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

@ChaoticMissAdventures

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

#Samoa #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

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

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

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

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

illustration from the book

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

Bamboo and apple-tree with ONE tiny but perfectly-formed red apple 😁 🍎
#beautybreak
@AmyG
@kspenmoll
@TheBookHippie
@Amiable
@OriginalCyn620
@Tamra
@JessClark78
@Sace
@dabbe
@Dilara
@LiseWorks
@uncommonlycozies
@Karisa
@ImperfectCJ
@AnnCrystal

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

So, I knew some nazi scientists had been recruited by the US at the end of the war but I had no idea there were so many of them. People pointing a finger at Argentina - or Arab countries - should think again. The USSR, the UK and France did it too. So much thieving & backstabbing between allied countries! This book is mainly about those who moved to France: 1000? 6000? plus families. They had good reasons for moving to France:

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to László Krasznahorkai. I've only read the tagged book by him and I have to admit I didn't love it. I might try another work, just in case.
#NobelPrize

I am reading a book about nazi scientists and engineers recruited to work in Allied countries at then end of World War II or shortly after, without being tried for their crimes, or after a symbolic slap on the hand.
Pic of Wernher von Braun & his brother, happy & grinning, knowing they risked nothing, on the day they surrendered to the US army. He supervised an armament factory/lab in the Dora concentration camp where he behaved appallingly.

An unexpected find at the library: a kind of diary written by a mathematician over one year about her garden and the nature around her. She makes observations on insects, plants & natural phenomena, and links them with mathematical concepts. It's charming but too vague and scattershot to be useful for learning & understanding.
I want her life though: she has a lovely garden, lives a short walk from the sea & her neighbours are nice 😄

Started Vela, a long epic poem about the life and adventures of mythic Samoan poet Vela, written by Albert Wendt, #Samoa's best-known writer. It is peppered with Samoan words, and I'll just have to go with the flow, enjoy the poetry, and accept that I won't understand every single word or concept. Getting a general idea from the context and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Samoa will have to do.
#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Ancient Tamil #poetry and intricate, pretty pictures on thick, textured paper!
#India

International Translation Day today! Who's reading a book in translation?
I started the tagged book, translated from Bulgarian, last night.
Very grateful to the translators who open windows to other cultures and literatures.
#InternationalTranslationDay #InTranslation

Painting of St Jerome, patron saint of translators, by Domenico Ghirlandaio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

My attempt at vaho/baho: steamed beef marinated in bitter orange juice (or here, a mixture of lime & regular orange) with plantain, green banana & yuca. Served with the white cabbage & tomato salad with lime dressing that seems to be a must with every Nicaraguan dish!
It's no doubt delicious when done properly but I had to find a workaround when it wouldn't cook & the result was disappointing.
#Nicaragua #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

I don't know if it's the writing, or Anthea Bell's translation, or just because it was the right book at the right time, but I raced through this autobiography, despite its heavy subject matter. It reconciled me with Zweig too. He chose to give us almost nothing about his private life, and not much more about his work - it's all about the people he met and his analysis of the (now-)historical events he lived through. Humane and thought-provoking.

I'd been meaning to read Nooteboom for ages, and yesterday, I found one of his books in the poetry section of the library: L'oeil du poète (Monniksoog) followed by Adieu (Afscheid,...). The 1st collection really spoke to me.

9
Dans l'autre île pas de dunes mais des rocs,
noirs, des plantes à crocs et dents s'abreuvant à la pierre,
agrippées aux gravières. Un phase ici aussi, haut
dressé contre la violence d'un orage,

#Netherlands

A quote from Zweig's autobiography to remind us that one can be a reader & love the books of a humanist author, and still be a fascist psychopath & a dictator.
(The wife of an imprisoned opponent of Mussolini asked him to try and get him released, which implies pleading with the enemy - Mussolini - who happens to be a fan of his work.)

Another still from Parlement, series 4 with Carmen realising the parallels between today and the run-up to WWII.

Stefan Zweig's autobiography led me to poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal's play Electra, which I borrowed from the library and started reading last night. It was turned into an opera by Strauss. I am listening to it on deezer, but it's not grabbing me so far. Any tips or info to help ease me into it? A passage to look forward to? A recording that's less strident than the one I am listening to? I'm OK with modernist music, so that's not it 😊

I don't want to speak ill of my capital city - and it does feel good to read nice things about a tolerant, non-classist, non-racist, fun Paris in Edwardian times - but Zweig is wearing humongous rose-tinted glasses here 😁

Call me easily led: I am reading Zweig's autobiography b/c it featured heavily in an episode (S4E7) of the TV comedy series about EU institutions Parlement, with the subtext that it is transposable to today's world & political climate. Which is scary because Zweig lived through WWI and committed suicide in 1942.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/may/04/machiavelli-in-brussels-bac...

#readingispolitical

This is a book about the women of the far right in the widest possible terms, from femonationalist, fascist, colonialist, etc. movements to conservative activism and TERFs. There is a lot of extraneous or “undigested“ info. I am hoping the last 100 pages are more directly relevant, but I won't be holding my breath.
Interviews with the author are more interesting than her book 😐

#readingispolitical

Today is the equinox, so the official start of Autumn, & in the short-lived French Revolutionary calendar, the start of the new year. And the day of grapes (each day was given the name of a produce, tool, animal or mineral). It has no bearing on real life, but I like to check which day it is in this calendar.
In RL, in France, we're still waiting for the new prime minister to form a government 😩
#majicmonday @Eggs

@xicanti, @Reggie, @lil1inblue

I'm just starting a book about the oral history of Queen Tasì Hangbé who reigned over Dahomey, in Western Africa, in the early 18th century. She is alleged to have created an army of “amazons“ and a school where women could learn traditional male skills. She also elevated other women to positions of responsibility.
#Benin #Africa
Pic of her 98ft (30m) statue* in Cotonou, Benin by Yemi festus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Someone on LibraryThing mentioned that Arthur Sze has been chosen as the new US poet laureate. Having never heard of him, I was curious and read the tagged collection on Everand. I loved it! Almost every distich or tercet creates a distinct, evocative image.
#poetry #nature

Pic by Ahmed abd elkader mohamed, CC BY-SA 4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

I was reading this book and wondering where its reputation for advocating duplicity (machiavelism) came from, and then I reached the second half of the book and it all made sense, although I am not 100% sure that it's not ironic... Anyway, I still have 50 pages to go 😁. The translation I am reading is archaic, and so is slighly harder work to parse, but also pleasantly twee.
Pic of the Italian Garden in Chaumont-sur-Loire taken last June

There are so many references to European literature and culture (mostly French, but also British, German, and of course Spanish, though not as much as I thought he would) in this poetry collection. The quoted poem is about Marguerite Gautier (or here, Margarita), the Lady of the Camellias (La Dame aux camélias) from the novel/play of the same name by Alexandre Dumas fils.

#Nicaragua #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

So I pretty much inhaled this cult 80s novel about an upper-class female architect enrolled in the Sandinista revolutionary guerilla in 70s #Nicaragua. It's both nuanced and terrifying. Also very feminist, with men in the movement trying their best to deprogram their own machismo, with varying degrees of success. ⬇

#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Halfway through tagged book and enjoying it.
I made Nicaraguan fresco de cacao ( using this recipe : https://www.jonathanmelendez.com/nicaraguan-fresco-de-cacao/ )
Veeeery nice: it's a cold chocolate drink made with cacao beans, cinnamon, rice, sugar and vanilla. It's more involved and time-consuming than I first thought (whole process shown in pic), but I will make it again.
#Nicaragua #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

First poem in this collection by Rubén Darío, and the parallels between it and Nerval's Fantaisie jump out to me (but then, I'm French and I had to learn it by heart at school).

#Nicaragua #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

I finished this public-domain translation of Michael Kohlhaas and other short stories or novellas by Heinrich von Kleist (or Henry de Kleist, as the 19th-c. Swiss translators wrote). I liked the novella Michael Kohlhaas best, although it did play with my nerves a little bit, as the MC went up the nobility chain of command to appeal and plead his case, all in vain, to nobody's surprise 😒 I could see the parallels with Kafka.
#Germany

This first novel is set in the Château d'eau area, a Paris neighbourhood with a strong African population. The MC is a teenage girl whose mother comes from Côte d'Ivoire. It is disappointing: very didactic, very flat and uninteresting. I don't understand why it was published in an adult collection. It should have been pitched at middle schoolers. I chose to read it because it incorporates a lot of nouchi & I like non-standard French but 😐

An unusual breakfast of coffee and grilled corn on the cob bought at the market - I thought it would be better to have it still hot rather than wait until lunch. It was disappointing - overcooked and dried up 😞
On page 50 of tagged book and that also is a disappointment, but it is a fast read so I am planning on reading it to the end, so I can criticize it...

I started the tagged novella this morning. With a MC being unfairly treated, I can feel that it is not going to be good for my blood pressure!
This is my 1st von Kleist work, chosen because it's a classic, it's free to download, the theme appeals, and the author spent some time in Fort de Joux (which is in #Doubs, the département that I am focusing on in 2025).
I might watch the Mads Mikkelsen film later. ⬇

A poem by June Beer, an Afrodescendant Nicaraguan
Found in https://web.archive.org/web/20170220200019/http://revistas.bicu.edu.ni/index.php...

#Nicaragua #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

I learned something today, researching Nicaraguan writers: some areas of #Nicaragua used to be part of the British Empire, and there are Afro-descendants who speak an English-based Creole, including poet and artist June Beer. All I could find by her is this article with 3 poems in Spanish and Creole https://web.archive.org/web/20170220200019/http://revistas.bicu.edu.ni/index.php...

#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Halfway through Somewhere in the Balkans, the 1st tome of a family saga trilogy about an Armenian family from Rodosto (now Tekirdağ in #Turkey) at the turn of the 20th century. Written in Bulgarian by an Armenian Bulgarian author. I am reading the French translation. Loving it so far, but I know the 2nd tome will be difficult to find, and it looks like the 3rd never was translated (unless it's included in the 2nd - informations are unclear).

For #Bolivia #FoodandLit, I made sopa de maní (Bolivian boiled peanut soup, normally with meat, but mine was all veggie)
based on https://boliviancookbook.com/soups/sopa-de-mani/ Sorry the pictures and collage are a bit rubbish this month...
It is served with a tomato, cilantro, oregano & chili salsa, and topped with fries (that got cheers in my house!) ⬇

@Catsandbooks @Texreader

For some reason, this is my 2nd book in a row that features twins, but they're v. different books. This one is set (probably) in #Hungary, near an unspecified border during WWII (again, probably), with twins that harden themselves to survive all the hardships they may encounter. None of the characters are likeable. Warning for cruelty, abuse (including sexual), murder - all the wartime horrors and more. Thankfully short & sparsely-written. ⬇

Halfway-through La petite Fadette (Fanchon the Cricket in English), a 19th-c classic about Sylvinet & Landry, twin boys from a well-off farming family, and Fanchon, nicknamed “the cricket“ because she is scrawny & ugly, and “fadette“ (little fairy in Berrichon dialect) because she comes from a line of women half thought to be witches (they know about plants and people). It's quite modern in its outlook and I am enjoying it very much.

I found this Korean tale set in China about a young monk who dreams that he is reincarnated into a golden boy who a) aces his exams, b) gets & beds 8 fairy wives 😱, c) wins all his battles & d) becomes the Emperor's favourite minister, all as a *punishment* for drinking wine, quite funny. It's possible that the serious Buddhist sub-text went over my head... I will say it is a surprisingly easy read for a 17th-c classic.

I actually was pleasantly surprised by this novel. Its writing style grew on me & it was quite keenly observed and very relatable, if rather ungenerous to some of the adult protagonists. Shame the author turned into one of her more unpleasant characters...

Pic of Woborn's Almshouse Bond Street, Yeovil by Sarah Smith from geograph.org.uk via Wikimedia CC BY-SA 2.0

I meant to read this for #FoodandLit #SouthKorea but never did! I was slightly apprehensive about keeping people & events straight (it is a 17th-c. novel with stories inside stories). It's still early days, but it's been fine so far. Even fun! The end-notes are quite helpful...

Cerco de penumbras (circle of shadows?) by 20th-c. Bolivian author Óscar Cerruto is a collection of short stories, mainly with fantasy or ghost story flavours. They were not necessarily very memorable, but I definitely enjoyed them.

#Bolivia #FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Pic of a church in Corocoro, where 1 of the stories is set, by Olga Lidia Paredes Alcoreza, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

La défaite des mères is Yabouza's 1st book, co-written w/ Pinguilly. It tells the story of Niwalie, born in the DRC of Centrafrican parents, & living in the #CentralAfricanRepublic in the 60s/70s. The novel is as much, poss. more, about geopolitics than her life as a woman & mother in an unstable, machist & undemocratic country. Lots of allusions to songs, literature, past events. Very interesting, but the humour is laid on a bit too thick for me.

I discovered a Netflix documentary series called Street Food: Latin America. I started with the last episode because it is on #Bolivia. Quite interesting and enjoyable! I really want to taste cinnamon sorbet now, although I shudder to think of the amount of colouring in it, given that it is bright red! There's also a lot of deep-fried food, as in the screenshot above 😁

#FoodandLit
@Catsandbooks @Texreader

My book haul for #FoodandLit #Bolivia
-Tagged book is a short story collection by 20th-c. Bolivian author/journalist/poet Óscar Cerruto. I'll start on it as soon as I've finished my current novel.
-Affections, which I've already read & reviewed
-A South-American cookbook. Let's hope there's lots to choose from for Bolivia!

@Catsandbooks @Texreader

Just finished this biography of Jacqueline Manicom, midwife, writer, feminist, pro-choice & anti-colonial activist (pictured here w/ Simone de Beauvoir). She was born in #Guadeloupe in a mixed Indian/Black/White family. 1st in her family who learned to read, she wanted to become a doctor but had to settle for midwifery for external reasons. She took her own life in 1976, writing in her suicide note that she was tired of being poor, Black & female.