in Brittany? 😂

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Dilara
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And the poem's missing lines on the next page:

Then a lion came prowling out of the jungle and ate the feminist all up.

So true for so many women, it's almost painful

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Dilara
Rossignol | Audrey Pleynet
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Having just queued up in the cold for 50 minutes to be in the public of a radio show - all for nothing, I did not get it - before walking 40 minutes home, I am ready for my #Litsolace Sunday #Hyggehour! @TheBookHippie @Chrissyreadit @AllDebooks

On the flip side, I read the 1st 50 pages of my book while waiting in line, and I got some exercise 😇 And now, I get to curl up with a cup of Christmas Roiboos and an SF novel by a new author.

TheBookHippie What a beautiful cover!!! 1mo
Dilara @TheBookHippie I agree! This is what drew me to the book 😁 1mo
AllDebooks Wow, gorgeous photo x 1mo
See All 8 Comments
catsuit_mango Les couvertures de la collection Une heure lumière sont toutes magnifiques :) 1mo
Dilara @catsuit_mango ça m'intrigue. C'est la première que je vois : je vais faire un tour sur Internet en trouver d'autres... 1mo
Dilara @catsuit_mango Merci pour le lien : les couvertures sont effectivement très belles 1mo
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Dilara
Les sourds: roman | Rodrigo Rey Rosa
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Crime and disappearances in #Guatemala, a country where corruption is rife and income disparities are breathtaking. I have read the first 2/3 of this novel by one of the best-known contemporary Guatemalan authors, and am loving it so far.

Photo of lake Atitlán (which features in the story) by FerociousFlaherty via wikimedia

34 likes2 stack adds
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Dilara
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#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

We had a #NewZealand lunch today:
- Homemade fish and chips (not pictured). Apparently, it's as much a thing over there as in the UK, and once I'd mentioned it, any other possibility (boil-up...) was immediately downvoted 😮
- And for dessert, a homemade pineapple, kiwi and kumquat pavlova, which looks a mess but was delicious 😋
Still enjoying the tagged poetry collection.

Catsandbooks Oh yum!!! 🇳🇿 1mo
38 likes1 comment
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Dilara
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The most cheffy cookbook on foraged herbs I've ever read... It weighs a ton, too! I might steal a few ideas - especially the basic techniques (herb oils, flavoured sugars...) explained at the end - but I am unlikely to follow a recipe in its entirety...

Crazeedi So it's herbs you find in ones fields and woods? I walk and identify so many on our farm 1mo
Dilara @Crazeedi Yes, that's exactly it! Do you eat any of them? 1mo
Crazeedi @Dilara I mostly use for medicinal purposes 1mo
35 likes1 stack add3 comments
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Dilara
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Haka by Apirana Taylor, a poem found in the tagged book, and which could only come from #NewZealand

when I hear the haka
i feel it in my bones
and in my wairua
the call of my tipuna
flashes like lightning
up and down my spine
it makes my eyes roll
and my tongue flick
it is the dance
of earth and sky
the rising sun
and the earth shaking
it is the first breath of life
eeeee aaa ha haaa

#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Catsandbooks ❤️🇳🇿 1mo
36 likes1 comment
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Dilara
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It's been 7 years almost to the day since my mother passed away, but this poem still made me tear up.

MrsMalaprop Beautiful 🥹 1mo
IuliaC Soul-stirring 🤍 1mo
27 likes2 comments
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Dilara
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Here's my first #Litsolace post! Pancakes are traditional for Candlemas/Imbolc where I live, so dinner was a spicy tomato and carrot soup, followed by 2 pancakes with strawberry preserve 😁

@TheBookHippie @Chrissyreadit @AllDebooks

TheBookHippie Yummmmmmm 1mo
AllDebooks Yummy 😋 1mo
Chrissyreadit ohhhh yum! 1mo
35 likes3 comments
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Dilara
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My public library's #NewZealand shelf is rather bare. I brought back this coffee-table book. The photos are nice, the text is unclear and uninspiring, the book's subtitle is misleading.

#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Catsandbooks Aw that's disappointing 1mo
Dilara @Catsandbooks It's fine, really. I didn't have high expectations to start with, and I enjoyed looking at the photographs 😁. 1mo
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Dilara
By Night the Mountain Burns | Juan Tomas Avila Laurel
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About halfway-through this novel by a Avila Laurel, a writer from #EquatorialGuinea, and I am sucked in 💜

Photo of Annobón island, which I suspect is where the novel is set, from Wikipedia, where I read the following fury-inducing info ⬇

Dilara According to many different sources, there is evidence of large-scale dumping of toxic waste on the remote island of Annobón, at least during the 1980s and 1990s. The German edition of Der Spiegel on 28 August 2006 reported that the government of Equatorial Guinea sold permits to UK and US companies to bury 10 million metric tons of toxic waste and 7 million metric tons of radioactive waste on the island of Annobón. [...] 2mo
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Dilara
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Huacos are potteries left in pre-Columbian burial sites, too often pillaged by Europeans “explorers“ and “archeologists“ such as the author's great-grandfather. Gabriela Wiener does not look like her French/Austrian ancestor: her face is reminiscent of huacos, in colour & features. In this autofiction, she writes about family & world history, her personal life, relationships, racism, colourism, decolonialism & sex.

Dilara It's the kind of book that can become cult, but it wasn't really for me - too much drama, not enough depth.
Loved the cover, though!

#Peru
(edited) 2mo
sarahbarnes It is a great cover! 2mo
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Dilara
Posie et chanson brsiliennes | Aline Ahond, Claire Chevalier-Leibovitz
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Pickpick

A fully-illustrated collection of Brazilian poems and songs, nominally for children, but not really. I don't think the editor/translator's tastes align with mine, but I enjoyed the art.

#poetry #Brazil

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Dilara
Nord profond | Olav Hkonson Hauge, Franois Graveline
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A good poem
must smell of tea.
Or raw earth
and freshly-cut wood.

(free English translation of the French translation of the Norwegian original 😁)

#Norway #poetry

bthegood 🙂 🙂 2mo
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Dilara
Marie Claire | Marguerite Audoux
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I gave up on Giraut de Bornelh.
Instead, I am inhaling Marie-Claire (the 1910 novel that inspired the famous magazine's title). And as Marie-Claire has been hired out to a farm in the Sologne region of France, where she looks after the sheep, here's a personal photo of Solognot sheep (they're the light caramel-coloured ones at the back) 😁

Dilara And what do you know, the English translation is available on Project Gutenberg, with an introduction by Arnold Bennett, no less! 🤗 2mo
Ruthiella I had no idea the magazine was inspired by a novel! Interesting. 🤔 2mo
Dilara @Ruthiella I didn't either until I picked up L'atelier de Marie-Claire (the sequel to Marie-Claire) a couple of years ago. I still don't know what the exact connection is between the two... (edited) 2mo
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Dilara
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What a wonderful novella this is! Full of descriptions of #Kerala's natural world. It is somewhat edifying, possibly even condescending (it was written in 1951 and things have moved on since then), but counterbalanced by humour and the type of characters we love to hate.
Originally translated from Malayalam for UNESCO's collection of representative literary works

Photo from tourmyindia.com

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Dilara
Les Chants de Giraut de Bornelh, Troubadour Du XII Sicle | Giraut (de Borneil), Georges Peyrebrune
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Another book for my #Dordogne challenge: 12th-century troubadour Giraut de Bornehl's cantos, in the original medieval #Occitan, with a word-by-word translation into modern French and comments. Giraut/Guiraut/Guirault de Bornelh/Borneil is mentioned by Dante as one of the best troubadours. Interesting and intellectually stimulating, but slow-going.

Dilara His work was translated into English in The Cansos and Sirventes of the Troubadour, Giraut de Borneil : A Critical Edition by Ruth Verity Sharman. 2mo
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Dilara
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Pickpick

I am not a teacher, but I care about antiracism and children. I thought the book would contain more practical advice. A lot of it is about systemic racism, how difficult it is to decolonise the education system, and how hard it is for racialised pupils and staff. Observations rather than solutions - probably because what *can* you do? We need a new world...

Dilara There were demos all over France against the latest anti-immigration law last Sunday. Here's a photo of the one I went to (from the France Bleu website © Radio France - Phéline Leloir-Duault) 2mo
Bookwomble 2mo
24 likes3 comments
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Dilara
Victoire la Rouge | Georges de PEYREBRUNE
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A novel by Georges de Peyrebrune, a half-forgotten 19th-century female author with a male pseudonym. Free on wikisource. I read it because of its pro-working-class, proto-feminist leanings and because it is set in #Dordogne, which is the French département I'll be exploring in books this year. It is a page-turner and I really felt for the main character, a strong but dim girl raised in an orphanage without love or the skills to face the world.

Dilara I don't think it will be in my Top Ten for 2024, but it is of historical/geographical interest, and the psychological insights are spot-on (lack of love leading to low self-esteem leading to acceptance of abusive behaviour), if couched in outdated language. It's also quite short.

Warning for fatphobia in the first chapters, and abuse

Photo of Chancelade, Dordogne, where Victoire lived for a while, from Père Igor, via Wikimedia
(edited) 2mo
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Dilara
Poems of Yeghishe Charent | Charents Yeghishe
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I am glad for Everand's wide choice of poetry books. Here's the start of Ode to Books, a poem by the famous Armenian poet Yeghishe Charents (he's on #Armenia's banknotes) that should speak to Litsy people...

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Dilara
Sarraounia | Mamani abdoulaye
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Sarraounia was a witch & the ruler of a small queendom in what is now #Niger. She fought the French colonisers in a heroic battle in 1899. This novel, 1st published in 1980, should be better known outside West #Africa. It's terrific. The author is v. skilled at writing different voices. I watched Med Hongo's epic film of the same name recently (Mamani was the scriptwriter) - another forgotten gem.

Still from the film with Aï Keïta as Sarraounia

Dilara The story is ripe for a LGBTQI+ retelling: Sarraounia's mother dies giving birth to her, and rather than have her be cared for by a local nursing mother, her father gives the baby to his best friend, a male witch doctor, who takes on the role of a mother, and also raises her like a boy. (edited) 2mo
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Dilara
Odes armniennes: Edition bilingue | Serge Venturini, Sayat-Nova
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It wasn't easy, but I've finally got my hands on a collection of poetry by Sayat-Nova, the famous 18th-century Armenian poet. It contains only his work in #Armenian - no idea how to get his poems/songs originally in Georgian and Azeri.

Photo is a still from Sayat-Nova, The Colour of Pomegranates, by Sergei Parajanov, to whom the translator dedicated the book. Well worth a watch for people who like art-house cinema.
#Armenia

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Dilara
Homegoing | Yaa Gyasi
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For my Ghanaian meal, I had red red (black-eyed peas in a red palm oil, smoked fish and tomato sauce), fried plantain and okra. Very nice 👍

#FoodandLit #Ghana
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

TEArificbooks Great photo 2mo
AnnR Looks healthy, too! 2mo
Catsandbooks Yum!!! 🇬🇭 2mo
See All 8 Comments
Dilara @AnnR For a given value of healthy 😁- half the food is fried 😋. But it is mainly plant-based, which is a good start 😇 2mo
Itchyfeetreader Oh this looks good - I am hoping to get this book into January and a plan for groundnut curry. 2mo
Dilara @Itchyfeetreader 👍Looking forward to your post(s) about them on Litsy! 😁 (edited) 2mo
44 likes8 comments
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Dilara
Farewell, Gul'sary! | Chingiz A?tmatov
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Gul'sary means buttercup. This beautiful golden stallion used to be the fastest in his part of Kyrgyzstan (or the USSR state of Kyrgyzia as it was then), but now, he is old and dying, as is his human (owner is not the right word, as a) he is quite independent and b) collectivisation). Chingiz Aitmatov is one of my favourite authors, so I have high hopes for this novel 🐎

Photo: Maria Itina

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Dilara
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Here is my Christmas haul - all of it (the last book arrived this morning 😁). And yes, I haven't finished taking down the decorations...
Farewell Gulsary
Kraken
Homegoing
Mort et vie sévérine
By Night the Mountain Burns
Sarraounia
The poetry of Sayat-Nova
Entrer en pédagogie antiraciste
A Thousand Golden Cities: 2500 Years of Writing from Afghanistan and its People

BookmarkTavern Wow! 🤩 2mo
Jari-chan China Mieville 😍 2mo
Ruthiella Beautiful stack! 😍 2mo
See All 6 Comments
Bookwomble I got (myself) A 1000 Golden Cities for Christmas, too. I've not started it yet, but I'm going to approach it as an ongoing year-long project 🙂 2mo
Dilara @Bookwomble Same here 😊I think it'll be perfect for plugging small gaps between big books. I'll read a section while waiting for a library hold to come through, when I know I wouldn't be able to fit in a full-length novel, for example. 2mo
Bookwomble @Dilara Similar to my plan 😁 2mo
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Dilara
Homegoing | Yaa Gyasi
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#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Homegoing was disappointing. Instead, here's a link to the Lord Kitchener calypso about the proclaiming of Ghana's independence from the UK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=057BmLQ9MfU

#Ghana is the name
We wish to proclaim
We will be jolly merry & gay
The 6th of March
Independence Day

It pleases me so much that in the 50s/60s, there was a calypso for every news story - current affair or cricket match alike.

Catsandbooks That's too bad it was disappointing 2mo
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Dilara
The Witness | Juan Jose Saer
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It's freezing outside (as in, hovering around 0°C, and I know North-Europeans and North-Americans are probably rolling their eyes at me because that's practically spring-like to them). I went out quickly to get my book & a slice of galette, and now I'm happily consuming both with a cup of Lady Grey in my warm house.

mcctrish I‘m Canadian and 0°C is not spring ?? that‘s winter, it‘s -4° C here and I don‘t want to go out at all 2mo
LiseWorks @mcctrish are you out west? I heard it was -55 celcius with the windshield in Calgary yesterday. Right now here in OttawanValley we are having a pretty good Snow storm with -4 Celcius 2mo
Dilara @mcctrish Ah but I was told by a person from Québec who will remain nameless that as soon as you reach 0°C, it's The Thaw and therefore spring 😁. And that we (French people) are just fragile little things... 2mo
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Dilara @LiseWorks -55°C is just out of this world 😲 2mo
mcctrish @Dilara well it does get colder that 0° for sure, but above that is spring @LiseWorks I‘m in southern Ontario and we have the same snow storm after a week of snow turning to rain - I‘d like the temperature to stabilize a bit and not do the big swings anymore #mudeverywhere 2mo
LiseWorks @mcctrish oh that's too funny, I'm French and I'm not fragile lol 2mo
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Dilara
Mort et vie svrine: dition bilingue | Joo Cabral de Melo Neto
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People will think I am obsessed w/ cribs. I swear I'm not! I didn't know when I started this book that it was a kind of riff on nativity plays. It tells the story of Severino, a poor dispossessed peasant who follows the river to try his luck in Recife. All he finds along the way is death and poverty. And a carpenter called José who's just had a child. It is a Brazilian classic & deservedly so. A play in verse that's deep, moving, powerful.
#Brazil

Dilara I don't think the full play is available in print in English, but there are numerous videoed staged versions, including musicals (music by Chico Buarque), at least 1 movie (w/ an Emmy Award) & 1 animated film available on Youtube with subtitles (possibly automatic - but that's better than nothing).
Link to the most famous song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF_YGEAeQgw

The French translation is v. readable & immersive, the intro is invaluable.
2mo
Ruthiella Your creche looks very much like the one I grew up with. 2mo
Dilara @Ruthiella A classic design 😁 2mo
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