Weekend Reads

The first week of school is finally over.  I both love and hate the first week of a new semester.  You are excited for your new classes, but not very happy to have homework.  This is also my very last semester EVER at Buffalo State College and as an undergrad.  It's exciting!  But also scary..  I do plan I doing grad school, but not until 2012 (if the world still exists, hahaha.  Aren't you sick of people freaking out over the 2012 crap??!).

I'm only taking one French class this semester.  It's the only one being offered that I haven't taken!  And it's on Moliere *gulp*.  Yes people that's right.  I'm spending a whole semester reading PLAYS!  And I hate readidng plays!  But I'm determined to enjoy myself.  In fact, I think me and Monsieur Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (that's his real name) are going to be bestest best friends by the time May rolls around.  The only problem??  So far the "mythological biography" of Moliere written by Christophe Mory is really, really boring.  But so far I'm just on his childhood, and I think once I get to the part where he's, ya know, working as the Roi-Soleil's tapissier, it'll get much more interesting.  I really can't wait for him to go to jail for a month because he can't pay he debts.  It's gonna be good.

So we're reading this 300+ biography of Moliere (which is kinda not all true because the author makes a lot of assumptions of his life..), plus 3 plays.  I can't remember their names right now though.

I'm also taking a German literature in translation course.  I like it a lot so far.  I wish I could read in German, but I'm not at that level yet.  I definitely feel like I'm missing something by reading the translations though.  My teacher gives us a few pages each class of the German version and I always feel like the English is leaving something out..  It switches paragraphs around and whatnot.  Someday I'll be reading in Deutsch though, so it's all good.  We're reading Death in Venice by Thomas Mann right now, and then one or two of his other short stories.  Then we're reading some Hesse, Brecht, and I can't remember the last person.

Oh and I'm also taking a fun Criminal Law course which I love.  It's like right out of Law and Order.  So I'm totally in my element ;)

Hope you all had a great weekend!  I'm off to finish up my homework!

Review: Biographie de la faim by Amelie Nothomb

Can I just say, isn't that a beautiful cover?!  It's partly what drew me to this book.  Well, actually, it is what drew me to it!  I bought it and had it shipped from France without even knowing what the book was about.  I'm SO glad I took the chance!

Biographie de la faim (literally meaning Biographie of Hunger, but translated as The Life of Hunger) was my first experience with Amelie Nothomb.  A Belgian author who spent her childhood abroad in places like Japan, China, New York City, and Bangladesh, Nothomb is a "cult favorite" and has fans pretty much world wide.  Her parents were Belgian diplomats, which explains her childhood spent living in different cities.  Biographie de la faim is an autobiographical novel detailing her childhood living in hunger.  This isn't necessarily a hunger for food, but a hunger for more.  Nothomb was born in Japan, and after leaving it, has a hunger for the place she thinks of as her home.  The book chronicals her childhood and the things she longed for and had a hunger for.

I cannot really explain just how much I love this book.  It is filled with dark humor.  I really loved Nothomb's sections about her early childhood.  The portrait she paints of herself as a little girl is both priceless and hilarious.  There are also parts that are a bit more intense and serious, like the eating disorder she had as a teenager. 

I was sucked in right from the beginning of this book.  Nothomb begins this novel talking about hunger.  She talks about two different groups of people: those who never have to worry about food and hunger, and those who do.  She uses a tropical island plentiful with food and plants as an example of a group of people who never have to worry or even work for their food.  It was very interesting to read, and a great introduction to the rest of the novel about her own hunger. 

Nothomb talks about her own hunger throughout the book.  She says on page 19, "La faim, c'est moi."  Basically "I am hunger" or "hunger is me."  She says she has more than just a hunger for food, but a hunger for more.  And I especially appreciated the parts where she mentioned Arthur Rimbaud, my favorite French poet :) 

Sorry if this review is really repetitve.  I just adored this book so much that it's hard to write a really in depth review of it.  I'm so glad I have another Nothomb novel waiting for me on my shelf.  I have high expectations for it, and if it's anything like Biographie de la faim, I know I won't be disappointed.

If you read in French, read this!  If you read in English, you can find it on Amazon by searching "Amelie Nothomb Life of Hunger".  Have you read anything by Nothomb?

For more information on the author and this book, here is a fascinating article/interview I recently found.

Title: Biographie de la faim (The Life of Hunger)
Author: Amelie Nothomb
Date of Publication: 2004 (English I think is 2007)
Number of Pages: 190
Genre: Autobiographical Novel
Source: Personal Copy ordered from Fnac.com

Literary Blog Hop: Reading Books for School

The Literary Blog Hop is hosted by The Blue Bookcase.  It is for blogs centered around classic and literary book reviews and discussions.  If you are interested in participating, visit The Blue Bookcase :)

This week's question is:
Discuss a work of literary merit that you hated when you were made to read it in school or university.  Why did you dislike it?

Heh.  Let's just say that me and school readings haven't always gotten along.  In high school, I can honestly say that I disliked most of the required books.  I absolutely hated The Catcher in the Rye and never even finished it.  I couldn't stand Holden and finally just had enough of him.  I also never finished Flowers for Algernon.  I felt SO bad for that poor mouse and am totally against animal testing and whatnot and my heart was breaking, so I put that down.  I hated The Crucible but did finish it.  I thought the characters were being idiots (I know I know, it's based on true events and all that.....but it still made me mad that everyone was being so dumb!).  In college I had to read Robinson Crusoe.  I don't think I got even half way through it.  It seemed really ridiculous and fake to me.  Really Robinson?  You're on a deserted island and you are building a table and chairs?  I understand that maybe he wanted to feel like he was home, but..I think I'd be working more on food and clothing and the like. 

I know you may be wondering, "Kelly, if you didn't even finish a lot of these school books, how did you pass the tests?"  Good question.  With Robinson Crusoe, it was a British lit class, and the test was super easy.  You got to pick the essays you wanted to write.  So I just picked the essays for the stuff I had actually read.  For the high school books, we discussed the books SO much in class that you really didn't need to read them.  Not to say that I'm a bad student.  I usually did finish books.  I always did the readings except for those 2 books listed above. 

I just thought of one more book I had to read that I couldn't stand, and that is Phedre by Jean Racine.  I had to read it last Spring for a French lit class.  And I couldn't stand it.  I did finish it though, because I'm such a good French student ;)  I do not enjoy reading plays, and Phedre was a play, and the story was in my opinion stupid and boring.  It was also based on Greek or Roman gods or something like that, which I find sort of boring.  I kept thinking, "well, you COULD do this, instead of that, and everything would be okay.."  (Much like the way I feel when my family is all watching Pretty Little Liars and I'm like "How can you all be addicted to this show?  All they need to do is ignore A and go to the police and blah blah blah..") *sigh*. 

I love reading the classics, I just really hate it when books are forced down my throat.  Most of what I read in high school I didn't like, and I think it was mostly because teachers talked about each chapter wayyyy too much, and they focused on things that sometimes really didn't matter.  I sometimes wonder if I had read any of these books on my own, if maybe I would have enjoyed them a lot more. 

What are you thoughts?  Did you dislike any of the same books as me?  If not, what did you hate?  I can't wait to visit the blogs of my fellow hoppers to see what you all have to say!

Review/Gush: The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor

Okay, so I know I said I'd do a review for this book, but I still can't really summarize my feelings for it.  It's just all awesomeness.  So I'm just going to summarize the book for y'all, and then if it looks interesting to you, try it for yourself :)  If you love it like me, let me know!  If you didn't like it, let me know that too!  I love seeing different opinions on books.  Makes it fun to read about why some people love books and others dislike the same ones.  Do you agree?

It is very rare that I stumble across a book this insanely awesome.  I couldn't put it down, and thus stayed up very late one night to finish it.  The Anatomy of Ghosts is a slow-building mystery set in England in the 1780s.  It mostly takes place in Cambridge.  It follows bookseller John Holdsworth, who has recently lost his young son, his wife, and his bookstore.  Running out of money to live on, he really has no choice but to accept an offer of employment from wealthy Lady Anne Oldershaw.  Recently widowed herself, she hires Holdsworth to catalog and estimate the value of her late husband's library.  There is just one catch.  Before she will allow Holdsworth to work on the library, she sends him on a mission to Cambridge to bring back her son Frank, who is now in a mental home after seeing a ghost on his college campus.  It seems everyone has a secret.  Was the ghost a woman who was murdered?  And what role might the secret society Holdsworth keeps hearing about play in everything?  Was the ghost really a ghost in the first place?

While this isn't the fastest paced book out there, I thought it flowed very well for the story.  You only find out a bit a information at a time, and then you are compelled to keep reading to figure out what is going on.  With each new bit of information, you'll start making your own assumptions about what happened.  I was totally surprised at the end and did not see what happened coming, though looking back, I really should have because I think the info to suggest it was right there all along.

In any case, I highly recommend this book.  It is super entertaining, even if there were a few parts where the writing lacked.  I read an ARC copy of this book though, so it may have been edited.

Some favorite quotes:

Pg. 25: 'Pooh,' Ned bellowed.  'Books are not luxuries.  They are meat and drink for the mind.'

Pg. 29: ....as usual her face was completely white, a monochrome intrusion in a colourful world.

The Anatomy of Ghosts was written by Andrew Taylor and will be in bookstores on January 25th.  Don't forget to buy your copy!

Title: The Anatomy of Ghosts
Author: Andrew Taylor
Date of Publication: January 25th, 2011
Number of Pages: 432
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Source: Advance Readers Copy from Publisher

Francophone Literature Essentials: What's to Come

I'm assuming most of my readers know that I am a French literature major and that I read a lot of French lit.  I'm graduating with my B.A. in May (fingers crossed, lol!) and have decided to take a year off before going to grad school.  I need to read a lot of French lit anyway before applying.  In the mean time, I've decided to make a list (a long list) of essential Francophone (that is, anything French from any French-speaking countries) literature.  It's slowly starting to come together.  When it is finished, it will be a very complete list of Francophone authors and literary works that anyone interested in French lit and culture should read.  It's based partly on what I've learned in school, partly what I've researched, and, well, partly on my opinion.  So it's not really a "must-read" list.  It's more a guide for anyone interested in French stuff.  From the Middle Ages to today.

It will hopefully be up soon, and I hope you all spread the word to anyone who likes French lit. :)  I've been working hard on this and I hope it's helpful to not only myself, but others too.

I've been slacking on posting reviews lately because I've been busy with this and with work.  But look forward to a bunch of reviews coming this week!

Literary Blog Hop: Reading Roots

The Literary Blog Hop is hosted by The Blue Bookcase and is open to anyone who primarily reads classic literature and literary fiction.  If you would like to participate or see if your blog qualifies, head over to The Blue Bookcase for more information.  The girls over there are so sweet and always have great reviews posted.

This week's question comes from Deb Nance over at Readerbuzz:
How did you find your way to reading literary fiction and nonfiction?

I think this is a very interesting topic and am looking forward to seeing how the other "hoppers" found their way to reading literary books.  I personally have no one answer to give.  My parents were both huge book worms when I was growing up.  My dad preferred nonfiction, especially historical nonfiction.  He would occasionally pick up a classic fiction book to read.  My mom reads tons of fiction, but a huge plethora of genres.  She loves her literary fiction, but will also read mystery, crime, and detective novels.  I think she'll read whatever she can to get her mind off of work..  So I was influenced to read both fiction and nonfiction from an early age, though I didn't always read literary books.  I read a lot of YA books when I was younger and quickly got tired of the same old story lines and (sometimes very bad) writing.  That's when I first started reading "grown-up" books.  I eventually found that there were certain types of books that I was more drawn to, that I loved so much because of beautiful writing and stories.  I still read a variety of different types of books, but I love literary fiction the most and read it as much as possible. 

As for reading classics, I'd have to say a lot of that is thanks to both my grandparents and my teachers growing up.  My grandparents always had some of the classics on their shelves, and although I never read them as a child, I remember always seeing them and pretending to teach an invisible class about them (hehe).  My grandparents also loved old classic movies and always reminded me and my sisters about how awesome older things really can be.  My teachers growing up made it fun to learn about the authors of "classic" books.  When I was older, I started reading Jane Austen and the like-people I had learned about in elementary and middle school-and discovered I really loved it.

So that is my long answer to this week's question :)  It could have been a lot longer though.  I had so much fun thinking back on how I "found" literary fiction and nonfiction.  I'm off to read what all you other hoppers have to say!

Review: How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator

I don't usually read self-help or how-to books.  However, I made an exception for Corinne McKay's book How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator.  I follow McKay's blog, Thoughts on Translation, and found her first through her website, Translate Write, while researching freelance translation.  McKay is a member of the American Translators Association and frequently talks at their conferences.  McKay was a high school French teacher for 8 years before making the decision to work from home translating documents from French into English.  After a lot of hard work, she is now quite successful.  She wrote this book a few years ago to help aspiring freelance translators start their businesses.

This book was a god-send for me.  For years, I've wanted to work towards freelance translating.  I know I have the language and writing skills.  My major concern was just getting started.  How do I find my first clients?  How do I market myself?  How exactly does one do translation as a full-time job?  And especially, what about those pesky taxes?

This book answered all my questions and then some.  It was so informative, and you can tell that McKay has really "been there and done that".  McKay gives examples of translation-related resumes and cover letters, as well as invoices and terms of service letters/emails to clients.  She talks about office set-up (not something I really needed to know, but is great if you want ideas for working more efficiently and I may take into consideration someday if ever I have my own place with my own office).  I especially loved how she always listed resources, like links to associations translators can join, links to software programs that aren't necessary but are extremely helpful to translators, information about getting certified, both as a translator and interpreter, and a ton more.

If you have ever considered freelance translation as a career path, or are fluent in a second language and looking to increase your income or even start a fun money-making hobby, this book is definitely for you.  I cannot emphasize enough how helpful this book has been to me.  I'll definitely always keep it handy as I start to build my own career as a freelance translator.  To order your book, type in Corinne McKay's name or the book title at Amazon.com.  For more information about the author and her experience as a freelance translator, visit her website.  And don't forget to check out her blog, where she is always posting new and interesting information and tips for freelancers.

Title: How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator
Author: Corinne McKay
Date of Publication: 2006
Number of Pages: 137, including Glossary
Genre: Nonfiction, how-to
Source: Personal Copy

Weekend Reads and Happy New Year!

.First, I'd like to say Happy New Year!  I think everyone should follow in the footsteps of a wonderful blog called Readerbuzz and make HAPPINESS their main goal of 2011!

This week, surprisingly, was filled with quite a few blog posts and reviews from me.  I say it's surprising because I didn't think I'd have much time to post anything.  Happily though, I was wrong!  I listed some of my favorite reads of 2010, which was really hard to do.  I really loved most of the books I read.  Then I posted a somewhat vague review of The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray.  It's the last in a trilogy and I didn't want to give too much away (thus the "vagueness").  I then did a post of books I received for Christmas.  I'm so excited for reading in 2011 because I've got some awesome looking books lined up!  And I ended the week with a quick little post about my love for The Anatomy of Ghosts, which I just finished and adore.  Review coming this week.

Now I don't like to do the whole "resolution" thing, but this year I would like to highlight some goals I'd like to accomplish in 2011.  For one, make this the year of happiness, as stated above. 

I would also like to incorporate more reading en francais ("in French" minus the accent on the "c" because my laptop doesn't do accent codes..).  This year I read a few books in French, but I hope to increase that by a lot this year.  I bought 5 books from a French book site, plus my sister brought me back a few from her study abroad trip.  I'm all set ;) 

And finally, I'd like to take more time to just read.  And read books I want to read.  I don't accept/ask for very many review books, but I'm afraid that if I don't start setting boundaries now, eventually it will get totally out of control and then I'll be reading books I'm not enjoying just so I can review them for publishers.  My goal for this year is to edit my review policy.  I'm not going to 100% for sure review every book I receive for review.  If I read the book, I'll review it.  If I find I just don't want to read the book, I won't.  I'm a picky reader and I don't want too many review books from publishers to mess that up ;)

Happy New Year to you all, and I wish you all a great 2011, full with lots of joy and happiness!  What are your goals for 2011?