Right Behind You

Right Behind You is a novel by Lisa Gardner published in February 2017.
A mother and father who are alcoholics, drug addicts and have abandoned their role as parents to be nothing but bulky wrack. Telly and his little sister, Sharlah are united by a heavi secret buryed deep in their memories. Thirteen-year-old Sharlah has lived apart from her brother for a long time, ever since the fatal day he killed their father to protect her. The foster family of the young teenager, Pierce Quincy, an ex-profiler FBI , and his wife Rainie a police officer, have provided her with a secure and loving environment. When a massacre produce at a gas station, Telly is immediately accused, recognize on surveillance camera. It is at this point that Sharlah’s past resurfaces like a nightmare. Her foster parents do everything they can to protect their daughter. Accompanied by her dog, Luka, she goes in search of her brother who is being hunted by the police. She tries to find answer to the murders committe by her brother. Is he really guilty? Is he such a bad person?

From the first lines, Lisa Gardner take us with her feelings. This novel is filled from begining to end with suspense, surprises and revelation. She knows how to get  all into the plot straight away.

It is a very good book if you like detective stories. The story of the book allows us to get to know a difficult family situation that some people know.

The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give is a novel by Angie Thomas based on true events. It’s the story of a young african-american girl, Starr, who share her life between on her quarter where there are gang wars and her « white » school located in a chic suburb. These are two different world that clash. One night, everything change. Starr witnesses the death of her best friend, Khalil, killed by a police officer. Starr is the only witness.  From this event, the two worlds will conflict, she will have to defend this best friend memory against the police who want to bury the case. The young girl will then learn to put her head on straight. 

This novel is a concentrate of emotions, it make us for rage, reflection, strength and sadness. It forces the reader to become consciousness of the persistent inequalities. It also us to decrypt the Black Lives Matter movement. The book has been adapt into a film by George Tillman Jr. 

In my opinion, it is a book that should be read to understand better the current situation. 

The vampire diares

« The vampire diares », « Le journal d’un vampire » in french, is a series of eleven fantastic and young adult litterature books written by Lisa Jane Smith, an American writter, in 1991.

It tells the story of Elena Gilbert, a teenager who seems unsympathetic, pretentious and manipulative but all this change when her parents died in a car accident from which she survived and when she met the young Italian man, Stefan Salvatore who arrives at her high school. Then she makes every effort to find out more about him and seduce him. But when he reveals to her his terrible secret, tragic events start happening one another quickly in the region. Elena is convinced of Stefan’s innocence but she don’t know who is behind the cruel attack of the inhabitants of the region.

This book series was later adapted into a TV series on the American channel CW in 2009 by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec. It starts Nina Dobrev as Elena and Paul Wesley as Stefan in the main roles. The show won on 2011 the Saturn Awards which rewards the most representative films and series of science-fiction, fantasy,horro and animation. It also won 4 prizes at the Tenn Choice Awards The serie has many differences with the book but the serie stay as one of the bigest successes of the channel.

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Call me by your name

CAfficher l’image sourceall me by your name is a romance and dramatic book by André Aciman whose the original version was published in 2007 in      New York and the French version        (transleted by Jean-Pierre Aoustin) in          2008 in Paris. This novel won the Lambda literary Award for men’s fiction in 2007.      André Aciman also published a sequel             to this book in 2019 named « Find me ».

 

It talks about a love story at the beginning of 1980s between Elio, a 17 years old boy, who live in his holiday residence in Italy with his family and Oliver, a 24 years old American proffessor of philosophy who has been invited by Elio’s father to work with him for the summer holidays. The young men will create an ambiguous relationship between hate/desire and friendship/love. They both try to find their sexuality in a world where people are still closed minded. But when they finally understand what they feel for each other, it will be time for Oliver to return on the continent and leave Italy and Elio. This experience will change them forever although at the end Elio will learn that Oliver is getting married with a women.

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It has been adapted into a film ten years later in 2017 with Timothée Chalamet as Elio and Armie Hammer as Oliver in the main roles. It has been directed by Luca Guadagnino and scripted by James Ivory who won the Oscar for the best adapted screenplay in 2018. The movie has been nominated three times at the Golden Globes and four times at the BAFTA( British and Academy of Film Television Arts) and the Oscars. Luca Guadagnino also want to create another movie based on the sequel of call me by your name but no date has been shared with us at the time for this project.

I started to watch the movie before reading the book which is not the best idea because even if it’s the same history it is not presented in the same way. But both the book and the movie are very intersting and moving because we are surounded with all the feelings that the characters feels and with their universe.

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

Milk and honey is a poetry book written by Rupi Kaur and published on 2014.

Who is Rupi Kaur ?

Rupi Kaur was born on October 4, 1992 in India. She’s a writer who became famous thanks to social media, more specifically through Instagram where she posted her poems. She is a feminist and fights for any form of equality. She starts to draw, paint and write very young, inspired and encouraged by her mother. Milk and Honey is her first book.

About the book ;

Milk and Honey is divided in 4 parts ; the hurting, the loving, the breaking and the healing. 

The hurting talks about abuse (of different types ; physical, mental, sexual…) There is a lot of sadness in this part, we see her pain, she exposes her demons. She talks about assault, violence, family and the place of women in society.

The loving is surely the most joyful part of the book ; she talks about love, friendship, security, hope and learn to love herself.

The breaking is about the separation, the void, the loneliness, the regret… all the things that appears when love go away. 

And finally, the healing ; it’s a total reconstruction of herself, it’s about self acceptance, self love and feminism.

This book is, for me, the perfect representation of life, it’s a cycle ; we love, we suffer, we heal and love again and again… We can identify oneself so much at her words, we pass through all the emotions possible. It’s hard to read at the beginning because she talks about a lot of sensitive subjects that can be traumatic but Rupi Kaur is a survivor and makes us feel like this thanks to her book. It’s the reconstruction of a woman, like a faded flower who blooms again. It’s a good message of hope, whatever can happen, it’s not the end, there is always hope.

Pillow Thoughts by Courtney Peppernell

Pillow Thoughts is a poetry book write in prose published in 2016. The particularity of this book is that you don’t have to read it in order, there is no real beginning or end. It is divided into sections to read when you feel you need them the most. 

Courtney Peppernell is totally devoted to her readers and wants to help people to feel understand, not alone and supported. 

The book is divided into ten parts ; if you are dreaming of someone, if you are in love, if you are heartbroken, if you are lonely, if you are sad, if you are missing someone, if you need encouragement, if you are soul-searching, if you need a reason to stay and the last part is « this is for you ».

Everybody can relate to her words. Sometimes you just can’t put words one your own feelings, it’s to hard or you just don’t understand them and it’s totally okay, just know that poetry can help to take a step back, this book can do it that’s why I recommend it.

The tatooist of Auschwitz

This book is the truth story of a man who found love with a woman in a concentration camp. The man accepted to testify how he managed to survive this tragic war. This story is full of hope. The main characters are Lale and Gita, two people who were deported in the Auschwitz camp during the Second Wolrd War.

The author named Heather Morris, she is an Australian journalist and a scripwriter. She met Lale Sokolov. He accpeted to tell his story to conserved a memory. Since 2003 the author listens to the story of this man. And in 2018 she published her novel. Her novel becomes a best seller who that has been translated in fifteen languages and that will be adapted to the cinema.

I really appreciated this novel because on the one hand I love this part of history, every aspect of this part of history, I am very interested in all aspect of this part. And on the other hand I loved how the authot wrtites. She succeded to make a jus testify, and she made a hard story into a beautiful story full fo hope. At the beginning I was afraid to read a harder story like that because it is a terrible situation with lot of inhumanity and violence. It is may be the darkest period of history. But although the hard moment the author managed to make the story « softer » and not darkest. The novel was not full of darkest moment. Heather Morris is focused on the love story and thta’s what made a beautiful story. The end make me full of emotion, it was stay in my mind forever and I recommed it to everyone.

Pandemia – Franck Thilliez

Pandemia is a book from the author Franck Thilliez. It has been published in 2015 and it is part of the literary genre of thrillers. Here is the story of this book :

Amandine is a scientist at the Institut Pasteur. One day, she’s called to take samples from an ornithological reserve, nothing exceptional for her so far. However, she descovers the bodies of three swans who died in strange conditions. Soon, swan corpses multiplied, first in France, then in neighbouring countries. A race against the clock starts to find the origin of this strain and understand it, in the greatest of secrets.

At the same time, the police team of  « 36 quai des Orfèvres » composed of Frank Sharko, Lucie Henebelle et Nicolas Bellanger is trying to solve a sordid murder. A man and his dog were found dead. The pond next to the crime scene is searched. Bones and skulls from four bodies are found. In addition, a computer attack hits the police station’s network, preventing the use of computers and deleting their data. Instead, a chilling message appears : « The Flood will come first from heaven, and then the Apocalypse will come forth from the bowels of the earth ».

Moreover, we discover that the first human cases of the virus are begginning to appear and that the contagion is accelerating at an unprecedented rate. The hypothesis of a natural disaster is quickly replaced by that of a terrorist nature.

We can easily compare the book to our actual situation. That’s why I chose to present this book, although there are differencies. It talks about a global pandemic, but here, it’s the work of terrorists. There are common elements with us like cyber attacks and terrorism. Besides, the story is very absorbing ! The plot is well thinking and the characters are endearing, that’s made the book fascinating. The author is also French ! The only negative thing we can report is that some female characters are set aside to the benefit of male characters. To conclude, obviously, this book was published in 2015 but some similitaries are surprising. As if the author was inspired by today’s life…

If you like the author Franck Thilliez, I advice you Puzzle, one of my favorite book with Pandemia. Thank you, for having read my article.

 

 

 

Uglies – Scott Westerfeld

Uglies is a book from the american author Scott Westerfeld. It was published in 2005 and it’s one of the well-known dystopias. Here is the story :

Tally Youngblood, the main character, will soon be 16 years old. She lives in a society where all the young girls go through a cosmetic surgery, called the Operation, at this age to join the Pretties caste. Tally wants to leave her world for this one, a world where people spend their time having fun, without worrying about anything. But the day before her birthday, she discovers the rebels world,a place called the Smoke. In this place, live people who reject the surgery. She’s going to learn that behind this perfect life we sell them lies a manipulation. She’s going to have to make a big choice that will affect her whole life : become rebellious and remain ugly for life, or succumb to perfection.

This book is simply awesome. He talks about an interesting subject : the standards of beauty. The surgery consists of closing the Ugly’s face and body into the « normal ». If you don’t do the operation, you are considerated ugly and therefore an outcast. The governement wants to change them completely to make it the ideal society, hence the importance of the physical. The character of young people is erased to make them obedient and naive so that they can be properly manipulated. Tally herself is very naive because of the education she received. They convince them that for living a happy life, she has to be pretty. It seems absurd for us.

To conclude, it’s a future society, but when we look at our own, we think our future might look like that fiction. Indeed, we notice that we also face social pressure regarding our appearance. Society also forces us to get into codes, which we begin to break. This book is therefore easy to read while conveying a strong message.

Game Of Thrones

Game of Thrones is an American fantasy television series created by David Benioff and Daniel Brett Weiss for TV chain: HBO.  It’s an adaptation of  the series of fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire by George Raymond Richard Martin.  The series began on HBO in the United States on April 17, 2011, and will conclude with the eighth season on April 14, 2019. The most popular character are Daenerys Targaryen playing by Emilia Clarke, Jon Snow playing by Kit Harington, Arya and Sansa Stark playing by Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner, Cersei Lannister playing by Lena Headey and many other because The distribution is composed of several hundred actors.

The scenes take place on the fictional continent , Game of Thrones has several plots and a large cast but follows three plot . The first plot is about the Iron Throne who lead seven kingdoms, and follows  alliances and treasons between noble dynasties. The second story plot is about the last descendant of the realm’s deposed ruling dynasty, who has been exiled and is demand to return on the throne. The third story arc follows the Night’s Watch, a brotherhood defending the kingdom against legendary creatures of the North.

The series is generally perceived as a sort of medieval realism. George R.R. Martin set out to make the story feel more like historical fiction than contemporary fantasy, with less magic and sorcery and more on political intrigue, and the characters. But legend, imaginary animals like dragons and magic are very present in the serie.

I like this serie because themes are interesting like the abolition of the slavery, the conquest of new kingdoms, the threat of supernatural characters. Although it is a famous serie, it stays a beautiful series with stunning scenery, well-turned intrigues even if sometimes it is very violent and inappropriate for young people. Each episode is captivating, the characters are very neat and very well played by the actors (I am unable to determine the best), and the plot never runs out, on the contrary it grows with the seasons.

Simetierre

Simetierre is an horror novel, written by Stephen King and published in 1983.

It’s a family who live in a big house, and in the garden, there is a graveyard  for animals of compagny. But one day, the cat of the family death, and the father understand that this graveyard isn’t normal beacuse he can see the cat in the bathroom with blood. He put his cat in the gaveyard, but since this days, the atmosphere is strange is the house and there are paranormals things. Habitants are malefics and they killed others.

This book is very strange but the author said that in USA, families love their animals like an human and they can put their dog and cat in a gaveyard. In fact, it’s just a readaptation in an horror story about the tradition in USA.

The Zookerper’s Wife

The Zookerper’s Wife

The Zookerper’s Wife is a novel inspired of a real story, wrote by Diane Ackerman. The bokk was adapt in cinema by Niki Caro in 2017.

Diane Ackerman was born in 1948 in Ilinois in United States. She is a poet, an essayist and a novelist. She worked for many Univerties like Columbia or Pittsburgh. She is a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She had a Guggenheim bourse. She is married with the novelist Paul West. She lives in Athaca in the States of New York. In 2012 she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for One Hundred Names For Love. The Zookerper’s Wife received an Orion book Award in 2008. Ackerman had three bestsellers: The Human Age (2014), The Zookerper’s Wife (2008), A Natural History Of The Sens (1999). She is a member of The NEw York Institute for the Humanities.

During the Nazis occupation in Poland, the director of the Warsaw zoo, Jan Zabinsky and his wife Antonina hid almost 300 people, mainly Jews evaxuated from the guetto. They hid them in the basement of their villa and of the zoo. Germans ner found out. Six million Europeans Jews died during the genocide organized by the Nazis. All the people hid by the Zabinsky exept two survived. The Shoah Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem honoured this couple with the tittle of Rigtousness among Nation, attributed to those who had rescuded Jews during the Second World War. Niki Caro said that she « didn’t want to make a film about the Holocaust but it was different. Most of our war films deal with men. But it’s talking women, children and animals and I’m very interested in that ». While Jan was often absent because he was engaged in the Polish Resistance, it was Antonina who tooks care of their guest with the animal compagny including a piglet, an otter and a badger. Nazi Germans were always deployed in the zoo. Helping jews enven offering water was punished by the death in this time. Antonina played an air of piano to warned her guests when the Nazis approached so that they could escaped by underground tunnels.            The Zookerper’s Wife is an astonishing book. In first his form looks like a docu-fiction. The book mixed fictionnal passage with descriptive narrations. It’s based on Antonina’ diary and Jan’s interviews.

I really liked this book that tells us the story of Jan and Antonina Zabinsky: two ordinary people who became real heros during the Holocaust. They showed their curage and their strong-willed in saving more than 300 Jews of the death while they trying to live. We can see the destruction of the zoo and the power of Germans Nazis. Zabinsky uses the structure of the zoo to hide people. This books makes us see History differently. It’s a book that must to be read.

 

The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner is a trilogy of science fiction novels  written by James Dashner. The first volume in French, was published in 2012 in New York by Pocket Jeunesse. The tittles are: The LabyrinthThe Scorched Earthand, The Deadly Remedy. 

The trilogy has sold ten million copies worldwide. The success of the books led to a series of film adaptations in which The Labyrinthe is the first one released in 2014, then it was The scorched earth in 2015 and finally, The Deadly Remedy was released in France on February 7th , 2018, all of them directed by Wes Ball.

      Thomas (a teenager) wakes up inside a cage which is moving up, he’s amnesiac. When the cage stops, Thomas finds himself in a large space, called “The Block”. ( The place is called like that by their inhabitants who by the way are also amnesiac as Thomas). The block is closed by four huge walls and a door that closes at night. Thirty boys live in the block and have set as rules: not to laze, not to attack each other and not to go into the labyrinth. Their life revolves around the practice of agriculture and breeding. They do not know why they are in the block, and who sent them there, but they  boys called these people the Creators. They know, however, that the Creators belong to a mysterious organization called WICKED. Thomas quickly learns that each month, the cage goes back up with a new members and once a week with crates that provide the block with material that the locals are unable to produce by themselves, and that the yard is at the heart of a a labyrinth whose configuration changes every night, and which is also traversed every night by monsters, called Scavengers, monstrous creatures that are also robots. Anyone has managed to spend the night in the labyrinth, and if somebody does, he always finished killed by a scavenger. Scribers can also sting, making the victim enraged. This one undergoes the Transformation, very painful, but which makes scraps of memories. A person stung and crazy by the Transformation is sent into the labyrinth when closing the doors, which condemns them to death. Thomas meets Alby (the leader of the Bloc). The day after Thomas arrived, however, the Box goes back a new one. This is the first time in 2 years that two new ones arrive in two days. But it wasn’t a boy but a girl: Teresa. She looks dead but, suddenly, she stands up and says « Everything will change soon ». In her hand, there is a message « This is the last, there will be no others. » She appears to be in sort of a coma and she is transferred to the infirmary. 

       It’s one of the science fiction movies I love. There are suspense, twists, etc. I like the story and the progress of it. The movies are just awesome and I preferred to watch the movies than read the stories. 

if I stay

If I stay is a novel written by Gayle Forman, an american author. This novel was written in 2009.

The main character is Mia, she is 17 years old. She is violoncelliste and one day, she has an accident with her family. But in this accident, her family (her brother, and her parents) dead. Mia is the unique survival. But she cannot walk. She had a boyfriend, she loves him, but she wants to find her family in the sky. She doesn’t know if she stays with her boyfriend, Adam, or she wants to die… but at the end, she prefer to stay with Adam, and to continue the violoncelle.

This novel is very sad, but she is too interisting because we can see that this accident can arrived for everybody. The book help us to see that we must love and to be with our family. I like this book and I think that it is a good story !

Call me back

Call me back is a novel wrotten by Sophie McKenzie, an English author. This novel is about a murder. Laura is the main character. Her sister was killed but she doesn’t know the murderer. She wants know him and decides to make an enquete. She is help by her friends and her husband. But at the end, Laura see that the murderer is Leo, her friend who help her to find the murderer. Leo wants to kill Laura and her family but she arrived to go in commicarian. Leo was arrested by police and story finished hier.

This novel is interristing and we want always read the suit. This novel learn us to beware of other. It’s a good story.

Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances

This book is write in 2008 by John Green, an american autor. In this book there are three differents parts.

In the first part, there is snow, and a young girl, Jubilé. We are the 24Th December, and Jubilé is in a train, alone and she is sad because the train is broken and blocked. Jubilé wants to be with her friends but she can’t. At the end of the first part, Jubilé arrived in an bar restaurant, there are pom-pom girl and many peaople but she’s sad. She is always alone in this restaurant.

At the second part, we are with Le Duc and JP. The boss of the restaurant who is Jubilé is desesperate because in his restaurant there are many pom-pom girl and he calls Le Duc and JP for they come in this bar. Le Duc and JP go to the bar with a Le Duc’s car but in the road with the snow, the car is broke, and they go in the bar with their foot. When they arrived in the bar, they look Jubilé who is hier… They rest in this bar…

At the three part, we are with a young man, he’s sad because he isn’t with his girlfirend. She excepts his in Starbucks but he is in this bar with the pompom girl. He is sad and he comes to Jubilé and JP and Le Duc. They speak and Jubilé and the young man are in love.

At the end of this book, jubilé and the young man are in love and this is a good end!

This book is eprouvant and a little sad but at the end he is happy and characters are too happy. This is a good story.

Love, Simon

It’s a story write in 2018. It is an American story, write by Becky Albertalli. this story speak about friends. There is three boys and two girls. There is one boy who is homosexual, his name is Simon. It is a secret because nobody know. But one day, he learns that a other boy is too homosexual and this boy is in his school. They speak every days but they don’t know who they are. One day, Simon was in computer and a boy in this school see that Simon is homosexual. He says the secret in school and in twitter. Other boy know the identity of Simon but he wants stay secret and he would not speak with Simon. Simon is sad and he proposed that other boy says who is he. Next, Simon has no friends because they are sad that Simon don’t says that he is homosexual. At the end, Simon meet the homosexual boy and they become a true couple. Simon find his friends and the end is happy.

I like this book and this story because she defends the homosexuality, the harassment between students and the courage for student to said that they are homosexual. I think that this book can help homosexual for said that they are homosexual. They do their coming out.

Carrie

Today I’m going to introduce you to Carrie by Stephen King. It was written in 1974 and it was adapted to four movies also known as Carrie. I’ve read the book and seen the version from 1976 and 2013. Carrie is an horror novel.

The story is about a girl called Carrie White. Carrie White is a sixteen-years-old girl bullied by her classmates and manhandled by her mother who has some curious obsession for paranormal activities.
One day, Carrie finds out she has the power of telekinesis.

This book is fantastic, even if we don’t have that much of suspense, this is still pleasant to read this book. The character of Carrie kindles compassion, because she is in pain and we witness how being a teenager is difficult to her.

I think everybody need to read a Stephen King’s book, because all his books are amazing, they are all best sellers and they are all part of the pop culture.

I hope you will read it.

The Hound Of Baskervilles- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

 

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The Hound Of Baskervilles

   The Hound Of Baskervilles is a british police novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it was published for the first time in Strand Magazine in 1901.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in May 1859 in Edimbourg in Scotland. He was a doctor and a writer. He was famous for his novel and his short stories which stage the detective Sherlock Holmes. He has written books of science-fiction, historical novels, plays and poetries. He bacame a knight in October 1902 by the King Edouard II.

According toa legend a hound kills the members of Baskerville’s Family. The Doctor Mortimer informs Sherlock Holmes and Watsonof the death of Sir Charles Baskerville.They must protect Sir Henry Baskerville who comes from Canada to lives in family domain. Holmes stays septic about the surnaturel aspect of the investigation but the facts interest him. Holmes says that he must stay in London so he send Watson to watch over Sir Henry Baskerville. Watson go in the lande and investigate on the death of Sir Charles Baskerville. The detective and Watson are persuadate that the murderer is a man and not a hund. Thanks to their deductions, they are going to find the author of the murder.

I really liked this story, it’s an investigation but with fantastic what is not common. This book is funny and fascinating.

Dorine.l1

 

A Court of Thorns and Roses

 

A Court of Thorns and Roses is a fantasy book writing by Sarah J. Maas in 2015. This writer wrote also the fantasy book set of Keleana a professional killer who obey to a King she hates (I love also this book because here the main character is a strong-minded woman)

It’s the story of Feyre a young woman who is 19 years old and who muss help her family to survive. In this world, there are immortal creatures who hate mortal like Feyre and her family. The story is after a war between mortal and immortal who the mortal won their freedom because there were the slave of immortal like the civil war in the USA between 1861 and 1865. And ever like after this event that the mortal and immortal are separated. The story begin when Feyre kill accidentally an immortal and when she muss go live with an immortal. She will discover problems of immoral world and become friend with them.

I enjoy this book because all along this book Feyre protect her family even if it created issues for her. It’s also a good book because Feyre overcome her bias about the immortal to help and love them. She is courageous and strong in a world she don’t know and where she risks her life at every moment because in this world she is weak.

I enjoy also the historical reference to the civil war, it’s subtitle but really present in the story weaving with two opposite side, people in slaving and a war for the freedom, laws after this war this war to separate the both side. And indeed a lot of magic! It’s not a secret I love a lot stories with a lot of magic! I wait the second book because, like Keleana, A Court of Thorns and Roses is an other fantasy series of books of Sarah J. Maas. She had a really talent to create an other world even if in this both set it’s almost the same world.

It’s not unbiased but I think it’s really a book to read!

John Lennon in own write

Hello dear readers!

Today I am going to introduce you to British humor with a poetry, drawing sketch and text collection called John Lennon in his own write by John Lennon. This collection was published in 1964, when he was 24, so John Lennon was a member ( singer ) of a British band from Liverpool.
The heading should have been written like this: « in his own right » but the author chose to write « write » instead to make a play on words.
In this book there are are a lot of play on words.
The introduction of the book was written by Sir Paul McCartney and the outroduction is a weird drawing.

My favorite poem in this book is « I remember Arnold ». It was the first poem that I have ever read and understand in english even if I had to read it more than one hundred times to be able to get it.
In this poem, the author talks about two « tyke »( means boys ) that he remembers « as if’twer yesterday ». One used to be « always dead on time for his destination now he’s dead on line ».
I found this expression funny because next, the author said between bracket: meaning he’s been got by a train or something. Here, he did a play on words.

I recommend this collection to you all because it’s easy to read and to understand even though you can not comprehend his textes because this collection is considered as none sense. And I also advice you to read it in english because I don’t think you will find the same humor and puns in a translated version as like the original one

Hope you will read it.

The Silence of the Lambs

My regards to all!!!

Now I am going to talk about The Silence of the Lambs, a thriller book written by Thomas Harris. This book is the second of the Hannibal Lecter’s tetralogy, where the main character is a psychiatrist and a cannibalist.  I think, this book is the best, it is by far my favorite one from this tetralogy. This one and all the other books have been adapted as a movie.

This book is focusing on the investigation led by Clarice Sterling. Her main goal is to put behind bars a woman killer who skins his victims to death, his name is Buffalo Bill. So to get more information about this murderer, she has to question Hannibal Lecter, a serial killer who is already convicted and who the new woman killer tries to copy. So the film is all about the cooperation between the FBI agent and the famous serial killer.
Hannibal Lecter represents everything the young Clarice hates and fear.

I chose to talk about this book because I have seen the movie before reading it and I wasn’t disappointed because both are great. I love the suspense. And also in the movie, the  scenario is well written and captivating and, I love the actor Anthony Hopkins as the character of Hannibal.

The Last Days Of Rabbit Hayes-Anna Mc Partlin

The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes 

     The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes was wrote in 2 015 by Anna Mc Partlin.

Anna Mc Partlin was born in Dublin, in Ireland in 1972. She grew up with her aunt und her uncle. She studied marketing before working as comedian. She is married and she lives in Dubkin in Ireland

This stories speaks about the last days of Rabbit. Rabbit is Mia’s nickname, she is sick of breast cancer. Her parent,Jack and Molly, try to find solutions to save her. Mia’s family encourage her in her last days.

Davey and Grace, her brother and her sister, Juliet her daughter, and Marjorie her best friends and her parents ask themselves  on their life. There are many of flashbacks, all the characters speak about their memories, about their past. We see how the family prepar the death of her member.

Last years, my uncle died because he was sick of a cancer of lungs. This books help me to overcome this event. Thanks to this story I made a part of my mourning.

This stories is touching. The books makes feel many feeling. It’s funny and verry sad. This stories makes see the death differently.

 

Dorinel1

 

 

 

After by Anna Todd

Recently, I read After. The serie was publied in 5 tomes. These books were wrote by Anna Todd at first on Wattpad. This serie was publied in 2014 in U.S.A and in 2015 in France.

The story talhs about a romance between Hardi and Tessa. They are student in same Unervisity. They are really different. They will learn to love and hateeach other. They are going to come acrosse many events

I like this story because it is  contemporary. It’s a romance that many teens can understand. These books show me that life is not easy but you must continue to listen to your heart.

Dorine B

Gone Girl

Hello my dear readers !

today it’s my pleasure to talk to you or even introduce you to one of my all time favorite book called Gone Girl. Gone Girl is a book written by Gilian Flynn, a up and coming writer from the United States of America. This book quickly became a best seller thanks to the word of mouth and got the attention of Hollywood who was real quick to adapt it into a Hollywood blockbuster with an international cast of famous actors like Ben Affleck. And while the movie is very good in it’s own right, I have always thought it dell short against the original material. And it hurts that as always with those books adapted into movies only few are those who even know about the original book that is much more interesting.

So what is Gone Girl ?

The plot is about a young couple, Nick Dunne and his wife Amy who moved to Missouri, the city where Nick grew up when he was a child. On the surface, Nick and Amy look like the average american couple but they don’t. One day, Amy went missing…

I chose to speak about Gone Girl because the book is much better than the film. The author managed to wrote it as  like an epistolary book so thanks to that we have each point of view of the main characters ( Nick and Amy ), and this make a lot of suspense.The plot is really captivating and machiavellian. And to finish, I love the man character Amy !

I hope you all will read and enjoy this book !

The Black Cat

Hello readers!

Today I am going to talk about a short fantasy story: The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe, an american author who lived in the nineteenth century.

The story takes place in a disconcerting atmosphere. The narrator (the main character) is an alcoholic who has always loved animals since his childhood. He and his wife get a black cat called Pluto, he love him so much. But one day, when he was under the influence of alcohol, he killed Pluto. Then one day, he discovers a black cat, which looks like Pluto, was stalking him…

I choose to talk about it because I did appreciate it to study this short story in french class last year. it is the darkest short story I have ever red. I love how the author makes cats being unfathomable animals like in the real life: it makes the story interesting. The way the narrator is turning and ending up insane is captiving pls, the end of this short made me speechless…
I think Edgar Allan Poe wrote this short story, The Black Cat, in order to warn people about alcohol’s perils.

I Hope you all will read it.

Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe

Hi everyone!

Today I am going to talk about Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz, an american author. This book is about family secrets and identity, and it relates the friendship between Aristotle and Dante.

So in this book, we follow two characters: Aristotle (or Ary) and Dante.
Ary is a 15 years old boy who lives in El Paso Texas in the 1980’s. He is struggling with being a teenager. And Dante, the boy Ary met, will be his best friend. All long the story, their friendship develops.

I choose this book because it is really about how to be nice to other people. Ary has a lot of conflicts in his life so this makes the book interesting. The fact that he is a teenager allows all of us to ourselves Ary, plus Ary and Dante’s parents understand their sons. The friendship between our two protagonists is the best friendship I have ever seen!
I think this book can inspire people be kinder thanks to the way the author treats his characters.

I hope and advice you all to read it.

The Book of Ivy

I want to talk about this book entitled The Book of Ivy. It’s a post-apocalyptic book written by Amy Engel.

The book of Ivy is a story in which two families – the Lattimers and the Westfalls – oppose each other. Ivy is a Westfall and to keep the appearance of peace she must marry Bishop Lattimer. But she hates him and she has the mission to kill him after their wedding but the tag line says “ born to betray and made to kill … will be she have the strength?” . Isn’t it like a premonition ?

I love the first book but the sequel ( the Revolution of Ivy ) is a little too long. But it’s a interesting book with suspense and reversals of situation. The heroine is not perfect, it’s very appealing. The two main characters are really different and it creates strange situations but despite the number of dead I find it’s a beautiful story. Ivy is a warrior, she faces her family and society alone but she never gives up and when she feels alone she can count on Bishop and it’s a beautiful sign of confidence even if she is supposed to kill him. It shows that a relation can evolve from hate to love. It’s a symbol of hope and for me it’s very important because without hope we can’t do anything and Ivy never loses hope.

It’s not unbiased but I think it’s really a book to read!

Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club

I want to talk about a recent book entitled Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club. It’s a fantasy, historic and love story written by Alison Goodman ( She has written other books I enjoy : Eon and Eona ).

The story takes place in London in April 1812. Lady Helen Wrexhall who is the heroine of this story, becomes a lady and discovers a world of worldliness but she meets a dark character who will make her discover a world with “monsters” and magic. The events lead her to become as strong as the man with who she is associated to help him to save many people threatened by the “monsters”.

I-LOVE-THIS-BOOK because Helen is a heroine even if she is a woman and in a patriarchal society it’s very impressive. For me it’s very important for a woman to be a strong character because most of the time the woman is a “delicate little thing” and it’s not the reality. I think that is a feminist novel.The sequel ( it’s a trilogy) has just come out and I want to read it as quickly as possible because it is really a catchy story with a lot of characters, very different from one another but with each of them a little thing which makes him or her appealing!

It’s not unbiased but I think it’s really a book to read!

After

After is a novel for a teenagers published in 21 October 2014 in USA and in France in 2 January 2015 by Anna TODD (novelist) in collection » New romance », edited by « Hugo Roman » and translated by Marie-Christine TRICOTTET. The book is of the genre of fiction and romance. Anna TODD wanted to make a film but it’s still under-heard. There are five books.
At eighteen year, Theresa or Tessa YOUNG is an ambitious student, serious in her work and reserved. Her boyfriend Noah the ideal son-in-law. Everything was outlined : a happy wedding, a beautiful child simply a perfect life but that was before Tessa met Hardin SCOTT, the beautiful, muscular, tattooed, vulgar and with a beautiful English accent. He is the kind of guy Tessa hates but yet he will be attracted to each other. It creates in her a passion without limit, she does not think again and loses the control of herself. Tessa will leave her family for him. She will change him and will live strange and bubbling things.
I loved reading these books. They are touching and captiving. I really recommended it as it is a lovely story with lots of bouncing and feelings.

The fault in our stars

The fault in our stars is a novel for teenagers in January 2012 by Jonh GREEN (American writen), edited by Dutton books and in France in 2013 by Nathan jeunesse. It is a kind of literature of childhood and youth. Josh BOONE directed the film released in 2014, it’s dramatic romance.

This is the story of two teenagers (Hazel grace LANCASTER aged 16 years and Augustus WATERS) suffering from cancer. Hazel’s parents forced her to go to a support group where she met Augustus who had an osteosarcoma and was in remission. Augustus and Hazel fall « in love » with a novel by Peter VAN HOUTEN, this one ends abruptly in the middle of a sentence. Augustus decides to take Hazel with his mother to Amsterdam to meet the author and then the two teenagers fall in love and a love story born between them filled with twists and emotions.

I had a huge heart for this book and this movie. It is a true story that can happen to everyone. Anyway, I cried every time while reading and watching this story.

The Sorrows of Young Werther, Goethe

“Sometimes I don’t understand how another can love her, is allowed to love her, since I love her so completely myself, so intensely, so fully, grasp nothing, know nothing, have nothing but her!”

 The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers) is an epistolary novel written by Johann Wolfang von Goethe, simply known as Goethe. It is Goethe’s first novel and it was published anonymously in 1774. The reader discovers the story through Werther’s letters to his friend Wilhem. It tells the story of Werther and more precisely his torments. He indeed fully loves a woman whose name is Charlotte but she is already engaged with another man named Albert. Consequently, Charlotte only sees Werther as a friend and it makes him suffer. Finally, Werther decides to commit suicide.

You have to know that this story is partly inspired by real facts. Goethe was (at one time of his life) in love with a woman named Charlotte but she was promised to another man, Kestner. Her mother was dead and that’s why she had to look after her twelve little brothers and sisters. This is also the case of Charlotte in the book. Moreover the suicide in the end of The Sorrows of Young Werther was inspired by the act of a friend of the author who killed himself because of an unhappy love affair.

In addition this novel caused many reactions. It has been judged immoral by the authorities because it was supposed to “promote” suicide so sales of this book were forbidden. But it has probably on the contrary push people to read it. It indeed has had a huge success. We called this “movement” of reactions the “Werther Fever”: some designers realised the clothes which were described in this novel; perfumes, crockery and varied objects were created because of it.  A lot of books inspired by The Sorrows of Young Werther were published: sequels, imitations or even parodies. But the most important to memorize is that it also provoked a “wave” of suicides. What is called the “Werther effect” in sociology is the fact that some people killed themselves afterward someone else did.

The Dark Fields – Alan Glynn

« And if you had the possibility of becoming a perfect version of yourself ? »

Hi ! Today I would like to speak about The Dark Fields which is the first novel written by Alan Glynn and published in 2001. This book also inspired Neil Burger to realize his movie Limitless in 2011.  Oh, and it is again a thriller (maybe that one day I will choose an another kind of movie or book…! 😉 )

In this novel, we meet Eddy Spinola who was a man with many difficulties to succeed in his professionnal and love life. One day, he saw again his brother-in-law, Vernon Gant, who was also a former dealer. This meeting changed his life ; indeed, Vernon decided to give him an experimental drug called « MDT-48 » which guarantees huge intellectual and creative abilities. His perceptions, memory and thinking skills were unbelievable ! The effects of the MDT on the young man exceeded his expectations and led him to a new life ! But obviously, things are short course… Eddy’s dreams will not be still easy to realize.

« I learnt piano in three days, math became useful… and funny. I knew everything about everything. »

According to me, this novel is really fascinating and we want to discover what happen after every chapter. I saw the movie with Bradley Cooper and I liked it well, too. These two works are nice to read or to watch and I deeply advise them. 🙂

 » Cyrano De Bergerac  » – Edmond Rostand

HI everybody,

Today I’m going to speak about a drama entitled « Cyrano De Bergerac » written by Edmond Rostand. She was played in december 28th 1897 for the first time in Paris. I think you probably know this story and maybe you read it but I wanted to speak about this drama because she is probably my favourite.

First you have to know that my mother obliged me to read this drama so I wasn’t really determined to read it but I was really surprise and finally I was pretty happy.

Cyrano is known for is intelligence and his face (more specially for his nose.) He fall in love of his cousin: Roxane, however he doesn’t want to tell her because he’s afraid about her reaction. Roxane sees Cyrano just like a cousin and she is attrated to Christian. Cyrano wants before all the hapiness of Roxane, so he decided to help Chrisian to seduce Roxane. However he discover that Christian is « stupid » and knows nothing about poetry. Nevertheless he helped him: Cyrano writte numerous letter and Christian sign them. Finally Roxane fall in love of Christian (more precisely of Christian’s physical and Cyrano’s spirit). Then Roxane and Christian get married just before he goes to war with Cyrano.
And even during the war Cyrano continues to pretend to be Christian in his letter. Christian realised that Roxane loved only Cyrano’s spirit and that Cyrano loved her, so he would like to reveal the truth to roxane but he died.
Out of respect for him, Cyrano is revealed never the truth to roxane except on the day of his death.

I’m not a big fan of romantic novel or romantic drama but this one makes me cry at the end and I was sad to have already finished it, that’s why I recommend this drama.  

The Dunwich horror, H.P.Lovecraft

« It is always a relief to get clear of the place […]. Afterward one sometimes learn that one has been through Dunwich. Outsiders visit Dunwich as seldom as possible, and since a certain season of horror all the signboards pointing toward it have been taken down »

These few lines allow you to discover the atmosphere in the short story The Dunwich horror written by the famous american author Howard Phillips Lovecraft. The story unfolds in a fictive place -Dunwich- which is supposed to be located in Massachusetts (USA). The reader attends Wilbur Whateley’s birth and childhood. He lives in an isolated farm with his mother and his grandfather who both have a bad reputation: they are suspected of witchcraft. Wilbur grows up abnormally fast: with only 1 year, he can speak and with 4 years he seems to be 10. Other strange things happen concerning this family : the grandfather buy many cows and they die one after the other ; there is a terrible odor around the farm and at night we can hear some rumblings… as if the Whateleys breed a mysterious beast… Moreover Wilbur wants to borrow a  strange book: the Necronomicon. (nekros=death, corpse)

I liked this book -it would have been great to read during Halloween- but I have to advise you that it is quite uneasy for a novice to enter Lovecraft’s universe ! The writer invented a complet myth (whose name is Cthulhu Mythos) with its gods (which are in fact extraterrestrial entities), cults and its reference book: the Necronomicon. Lovecraft belonged to a philosophy/movement that he created: the cosmicism whose main theme is the insignificance of man. To show you an example ; Lovecraft said: « the human race will disapear. Other races will appear and disappear in turn ».

To summarize, the story is pleasant though a little bit weird and obviously horrific but when we want to know more about its author and his works, it’s quite complex (it’s a bit similar to a rich universe like the Lord of the Rings for instance).

Thirteen Reasons Why – Jay Asher ( 2007 )

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Thirteen Reasons Why is a novel written by Jay Asher and published in 2007.

The story begins as a teenage boy named Clay Jensen comes back home after school and finds a package, in this box are 7 cassette tapes and 13 stories recorded by Hannah Baker, a classmate but also someone close to Clay, who recently committed suicide. Hannah was bullied at school because various people would start rumours about her and they would end up being known by everyone, all these various people are on the tapes. Each cassette contains a recording of Hannah’s voice exposing one of the person who made her end her life. On the first tape, Hannah tells her listeners that she holds each of them responsible for her death, and that the tapes will explain why. After listening, each person must give the tapes to the next person on the list, that next person was now Clay.

This book it truly amazing and I think that nowadays it’s really important to raise awareness about the people who are bullied because, even though this book is fictional, some teenagers did commit suicide because they were bullied in real life.

The Girl on the train, Paula Hawkins

This is the story of Rachel, 32, divorced, depressed and who has troubles with alcohol. Everyday when she is taking the train to London to work she can see her former house now inhabited by Tom her ex and his new lover Anna. When she lost her job she continued to do the return to London because she doesn’t know what to do of her days and because she doesn’t want her roommate to know that she is jobless.

Rachel imagines a life to Tom’s neighbors: she calls them Jess and Jason, imagine their job, their conversations. Former it’s an happy couple with no troubles between them. But one day she sees Jess with another man and a few day after she learns that Jess (her real name is Megan) is missing. Rachel, sure to have seen clues, has now a goal: finding Megan. For that, she has to talk with Jason (his real name is Scott), and for that she has to see Tom and Anna again.

This psychological novel is very interesting because of the different points of view: the reader can see through Rachel’s, Megan’s and Anna’s eyes. There is a lot of suspens and I was very impatient to know the truth. Paula Hawkins’s writing is very beautiful, sensitive and captivating.

I know that there is a movie adaptation but I don’t want to see it because I heard that the movie is not as good as the novel.

Seasons Of Heaven by Nico Augusto

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“We, as humankind are always looking for a new frontier to explore, and there it was lying right in front of me. We have explored the world and the depths of the oceans. We know a lot about it, but we don’t know everything. We spend immeasurable time and resources to learn about space, and to dive deeper into our own chemical make up. But for some reason, science ignores the call of the afterlife. It’s the next frontier. We are inexplicably drawn to it. Why then, is it so stigmatized that we don’t dare study it seriously ?”                                                                                           — Grant Wilson, Preface of Seasons of Heaven

Seasons of Heaven is a novel written by Nicolas Augusto and published in 2016. Since his early childhood, Augusto has been fascinated by paranormal stuff and all the mysteries what surrounds us, our origins and our future : what we become after death. He investigated a lot for years in order to answer these questions and still continues now. In 2012 after Ani’s death, his dear canine friend, he decides to put down on paper all his thoughts and feelings about the world we live in, humankind and human beings. All of that will soon become a novel entitled Season of Heavens : his debut novel in fact.

The story unfolds in 2047, after civilization has completely collapsed. A small group of people now struggle to survive on a doomed version of the planet Earth. Among these survivors remains a family. Once a night around a campfire, the father begins to tell his children, named Nina and Ana, “how everything changed, and why”. The story told by the father quickly brings us back two years earlier with Yann, a young boy with Asperger’s syndrome and his faithful companion, Ani, a French bulldog who Yann is able to communicate with through telepathy. These two http://cdn2us.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeekus/files/2016/12/seasons_of_heaven.jpgcharacters must journey on a mysterious and beautiful realm called Heaven in order to complete a quest. Meanwhile, we’ll follow plenty of other stories with characters between space and time which do not seem to be related at first, but revealed after as having a link between them. That’s the magic of novels, I assume…

https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=1920x400:format=jpg/path/s1150a3a189ce1120/image/ie5b89093a73663b1/version/1478710408/image.jpgBeautiful. Well written. Moving. Exciting. Even, exceptional. But let’s say it once and for all, Seasons of Heaven’s tale is really complex : lots of characters, loads of different stories, tons of things to remind for a poor reader like me. Despite that, this novel is a good surprise. Quite pessimistic (about human nature and our future) as I’m enjoying them, it still delivers a strong message of hope. There are also some interesting theories about life and death as well. In this universe, there is no place for the Bible theories of the Man’s creation and that’s good to read !

The plot is smart as it could happen in a near future : indeed, we understand in the novel that humans allowed themselves the end of the world, as a result of their careless actions (pollution, environmental destruction, power and money). Consequently, these survivors always have to remind that the very little things that gave their fellow humans a sense ofhttps://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=1920x400:format=jpg/path/s1150a3a189ce1120/image/i3d771eb986ba5128/version/1478710408/image.jpg superiority and even power and omnipotence, were what had killed them in the end. The narrator’s description is abundant, allowing our mind to travel in breathtaking landscapes. It will take you from deep inside a mystical forest at the beginning of times through to the twenty-first century and the fall of civilization.

When we start reading Seasons of Heaven, we enter in a dream with unclear contours but details that guide us in our own travel. We can feel oppressed or delighted to the point of being a prisoner of his dream or on the contrary, having the wish to stay there for a long time… I remember that I finished reading the book with a strange feeling and I had to wait for several days in order to finally get to think straight about my impressions.

Nevertheless, Seasons of Heaven surely will awaken your imagination and open your mind to possibilities you may never have considered. As long as you will read the novel, you’ll question everything you thought you knew about humanity and begin to realize that the possibility of things existing, that can’t be seen with our eyes but only felt within our hearts and souls, really do exist.https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=1920x400:format=jpg/path/s1150a3a189ce1120/image/i31b31dc6cf803450/version/1478710408/image.jpg

« Le soleil pointe au-dessus des montagnes, illuminant le ciel de rose et de violet. L’hiver est à la porte, l’été refuse de le laisser entrer, une bataille de couleurs vibrantes résonne à travers la campagne. »

A MOVEABLE FEAST – HEMINGWAY

If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”

A moveable feast is an autobiography written by Ernest Hemingway and dating back to 1964. During his old age in the fifties, Hemingway decided think back to what happened when he was young by writing this book.
He depicts his life in the 1920s when he arrived in Paris. He was then 22 and began to live a bohemian life in France. When he arrived in Paris, he was a journalist but soon gave up to be devoted only to literature.
He tells us how he managed to live for next to nothing, wishing being known for his writing. In Paris, he met some famous authors, who were also expatriates, such as Fitzgerald, Ezra Poung and James Joices to name a few. Hemingway made his own way through literature world by earring advices of these writers who became his friends.
The readers discover a new Paris, so far away from the one we know nowadays. A Paris where everything is possible, a cheap and a friendly one, with parties and cosy clubs everywhere. In brief, he depicts a city full of culture and artists. As the author said :

“this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy”.

This is what I loved about it: it is a hymn to life. What’s more, it had a special resonance after the terrorist attacks of 13th November given that this book symbolizing the French art of living.

A FAREWELL TO ARMS – HEMINGWAY

A Farewell to arms is the third novel written by Ernest Hemingway which dates back to 1929. Hemingway, well-known for his famous writings such as for whom the bell tolls, a moveable feast, the old man and the sea, is also a nobel prize laureate in literature.

The novel depicts the twentieth years of Frederic Henry during the First World War. Frederic is a young American who volunteers to work for Italian ambulances. One of his comrade (friend during this war), Rinaldi, introduces him to a young British woman, Catherine Berkley. He starts to seduce her, and gradually falls in love with her. After he gets hurt at the front, he is sent to an hospital where Catherine is also assigned. Here, their relationship begins and they both fall in love with each other. Afterwards, he tells their life where they try to survive with Catherine’s pregnancy and their urge to escape from this war. They will try to reach Switzerland where, they think, they can be free and happy… I think it is also worth noting that the tittle has a double meaning. First, there is the question of the war, then arms can also imply Catherine’s arms, that he will have to leave… This book is quite a moving one: during the war, love is not an easy thing.

A farewell to arms can be considered as an autobiographical novel. Indeed, Frederic’s characters is quite similar to Hemingway. Like him, Hemingway was also volunteer for the Italian Red Cross, he also gets hurt and also met a British nurse during his convalescence.

« The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry », Rachel Joyce, 2012.

« The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry » is a novel, which was written by Rachel Joyce, and it was published in 2012.

This beautiful story refers to a part of Rachel’s Life. Rachel Joyce is a English novelist. She decided to write this adventure of Mr. Fry during the time where her father was very sick and in terminal stage of disease..

In this fabulous story, the main character, Harold Fry, a old man, received a letter from a former friend, Queenie Hennessy, who is very sick and in end-stage too (like Rachel’s father)…

In his boring life, Harold and his wife lose all interest to each other… When he read the Queenie’s letter, he wants to make his life better and aims to save Queenie. So, Harold decides to write at his friend, and go to post his answer. He was just gone to mail a letter, and finally, he will travel thousand kilometers. When he arrives to the post office, he says him that he can go to the next town. When he arrives to the next town, he says him that he could go to the next town again, and so on …

Finally, he goes to live a wonderful adventure (87 days) during his travel. He will meet a lot a new people and events. Harold has only one objective « I will walk and you will live Queenie ».

I find this book very beautiful and good, because the character of Harold is so engaging, brave, with a lot of will to save his friend and maybe his couple. He might refer to Rachel, who wanted to save her father too… Really, it’s a very simple reading, but it gives us a good lesson of life … Beautiful !

If I Stay

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If I Stay is written by Gayle Forman, a American journalist, she is known for her articles. If I Stay is a novel, which it was adapted to a film in 2014. There is a second novel entitled Where She Went.

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I am going to talk about the first roman If I Stay. It is about a young girl Mia. She is happy, a simple life, with her parents, her little brother : Teddy and her boyfriend : Adam Wilde who is in a rock band and she has a promising career as a violinist. But one day, Mia and her parents want to go to her grand-parents, despite there is snow. Then they have an accident.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KjlxZhyu3Mw/VChTHwBK4CI/AAAAAAAAB-E/LQV6KX9qFrM/s1600/tumblr_n85ug38AMF1r8gfe4o1_500.gifHer life is destroyed. She enters into a coma. But she becomes a phantom and she attends the visit of her family at her bedside. She learns that her parents are died in the accident.This story takes place in 24 hours. And in this day she must choose if live or dead. She sees her memories again and again and we discover her ordinary life with music, family and her boyfriend. Her memories are simple like everyone, we can identify with her live. She confronts with a horrible situation. Her life breaks under our eyes.

This story is beautiful, and with a great sensibility. I was affected until the end. But I don’t understand very well the end.

La Passe-miroir : Les Fiancés de l’hiver

La Passe-miroir is written by Christelle Dabos, a not very well-know French writer. This novel is a French fantasy novels who is in four volumes. In my article, I am going to talk about the first volume Les Fiancés de l’hiver. It won the first edition of the contest of the first novel youth organized by Gallimard Jeunesse.

La Passe-miroir is about a fantasy world, because the world is destroyed and there are only small islands called “arches”. In ark reigns a « family spirit », they are immortal beings who are the common ancestor of the inhabitants of the arches to whom they have transmitted powers. And the main character of this story is a young woman, her name is Ophelie, she lives in “Anima ark” and she is a “reader”, this means that she can read into objects, and thanks to that, she can know the past of these objects and to whom the objects belonged. She feels emotions and feelings. This power is rare but she has got another power that is rarer; she can cross into the mirrors. She works in a museum, where she loves work, because she likes use her “reader” power. She is an awkward, lonely and reserved character, and she lives only for her work.

But one day, her life changes, because she must marry a man whom her family has chosen for her, his name is Thorne, he comes from “The ark of the pole”. He is a cold, gruff and wicked man like his “ark”.And Ophélie must live in “ark of the pole”. She will have to adapt in a country where betrayal, wickedness and assassination attempts reigns, she must follow and obey without necessarily accepting it. And she has no family to help and no one she trusted. She can count on her powers to help herself.

I loved this novel, because it is a fantasy world that the author presents us. This is a world that is truly innovative, and there are many characters with different behaviors (whether you like them or not). It is a rich world! And the characters of Thorne and Ophelie are endearing!

Bad girls throughout history

   This book, written by Ann Shen, is about, as the subheading says, 100 remarkable women who changed the world, such as Josephine Baker, Marie Curie, etc… You can read about how these powerful women, from multiple eras and places changed history to make the world a better place. One page is dedicated to each of them, explaining what they did next to a beautiful watercolour portrait illustration.

   What I really liked about this book were the facts that it is very pleasant to read and it changes from a typical history book. The format is quite nice with the text and picture for each woman. It is very informative but also inspiring and fascinating. It allows us to know more about some women we’ve already heard about and to discover new ones at the same time. This book is very human, it is a great celebration for women and gives hope to an even better place for them in the world today.

I am Legend

                I am legend -Richard Burton Matheson 

 

Biography :

Richard Burton Matheson was born in the 20 Februar 1926 in Allenda in New Jersey and he was dead in 23 June 2013 in California. It was a writter and american scenarist. Richard Matheson like the style of science fiction and horror.                                                 Richard Matheson going in the school in Missouri of Journalism . Then have his diplom of journalism he going in California in 1949 and begin the writing. His first success with the first novel, is « Borns of Mar and woman » in 1950. And his secondly success is « I am Legend » writting in 1954 . Thoses book was suitable at the movie.                                         Richard Matheson will also in the cinema and television. He was writte too the text of the series sciences-fiction the « Star Trek » . Richard Matheson inspired lot of artist of sciences-fiction.

Story:

This story tells, that a doctor to find a cancer vaccine. But this remedy is effective. But this vaccine quits the laboratory and he go circulate all over the world. Many peolpe going to die. Nobody peolpe find the remedy for to stop this infection of virus.                                     However, there is a one survivor in the city of New York since 3 Years ago. This is a one Doctor, and he is immune against the virus. He has on house with laboratory and with this he would like to find an vaccine with his blood for the virus. Against 3 Years ago this man hunting of animals in New York, make a different experiments, and to find a foods in different appartment abandoned and he circulate an message in the radio in case there were someone else in the same case as him.                                                                         But one days, he falls in the trap make by the humain mutant, and his dog is contaminate. The Doctor try to save a dog. Sadly his dog is dead and the Doctor can’t respect the laws and will kill many mutants to avenge his dog. However in action a one woman survivor save a life and doctot. But will they succed in find the andidote ?

Culottées, Pénélope Bagieu

Apache warrior or Hollywood mermaid, lighthouse keeper or bearded woman, gynecologist or empress, these women have shattered the prejudices. Culottées is a comic written and drawn by the French Pénélope BAGIEU. She depicts with humor and finesse fifteen women portraits : exceptional fighters who braved the social pressure of their time to lead the life of their choices. »Culottées » Volume 1 allows the author to bring (or bring back) to light the women who, against all odds, have become in very different fields, great flag bearers for equality between men and women.

Since there is still a lot of work, the artist will decline these portraits in several volumes. The tone is deliberately light and humorous even when these women have paid a high price for their rashness against the most elementary prejudices and rights. These biographies quickly told (this is the regret that can be emitted) makes us want to go further on their stories and document us a little more about these remarkable women.

The drawings are joyful, colorful and funny , as well as the texts. Extraordinary female lives are presented to us. What strength of character, what pugnacity, in these
women. I especially liked Christine Jorgensen the first transsexual woman in history, Josephine Baker, the « so » generous, or Leymah Gbowee, a social worker, who used to experience war and domestic violence.

I also loved the double pages ending each biography, revealing a magnificent drawing, often poetic, perfectly summarizing the life of these women.

A beautiful discovery, and a useful album, to remind (it’s always necessary to do it) that women have a role to play everywhere, on all levels!

A comic to read and watch with pleasure.

Les Belles Vies by Benoît Minville.

« Mr. Minville, I do not congratulate you. I do not find it very fairplay to make cry the sensitive boys … I do not congratulate you but thank you! » -Simon Roguet.

 

 

     Today, I’m going to speak about Les Belles Vies by Benoît Minville, a French author that I appreciate a lot. I discovered him in Le Géant who had been a real favorite and then I found him in Je suis ta fille, a good novel also. In the book of today, Vasco and Djib are two inseparable boys from the suburbs, are sent for a summer pension in the heart of the Nièvre … A shock of cultures, with flamboyant characters.

 

     This is the beginning of « holidays » that have totally changed their lives ! Youth people from the stuborn who annoy old ladies on buses, Vasco, of Portuguese origin, and Djib, of African origin, find themselves in a hole lost at the bottom of the Nièvre, with sausage and cows. And some racists. They landed in the house of « Tonton and Tata », respectively 80 and 60 years, who welcomed more than fifty children in their life. Among those present that summer, there are Dylan, an apprentice to a butcher, who has great difficulty in containing a violent temperament, and Jessica, a bimbo who spins a bad cotton. They are brother and sister abandoned by a mother unable to look after them. There is also Chloé, a hippie, pationnated by theater, her past remains a mystery for us. And many other small children, some broken by life, others from former residents of Tonton and Tata. All this little world will spend the summer together, they will learn to cohabit, to discover themselves by spending a maximum of time together. They will do what the children do in holiday camps, bathing, cooking, tinkering, cycling, spending evenings together around a good DVD, like simple children gathered in a holiday home. Vasco and Djib will then discover another form of life and fulfillment in this lost village while encountering quite a lot of difficulties, between the racists of the village, the Dylan’s hot boiling temperament, the conflicts with some other young people of the village not really happy to see these younth of suburbs and the nascent attraction for the girls. Our two boys will have to learn to grow and begin gradually to behave differently than they were before they came. We quickly admire the characters of Tonton and Tata, this couple who is retirement age but who decided to give his love and energy to his children treating like theirs.

     The story is simple as life on this farm in the Nièvre where you spend your days preparing meals, gather mushrooms, walk the paths by bike or plunge into the waters of the lake a few kilometers away. What is striking is the sound of the book. the accuracy, the pulsation, the emotion it releases. The text runs, he burns, laughs and the tears come to the eyes, the words are simple, sensitive and generous. To tell you the truth, what initially caught my attention was the fact that this story is happen in the Nièvre. Yes, it should speak to me, since I know rather well the place to live there. I was curious to see how Benoît Minville perceived the region. I have in the book, a familiar atmosphere of rural life. Each member of this « heart » family has its past, its history. The reader attends, silent, the first emotions, the doubts, the evolution of the characters on the road to maturity.Benoît Minville gives us a story full of tenderness and sincerity, with the help of all these destinies struck by life, without, however, embellishing the difficulties that sometimes exist at a very early age. He talks about the social fractures and testimony of a certain talent to tell the jolts of the adolescence. He draws portraits of attracting characters without ever falling into the caricature. This novel, it is a parenthesis out of time, a privileged moment. A summer where wounds begin to heal, even if the path a long. A summer of first time. Little moments of happiness that make everything. It is a novel of tolerance, of life, of humanity, born by true words, in which one senses all the passion, the hope, the tenderness, all the emotions of these children in boiling. A novel of which it would have been desirable that it never end, somewhat like when comes the end of the summer.

 

     To conclude, I can say Les belles vies is the story of broken children who try to rebuild themselves in contact with each other. Many obstacles will stand in their way because, yes, life is far from being a quiet river. And it’s hard to get up after being pierced right in the heart. So imagine the pleasure of seeing them evolve ! They are so touching that I only can only be encourage them.This summer will be memorable for our characters and I find that it is a perfect novel, although it deals with serious topics.

Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

Hi everybody !

Today I would like to talk about the book Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck.

John Steinbeck is an american author. His novels took place regularly in Californie, the birthplace of Steinbeck. He also often stages common characters, of working class confronted of the Great Depression or of the Dust Bowl. Of Mice and Men was published in 1937. There is a cinematographic adaption with John Malkovich and Gary Sinise (1992).

The book deals with two characters, George Milton and Lennie Small. Both are ranch workers who move from place to place in California in search of a new job during the Great Depression. These two friends have a same dream: they want to have their own farm and raise rabbits. On the one hand there is George described as small but with strong hand. On the other hand there is Lennie Small, unlike his friend he is very tall and strong but it is a mentally disabled (there is a link with his name).

I read this book when I was in 3ème, and I re-read it not very long ago, and it always a pleasure. I was transported into the universe of Steinbeck from the very first page of the novel. But I think that the thing I prefer are the characters because I found their friendship very touching. However my favorite character is Lennie, I don’t know really why, but I think his innonce contributed to my attachment to this character. In brief this book is a masterpiece to read urgently !!

      “Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.”

the Spy – Paulo COELHO

Today I would like to talk about Paulo Coehlo’s last novel : the Spy. The novel tells the story of Mata Hari, a woman accused  of spying for the Germans and so betraying her country.  Coelho imagines one of the last letters  that Mata Hari wrote from her prison, a week before her execution , to his lawyer  and the answer of the last one.

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Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, also known as Mata Hari, arrived in Paris in the early 20th century. She managed to become a famous dancer and to seduce her public, including affluent and powerful men. But admiration soon gave place to jealousy. Arrested in 1917, she is shot in the courtyard of the fortress of Vincennes at the dawn of October 15. The prosecution is simple : we think Mata Hari  stood with the Germans during the First World War. However, it had appeared during her trial that she never provided the least valuable information, either to the Germans nor to the French. Then, why these accusations?

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Through his novel, Paulo Coelho makes Mata’s voice heard. Page after page, we learn more and more about this woman in search of freedom. He makes us think about this improper execution. All along the book, he captures the legend and takes us into the universe of the 1900s and of the First World War. We are absorbed by Mata Hari’s destiny, an innocent woman who was shot. Perhaps she was guilty of being free, of enjoying life, money and men, of becoming one strong woman. According to Coehlo, guilty of being « one of the first feminists ».

 

I admit that before reading it, I didn’t know who Mata Hari was. If I bought this book, it’s only because I like the writer and the cover looked nice. And honestly, I don’t regret! Coelho’s writing makes the novel easier to read, and in the end you’re just like « wow it is sooooo fascinating! » If you’ve also never heard about Mata Hari’s story, I advice you to read the book. As a huge fan of both history and Coelho, I obviously loved this novel! It is incredibly captivating and interesting. By the way, a few movies about Mata Hari’s life also exist. 

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 I promise it’s worth reading it! 

« Replay – Ken Grimwood – 1986 »

To begin with this novel, we can notice that Ken Grimwood was an american author who was born in 1947 and who died in 2003. Some of his books were really influenced by comics (with science fiction) and the fantasy world. So he aimed to write with this worderful inspiration.

During his short life, we can observe that he was « famous » thanks to one of his books : Replay. It is the most popular novel to Ken, and « Replay » won the World Fantasy Award in 1988. That is why I would like to speak about this novel !

So, this fantasy novel tells about Jeff Winston, a radio journalist. He has 43 years old, and he isn’t really filled by his poor life. One day, he dies suddently because of a heart attack. But he was rather startled to discover that he was alive again ! But there is a problem, he wakes up in his student room and he has 18 years old ! Now, the « Replay » can begin. He knows his previous life again, and can « replay » without mistakes his new life… A kind of circle begins to Jeff and each time, when he arrives to 43 years old, he dies and replay another life, with differents choises.

This book is really interesting because we can observe and learn every time a new, a differente life, where Jeff Winston choises to make some differents actions to never live the same life ! He is able to change things for him and for the other people around him: and now, he wants to live with this aim !

I keep the end of this book for me and you have to read this novel to break the suspens…  Thanks to this novel we can discover the last twenty years of America, and it’s very pleasant ! I love the fantasy world, so this dream world makes me very amazed !

Bye !

« Uglies – Scott Westerfeld – 2005 »

This science fiction novel was written by Scott Westerfeld in 2005. It’s a set of books serie : Uglies, Pretties, Specials, Extras and Secrets. All these books make us a dystopian world.

So, this futuristic novel tells about Tally. She is 16 years old, and like a lot of teenagers, she is a member of « Uglies », a group of people. In this world, when teenagers reach their sixteenth birthday, they must have an operation to become « Pretties ». The « Pretties » people have a happy life with parties, fun evertime and everywhere, and they are free in this paradise, but they loose totaly their personnality… Contrary as « Uglies », who dream and aim to become Pretties.But Tally doesn’t believe in this Pretty’s paradise, she doesn’t want to become a pretty girl and she aims to become a rebel. « The Rebels » aim to go away and accept to stay Uglies to keep their personnality.

So, when Tally’s operation arrives, Tally must make a choice: become a pretties and loose her friends, her familly, her personnality but be accepted in the society, or stay uglies with her personnality and mentality, but be outcast of the society…

I don’t really like this book, because I found it very boring, So I don’t read the other books serie. But the plot makes me very interested, and that why I read this novel. It’s a shame …

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail – Cheryl Strayed

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail is a memoir by Cheryl Strayed ( an american author ) published in 2012.

This memoir describes Cheryl’s 1 000 miles hike of the Pacific Crest Trail ( it begins in the Mojave Desert, goes through California and Oregon and ends in the state of Washington ). When she was 22 years old her mother passed away after battling a lung cancer, after this her siblings remained distant and, later, she divorced her husband. When she was 27 she thought that she had nothing else to lose so she decided to go on a 1000 miles hike with no previous experience, alone and untrained. She captured, in her book, her thoughts during the whole journey, her physical and mental pains, her challenges and realizations.

After a friend mentionned it to me and said it was a great book, I wanted to see if it was as good as it seemed. And it is really an amazing book that you should read.

Mathilda (novel)

I am going to present a famous novel of the english literature : Mathilda written by Roald Dahl. This author worths a bit of description because I grew up in his books containing a humorous touch and offering a lot of adventures with original characters. He was born in Wales in 1916, and for a living he was a scenarist and an author, who wrote novels for cildren as well as adults. He became famous by writing novels such as Charlie and the chocolate factory, the BFG, etc…and won prizes : The world Fantasy prize.

Mathilda is a little girl, quiet but very intelligent, endowed with peculiar skills for her age : at the age of 5 she had already read the english classics! Adopted when she was a baby by a couple, she is ignored and mistreated. At school, her precocity doesn’t stay unnoticed  by her teacher named Mrs Honey, and who will bond a mothering relationship with Mathilda and is fascinated. Mathilda would be too lucky to be entirely happy in her school, a tyrannical  headteacher named Agatha Trunchbull, who punishes pupils whenever she is keen on doing it. The girl will develop a new kind of power : to be able to move objects with her thoughts. And she will use it to trick whoever means to harm her, one of the elements which will permit the story to unfold.

Mrs Honey had a cloudy past, she was raised by her Aunt after the death of her father, she even confides to Mathilda that it was quite suspicious. Through this story, there is a lot of love contrasted by violence and injustice, and the touch of magic is typical for the writing style of Road Dahl. I would add that if you wish to read it, you can also watch the film!!

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is an autobiographical novel written by Maya Angelou a writer who played a major role in the African-American civil rights movement, a politic movement of which the aim was to defend the rights of blacks during the apartheid. This movement was symbolized by Martin Luther King.

In this book Maya Angelou, from her real name Marguerite Johnson tells us her childhood where younger she was placed at her grandmother with her brothers because like the majority of the Afro-American family her parents didn’t have enough money to provide their needs. Her grandmother was living in the Arkansas a state in which racism was omnipresent. At the age of seven she goes back to her mother but a tragic event happened to Maya and she returned to her grandmother.

One day Mrs. Bertha Flower an aristocrat introduces the literature to Maya an art which gives her confidence in herself. Good student, Maya is send in a private school in California, she is the only black…

This book only tells us just a part of her life. Despite it I found this book really touching because we learn the story of one of the most emblematic woman during the apartheid. Maya Angelou was such a charismatic woman and when you read her poetry or hear her speeches you don’t think that she may have suffered all of these hardships. This book is a great life lesson, I advise you to read it !

Sarah’s key

Sarah’s key is a novel written by Tatiana de Rosnay published in 2006. It tells the story of Julia Jarmond an American journalist who decided to move in France. She’s married to Bertrand Tezac a French man. In the tribute of the 60th anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup the American journal of which she is the correspondent ask her to write an article about this tragic event.
Julia discovered that the apartment of Bertrand’s grandmother was earning to a Jewish family, Sarah’s family.
Sarah was a ten years old Jewish girl who was send with her family to the Velodrome d’Hiver this night she locked her little brother in a secret closet in their apartment thinking that their parents will come back in a few time.
But after Sarah and her family were send to Drancy, a refugee camp and Sarah starts to feeling guilty because of her brother. In Drancy Sarah has been separated from her family and she is found at Auschwitz. She met Rachel and tries to escape with her but someone decided to denounce them and an officer catch them. The officer is someone who Sarah knows and he decided to let them go. The two girls find refuge with a couple but the neighbors decided to call the Nazi police to denounce the young couple but they only found Rachel not Sarah. So Sarah get back to her house.
Fascinated by the story of Sarah, Julia started to forget her husband.

I appreciated this book because contrary to the others book talking about this event, this book isn’t a diary it’s looks like an investigation

The Rotters Club by Jonathan Coe

Birmingham in 1973, Doug Anderton, Benjamin Trotter and Philip Chase have them small well organized lives between them King William high school, with their family life, girls’ trouble and concerns of their parents. Doug is the son of a striking leader of the automobile factory, is in love with Claire Newmann, the sister of Miriam who is the secret mistress of his father. Benjamin has sister, Loïs, who begins to build her future life, he has a younger brother too, he is in love with Cicely and writes novels and musics. Philip is serious, is secretly too a lover of Claire and he sees her mother having a relation with his plastic arts teacher and his father, furious to know it, participates, juste like Doug, Ben and Claire in the newspaper of his high school and tries to etablish with Ben his rock band.

Their father work on the automobile factory, speak about social unrest, about strikes and about the terrorism of the IRA while they speak about rock, about punk, about their life to the high shcool, about equality between the sexes… But in these years  when the State gives way to the thatcherism, the problem of England catch up them : Loïs sees his fiancé dying under his eyes during an attempt of the IRA, the newspaper publishes more and mores articles on the strikes, the IRA and the politics.

It is a rather long but very pleasant book to be read : funny even satiric, in the not too much looked for style, in the fascinating intrigue, in the multiple themes, in the growing interest, in the touching heroes.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

This novel was published in 2012 by John Green, an american writer and it was published in France in 2013 by Nathan Jeunesse. It’s a book which had e lot of success, he was adapted into a movie with Shailene Woodley and Ansel Legort in the respective roles of Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters. The story takes place in Indianapolice and Hazel is old of siwteen years old. She is affected by a disease : cancer.

Her parents obliged him to assist at a group of support for cancer patient. During sessions, she meets Augustus and he is affected by a cancer too. The two adolescents are passionned by a novel wrote by Peter Van Houten and they decided to do a travel for meet the writer and they go there low together but the story ended tragically beacuse Augustus succumb to his disease.

This story is very touching because she deal with the cancer which is a actual disease and the scientits searched Remedies to cured them despite that Cancer are mainly cured nowaday. However, other disease are not cured like Alzheimer. This story deal with to Love too and show that it is necessary to take advantage of people who we love as long as we can.

Walking Dead

Today, I’m going to talk about the comic book series Walking Dead created by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore in 2003.

Before reading the first volume, I was watching the serie The Walking Dead (which debuted in 2010). But one day, my friends offered it to me so I started to read it…even if I didn’t agree to read the comic after having seen the serie but finally I really liked it and we learn more about the characters through the comic!

(so that’s why I really love it and I suggest you to read it if you know the series!)

The story of Walking Dead focuses on Rick Grimes, a man who was shot and who was in a hospital, in the coma, during a long time. When he woke up, nobody was around him, not even a nurse or his family, he was alone so he asked help, when he started to walk, he found some strange people in the hospital, who were disfigured, with a face and a body full of blood, who was walking in a very slow way… and we call them :

« the walkers« 

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After leaving the hospital, Rick returns at his home to meet his son and his wife, but they are nowhere. Will he meet them again ?

What is interesting is the fact that we follow a group of people, we learn what the true values are, and it is an atmosphere based on reality, I’m addicted to the characters, to the story…

Who will help him to survive and…

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And don’t forget, it’s better to hunt than to be hunted…

Thérèse Raquin

Hello everybody ,

Today I choose to talk about my favorite novel ! It is entitled Thérèse Raquin, it was written by one of the most famous writer of the 19th century, Emile Zola. This novel was published in 1867. Normally, I do not like love story but this novel make a deep impession on me…

The story starts with three characters : the main character : Thérèse ; Camille and Camille’s mother. Thérèse was raised by Camille’s mother, Camille is sick since he is a little boy, adult, Camille and Thérèse get married. They live in Paris, in their shop where Thérèse sells jewelrys and clothes with Camille’s mother. One day Camille returned to the house with an old friends of him, Vincent. He is a painter and at the first look Thérèse fell in love with him… Zola uses the description and insist on the love at first sight…

So, Thérèse and Vincent start an hidden love relation, they have sexual intercourse in the marital bed. But Thérèse and Vincent want to live thier relation freely so they decided to kill Camille. On one summer night they go eat in a restaurant and they decided to take a walk on a lake in a small boat and Vincent drown Camille.. Nobody saw them.. This extract is very intensive we attend at the drowning !

But after the murder the lovers do not feel free, on the contrary, they become to be crazy and the murder haunt them.. so they kill themselves because they do not manage to be happy.

I recommand you so much this novel !

Fight Club – Chuck Palahniuk (1996)

Fight Club is a well-know novel written by Chuck Palahniuk a famous American novelist (1962-present), Palahniuk describes his books as « Transgressional fiction », Fight Club was in 1999 adapted in a movie by the famous film director: David Fincher with actors like Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter (ex-wife of Tim Burton).. This story is particularly known by the movie, but personally I think the book is excellent, almost better than the movie…

The plot takes place in the nineties, the story tells the life of « the narrator » we never know the real name of the principal character but most of the fans name him as « Jack » (reference to an element of the movie: the narrator often explains his feelings and sensations by a third person speech which stage humans organs like: « If I did have a tumor, I’d name it Marla. ») this character have a very moody life with a commonplace and boring job, he lives alone, had no friends.. He’s such a modern slave, but one day on a nudist beach, he meets one man who is totally opposed to him, his name is: Tyler Durden.. Since this day the two characters become friends and start living together in a run-down big house in an industrial district.. With Tyler, the narrator start to discover the real freedom by making illegal activities like robbery, vandalism and especially by creating: « The Fight Club » a secret club in which peoples (only men) fight each other to become « free » and « stronger ».. This utopic state of mind become dangerous and the narrator start to being afraid of Tyler.. He must make a choice, but the situation is not simply as we can guess..

I really like this novel because I have seen the movie some years ago and I had loved it so when I had known that before this story was a book.. I decided to buy it and read it and I was not disappointed. The story is very cool and interessant and the writings are not difficult, so everybody can read this..

Oh, and if you are interested in Fight Club or if you already know the novel and the movie.. Chuck Palahniuk had written Fight Club 2 in the form of a comic, the plot takes place ten years after the ending of the book.. I didn’t read it, but I think I could be very interressant to know what happens to the characters and also to discovering the story by another form…

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107

  I’m going to talk about the novel 107 ans (one hundred seven years old in English). It was published in 2006. It was written by Diasteme. This is a French novel.

  Diasteme is a novelist, author et dramaturge. He has written « Les papas et les mamans ». 107 years old isn’t a famous novel, isn’t knows by everybody but it’s although a great novel.

  The scene takes place in France. Simon the main character, is aged sixteen years old. He is interned in psychiatric institution because he loved Lucie to much. Simon cheated Lucie so she left him. So to get her back he decided to run away of his house and joins her but she doesn’t know that.

  To joins Lucie Simon did some mad acts like a run away, auto destruction, agressions and he stops eating…We discover a young and complex man.With this novel we enter into Simon’s mind and head. There is question of suicide and suffering of an instable teenager.

  To concluded I loved this novel because this is an introspection of Simon. And an introspection of mad mind. At the end of the story we understand that Simon is whatever mad and even if the others people think that he is healthy they are wrong. He can’t stops to think of Lucie.

Macbeth

Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It was written in 1587. It deals with contradictions, perils and ambitions. This drama is one of the most famous dramas written by William Shakespeare who is also one of the most famous playwrights in the world. He wrote Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet etc.

The scene takes place in the medieval Scotland. The main characters are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth his wife. Macbeth is a general. One day three witches say to Macbeth that he will become the king. Macbeth has got ambition. His wife encouraged him to kill the king to make the prophecy come true. So Macbeth kills King Duncan and take the throne. But the problem is that he becomes paranoiac. His fear make him completely crazy. To save his power he commites a lot of murders like in a vicious circle. At the same times Lady Macbeth became also mad, she sees ghosts and she feels so guilty and trapped by their lies. The obcession of power and the ambition brought Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to the lie and to the despair. The play shows this slowly evolution of Macbeth into the evil.

I loved this tragedy because it’s very opprisive and we see the guilt grow up inside the characters. When we read or see the play we are, like characters, despaired and stressed.

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel : The Alchemyst

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The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel written by Irish author Michael  Scott. It is a specialist Mythology and folklore, he wrote a lot of science fiction, fantasy and horror books and in Ireland, he was called the « king of fantasy ». I am going to talk about the first book in this series:  The Alchemyst .

The story begins with two siblings, they are twins, the first; her name is Sophie Newman , who she works in a tearoom  and the second  his name is Josh Newman, who works in the book store, where the owner is  Nick Fleming and his wife Perry Fleming. One day while Sophie is on the phone with her friend, she sees a black limousine which stops in front of the book store where his brother works. And several men in black come out of the car to attack the owner of the bookstore.The two twins witness a supernatural power fighting between Nick Fleming and the men in black who are golems controlled by John Dee. After the fighting, Josh and Sophie discover that Nick Fleming is Nicholas Flamel the famous and historical French alchemist:

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Nicolas Flamel has a reputation of an alchemist who search the philosopher’s stone and the immortality. And John went in the book store to steal  Codex, where there is Final Evocation but Josh ripped off the two pages that explains the final Evocation, so the two twins are in danger, because John Dee would like to recover them.

Along their journey the twins will discover the existence of some sort of gods call “The Elders”. Some are nice but other who are called “Dark Elder” are cruel and John Dee wants to wake up them for they control the world. Nicholas Flamel will find help with an Elder who she is the Celtic goddess of the war; Scathach and Hecate the goddess with three faces and together they will help the twins to wake up their power, because Josh and Sophie are the twins of an old legend.

I love this book because it mixes a lot of heroes or gods in different legends in the world, like Celtic or some Gods of Egypt or Prometheus and Shakespeare appears like an immortal human and he helps twins in their quest.

The Old Man and the Sea

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The Old Man and the Sea is written by Ernest Hemingway, a famous American writer. He was born in 1899 and he died in 1961. At the beginning of his career he was a journalist, it is in Paris that he learns the profession of writer and after that he wrote novels. It is his second novel: The Sun also Rises that gives him success and fame. Thanks to success, he can travel and he travels a lot : in the United States, Africa, Spain, Italy and also in Cuba where is the action of his novel. The Old Man and the Sea was published in 1953 and also in 1953, The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

The Old Man and the Sea is about an old man, his name is Santiago, he is a fisherman and a poor Cuban and with him, there is a young boy who accompagnies him to fishing. And this boy calls Manolin. But fishing has long been bad, and they have taken nothing for 84 days. The parents of Manolin decide that their son will embark on another boat, because they think that Santiago is too old for fishing. But Manolin will join nevertheless the old man in his shack at night to help him repair his fillets and bring him sardines for fishing. One night, the old man tells to young boy that he wants to go fishing alone and he wants to leave far in Gulf Stream, to find fish and end his bad fishing. On the 85th day, he goes fishing and he meets a giant marlin. The old man fought against the marlin for 3 days and he won. https://beamingnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Old_man_and_the_sea_Jan_Hrebicek_2013-11-1200x900.jpg

But the marlin is too big to embark in his boat and he lets it tied beside his boat in the water. Attracted by the smell of fish, sharks begins to arrive and they devour the marlin. Santiago attends the scene without being able to do anything, because he is exhausted of his fight with marlin. Finally, he returns to the port, but only with the head and the bone of the fish.

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This book shows us a fighting of human against Nature, because the marlin refers to Nature. But I think that Hemingway wanted to show us that human never truly triumphs against nature, but, here, we have a entire failure but also a personal triumph, because the old man knows what it is worth. I find that story realist but at the same time it is like an epic story.

La petite fille qui avait avalé un nuage grand comme la Tour Eiffel, Romain Puértolas

Hi! Today I will talk about the new novel of Romain Puértolas, La petite fille qui avait avalé un nuage grand comme la Tour Eiffel  (sorry I didn’t find the English title). So I know, it’s a french author but this book overwhelmed me (in the good way)and I had to share it with you!

This is the story of Providence, a young and impulsive french woman, and Zahera a little Moroccan girl of 7 years old who has cystic fibrosis. The story of a postwoman stuck because of an ash cloud and a futur backer-astronaut who has a cloud in her lung. A meeting in a hospital because of an appendicitis and a lot of returns Paris-Marrakech. This is a story of an unbounded love which make everything possible, even fly..

Providence is about to take her plane to Marrakech and bring back Zahera, his adoptive daughter, to Paris to try to save her from her disease. But the eruption of an icelandic volcano paralyzes all the air traffic and prevents Providence from fetching his daughter.

She has to find another way but all the rented cars are already rented, trains are overcrowded and she hasn’t her own car. It’ll be impossible to her to keep her promise to fetch Zahera before the sunset but it’s inthinkable to her to dissapoint her daughter.

She can’t resign herself, she will be with Zahera today because later it may be too late and the little girl coul’d die. So she realizes the impossible: she learns to fly.

I thought this book really wonderful: a subtle mix of humor, non-sense, love, sensibility, tenderness and hope. The fact that Providence flies is maybe less grandiose than the reasons that pushed her to accomplish this feat. Zahera is a little girl with a lot of dreams and who wants to learn everything she can about the world, the life. She fights agains the disease with a lot of strengh for a 7 years old. She is very touching and loveable. Providence and her determination gives us a real lesson: if we love, if we really want something, everything becomes possible, nothing can stop you. With her love for her daughter she locks the world, for a few minutes, in a bubble of peace and happiness.

We are getting absorbed in a beautiful adventure with many events to discover.

And who knows, maybe love really gives wings after all?

Ten Little Niggers, Agatha Christie

Today I want to talk about an Agatha Christie’s book entitled Ten Little Niggers (or And then there were none for the American version) and published in 1939.

Ten people who don’t know each other are invited to come to an island by Mr and Mrs Owen because of different excuses ( to meet old friends, job…). But when all the guests arrive no signs of their hosts, there are only two servants to receive them. The first night, all the guests (who are not related) confide one common point: they all have murdered (directly or indirectly) someone and escaped to justice and they are all here to « pay for their crimes ».

One by one, all the guests begin to die and their murders follow a famous nursery rhyme entitled « ten little niggers » whose lyrics are hanging on the wall of all the bedrooms. After each murder one of the ten figurines presents on the table is broken. After the second murder panic and distrust settle down in the house. They are alone on the island and they can’t escape because of the bad weither. They are traped, scared and they suspect each other of being the murderer. All along the plot we can see character’s personnality evolve and until the end we can’t really know who is the murderer.

I love police novels and those of Agatha Christie are so interesting, with a lot of suspense and it’s always a pleasure to read one of her books.

And you, did you read it? What do you think of it?

SNOW ANGELS – STEWART O’NAN

Snow Angels occurred in a little town of Pennsylvania, in 1974’s winter. It deals with 2 different characters and 2 different stories. On the one hand, there is Arthur Parkinson devastated by his parents’ divorce. On the other hand there is Annie Marchand, Arthur’s babysitter. She is now facing a series of tragic events, especially with her husband Glenn.
There is a beautiful symmetry of the death of these two marriages. ?The story begins with Arthur telling the day when Annie Marchand was assassinated by his husband, 15 years after the drama. Since then, there is a flash back in Arthur’s and Annie’s life. When Arthur heard the gun shot, he knew what had happened. Shortly after his dad divorcing his mum and leaving home, it was now the turn of Annie. Annie, whom Arthur was secretly infatuated with, had left as well, for ever.?Throughout their life, Arthur wonders about his destiny. Why was everything he loved most destroyed? How can he fight his way in this world?
What I particularly love about this book is the fact that O’Nan depicts Middle America, far from the American Dream. What’s more, O’Nan captures the reader even while depicting the tragic daily life of Arthur and Annie.

FACTOTUM – BUKOWSKI

Hello, I’m going to talk about Factotum, a book written by Charles Bukowski in 1975.
As the title suggests, it is a story about a man who does everything, or almost everything. We follow the wandering of Henry Chinaski, a fallen writer during WW2 in America.
Chinaski is like Bukowski’s alter ego, written in the first person narrative, we discover a wandering life from New Orleans to New York, by way of Los Angeles or Philadelphia. So Chinaski jumps from one job to another without being concerned about it, spending his time drinking and writing about his disappointments, his frustrations, women… For him, what matters the most is to have a place where you can live your life : it doesn’t matter whether it is on the street or in a slum. This wise guy doesn’t care about money, social conventions and so on, thinking that it is reserved for special people.

What I love about this book and this author, it is the way of wrinting of Bukowski : combining obscenity and provocation, in brief, what he is famous for. He writes without any judgments, with honest and straight-forward manner. Moreover, he depicts America of the 40’s and its lost and marginal generation.

To Build A Fire by Jack London

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“I would rather be ashes than dust ! […] I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”                                                                                                                                       — Jack London

To Build A Fire (1908) is a short story written by Jack London, a famous American author well known for some literature masterpieces as The Call Of The Wild (1903), and White Fang (1906). As you probably guess, London dealt particularly with adventure and wildness in his books’ story since he was himself an adventurer and a sailor. He wrote two different versions of this short story that he published in 1902 and in 1908 respectively : here I am going to focus on the second one which is far more interesting for us to discuss about.

First and foremost, it is worth noting that To Build A Fire is part of the naturalist movement (naturalistic writers used literature as an experiment to discover and analyze the forces or the scientific laws, that influenced the character’s behavior, its emotions in https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/74/d3/de/74d3def1ac093675c951543ab5a86b55.jpgits environment) and because of that, the short story illustrates a major topic : the conflict of Man vs. Nature (the hero struggles against an animal or a force of nature and this struggle has a prominent place inside the story).

The story takes place in the Yukon Territory, near the Klondike River (Canada). An unnamed man is walking on the snow and on the frozen river as well, despite the extreme polar temperatures of the winter (?75 °F or ?59 °C). During this not so long journey of nine hours of hiking, he is accompanied by a husky dog. The man is supposed to catch up on the evening in Henderson Creek his associates (named “the boys”) who have taken another way to go there. Unfortunately, the cold weather and the environment will become an invisible enemy and the man won’t have so many choice to survive : he will have to build a fire.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/63/fd/30/63fd305d196ed890e1412de6bb305e82.jpgWhat it seems to be an easy thing at first is revealed after as being an impossible task to accomplish. As his life is suspended to a thread, he tries in three occasions to build this damn fire but failed miserably under the eyes of the dog, peacefully wrapped up in his fur. At the end of the story, the man understands that his death is unavoidable. He ceases struggling and accepts his fate. The man dies, becoming the victim of this overwhelming, freezing and hostile nature. The dog finally leaves his master to find another who maybe will be able to build a fire.

I think it’s an amazing story of survival. At first, the plot seemed rather boring : I mean, a man walking through the wilderness, from a point A to a point B, that’s not really a plot that knocks your socks off ! Nevertheless, as the man finally gets into a battle with nature for survival, it gets much more interesting. The fact that the man is never actually named is significant. I would personally think that the author did this to keep the reader somewhat detached from him, in an effort to not make his death a big deal for the reader, and also make it easier to dislike him as a character.

Jack London possesses an amazing writing style that allows him to transcend thehttps://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/42/5c/f4/425cf41c2e35cbad381f2977bd46ee75.jpg sensations, the struggle, the doubt, the strengths and the weaknesses of the character and the feeling of cold directly to the reader. London also managed to make this story powerful thanks to his personal path since he took part in the Klondike Gold Rush during the winter of 1897-1898. The description and the personification of all the elements which surround the character succeeded in making nature alive as a real character of the story. Finally, I decided to write an article about this short story in an effort to honor the 100th birthday of the author’s death since Jack London died on 22 November 1916.http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lE7CQ0u14Pc/VLFUbB_-5CI/AAAAAAAAHpk/C9dPmUjWP5w/s1600/TBAF_05_hd.png

The help, Kathryn Stockett

   The Help is a novel written by Kathryn Stockett and published in 2009. It is quite known since then, it was a best-seller, but I really wanted to talk about it because I think it is really worth it. It deals with racial segregation in the USA in the 1960’s, which is a serious and important topic. The story occurs in Jackson, Mississippi, a southern state where segregation was present everywhere.

   We follow the life of two main characters, Aibileen and Minny who are both African-American and who work as maids for white families. The third protagonist is Skeeter, she is a young white woman who studies journalism and she has a different mentality comparing to the other white women she spends her time with. Indeed, even though she also has a maid, she cares about her and behaves well with her, not like the rest of her friends. When she comes back to her house after finishing her studies, she finds out that Constantine, her maid, left without saying anything. Then, she decides she wants to collaborate with black women to write a book about the maids’ living conditions, life, etc… At first, this project seems impossible due to the racial laws of the time but a surprising friendship will appear.

   This book is quite hard to read in english because it is written in an oral way so I actually recommend to read it in french. I loved this powerful story because it showed that even if there was segregation, some black and white people could still be wise enough to work together in order to change things. The events that happen are well told because the author was herself born in Jackson and raised by a black woman. A movie was adapted from the book in 2011, the cast is amazing, the actors embody their characters so well. Even if you’ve seen the movie, you can still read the book because there are some differences regarding the point of views, etc…

Delicacy

   Delicacy is a novel written by David Foenkinos in which a young woman called Nathalie is the main character. At the beginning of the book, she lives an enviable life : she’s in a wonderful relationship with her husband and has a great job. Unfortunately, everything falls apart after seven years of marriage when her husband is hit by a car during his jogging and dies after getting in a coma. Even with her family and friends, Nathalie can’t find some comfort and feels like she will not be able to live without her husband. One day she decides that she has to keep living and so, go back to work. There she is everyday confronted to her boss Charles who is desperately in love with her and Markus, one of her co-workers, who she has kissed one day for no reason.

   What I loved in this book was Foenkinos’ writing style : very simple and beautiful. Also, there was a little bit of humour, which is always nice. Something I had never seen before : between two chapters there are sometimes lists or quotes related to what happened in the previous chapter. I found it surprising, unusual and thought it was a great way to keep the reader reading by adding something that changed from the chapters. The short chapters and simple writing makes the novel accessible and easy to read. You can find some great quotes in it and you can read the whole book in just a few days because it is a short novel.

« War horse » – Michael Morpurgo

 Hi everybody,

Today I’m going to speak about a novel entitled « War horse » written by Michael Morpurgo, published in 1982 and adapted by Steven Spielberg in 2011.
I haven’t seen this movie but someone told me that he was amazing and very touching. So if he really respect the book it will be interessant to see it. I have read this book in college and if I remember, I think I’ve cried several times. This is such a sad story but it’s allow us to have another vision, perspective and another point of view of the First World War. And the fact that the narator was a horse makes us feel the story differently and it’s allows us to put ourselves in the place of the horse.

So this novel was obviously  inspired by true events. The story talked about a horse named « Joey » who was bought by American soldier at the beginning of the first world war to be a war horse.
We are going to have empathie for Joey and we will also focus on him. You have to know that the entire story is seen and told by the horse, so we can see things differently.
So joey goes to war and lives many adventures, he sees horror and atrocity of the war (during the battle, the bombing raid….).
Joey will go a long way during years, he will be ill, heart … he has just one wish: go back home and be alive.

So if you want to know what happened to this horse and know if he will survive you have to read or watch the movie.
Trust me you won’t be disappointed.

« The perfect murder » – Peter James

Hi everybody,

Today I’m going to speak about a novel entitled  » The perfect murder « written by Peter James (my favorite writter at that time) and published in 2010.
This book is one of the lastest novels published by Peter James.

 So this novel talked about a couple ( Victor and Joan ) that can no longer stand. They are married since twenty years old but things did not happend like they had hoped years ago. Now Victor want to kill his wife and Joan feels the same. So both planned a way to kill his spouse. In some point of view it’s two perfect crime but characters have to keep calm because things can degenerate.
However things will not happened as good as previous and it’s going to be a hell for one of them.
During the story there are suspens and we want to know the following and see the future of the characters because if you will read it you ‘ll see that characters behaviour evolve.

 So if you like suspens, crime … I recommend this book and furthermore this novel is very fast to read.

Charlotte, David Foenkinos

This novel isn’t a fiction, it retraces Charlotte Salomon’s life, a german-jewish painter deported at the age of 26 while she was pregnant. After a childhood in Berlin marked by a family tragedy, Charlotte is progressively excluded by the nazis in every german society spheres. She liveS a founding love passion, before she has to leave everything behind to take refuge in the South of France just after the Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). Thereafter, the outcasted women decide to undertake a composition of 769 individual works that we could describe as autobiographical (different from self-portraits) named « Leben? oder Theater?: Win Singspiel » (Life? or Theater?: A Song-play) realized with a fascinating modernity. Knowing herself in danger, she entrust her drawings to her doctor telling him that it represents « her entire life » . Today, these works are kept in Amsterdam . This book is a thrilling portrait of a talented young woman, totally inhabited by her art which makes her fight despair and the barbarism of her time, but also it’s a mention of a tragic fate. The book also represents the story of a search driven by a writer haunted by this artist. Indeed, it contains some first person narrative passages where the author talks about his research on Charlotte, the places he went linked to her..

I admire the emotion and the beauty of the text, mixing prose and poetry. The short sentences punctuated each time by a point induces a slow but pleasant rhythm. I loved this book, it is so well-written and so touching. Moreover it made me discover this wonderful artist. I truly recommend it.

Misery, Stephen King

Misery Chastain is dead. Paul Sheldon killed her with pleasure. And all of this is quite normal because Misery Chastain is his creature, the main character of his novels. He made a lot of money thanks to her, but she also smothered him: his death finally freed him. Now he can write a new book.

A car accident leaves him paralyzed into the hands of Annie Wilkes, the nurse who takes care of him in her house. A perfect nurse who loves her books but doesn’t forgive him Misery Chastain ‘s death. Then, nailed in his wheelchair, Paul Sheldon revives Misery unwillingly. Indeed he has no choice …


I must say that the idea of ??the admirer who sequestered her favorite author because he killed her flagship heroine is grandiose. Annie is completely crazy, Paul was really unlucky to meet a fan like this and he’ll dearly pay what Annie considers as « betrayal ».The death of Misery is unacceptable to her and she’ll employ all the most atrocious subterfuges to make the writer bend back on the denouement of his narrative.

Weirdly,  I loved Annie’s character.The fact that she has absolutely nothing for her, amplifies our desire to know more about this woman. It’s a bit an icon in her way, her madness fascinates and on each page I wondered how far she was ready to go and what were her limits. Behind an unpleasant and cruel torture facade she’s a real drifter that does not have much in her life and and that’s pretty sad .The atmosphere of the novel is simply perfect? As a claustrophobic, I felt like stifling throughout this reading. King has so well handled its context that we could believe we’re in it.


All the ingredients are gathered in these stressful closed doors, to put the nerves of the readers on edge.

Only Stephen King could write such a nightmare. I really recommend this nerve-racking  book and also the 1990’s film with Kathy Bates and James Caan. ( gifs come from the movie)

Oedipus The King- Sophocles

Hey everybody ! Let me talk you about one of the Two books we have to read and study this year for the Litterature exams.

Oedipus the King (also called in Latin Oedipus Rex) is a myth rewritten many times into differents forms. Indeed, after the Sophocles’s play, the classical Authors made a new version (like Corneille or Sénèque) or Philosophers Authors like Voltaire.

But Igor Stravinski has also composed an opera called « Oedipus Rex » in 1920.

Let’s talk about the Sophocles’s version today :

Sophocle wrote Oedipus the King in 429 Before Christ, and after Odipus at Colonus which is also very well-known in the litterature field.

It’s about Oedipus, who became king of Thebes, a city in Greece after he killed the Sphinx which condamned the city. Oedipus managed to solve the riddle asked by it.

Therefore, he became the Jocasta’s Huband, the queen of Thebes. But there is a problem : Peoples are suffring from the plagues : That’s why Oedipus sent Creon, his brother-in-law to Delphi to Talk to the Appollo’s oracle and finding solutions : We discovered that it’s because of the recent Laius’s death, the former King of the country. Oedipus will investigate and meet Tiresias, a mind-reader to find the culprit of the murder. But the surprise is really astonishing because it’s Oedipus himself who would have killed Laius. Althoug he doesn’t take care Tiresias said, he will discover that it’s the truth..

But it’s not the most surprising : Indeed, whereas hAfficher l'image d'originee was educated by the queen and King of Corinth(an another country), they’re not his real parents : When he was young, an oracle said : « He will kill his father and will marry his mother ».                                     

And the curse occured unfortunately.

Discovering all this informations in the same time, with the Joscasta’s death, he decided to pluck his eyes : But became blind is not the only thing we wants : he begs to be exiled with his two daughters: Antigone, and Ismene.

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We saw also the Pasolini’s film version directed in 1967:

It’s really close to the Sophocle’s version : Nevertheless, we can see a « before » with Oedipus as a baby and his birth and an « after » with the exil of Oedipus. But there is a lot of anachronism like Twenties’s cars, or Fireworks… Pasolini decided to adapt his life in his film : Indeed, the actress of Jocasta represent his mother and as his father was a soldier, Laius has a service’s man suit . He directed in Marocco, in Bologne in the Italia, his birth and studies city , and gives to Afficher l'image d'origineOedipus a different character : Indeed, Whereas the Sophocle’s Oedipus is really authoritative and smart, the Pasolinis’s Oedipus seems to be really excessive(he screams everytime!!) and doesn’t always thinks.

It gives to the movie a humorous character and sometimes ridiculous.

But, it’s anyway a good adaptation.

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Here’s the trailer :

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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them By David Yates ; J.K Rowling

« Fantastic Beasts and where to find them » is the new David Yate’s  fantasy movie, written by J.K Rowling. It was realeased on November, 16.

We are on Harry Potter’s universe but on an other continent, the USA, and 100 years before. Wizard’s world are in danger, they are threatened by « Salem’s Faithful » wich is an organisation who want to killed all the wizards. Furthermore, a mysterious force sows chaos in the streets of New-York. We met Norbert Dragono, a british wizard, who arrive in N.Y with his bag filled with fantastic animals. His bag reminds us of Dr Who’s tardis. She « is bigger inside » and abound of many recesses for his Beasts. Many things arrive to him, he is arrested, to showing his power at « No-Maj », muggle for us, and to have lost some fantastic animals. He is suspected to be the origin of the chaos in new-york by the Magical Security Percival Graves’s directess.

It’s a fabulous story where I was able to find all the Harry Potter’s universe and spell like « actio » « pertricus totalus », my favorite things when I was younger. If you want to became a child, go see this movie now !

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S Lewis ( 1950 )

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the first book from the Narnia series, it’s a fantasy novel written by C.S Lewis and published in 1950.

The story takes place in 1940 during World War II, to escape for what’s happening in London at that time, 4 siblings ( Edmund, Lucy, Peter and Susan Pevensie ) are sent by their parents to live with Professor Kirke in the countryside. One day when all the kids were playing hide and seek, Lucy found an old wardrobe and hides in it, while hiding she found out that this wardrobe is a magic portal which leads to a forest in a land called Narnia. All the siblings will, then, go to Narnia and their adventure will begin there.

I absolutly love all kinds of magical / dystopian novels and the Narnia series is a part of my collection.  These novels are a classic and if you haven’t read it yet, you probably already saw one of the 3 extremely long movie adaptations, talking about this, the The Silver Chair is apparently going to come out in 2017…

Goodbye, Up There, Pierre Lemaitre

Today, I would like to speak about a novel written by a French author whose name is Pierre Lemaitre: Au revoir là-haut (Goodbye up there). This novel received in 2013 (the year of its publication) the well-known Goncourt Price. This book belongs to the picaresque genre. One of the features of this genre is that the protagonist is an unfortunate character and he generally lives outside the society. In Au revoir là-haut there are two leading characters named Albert Maillard and Edouart Péricourt. They were French soldiers during World War One (the first chapters unfold this period). As we all know, France « won » this conflict. But after, the country essentially concentrated on the dead – by spending a lot of money to honorably bury the victims and to build memorials- and not on the survivors. The reader follows these two former soldiers and is going to discover how they want to make money.

Before giving my opinion about the book I would like to precise that the title of this novel was inspired by the last words of Jean Blanchard, a soldier who was unfairly accused of desertion and shot. Indeed, he wrote to his wife: (approximately translated)  « I fix an appointement for you in heaven where I hope that God will reunite us. Goodbey up there, my dear wife ».

This book was very interesting to read. I didn’t imagine that some survivors of the War were so forgotten. There was not enough money to pay them and they lived in poverty. Moreover I also learned about the « coffins trafic ». Soldiers were buried everywhere because there were too many deads and it was forbidden to exhume the corpses but some families wanted to bury their relative in the cemetery of the town they lived in so they became law-breakers by exhuming the corpse at night and re-burying it elsewhere.

Au revoir là-haut was adapted into a comic that I’ve not read but I saw it and the drawings are really beautiful and I heard that it was very faithful to the book. A movie is also going to be released (I don’t precisely know the date) and I will surely watch it!

Did you know this book? Do you want to read it?

Emma, Jane Austen

The novel that I want to speak about is entitled Emma. It was written by the famous English author Jane Austen. You may know her thanks to her work named Pride and Prejudice. This may be the most well-known book of this writer but I personally do prefer Emma. What is this book about? The story unfolds principally in the village of Highbury but other fictional places like Hartfield or Randalls are mentioned. Emma, the lead character, lives with her father in Hartfield which is in fact their domain (we can see that they are rich). During her childhood, her governess –and friend- Miss Taylor took care of her. Later, Emma arranges Miss Taylor’s wedding (with Mr Weston). Then she meets Harriet, a pretty seventeen years old woman who has humble origins. Emma decides to guide her and to help her to find a husband. But there are some unexpected consequences …

“I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like” This is what Jane Austen said about her character Emma. What is ironic about Emma is the fact that she doesn’t want to get married but she likes to meddle in relationships that are nothing to do with her. She is indiscreet, too much sure of herself, beautiful and rich. She doesn’t recognize when she was wrong and she takes the liberty of saying audacious comments for a woman at that time. She is also a faithful friend and an intelligent woman. I made this list of adjectives only to prove that Emma is a clever mix of faults and qualities. I appreciate this complexity.

Now I would like to talk about another character that I loved in this book: Mr Knightley. Who is he? Mr Knightley is a friend of Emma but also his brother-in-law. Indeed, Emma has a sister, Isabella, who married John Knightley, the little brother of Mr Knightley (George). The most important to retain about Mr Knightley is the fact that he is the only one who dares to contradict Emma. When she is wrong, he is the one who says “I disagree with you” and that’s why he is –for me- her most sincere friend.

Did you know this novel?  you have read another book of Jane Austen?

Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer

« I want a life more intense and richer. »

Once upon a time, a man who preferred to live his dream rather than to dream his life…

This true story is the story of Chris McCandless, which inspired Jon Krakauer in his book « Into the Wild » published in 1996. In this biografical novel, the author recounts the life of this young man who decided to leave the consumer society to return to the wild life. Moreover, this adventure inspired also the film director Sean Penn in 2007.

Chris has one dream: go in Alaska and live there. So, after having his university degree, he begins his trip with his old car and gives up everything : his family, his money, his comfort, his civilized life… He says about him he is a « leather tramp ». Chris travels the South of the United States before realizing his big dream : live alone in Alaska and in harmony with the nature. He decided to settle down in a abandoned bus and lives as he can : he hunts game, eats some roots etc…

But living in the wild is not always easy and Chris has to face many difficulties to survey in this hostile environment…

« I learnt that the main part in life, it is not to be strong, but to feel strong. »

I find this book so interesting and fascinating. It brings us in another universe. This book also makes us think about our role in the consumer society. Through Chris, the reader wonders, throughout the book, if he could have the courage to leave everything to live what we really wish…

This is where I leave you, Jonathan Tropper

Hi Everybody !

Today I would like to talk about the book This is where I leave you  written by Jonathan Tropper and published in 2009.

Jonathan Tropper is an american author, he wrote The book of Joe, Everything Changes… Tropper created with David Schikler the television serie Banshee. His book This is where I leave you also has a film adaptation realesed by Shawn Levy with Jane Fonda and Adam Driver.

The book talks about a family in mourning. Before his death Morton Foxman expressed a last will : that his family celebrates Shiv’ah, a Jewish tradition. Seven days of mourning, together in the same house. They are all different, on the one hand Judd is in depression, on the other hand there is Wendy with his hyperactive children and her husband all time on his phone. The disputes break out with family secrets. The week risks being very long…

This is where I leave you is not big litterature but this book gives us a huge palette of personnalities, thanks to that we sometimes recognize a member of our family. This book made me laugh and it does good at this moment. This is where I leave you is a big portrait of life : hard moments, happy, sad (…). I am really impatient to read another Jonathan’s novel !

 » Family I hate you ! « 

I am a Pilgrim , Terry Hayes

 

Hi Everybody !

Today I would like to talk about the book I am a Pilgrim written by Terry Hayes.

Terry Hayes is an English screenwriter, producer and author. He wrote several scenarios adapted for the cinema by th biggest studios of Hollywood of which From Hell, Dead Calm and also Mad Max 2. I am a Pilgrim is his first novel, it was published on 2013 and it is a thriller.

A young woman murdered in a hotel of Manhattan. A zoologist, father, decapitated in Soudi Arabia. A series of murders all linked up with a man : Pilgrim. Under this name a man hides who in the past ran a unity of secret service and who before leaving, has writing a boof of reference on criminology and legal science. But past catches him, with all his secrets.

I have hesitated for a long time before reading it beacause it seemed to me violent. So yes, this book is violent, but the suspens makes addicted. It is not big litterature but the novel remains very rich in characters, in places, the book is also very interesting because there are different points of views. The link with our reality is well present, and it is what returns the terrible book.

“You can kill a thinker, but you can’t kill the thought »   

Terry Hayes.

The Strange Library – Murakami

Hello !

Alright Kids, it’s New Year, time to take good resolutions and…
No wait, don’t change, stay yourself.

Well, today I’ve decided to speak about one of my christmas present, a little book called « Fushigi Na Toshokan » or « The Strange Library » in english. That’s a short story written by Haruki Murakami a famous japanese writer. See ? I don’t only read mangas !

This little book had a big impact on me you know ? No, don’t think it’s exceptionally clever or something that denunce something. It’s more of a fantasy or a-totally-what-the-hell-is-going-on book ! Yeah that’s the least I can say, it’s pretty disturbing at first, but then it becomes usual.

For the story, a boy named… Er who has no-name if I’m right, goes one day to the local library to borrow some books about a question he wondered about during his way-back home : how taxes were collected in the Ottoman Empire ? With that you already understand the context and the genre of the story ! That’s what he does, but it turned out to be more complicated… To read books about it, he has to go in a special room, in some underground tunnel… where he’ll find himself trapped ! Here he’ll meet strange characters like a sheep man (who’s really good at cooking donuts…) and another crazy psycopath ! I don’t tell what he does ’cause it’s important in the story -and pretty gore. Of course, then he’ll try to escape this strange library…

This book although short was really rich in madness ! (But don’t think all japanese are writting crazy things !) It was moreover entertaining and pretty funny at some moments. Because it’s a short story, all things aren’t equally developped and sometimes and it seems to be said quickly, but it stays cool to read. The character tries to find a way back to normality and that’s really interesting, you’re totally with him when you’re reading the book (plus it’s told with 1rst-person narrative) so you’re fully in it.

In a nutshell that’s a nice little story to pass time for example.

Well, that’s all for me, see you guys !

The Spook’s Apprentice – Joseph Delaney

TheSpooksApprentice-JosephDelaney.jpg

Alright people, today the book I’m gonna present you is pretty different from what I’ve done before. Indeed that’s a scary book, a dark fantasy one. As you maybe know I’m really fond of fantasy books (just like my dear Harry Potter) and this one I discovered wandering in the library was my new crush. That’s one of the reason that explain why I really love libraries, since you can find things that you wouln’t find normally. On the book was written « do not read at night » what I found really attractive, I took it and read it late in the night (you can call me crazy I accept it). That was freaking disturbing and scary (not so much but a little anyways) therefore I loved it so much ! What’s strange is great for my mind, I can’t explain it :’)
So this book is the first in a serie of 13 called « The Wardstone Chronicles ».

Tom Ward is the main character and is the seventh son of his father (who’s himself a seventh son), what makes him different from his brothers or sisters. Thus he has special abilities that allow him to see things that others can’t just like ghosts, witches and things that aren’t real. When you are like that, you can be a Spook, which mean that you hunt magical and demoniacal creatures and save people from these of course.
We’ll follow his adventures as the Spook’s apprentice, because he has to learn the job naturally. Living with him, he’ll learn all he has to know to become a good Spook. Of course his life won’t be a bed of roses…

For the moment I didn’t read everything but sure I’ll do it someday because the story was very catchy and… spooky (I had to do it excuse me). Yeah really some phrases and sentences weren’t reassuring ya know, so that was a kind of tense and really scary atmosphere. When you start reading this book, when the action is fully launched you’re totally in it and you’re eager to know what’s going to happen next ! To be honest I was really stressed while reading that but in a good way. Yep really entertaining it was.

In a nutshell go to the library, borrow this book, read it at night and you’ll live a great fantasy adventure. Aw that’s true, there’s a film adapted from the book called « Seventh Son »… I heard it was a dung. Just with the trailer you understand that they transformed it into an action-packed film with too many SFX.
Yeah as always books are better !

See you later 😉

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon.

« My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.  But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black— black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly. Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster. »

[The official back cover of the book]

 

Today I’m going to speak about Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon, a not famous author but promising and talented. The novel is American and published in 2015. We are in a sterile universe of Madeline Whitter, a teenager with a rare disease that affects her immune system and forces her to live at home, locked up, without contact with the outside world.

     Madeline Whittier is a teenager with SCID (Severe Combined Immune Deficit), a rare disease that, with the slightest bacteria, can kill her and his father and brother are died when she has 4 months. Maddy (her nickname) is therefore confined to her room disinfected since her youngest age : she has never been able to feel the slightest ray of sunshine caressing her skin. She adapts, she has friends on the internet, she reads a lot of books and creates articles, she takes lessons online. She lives normally because she only knows that. I felt this confinement and the weariness of the repeated tasks : Maddy always plays the same games, often watches the same films, it’s a sort of comfort because it is the only thing she knows and she can share with someone (her mother or nurse), but it’s also depressing because the heroine feels prisoner, useless, with no future. But one day, the outside intrigues her and offersher unknown desires so far. The outside has a name : Oliver (Olly). He is his age and has just moved in front her house. He’s a good character, and he also has family problems. We learn in the same time of Maddy that his sister, his mother and him are beaten by their father. The conversations between Olly and Maddy are simple but invigorating. Maddy tries to resist to Olly, but how can she refrain from observing her only source of comfort and joy ? She knows very well that no matter the nature of this possible relationship, she is doomed to failure : who would like a friend whom one can not frequent or a girlfriend that you can not even touch ? And yet, it is well known that Olly may well be the only person on earth to take an interest in Maddy. She can’t talk about her existential problems with her mother without adding more guilt, so Olly is the first person with whom she can open up. And for Olly, Maddy represents something healthy and cheerful, the opposite of what he finds in his home when he’s returning from classes.

     I had already heard of the SCID but it is a little known and a little neglected by the media or literature. Nicola Yoon touched a sensitive point with this disease, because if we complain about our small everyday problems, we realize how we are ridiculous. This story is just beautiful. I encountered a multitude of emotions over the pages. Compassion, frustration, joy, anger, sadness, hope,… I wanted to fight for Madeline as she did herself. It is the desire to live one’s life, to take risks, to exceed the limits. A life without having lived is a waste of time. And in front, we have fear, anxiety. Everything, Everything reads very quickly and has its small peculiarities. Nicola Yoon brings us even closer to her character, she has personalized certain thoughts, we find them in the form of drawings, explanatory diagrams, diaries, notes with humor and freshness. I had started this book with no hope for the heroine, the SCID being incurable. I was expecting the relationship between Maddy and Olly to stop, it was clear to me that even though Olly was in love with Maddy he could not stay with her, because a relationship without touching one another, kissing oneself, without dating really, seems to me impossible. As much to say that I had not seen this end coming, until this famous mail from the doctor of Hawaii. Frankly, the idea that her mother had not recovered from the trauma of the loss of her husband and her son had not even occurred to me. For me she suffered (normal) but I thought that the shock had passed. So, I understood the reaction of Maddy who saw her life pass under the nose, but I had compassion for her mother who never recovered from this accident.

     It was a great discovery. This novel is cute, poetic, and filled with love. It is the kind of light romance that must be read from time to time and that does good to morale.

« The greatest risk is not taking one ».

When the night becomes day by Sophie Jomain.

    Today I’m going to speak about When the night becomes day, a shocking and realistic novel by Sophie Jomain on the desire to die. The novel is French and published in 2016. The author seizes on a serious subject, that of euthanasia, through a young woman, Camille, who has suffered fromsevere depression since her teenager.

     There are novels that one does not want to let go, and that one is nostalgic to close, once the last page read. This is the case here. If the question of euthanasia is not new, the way the author treats it comes out of sight and revision. When the night becomes day is written from the point of view of Camille, a young woman of twenty-nine years old. She recounts her life as in a newspaper, she invites us in her head and introduces us to the one that accompanies her from her early memories of youth until the present of her story : her suffering. Yet the young woman, an only child, lives in a loving family, with parents with a comfortable financial situation and infinite love for their daughter. But Camille can not bear : a violent physical rejection that causes her to make several suicide attempts and lead to violent physical pain like headaches or vomiting.This hatred towards her body begins at twelve years when she is very skin. Then as a teenager, she becomes obese and then alternates phases of anorexia and obesity for several years. When she decides to ask for euthanasia in Belgium, she is almost thirty-years old. This is accepted despite the fact that she does not have an incurable disease, as doctors consider it an incurable depression. She then goes to a medical-psychiatric clinic about two months before her scheduled death.

     The story continue and we attach ourselves to Camille, we hope that each pages will be sweeter for her. And this is the case. With the arrival at the clinic, the novel is less black, one even smiles and one has the impression that the weight that carries Camille is less heavy. But it is without counting the days and hours that pass, bringing the young woman closer to her death. The story told is very violent. From the very first lines, the reading is difficult. We’re wondering if we should continue. When we continue to read, we follow Camille gradually from childhood to her twenty-nine years old. We see the difficulty of adulthood, the first emotions in love, the doubts, the difficult self-acceptance, etc… The author describes extremely well the pain of Camille and the rejection of her body, all the more so as the author tells the story in the first person. And yet, one can not imagine the pain she feels. For the character, the violence of these questions is multiplied. We do not know if it is she who has never accepted her body, or if society has never allowed, accepted her. The author has found the words and the way to speak of a very hard subject, and still taboo in France, without falling into the psychological tearing or the excess. It’s written with accuracy and for my part, I understand the choice of Camille. In a sort of introduction, Camille summarizes her life and the why of her choice. The rest is the countdown between the date of her death with the management of the situation, the declaration for theparents and their reactions, her accompaniment with the medical team, and also more.

     I like to read real stories, or those that could have been. I think it’s because the world is so complex, so rich, so diverse, so tragic and so beautiful, that its own stories enchant me enough. I can’t get out of the story, detach myself from the characters. I live through the characters and their emotions. When the night becomes day is a fictive story, and yet it has taken me to the guts like an autobiographical novel. It’s a short story but really touching with a tormented character that is sometimes difficult to understand. But really a great story. The issue of euthanasia is addressed in an interesting way. 

Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones

Don’t you think that we all need a bit of wizardry from time to time? I sometimes find it delightful to go back in time, and it’s easier to do than you might think. No need of a magic wand, simply one of those book that you read a long time ago. One of those bewitched books whose worlds feel like weird but mesmerizing places you visited with a pounding heart but that you know so well that they are now as many shelters. However, the book I would like to talk about contains its share of mystery, involving a wizard with odd habits, a door opening to four different places, a sweaty young-looking witch, a young girl in disguise and even a fire-demon…

Have you ever heard of Howl’s Moving Castle? Maybe you have, but I would be surprised if it really was about the book and not the equally wonderful but rather different motion picture created by the internationally acclamed Hayao Miyazaki. The movie you may know was actually inspired by a British book written by Diana Wynne Jones, who published over 30 books.

castle

The protagonist of this story is seventeen-years-old Sophie Hatter, the eldest of three sisters. Their father owns a a hat shop in the town of Market Chipping, in Ingrary. For Sophie, being born eldest of three is just enough to be the beginning of her troubles. You see, as everyone in this land knows, succeeding in the role of fortune-seeker is reserved to the youngest children and the eldest are merely those who fail first, if not even worse… Actually, we first hear of our eponymous wizard in the first chapter, where Jones teases the well-known clichés of the fantastic genre, as the land of Ingary is depicted as a place « where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist« . Sophie is resigning herself to live a dull life making hats as it will follow for sure, while her sisters both live exciting existences, until a moving castle appears on the hills above the town and refuses to stay motionless. At first afraid that it would belong to the dreadful Witch of the Waste, the townspeople are then soon saying that its owner is the wizard Howl, who can’t help but have fun « collecting young girls and sucking the souls from them. Or some people said he ate their hearts. »

Nonetheless, Sophie unwillingly attracts the Witch of the Waste’s anger and finds herself stuck into an old lady’s body. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the always-moving castle seenable from her hat shop: the Wizard Howl’s Castle. And since she aged so much, she isn’t scared anymore. Furthermore, she will have to handle Howl himself, who is so vain that he spends hours in the bathroom before going out, his young helper Michael and Calcifer, the talking fire… Becoming Howl’s housemaid only becomes possible after setting an uncanny bargain with the demon-fire in the hearth: although she can’t speak about the spell she is under, Calcifer knows it and agrees to give her back her appearance if she manages to discover and break the contract that links him up with Howl. But who is really Howl? Why is he so difficult to pin down? Can Sophie trust this mischievous fire crackling on the hearth? How does the castle manage to be in 4 locations in the same time? And does the jars in the bathroom labelled HAIR, SKIN and EYES contain limbs of unfortunate girls who came too close to the wizard?

It may just sounds like a foolish little tale, but it’s more than that. It would be nearly impossible to write about all of the astonishing surprises and elements that this story incorporates, so I will tell those I am the most amazed of.

First of all, there are many fairytales connections. But Jones knows them so well, that she easily explores them, reshuffes them and goes even further by subverting them, which is truly refreshing and remarkable to me. To begin with, doesn’t the name of the Witch of the Waste remind you of someone? It could be this other sorceress straight out from « The Wonderful Wizard of Oz » whose name is interestingly the Witch of the West. Furthermore, the opening chapter about Sophie’s life is reminiscent of Cinderella‘s tale, without Sophie having bad relationships with her relatives and siblings, fated to create hats her whole life long. Similarly, Howl and Sophie seem to embody the roles of the Beauty and the Beast alternately- Sophie is both the Beauty and the Beast at times, just like Howl is- and they can’t be easily defined. Also, Howl is a very interesting hero, who has qualities but is so far away from the perfect character that he becomes very human. He is vain, sees himself as a drama queen (or king) but also incredibly coward at times, he often throws a fit because of meaningless matters: he catches the flu, or his hair’s colour is wrong…Although it isn’t a humorous story, there are many really funny moments.
howl

“I feel ill, » [Howl] announced. « I’m going to bed, where I may die.”

Then, it is also such an optimistic story! Although Sophie ages prematurely, she is never down and always sees things as the part of the bottle that is half-full. Judging that this new appearance represents her true self better than her former youthful one, she just keeps going and overcomes every obstacle, finally daring to take charge of her own destiny. Jones also doesn’t mollycoddle her readers, she doesn’t look down on them, as she doesn’t explain everything but let us put every part of the puzzle together on our own. She trusts us. Which brings me to my last point: she words her sentences wonderfully, cleverly as well.

“Things are going round and round in my head–or maybe my head is going round and round in things.”

And it’s also the way this book can be perceived: its story is a story of words. Different kind of words: songs, curses, words that save or hurt, harm imposed after believing in words… This is a book that tells the importance of words, or how magical they can be.
roomThank you very much Manon for buying it to me 😉

The Color Purple – Alice Walker

I’ve recently read a novel very touching, so I’ve decided to write an article about it. The Color Purple is a novel written by Alice Walker and published in 1982. It faced censorshipduring the 90’s since it was judged as inappropriate and too violent.

With epistolary form, the book tells the story of Celie, a 14 year old afro-american young lady. Deprived of education during her childhood, she lives with Alphonso, the man who took her away from her family. As she isn’t aware of « the good and the bad », she let him rape her and get her pregnant twice. She has a little sister, Nettie, who’s 12 years old. One day, a man comes to ask for Nettie’s hand. Alphonso refuses and proposes to give Celie instead of his younger girl. The man, named Albert, accepts. But he will treat Celie as bad as you can imagine. With him, she has another child : Harpo. After growing up, he falls in love with Sofia, a women with « shapes ». Anyway, Harpo tries to submit her to him, as his father asked. But Sofia resists. Celie first encourages his son to keep trying to submit the girl (the only thing she learnt is the fact that women are inferior to men…) But soon after she realises she was wrong and stands with Sofia. Then, Celie’s husband brings his lover at their house because she has health problems. At first, Shug (his lover), treats Celie as someone less than nothing. But gradually, the two women get to know each other and their friendship begins. Although Shug feels better, she stays to protect Celie from her husband. Both become more and more intimate: they have an ambiguous relationship now. But if Celie thinks that everything will be easier now, she is wrong. Many other difficulties are waiting for her… It’s up to you to discover which ones ! 

I admit that sometimes it is quite hard to read, but I assure you it’s worth reading it ! And if you’re not especially a fan of books, you can also watch the movie directed by Spielberg.

Central Park Guillaume Musso

 

 

Biography:

Guillaume Musso was born in 6 june 1974 at Antibes and it is a French writter. Guillaume begin writting at the age of 19 years old. He is fascineted by USA and he live in New York some months. At 1999 to 2003 he becomes professor of Economic and Social Sciences, in Phalsbourg.

In may 2001 his first novel was published, this is Skidamarink , a trhiller. After a serious accident, he imagine in 2004 a story of a children who is come back of the death. This is a big succes. Guillaume Musso is a first French novelist most read and his book are translated into several languages.

The book Central Park was published in 27 march 2014, this is a detective novel.

Central Park:

New York at 8 o’clock ! A young woman Alice is a policeman of Paris and Gabriel is a jazzman pianist american and they wake up handcuffed, on a bench of Central Park. They don’t know each other and they don’t have a memory of their evenig. Alice make a party with her friend in Paris and Gabriel was doing concert in Dublin. Alice and Gabriel ask many questions of this situation? But Alice remark a task of blood in his skirt and she has a one ball less in his pistol. So ALice and Gabriel will have to work together, for discover the thruth.They will cross a many steps for understand waht is happened. At the end we are going discover the thruth and we can know the past of Alice upsetting and we can suprised by the story and the end change the story of character.

If you like an enigme we can learn this book and there are very suspense !

Doglands – Tim Willocks

Tim Willocks, what a man. This writter is not only a writter, he’s also a doctor and a profesionnal martial art, and we can see it truought his books. We find a part of his personnality in each one of his charaters, wich I admet, is intresting to discover. He worked with Steven Spielberg, and his firts novel has been adapted in a movie. But we are here talking about Doglands, a novel that brought him « la Pépite du Roman » in Europe for the teen section in 2012.

Doglands is his first novel for the children and teens, he wrote it in 2011 and it was published in 2012 by Syros in France. This books talks about a dog that is supposed to run for his masters. But he’s not the right breed so, he have to run away and abandon his mother. He brings his sister and his brother with him, and the story is basically about his travel to find the « doglands », a place where every dog is happy, a sort of heaven if you want. Poetic right ?

But the intresting thing about this book is the way the writter… write. Let me explain : the way the story is related, it seems that the dog speak. We see everything like this dog and we understand like him, everything is explain as if it was a dog that explain it to us. Get it ? That’s quite twisted, but to understand clearly, the only thing I have to say is : read it, as always. And as always, the end is cute, I wasn’t expecting that, could be better, but well, the whole book is plaisant so, we forgive the end.

Just, read it.

L’enfant sauvage or The Wild Child – T.C Boyle

French title ? I know, weird for an american witer, that’s what I thought when I read it for the first time. I studed it for my first second year in high school. First I wasn’t exited about reading that kind of book, the story wasn’t intresting in my opinion, but I was glad that it’s a small book, so I studed it with more or less enthusiasm. I understood why the title was in french, the story takes place in France actualy, but then we learn that there is two title, I don’t know why, the author is quite peculiar. The story takes place in Aveyron in Langudoc, that’s might be a reason.

Basically that’s the story of a child that lived in a forest for his entire life until a hunter find him in, arond 9 or 10 years old. Then a psychologiste take him to Paris and try to educate him until his 19/20 years old. We understand it quickly so I think that I can say it, the child is autistic. So the doctor can’t really do anything, in his case that’s difficult and he tried a lot of possibilities to nurture him.

Honestly, this book is really good. Even me I was touched by the end, some passages are satisfying because he finally succeed in something (we are talking about saying « milk » in front of a glass of milk for the fist time at 17 years old), but some others are ruthless and grievous… But, well, we love the feel of pain in our heart so, let’s read it. It’s kind of funny in certain passages.

The Long Walk

The Long Walk is a dystopian novel published in 1979 by Stephen King but at this time, he uses the pseudonyme of Richard Bachman. But before we begins to start with the novel, let’s talk about the author, Stephen King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and also fantasy. King is a famous writer known throughout the world. Acclaimed by the critics for the novels like Shining or Mr.Mercedes, It is important to reminds us that in 1979, King is a writer like someone else but he was perceived like a distinguished writer notably for the novel Carry. And during the 1979’s year he decided to write the novel The Long Walk.

First of all, The Long Walk set in a dystopian alternative present. The story deals with a totalitarian regime in USA. Every year, a long walking is organized by the totalitarian regime, we can considered this walk like a kind of road-trip. Secondly, hundred teenagers participate voluntarily. If for any reasons, they decide to stop their walk. At the end of three warnings, they are killed in front all the population. Throughout this walk, We following the path of Garraty (the hero of the story) and his friends Mcvries, Baker… Garraty is a likable guy who tries to survive in this death march.

To conclude, this book is an impressive novel, the novel is gory but intense. King gives us a big lesson of morality with the story that’s one the many reasons why I wanted to speak about this book. The story takes place on more than two days. So we have the time to attach us to the characters. For finish, for me, The Long Walk is a great novel which deserves to be seen at least once.

Berenice by Poe

Hi everybody ! It’s Halloween time and I really want to talk about a horror story after the name of my favourite writer Edgar Allan Poe.

It’s a short story went in 1835 in the newspaper Sourthen Literary Messenger and extract from Extraordinary Tales translate by Charles Baudelaire called Berenice.
Although I’ve already talk about one short story of this book, the plot is very dark and lugubrious and it is entirely appropriate for the atmosphere of Halloween.
In this story, the narrator named Egaeus mary his cousin Berenice. He suffers from a disease which he called monomania: it’s characterized by a sick obsession for objects or parts of a body. Berenice is also ill, she suffers from catalepsy ( she seems dead) and from epilepsy.
Egaeus being a strong consumer of opium, he tends to sink into delusions wich separate him from the reality. Time passes and Berenice’s health deteriorates in further by an unknown disease, her husband continues his excessive consumption of opium until seen his wife as an abstract and unreal being, he also develops an obsession for the teeths of Berenice.
His wife succumbs and is burried on the same day, Egaeus still obsessed by the teeths of her.
One night a horrifying shout rings and Egaeus is wake up by one of his domestic. Berenice was found alive in the middle of her grave with her face full of blood. Egaeus gets up from his bed and discovers that he is covered with ground and blood. It’s an horrific vision for him, in the panic he brings down a small box and discovers, on the ground, 32 small pieces of white enamel.
I love this short story, the suspens is here from the begening to the end. We don’t understand why the obsession of Egaeus is so important until the end when t he discovers the horrible action he commited. At the time, people were horrified by the violence of the story and ask to remove it from the newspaper.

« In a dark, dark Wood », Ruth Ware, 2015.

Hello ! Today, I would like to talk about the psychological thriller « In a dark, dark Wood ». This novel was written by Ruth Ware, a british author, in 2015. The story speaks about Nora and Clare, who where best friends 10 years ago. But, a day, after the school, Clare disappeared. Now, Nora is a young writer who lives solitary in London. One day, she receives a strange invitation to Clare. Clare will be married and want to celebrate this, in this home… Inside the Woods… Dark Woods. Nora hasn’t seen this best friend for 10 years, and wants to see the « new » Clare. But something goes wrong to the party of « truth or dare » with the other people who where invited . Some things can’t stay secret for ever… It was a great gripping read, scary and amazing. I love this kind of book !! The Woods reminds me the fantasy world, and the strange atmosphere is very creppy !

The Long Walk, Stephen King

Hi everybody!

Today I will present you a dystopian novel written by the famous and talented Stephen King and published in 1979: The Long Walk. 

Each year, 100 minor boys are volunteer to participate to a famous competition in the US, a totalitarian country: The Long Walk. Their aim is to be the last to walk and, by the way, the last alive. Indeed, it’s forbidden to stop to walk, or to walk too slowly, otherwise the walker gets one warning. If the walker gets three warnings, he is killed by soldiers who supervise them (each hour one warning is cancelled  if they walk « correctly »). The Long Walk never stop even if it’s rainy or if it’s the night. The end of it is only possible when only one walker is alive.  They start in the State of Maine, near the Canadian border.

What is interesting in this book is the evolution of characters. We are following Ray Garraty, the main character and his « circle of friend », participants with whom he has created a relationship. During all the story,  one question is recurrent: why are they participating to this competion? For what reasons? And, indeeed, the answer is not simple to find, maybe she doesn’t exist.

I liked this book because, first characters are very appealing, and, even if you know that only one will survive you hope that there will be an other end. But the major strengh of this book is obviously all the questions it raises. This long walk is a mass murder because each year 99 people are killed but the population is very excited to see this event. A large crowd is here to see the passage of walkers and if they can see one of them be killed, they are more happier. It’s only a game to them and it’s quite alarming.  This book questions us on a lot of human reactions and behaviors and also on our relations with the others.

I hope you enjoyed this article and share your reactions and feelings if you already read the book 🙂

The New Magdalen, W.W.Collins

Today, I would like to talk about a novel written by William Wilkie Collins entitled The New Magdalen. First, I’m going to speak a little bit about the author and about the title of the novel. Then, I’m going to present the plot and give my opinion about this book.

W.W. Collins lived in the 19th century. He was a friend of Charles Dickens (they wrote some books together). Several of his books were criticized because of their “immorality”. Effectively, he talked about sensitive subjects (women in the society for instance) or made some criticisms about the society. But even if some of his novels were judged with disapproval, he became well-known. Indeed, he is considerate as one of the first English writer of detective/suspense novels. Now, I must tell you something about the title: when you read it, you probably asked yourself “if the main character is the new Magdalen, who is the original one?” Mary Magdalene (there are different spellings) is in fact a biblical character. I didn’t know a lot about her so I made some researches and, to recap, in popular tradition, she was considered as a repentant prostitute. And if you’ve read this book, you can understand the reference to Mary Magdalene (but I’m going to explain it soon).

Let’s talk about the story line. The story unfolds during the Franco-Prussian (also named Franco-German) War (1870-1871); in the middle of the Victorian era in Britain (1837-1901). The two leading characters are named Mercy and Grace. They are English and meet on the Franco-German front: Mercy is a military nurse who takes Grace in. Mercy has a degrading past: she is a reformed prostitute –reference to Mary Magdalen- and it is very difficult for her to find a job and have a decent situation. Concerning Grace, she has to go to England to become Lady Janet’s female companion (Lady Janet has never seen her). When a smell falls on Grace, Mercy decides to take Grace’s place, Grace’s identity, so she can go to England where nobody knows her. But a few times later, there is an unexpected event which is going to change Mercy’s life…

This a story about a fallen woman, about sexual discrimination and about a world ruled by social origins. This story is touching and makes us feel a lot of emotions. The reader takes pity on Mercy and thinks that it’s terrible that the social conventions are more important than love or friendship.

Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami

This book doesn’t have much sense. Or its florishing list of references that are reunited in its plot for no apparent reason is just too enigmatic and cerebral for us. I still can’t make a decision, whether this story is nonsensical or so meaningful that I can’t figure it out. Anyway, it made me immersed in its world like no other.

The reader follows two distinct but interrelated plots, led by two different characters between whom the story goes back and forth.

?On one hand, a 15-years-old young boy just ran away from home where he lived alone with his father. He knows he has a sister and a mother but can’t remember their faces. His main goal in life is to escape a curse his own father strangely told him: he is going to kill his father and sleep with both his mother and sister. Doesn’t it remind you of something? Right, Oedipus’ curse. To prevent this run away, he chose himself a new name and will be known as Kafka Tamura, in honour of Franz Kafka. His real identity will never be revealed to the reader. He has odd fancies: he doesn’t want to need much food, hence him getting used to eat his meals in very small amounts: he believes that his stomach will be accustomed to it, becoming smaller and smaller. He sometimes interracts with his alter ego, « the boy named Crow« . His escape will lead him to a quiet and private library where he takes shelter. It is ruled by a welcoming, haemophiliac and mentor-like Oshima, as well as a snobbish and distant Miss Saeki. He is attracted to her, although she is old enough to be his mother, whom she may as well be… The police will be interested in Kafka, after a violent murder was committed in the house he just left.

“Closing your eyes isn’t going to change anything. Nothing’s going to disappear just because you can’t see what’s going on. In fact, things will even be worse the next time you open your eyes. That’s the kind of world we live in. Keep your eyes wide open. Only a coward closes his eyes. Closing your eyes and plugging up your ears won’t make time stand still.”

 

?On the other hand, Nakata is a mentally deficient old man who lost his intellectual faculties when he was younger, during a mysterious incident implying mushrooms and a flash of green light in the sky. However, he discovers that although he can’t have abstract thoughts anymore, he is now able to talk with cats. He even surprises himself as he understands that the fishes falling from the sky for two days aren’t anyone else’s fault but his. His quest begins after he tries to find a cat that mysterously disappeared. He deeply convinces himself that he has to find the « entrance stone« , as well as discovering what it actually opens. His path will bring him to a small library…

“If you think God’s there, He is. If you don’t, He isn’t. And if that’s what God’s like, I wouldn’t worry about it.”
? Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

cover

To sum up, these two initiatory journeys involve a recurring song, a cat killer whose threat is « Kill me or the cat gets it« , a few characters who are abstract concepts indeed, a truck driver wearing hawaiian shirts, a prostitute who knows Hegel‘s work by heart, a wooden hut lost in the woods, a backdrop of Beethoven’s music, the narrow relation between reality and dreams, a blend of cultures, Tokyo’s districts, the role of subconscious mind… It made me dizzy!



raining fish

“Taking crazy things seriously is a serious waste of time.”   Kafka on the Shore, H.MURAKAMI

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Brave New World is a novel published in 1931. It’s a kind of « science fiction » Novel and recover of the dystopia. He was written in London and deal of the humans creation. The story takes place in London on a « Center of incubation and packaging » where baby, before have been conceived, are packed in bottles according to different groups. In this system, it is question of caste system. For exemple, the inferior groups, named « Epsilon » and « Delta » are mass-produced and are condamned to doing manual work, So much say that the superior groups, named « Alpha » and « Beta » are the dirigeants and are assigned the highest functions in this system. We can observed a big inequality. Huxley tries to show us that it could arrive because science is in progress and humain prodution could be or will be remplaced by the technological and scientific advances.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

It is a novel which is told has the first person and it deal with the life and adventurs of a young orphan  until his maturity. Before being published,  he was published in a Dickens’ Magazine named « All the Year Round ». The story begin on 1812 in Kent and the protagonist named Philil Prrip also know as Pip, he lives on a Middle classe and would rising up above this one and he bing his young maturity in London after have received his « Great Expectations ». It is necessary to know that it is a autobigraphical novel because Dickens spent his youth in Kent too. This novel is an violent book beacause he deal with differents subjects such as the poverty or the death. This novel is full of twists and show that Dickens tell of his life’s events and indirectly on the men society