Too busy watching the snow fall, I couldn’t post earlier my #booksandhotdrinkstuesday post: @katha_logisch asks us today if we read theatre.
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Now let me tell you an absolute secret. I adore acting. I actually wanted to be an actress, back in the time when these dreams were allowed. But as much as I love acting, I hate reading plays. As @kemysbookshelf put it, the texts seem dry, empty, like clothes waiting to be filled by bodies and voices.
And as much as I love acting, I don’t like going to the theatre much. I’m more fascinated by the illusion of reality better, represented in movies, than the obvious acting techniques developed on stage. So I’m a picky spectator. However, and that’s very unoriginal, I do appreciate the classical staging of la Comédie Française, especially in comedies. Their antics will always make me laugh.
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There are very few playwrights whose texts I enjoy. One of them is Beckett. How not to admire Beckett’s volubility, Beckett’s poetry, Beckett’s philosophy, Beckett’s humour, Beckett’s despair, condensed in his plays? How not to want to read, pause, ponder, re-read and savour each sentence? .
Finally, one of the rare plays that I truly enjoyed reading (not Racine, not Molière, not Corneille, Marivaux only on a good day) is Isaac de Benserade. This forgotten playwright rewrote Iphis and Iante in the most sassy & hilarious manner. Reading it filled me with delight — a delight of which I was remembered when I read Ali Smith’s rewriting of this fascinating myth, Girl Meets Boy (see further down my feed for review).
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And you? Do you, can you read theatre?
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#bookblogger #bookreviewers #bloggingforbooks #thelitbooks #bookfeatures #theatre
Despite the 70-ish unread books I own. Despite my packed reading plan. Despite my many readalongs. Despite my dying bank account... I ordered my copy of The Things I Would Tell You.
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I’ve been meaning to read it ever since @sofia_reading mentioned it in one of her stories (highlighted, I think). I will need it for my PhD and I’m beyond excited to dive into Muslim women texts, which I have never read yet. AND, it’s @oursharedshelf’s choice for January and February. Anything that @emmawatson chooses, I am bound to love.
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I want to warmly thank Chloé from @saqibooks for helping me placing my order. Rarely have I been such a liability. I mixed up “State” and “Country” and wrote an email to ask if they shipped to France (I know. I know.🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️), and then I made no less than THREE mistakes in the address, sending panicked emails to Chloé who kindly corrected them (on a Saturday!). Chloé, if you rolled your eyes more than once, I totally understand you. Still, Chloé wrote a personal message for me, and added this adorable bookmark. You’ve gotta love these indie publishers! Thank you Chloé!!
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Will you take part in @oursharedshelf’s book club? I sure took the book with me to Paris (along with three others because you never know in which mood you will be!).
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Happy Sunday peeps!
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Mrs Dalloway was my second attempt with Virginia Woolf and once again, I was not disappointed for having given a writer a second chance. This novel is so rich, dense and intense that one read is not enough to properly acknowledge its qualities, but I’ll try nonetheless.
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Knowing that the novel takes place during one day, we mustn’t expect much about the plot and indeed, Woolf quickly enthralls you by placing you in the centre of consciousness of her characters. You are immediately captivated by the mesmerising effects of familiarity and utter strangeness. Woolf’s writing is about itself: while almost nothing happens, you are fascinated by the precision, the lyricism, the poetry, the realism. Facts remain between brackets. You are invited into the intimacy of Mrs Dalloway, Septimus Warren Smith and other characters, and they provide a filter to reality.
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The forces of life and death occupy the novel, knotting a tension that seemingly opposes the main characters, Clarissa and Septimus. Clarissa would be on the luminous life side, buying flowers, preparing the night’s festivities, while Septimus, who hears voices, who can’t feel anymore, who can’t bear the weight of life, lurks on the death’s side. But this stark opposition crackles when we get to know each character better, when we understand that the same depression threatens them, and that both had to repress homosexual loves because of social conventions.
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The Big Ben, striking the hours regularly, mechanically, unemotionally, reminds everyone, reader included, that time moves on, inexorably and that if time is passing and death approaches, life goes on, too.
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More detailed review on the blog. #linkinbio
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Dear bookworms, grab a cup of hot tea, coffee, chocolate or what-have-you and sit down for today in #booksandhotdrinkstuesday hosted by @katha_logisch, we are talking about our favourite literary period / movement / style.
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It so appears that I actually thought this question in terms of genre. I read novels. A long, immersive, chunky novel will always be a favourite. I have two favourite periods: from what I’ve seen on those who’ve already posted, the 19th century is a big star! I love it for its detailed descriptions of daily life, from the rich societies and splendours of Jane Austen’s universe to the very poor people of Les Misérables. The omniscient narrator, though a bit overrated today, is sure to get all my attention, especially if it has a witty, ironic or humorous voice like Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, #Dickens... Accurate scrutiny of society’s quirks also deeply fascinate me: #Wharton (late 19th-beginning it the 20th) is an expert and on the French side, I’m thinking of #Zola & #Flaubert, whom I should read more.
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And because I love it when reading carries me somewhere else, be it temporally or geographically, I fell in love with #writersofcolor. With #ChinuaAchebe, Mongo Beti, Emmanuel Dongala, Alain Mabanckou, Adichie of course, I discovered writers who spoke of my world, but through the mirror: suddenly whiteness isn’t at the centre, and how different is the world to you when you’re not white... Only through novels could I appreciate the depths of these differences, thanks to the magic of identification & empathy. So contemporary novels dealing with #race, migration & #belonging have become an obsession because here is a literature that speaks to me directly, that, by placing me on the margins (white characters are peripheral, if they exist at all) teaches me lessons that I can learn and put to use in my direct environment, that aims at raising awareness on #structuralracism and can have practical results. .
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What are your favourite literary movement, periods etc...?
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#bookblogger #bookreviewers #bloggingforbooks #thelitbooks #bookfeatures #literaryfiction #bookflatlay #readwomen #blackliterature #chimamandangoziadichie #janeausten
Hey bookworms! Are you asleep? I hope it’s not too late to post some #feministfriday thoughts. I am #currentlyreading Pride and Prejudice with @ripley.from.bookland (I can’t even begin to tell you how she’s LOVING it!), and ever since @carlacastanos mentioned the Bechdel test, I’m yet to find a conversation where women do not talk about men.
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Of course I find it extremely relevant to demand that women be represented differently than in their relationships to men. I have wondered if some topics might be more expected than others & if frivolous topics would debase women. Then I asked myself: what is a frivolous topic? Make-up? Shopping? Sport? Girl friends relations? Nail polishes? And why would it be frivolous if these things make us happy? (It so happened that the word “frivolous” came to my mind when I entered my bathroom, where I saw my 40 shades of @zoyanailpolish, and, well, yes, they make me happy!). Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said that qualifying some topics as frivolous was yet another patriarchal attempt at controlling what women should think and say (I think that was the line of argument). So I concluded that all right, women should be able to talk of anything but men without being judged.
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Now, what’s interesting in P&P, is that they don’t talk only of men: men represent their career, their exit, even escape, from the family house, their possible introduction into higher society. Women have nothing else to focus on if they want to get a position in their society. And that’s when I came to question the limits of the #bechdeltest: can we apply it to a literature that belongs to another century where the social model was very different than ours? Is it fair to say that because Austen’s characters chiefly speak marriage (especially in P&P!), Austen is not a #feminist, she who portrayed strong-willed, independent, even sassy young women? I would like to develop more but... characters limitation.
What do you think of these questions? I have no answer so I’d be happy to have your opinion!
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#bookblogger #bookreviewers #thelitbooks #prideandprejudice #janeausten #readwomen #chimamandangoziadichie #feminism #classics
As you may or may not remember, I decided to read more nonfiction this year, more precisely, 1 nonfiction a month.
As you may or may not remember, I also struggle to read nonfiction: because I don’t always feel confident enough, and also because I’m still convalescing from that burnout, and nonfiction can be demanding.
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I recently had a conversation with my brother who almost talked me into quitting my PhD research, but then I remembered the initial reason that brought me here, before I knew about the ocean of books I had to read and the Impostor Syndrome who would impose his company on me (I can’t help but seeing him as masculine). The initial reasons were love, pleasure and intellectual curiosity. I love the writers I work on (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Monica Ali, Jhumpa Lahiri and Zadie Smith, isn’t it a nice bouquet?!). I love the notions I study: transculturalism, postcolonialism, alterity, belonging, migration, vulnerability, racial issues, whiteness... I really think mine is a topical subject that can help us (or me, at the very least 😅!) better understand our contemporary world.
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And so, in order to link together my work and my beloved bookstagram activities, I have decided to create my very first virtual book club! The idea would be to read together #1nonfictionamonth and discuss it together. We can divide the books in reasonable chunks and share our points of view once a week. Don’t hesitate to follow the hashtag to get regular updates!
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This month, I’m reading Ain’t I A Woman by bell hooks. Next month, I’ve planned a buddy read with @bookbarr before I thought of this bookclub: we’re reading Orientalism by E. Said. Anyone wants to join? In March, I’ll be reading Brit(ish). Say hi in the comments if you’re interested in one of these three books and don’t hesitate to spread the word; the more the merrier, especially for #nonfiction! 😅
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Pictured here is my current nonfiction TBR. See if some of these books interest you and let me know in the comments!
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#bookblogger #bookreviewers #bloggingforbooks #thelitbooks #bookfeatures #readwomen #writersofcolour #blackliterature #bellhooks #slayinyourlane #edwardsaid #orientalism #phdresearch
