Yesterday, I went with my less-than enthusiastic SO to a pub-type quiz about #Italy. We realised there that it was all done on mobile phones, & ours were too old for it. We teamed up with someone we knew with the right gear & came 3rd🎉😁 We could have been 1st or 2nd if not for some technical issues... We received a gift voucher for a local Italian deli, and we got to eat some delicious vegetarian appetizers.
#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

I finished the 1st volume containing the 1st 3 novels, all about Christophe's early years: his birth in a musician's family impoverished by the father's alcoholism, his work/exploitation as a child musical prodigy, his loneliness, his sexual awakening. I liked Dawn best: there was more empathy for everyone, and Jean-Michel the grandfather is a great character. Youth was infuriating because the MC was an insufferable young man.
#NobelPrize

“In Ibn Khaldun's lifetime, in the 14th century, the Kingdom of France is submerged by the English's new Bedouin wave, according to his short account of the Hundred Years' War as it was told to him in Spain.“
The English as Bedouins 😂 It makes sense given his view of the world, his philosophy, & the info he had, but the mental image is funny to me. I almost want to feed it to an AI image generator

#Algeria #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

“She was like a girl of Holbein, in the gallery at Basle—the daughter of burgomaster Meier—sitting, with eyes cast down, her hands on her knees, her fair hair falling down to her shoulders, looking embarrassed and ashamed of her uncomely nose.“

Of course, I had to find the portrait mentioned by Romain Rolland in Youth. I have to say I find the girl quite pretty, and her nose not at all uncomely. 🙄

#NobelPrize

I've been wanting to read Ibn Khaldun for ages, & when I noticed the tagged book on my library's website, I thought #FoodAndLit would be a good opportunity. It's always difficult to pinpoint a country for authors born before modern nation states, esp. when they moved around a lot (just look on the map at all the places he lived in!) but as he wrote his most famous book while living with Bedouins in #Algeria, it sort of works.
@Texreader

Romain Rolland comes up regularly in Stefan Zweig's memoir which I read earlier this year (they were friends). He is half forgotten these days, but the Jean-Christophe series was a best-seller at the time, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1915. So, I thought I'd try it... It's easy enough: all the books are in the public domain.
#NobelPrize

This book actually belonged to my late mother. It was languishing on my shelves & I thought #Algeria #FoodandLit was the perfect opportunity to read it at last.
It is the story of a village of poor tribesmen pushed into a semi-barren part of Algeria, in the years spanning from colonisation to independence, told in the 2nd person plural. Interesting, but the humour & the style weren't quite to my taste.

@Texreader

When searching for Pontecorvo's classic film The Battle of Algiers on my library's website, the famous song Alger Alger by the renowned Sephardic Algerian songwriter Lili Boniche came up, and I had to share it with you. This video shows old postcards of Algiers with the song as a musical background: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Aw_Xl0UB4 (as often with oriental music, the song picks up after the 2-min mark)
#Algeria #FoodandLit
@Texreader

The title means “Women don't die of love anymore“. This is the story of the toxic love affair between a rich Lebanese businessman, & Hâla, a singer who's half Algerian, half Syrian. She had to flee #Algeria after her father & brother were killed during the civil war. She lives in Damas & Beyrouth. I was worried at 1st that manipulative behaviour would be portrayed as romantic, but thankfully the author had other ideas.
#FoodandLit
@Texreader

Ahlam Mosteghanemi is the best-selling female author writing in Arabic. She was identified by Forbes as 1 of the 10 most influential women in the Arab world... and she's Algerian! My library network has several of her books: I picked 1 that mentioned the 90s civil war b/c I was interested in her take. We'll see how I get on: the romance tropes are relentless 😒
#Algeria #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Snacking on Algerian pomegranate seeds

Halfway through this novel in verse about a #Sami family in Northern #Sweden. It is sparse and beautiful. It requires much reading between the lines, and basic knowledge about the history of the region helps, hence my relief at the review in the link, which gives helpful pointers: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/jan/18/dnan-by-linnea-axelsson-review-an-...

Classic autumn! Picture taken last Sunday on our walk. Since then, temperatures have dropped, and it feels more wintery than autumnal.
#beautybreak
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Here is the couscous I made. The couscous sauce contains lamb, various vegetables, ginger, garlic, and ras el hanout spices. The couscous semolina is rehydrated, fluffed up, mixed with either butter or olive oil, then steamed, all of it twice. It is served with merguez sausages, chickpeas, which I flavoured with carraway seeds, and harissa, a delicious red pepper and garlic relish (bought ready-made).
#Algeria #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

This book gives us the reflections of Boualem, a non-religious bookseller in a place run by Islamic fundamentalists, pretty transparently #Algeria. He is isolated & harassed. It was written during the Algerian civil war and the FIS rule. Djaout was murdered by the GIA & the book was published posthumously. I'm not sure it should have been: it's badly written & edited. ⬇
#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Here are my Latest #10BeforeTheEnd news:
I am reading Jami's Mejnun & Leila in between library holds.
Next is Black Suits You so Well by Ahlam Mosteghanemi for #FoodAndLit #Algeria which should reach my library this week.
The 4 titles that are ticked and underlined twice are read.
We'll see whether I reach my full goal: I'm only 50% confident because I forgot to factor in library holds coming through & other distractions 😁
@ChaoticMissAdventures

I made a pot of Maghrebi tea with gunpowder green tea, dried mint, and tree wormwood, which is in season right now and traditional in winter. Wormwood makes it bitter, but gives it an interesting, more complex taste. It's normally served hot, sweet, and foamy, in a glass.

#FoodandLit #Algeria
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

An author with a French 1st name, an Arabic middle name, a Maghrebi last name. At no point did I think that his cookbook would be translated from Dutch, & not well. This is of no use to me because it assumes a Dutch pantry, and some ingredients are so weirdly translated I am not sure what they actually are. Also, this is clearly more of a cook's book than a book about the traditional cuisine of nomadic Algerians.
#FoodandLit #Algeria
@Texreader

This afternoon, I went to a talk by all 4 authors of Les trois maisons de Michel Foucault“ (Foucault's 3 houses), a graphic work about Foucault's life and work, explained through the prism of his houses. The book is not in the database because it will be published in April 2026 by Presses Universitaires de Rennes,
a university press. Quite interesting, and I bagged 3 bookmarks 😁
Looking forward to Publication Day 😄
Illustrations from the book

The author gives more agency to Layla than in the medieval and early modern versions. I won't say what happens because it might be considered a spoiler. Let's just say that I liked the new ending.
What I liked less is the section on Majnun's rotting corpse. The arty treatment felt a bit self-indulgent and off. I turned the pages quickly because as someone who lost a parent earlier this year, I am not ready for this.

More art from the book. Its description on Litsy might give the impression that it is an illustrated version of a Persian original. It isn't. It's a modern retelling in verse, which from what I understood from the author's presentation, was inspired foremost by Nizami's version (which I read back in April), and then by Jami's (which I am reading at the moment) and Khosrow's.

Last week, I went to a reading and projection of the tagged book during which the author and a friend played Arabic, Iranian and Turkish music. It was quite moving, and now I am reading the book. You can see how intricate the illustrations are. Damezin is quite the Renaissance man: he can write poetry, draw, play various musical instruments, and improvise music!
Also, it was a free library event 👏

Ambivalent about this novel. I liked the subject matter (Jewish children in WWII & the people trying to protect them from nazis with a supernatural twist) & the author's choice to intersperse the story with straight factual sections on various topics, but I don't think it ever gelled into a coherent, authentic whole, mainly because the fiction side is underwhelming & unsophisticated, with too many details (food!) added for the author's pleasure ⬇

Fellag is an Algerian writer and comic. Here is a video of his most famous skit, with him singing “seksou makaroun loubya“ (couscous, pasta, bean stew), the only 3 dishes his mother (or his character's) ever served because they were too poor for anything else: https://youtu.be/TDM5mcMiTQs?t=259
#FoodandLit #Algeria
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Also, I quite enjoyed the tagged book when I read it years ago.

I know it's counterintuitive to tag a book about Paris for #FoodandLit #Algeria, but it has a chapter about the Algiers connection, which was for a few years a haven for Black Panthers and other artists and activists from the US and France.

@Catsandbooks @Texreader

A woman researches the life of her great-grandmother Betsy who was lobotomised and spent 15 years in a psychiatric ward for hazy and controversial reasons, which the author argues have more to do with her husband's comfort, and ultimately, misogyny. Family members' memories and interpretations of events vary, and facts have to be teased out from letters, archives, and interviews with elderly people, as the main protagonists are all dead. ⬇

Starting tagged book whose cover matches* my (very old & ugly but very comfy) blanket. It's from Québec-based publisher La Peuplade, whose choices are always quite interesting. The story is set in the #Doubs département in France and my aim this year is to read books from there.
#HyggeHour @AllDebooks
@Chrissyreadit @TheBookHippie

*It's not obvious on the picture, but I swear the colours are quite close IRL 😅

I went to a musical reading/projection of the tagged graphic novel in alexandrine verse, based on various versions of the Majnun and Leila story, but mainly on the Nizami one. I couldn't not go - it ticked all sorts of boxes for me: Persian and Arabic music, poetry, pretty pictures, not to mention the fact that my aim is to read all the versions of M&L I can find. wasn't expecting much however b/c I'd not heard of the author, but I loved it.

A 667-pages roadtrip novel, with chapters alternating between a disillusioned “you“ mainly looking for young women to spend the night with (those sections haven't aged well), and a “I“ looking for what I'll sum up as “Eternal China“: folksongs, old monasteries, folktales... and of course, the Soul Mountain in the title. I am glad I read it -I enjoyed the folk chapters- but I am in no hurry to read any more from this #NobelPrize winner.

The grandkid is gone so it's time to return the tagged book. She loved it - and that's an understatement! She asked each of us to read it an insane number of times per day over the holidays. So, I bought it online and it should reach her in a few weeks (kennys.ie aren't quick, but they're not Amazon and they ship within the EU).
I am not fully sold on the illustrations' German Swiss nostalgia, but I like the level of detail & the story is cute.

Another pic of Carnac standing stones outside of the enclosure for #beautybreak & b/c I've just finished the tagged book, bought at the Maison des mégalithes book/giftshop. It was available in French, English & German. A well-written, clear & concise introduction to the site & its history. Unsurprisingly, its pictures were better than the ones we took😊 I wish I'd read it *before* our visit.
#Brittany
Also we missed Halloween in Carnac by 2 days😤

#beautybreak in Carnac, Brittany. These megaliths were erected around 3000 BCE. We were able to walk around their enclosure last Monday. It was bleak and beautiful and I felt privileged.
@AmyG
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@AnnCrystal

My last Samoan dish: Tina and Amazing's Green Island Salad
It is a salad that combines fruit, vegetable (watercress, cucumber) & starch (green banana). I, however, kept all the ingredients separate so that fussy people could mix and match as they wished in their plates. I used mango and pineapple instead of vi (which I'd never heard of) and guava (which I didn't have). Very nice, as I knew it would be!
#Samoa #FoodandLit @Catsandbooks @Texreader

L'étincelle en moi is a delightful children's book about a little girl's discovery of science. The first part is about her life and the questions she has about the world (eg: “could I walk on the ceiling?“), the second contains scientific answers to her questions. It is available in English under the title The Spark in Me but for some reason, it isn't in Litsy's database.

Haul of kids‘ science books 🤗

The grandkid is quite taken with Gingerbread Baby! I read it too many times to count. And yesterday, we made gingerbread boys, babies, and other shapes. We did have to explain several times that they couldn't come alive: this only happens in stories 😁

#10BeforeTheEnd update:
I finished Paris noir and The Adventures of Vela. I was planning on starting Mejnun and Leyla but after Vela, I need a break on the long-form poetry front, so Soul Mountain it is! As it is a doorstop and I have a few days off, it should be perfect.

@ChaoticMissAdventures

Pic is of the Chinese Garden in Chaumont, back in June

#NobelPrize

More food from The Adventures of Vela, which I finished - at last! - the other day 😁
Honestly, it was a bit of a slog in places, but I am happy I read it to the end because it really was a window into another culture.
Bonito in coconut cream, yam (I thinks is is going to be proper yam, and not sweet potato), and papaya sounds delicious!
#Samoa #FoodandLit @Catsandbooks @Texreader

pic Sonja Pieper via Teinesavaii, Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0

I found the cover of a play I read recently in the book on Black artists I've just finished 😁
Anacaona is an important historical figure: she was an indigenous Taino ruler at the time of the Spanish invasion in what is now #Haiti and the #DominicanRepublic. Hence the art ant literature about her.

I came across this author the other day when reading about her uncle, the famous Samoan writer Albert Wendt, & I thought some people might be interested in the tagged book (which I haven't read), described as “the first Zombie apocalypse story set in Samoa“.
#Samoa #FoodandLit @Catsandbooks @Texreader
Link to her website: https://laniwendtyoung.co/
ETA: I don't know the author: I just thought the book checked a few boxes for F&L & Halloween reads

More art from the tagged book, this time by Christian Raharivelo and Assane N'Doye, via the Association Wifredo Lam.

Leafing through the catalogue for the exhibition on Paris's Black artists at the Centre Pompidou that ended earlier this year and that I wasn't able to see 🙁

My first #10BeforeTheEnd update:
I finished Edith Wharton's Ghost Stories 🎉. They were quite enjoyable in small doses: 1 or 2 in the evening over the course of a month.
I picked up The Adventure of Vela again. I'd like to finish it before the end of the month, but it is slow-going & I might not get a lot of reading time next week, so we'll see.
I'd also like to read the whole of Jami's Mejnun & Leila before Nov, 8th ⬇

@ChaoticMissAdventures

Some rather alarming foot sole shapes in this epic poem that I've just picked up again.

#Samoa #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Yesterday's library haul: Gingerbread Baby, and June Fourth Elegies by Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. I might have picked up this book because I took the author for a Nobel Prize laureate in Literature 😊. It is a collection of poems written over many years, in prison, in labour camp or at home, on the anniversaries of the Tiananmen Square protests. Some are more to my taste than others.

Literally: In mummy's hair. A delightful picture book about cuddling up to mummy at bedtime. Perfect for the grandkid as the mother in the pictures looks a bit like her mum 💕Also, I love the colour palette.

My #10BeforeTheEnd are:
The Adventure of Vela for #Samoa
The Last Summer of Reason by Tahar Djaout and Black Suits You so Well by Ahlam Mosteghanemi for #Algeria
The Devil in Love by Cazotte and Fontamara by Ignazio Silone for #Italy
Paris noir
Edith Wharton's Ghost Stories
Jami's Mejnun & Leila
The Last Quarter of the Moon by Zijian Chi
Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian
(tagged countries for #FoodAndLit )
@ChaoticMissAdventures

I finished this book this morning. The novel proper is quite short and readable, although I don't think I'll ever really enjoy a work where a writer uses a foreign narrator or character from a culture they don't actually know to further their plots or theories. However, the extra critical material does an excellent job of contextualising this 18th best-seller written by a blue-stocking with proto-feminist sensibilities.

illustration from the book

Still reading tagged book.
For lunch today, I made Samoan baked fish from https://www.pacificislandfoodrevolution.com/recipes/nina--iggys-island-baked-fis... and Faalifu Fa‘i (green plantain in coconut cream sauce) from https://thekokosamoa.com.au/blogs/recipes/faalifu-fa-i-recipe-history-tips-servi...
Very nice!
#Samoa #FoodandLit @Catsandbooks @Texreader

Bamboo and apple-tree with ONE tiny but perfectly-formed red apple 😁 🍎
#beautybreak
@AmyG
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@Karisa
@ImperfectCJ
@AnnCrystal

I 1st heard of this book when researching #Peru for #FoodAndLit but it wouldn't do b/c it's all about France. It is an 18th-c. epistolary novel written by a French woman. The narrator is an Inca “virgin of the sun“ snatched by Spanish conquistadores, then taken by French soldiers to France. Her letters to her Inca fiancé describe France & its mores from the point of view of an outsider - a “Noble Savage“ - uncorrupted by European civilisation.