A whole book about traditional miners‘ housing in Northern France. It‘s not well-written but the photos are nice - they‘re focusing on the good bits and not showing grotty, dilapidated houses. The text is partially translated into English.
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A whole book about traditional miners‘ housing in Northern France. It‘s not well-written but the photos are nice - they‘re focusing on the good bits and not showing grotty, dilapidated houses. The text is partially translated into English.
Green tea, cherries and The Tanners.
I've read the first 105 pages out of 520. This book is not for me. The idea of a whole army made up of gays, lesbians, bis and trans people who get stuff done is fascinating. I understand why it's well-loved: there's action, pacing, quick-firing dialog with plenty of one-liners, but none of those things appeal to me. I like reflexive writing, and I couldn't face another 400 pages of this.
#LGBTQ
Mid-morning coffee with a book in the park, before it gets too hot. We're expecting 40°C this afternoon 🌞 😵 - the hottest day so far this year. I'm home again now, and I've closed all the shutters to keep the sun and heat out.
I left the library with The Informers by Colombian writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez, and went straight to the park with my cup of Ugandan tea for a nice reading session under the shade of a huge cedar tree. Bliss!
#foodandlit #foodandlit2022 #Colombia
@Butterfinger, @Texreader, @Catsandbooks
Lovers and Strangers is a history of post-war immigration to Britain. It‘s engaging, but I would have liked something less ”journalistic” and more academic.
I'll be attempting to read La Expedición Botánica contada a los niños, a children's chapter book about Spanish Enlightenment heavyweight José Celestino Mutis's life and botanical expedition to South America, and specifically in what is now Colombia. I'd like to read Elisa Mújica's books for adults, but I fear my Spanish is not good enough (yet!)
#foodandlit #Colombia
@Butterfinger, @Texreader, @Catsandbooks
Look what I found inside my second-hand copy of The Abbess of Crewe. A dot-matrix printed slip from 1992! What a rush of nostalgia!
I think I might be about to start on my first Muriel Spark. The Abbess of Crewe should be a welcome change after Bound to Violence!
This graphic novel caught my eye because of the similarities between Rebecca/Lucie and my own daughter/granddaughter. I bought it as a Mother's Day present, but I couldn't not read it before giving it!
It's pleasant enough, but not a masterpiece.
Last November, I read La plus secrète mémoire des hommes (Prix Goncourt 2021) by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, inspired by the disappearance of Yambo Ouologuem from literary life after his acclaimed novel “Le devoir de violence“ (Bound to Violence) was found to contain many plagiarised passages (arguably, as part of intertextual plays rather than literary theft) and removed from shelves. It was republished in 2018, and I am now reading it.
Reading a poem titled Storm over the city from a poetry collection (les cinq saisons et autres poèmes) by Bulgarian author Kiril Kadiiski. It‘s actually stormy outside. I‘m hoping for a poem called I won the lottery 😋
I wanted to read something by Belyaev - the Russian Jules Verne - because it was missing from my literary/SF culture, and all I could find at the library is this bilingual collection of short stories that includes Eternal bread. I can‘t read Russian, but the French translation stands pleasantly on its own.
#sf
That‘s the pile of books I picked at the English-language library sale. 1 euro each. Bargain!
Look at that haul of kids‘ books from the English library‘s sale!
About halfway-through Of Mice and Men, as one of the few readers who hasn't studied it at school. I'm rather underwhelmed so far. I know because I read the introduction that it was written as a play/novel hybrid, so I shouldn't complain, but there's too much dialogue and not enough depth for my liking.
Kobane Calling, about the battle of Kobane and the Kurdish Rojava region in Syria, where an autonomous democratic feminist, ecological and diverse self-government was created. The media has completely moved on from the war in Syria.
#Syria #Kurdistan
In Les strates, Pénélope Bagieu tells us about defining moments in her childhood and early adulthood. I fount it very moving and relatable.
Tomorrow (May, 10) is France‘s national remembrance day for the abolition of slavery, and more recently, its recognition as a crime against humanity in a law named after Christiane Taubira, the member of parliament who carried it in 2001.
Look what I found on my daughter's shelves: a children's book by an Afghan author written (in German) in the seventies or eighties (exact date unclear). Finding a book that a) I can borrow from scribd or the library; b) I haven't read already; c) is not misery porn; and d) is not written by an outsider or to pander to a Western readership, has been difficult! As the novel predates #Afghanistan 's current woes, I'm hopeful.
#foodandlit
Reading Face à la menace fasciste to try and make sense of the current political situation. Clearly, I‘m not the only one - there‘s a long waiting list for this book at the library...
In this graphic memoir, Nicolas Wild tells us of his time working as an expat graphic designer / comic book illustrator for a NGO in Afghanistan. He's quite honest about the insularity of his life there, but still, why didn't they hire local people? I'm glad I borrowed this from the library and did not spend my my money on it.
#foodandlit #foodandlit2022 #Afghanistan
@Butterfinger, @Texreader, @Catsandbooks
Christophe Blain‘s Le monde sans fin (the world without end) is a graphic non-fiction book about climate expert Jean-Marc Jancovici‘s takes on how to mitigate climate change. Very pro-electricity and nuclear power, with personal sobriety and a return to local production/consumption. Pragmatic and reassuring.
There aren't many Equatorial Guinea novels and beggars can't be choosers, but still... I wished the translation flowed better, and the writing was less didactic. It's probably going to be a soft pick nonetheless.
#EquatorialGuinea #Africa #LGBTQI+
Picture of the writer from Wikipedia
I've borrowed a travel coffee-table book about the Pamir area of Afghanistan. The photos are stunning. but I suspect the text will annoy me.
(Lily of the valley in the foreground because May Day is Labour Day AND Lily of the Valley Day were I live)
#foodandlit #foodandlit2022 #Afghanistan
@Butterfinger, @Texreader, @Catsandbooks
So, for Afghan month, I made Kabuli Palau (that's the rice, carrot and lamb dish in the middle), Afghani salad, Afghani stewed spinach, a garlic and yogurt sauce, and a fresh coriander (cilantro) chutney (not in picture). It was lovely, and perfect for Eid, but also very much not for beginner cooks. My 30 years' experience of making biryani came in handy...
#foodandlit #foodandlit2022 #Afghanistan
@Butterfinger, @Texreader, @Catsandbooks
Les cuistots migrateurs is the cookbook of a charity working with asylum seekers in Paris. They make professional cooks out of them (or if they already were, give them local experience) and teach them French. There are recipes from Iran, Ethiopia, Chechnia, Nepal and Syria, with plenty of background information and nice photographs.
Reading Melmoth furieux by Sabrina Calvo. It's set in Paris, in an alternate history nineties. There's a new Commune holed up in Belleville, fighting authoritarian capitalism, and a detention center under Disneyland Paris (or as it was called at the time, Eurodisney). Lots of nods to pop culture, 19th century writers (Hugo, etc.) and to medieval poet and robber François Villon.
picture of rue Dénoyez, Belleville, Paris from wikipedia
#Paris
Ropa vieja and meatless arroz congri for my Cuban sunday lunch. Very nice, and hopefully not too inauthentic! And this time, the Cuban coffee had a decent amount of espuma.
#Cuba #foodandlit #foodandlit2022
@Butterfinger, @Texreader, @Catsandbooks
Next to my terrible first attempt at Cuban coffee, here‘s a poem titled Coffee by Nancy Morejón from my Cuban poetry anthology, originally published in Piedra pulida.
#Cuba #poetry #foodandlit #foodandlit2022
@Butterfinger, @Texreader, @Catsandbooks
I've discovered many different poets in this anthology of Cuban poetry, but the one that speaks most to me so far - apart from Dulce Maria Loynaz who I already knew - is Nivaria Tejera.
#Cuba #poetry #foodandlit #foodandlit2022
@Butterfinger, @Texreader, @Catsandbooks
I was intrigued by this short story collection written by Guatemalan author Rodrigo Fuentes and published by Charco Press, a publisher I hadn't heard of before that I will be following closely. I'm trying to wizz through it before I lose my motivation, because it's not my cup of tea. It's very male and up its own fundament. If someone has recs for Guatemalan authors, I'm all ears!
#Guatemala #LatinAmerica
pic from fao.org ©FAO/Carlos Zaparolli
Ultramarins is a very poetic book about a cargo ship in the middle of the Atlantic. I can‘t say anymore without revealing the plot, but it‘s awakening so many of my fears and neuroses...
I got a big book of XXth century Cuban poetry from the library. And in the absence of a specifically Cuban cookbook, I chose a Caribbean cookbook. The chapter on Cuba is tiny, so I‘ll probably look up recipes online...
#foodandlit #foodandlit2022 #Cuba
@Butterfinger, @Texreader, @Catsandbooks
Storm Diego was raging outside and was so noisy it woke me up and then I couldn't go back to sleep. So I decide to read something light and easy instead. It was fun and (very slightly) nostalgic, but inevitably perhaps, it had aged a bit.
La Mer Noire dans les Grands Lacs (the Black Sea in the (African) Great Lakes) is narrated by a young woman whose mother is a Romanian academic, and whose father is a Congolese political activist. She has a rather uncharitable view of Romanians - and of her own mother. I don‘t quite know where to draw the line between the writer‘s voice and the narrator‘s. It‘s quite unsettling.
Greek lemon chicken for Sunday lunch. Will make it again, with an extra 15 minutes in the oven for the potatoes.
#foodandlit #2022foodandlit #Greece
About halfway-through Six Nights on the Acropolis, the only novel of Greek poet and Nobel-Prize winner George Seferis, about a group of friends who meet at the Acropolis on every full moon from March 1928. It's not grabbing me so far.
#foodandlit #foodandlit2022 #Greece
@Butterfinger, @Texreader, @Catsandbooks
Photo by Nelly's http://www.webtopos.gr/eng/art/artists/n/nelly/exhibition_AthensNewYork_web/arti...
Ce n'est pas toi que j'attendais (You weren't who I was expecting) is a graphic memoir about the author's difficulties at coming to terms with his daughter's Down's syndrome. All's well that ends well though. Thankfully. Because not being accepted by your parent is a terrible thing.
I borrowed Le vrai goût de la Grèce (The real taste of #Greece) from the library. It looks like it has a good mix of recipes and information about the country and culture, with plenty of nice photos, but I only had a quick browse. I'll report back later on 😇
#foodandlit #foodandlit2022
@Butterfinger, @Texreader, @Catsandbooks
For #foodandlit #Greece, I think I am going to go with Women in the Greek Myths, as I'm a fan of the author's BBC podcasts Natalie Haynes Stands up for the Classics (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b077x8pc/episodes/player). I'll read something by a contemporary Greek author later on.
#foodandlit2022
@Butterfinger, @Texreader, @Catsandbooks
Three years after everybody else, I am at last starting The Emissary!
I asked for Black Sea last Christmas, as I like to learn about food from different parts of the world, and I heard good things about this book. Unfortunately, it‘s full of stylistic gymnastics, but short of actual, useable information.
My first homemade chicken and cilantro empanadas, as per the recipe in Argentinian Street Food. The stuffing was lovely, but the crust was on the hard side.
I'll be starting L'échange (La tensión del umbral) by Eugenia Almeida, an Argentinian writer whose other novels I loved, soon.
#foodandlit2022
@Butterfinger, @Texreader, @Catsandbooks
