THE PROBLEM
I'm moving to another province for a year, to live with my folks while looking for work. (No, not breaking up with hubby or cats.) Right now I'm at home to get things to bring back with me, including about 25 of my books to read. I own (official number now!) 1068 fiction books. You see the problem.
I've got it down to about 70 books. (Previous posts about this here.)
YOUR MISSION SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT
Help me choose which French books to bring!
Yes, I would like you to vote (over on the left) for which French book(s) seem the most interesting. I figure it's much funner to ask Anglophones to vote on the French books, than on ones they may have read. :-)
Here are the covers, and a few words about each. If you don't have time, just pick your fave cover.
Marquise
About a famous actress who worked for Moliere, Racine, Corneille
pros - short, based on a movie (cause it's fun to see the movie after)
cons - novelization of a movie
L'écume des jours
About two couples, and a woman who has a flower growing out her heart.
pros - one of my friend's fave novels, a classic, movies made and being made
cons - surrealist, so my French might not be there yet
Les cerfs-volants
Two lovers in wartime France.
pros - Gary is one of France's most famous authors, a book about hope
cons - after writing it he shot himself in the head
Ce que le jour doit à la nuit
Star crossed lovers during the Algerian fight for independence
pros - was one of my fave areas of study, author is Algerian, famous for Swallows of Kabul
cons - star-crossed lovers
Un goût de bonheur et de miel sauvage
Family saga, granddaughter who doesn't want to take over the family business
pros - I bought the book in 1996 so maybe I should read it!
cons - bit longer than the others
Borderline
Semi-autiobio about a woman with a mentally ill mother and abusive grandmother
pros - it's short, was recommended to me, a movie made of it
cons - see the description
Du bon usage des étoiles
About Franklin's deadly Arctic trip, and his wife back home
pros - beautiful cover, recommended by a bookseller
cons - I didn't like the other book she recommended
Coeur trouvé aux objets perdus
Romance between a couple of oddballs.
pros - supposed to be funny, romantic light read
cons - trade sized paperback, so it's bigger
I've also short listed a horror novel by the French version of Stephen King, and a book about four people thrown together to make a mini-series that will be shown during the dead time over night.
Help! Help!
9 comments:
Hmm...I'd have to go with the heart finding the lost objects, even if it is trade paperback. Or the French Stephen King. (Or both!) I'm no help.
I can't help at all, but I adore the book covers. Every single one of them!
I'm no help as I've read none of these. The romance betwee odd balls sounds fun.
My system: Write all the names down and put them in a hat. Determine the number of books you can take. If you pull a title and feel disappointed then it goes in the NO pile and pull again.
Could help -- or just add to the work. ;)
I picked 'Les cerfs-volants' because I want to know what happened at the end, and why he shot himself afterwards ... and, 'Un goût de bonheur et de miel sauvage', because a book should be read within the first decade of it's purchase, and also long books can be fun too ... does this help?
I picked Ce que le jour doit à la nuit because star crossed lovers is not a con for me.
I was going to go with "Ce que le jour doit à la nuit" because I love that author too, but voted for "Un goût de bonheur et de miel sauvage" because you can't go wrong with wild honey. Especially as written in French ;-)
Wow, would Miel Sauvage be too over the top as a pen name? I really like it! It's probably already in use by a porn star in Marseilles, with my luck.
I am NO HELP! I would be psyched to leave it all behind and just have less stuff!! So not the advice you were looking for....
But then again... come to think of it... if it was my travel books... I might get all "pang-y" too.
BLEH.
I am no help!
@ Delia - No no, you are a help! Thanks!
@Robena... tsk tsk... you're too nice!
@Judie - Not knowing the books is the fun! I'll put you down for the oddballs. Good idea about the draw, I def will use for the Eng books.
@widders Sound reasoning. ( I don't mind long books, just thinking of the suitcase weight.)
@JJJ Oh noes you want to torture me! Sigh. Yes, I can't go through life only reading hea romances. This is why I asked for help.
@ink Forget hooker, it MUST be your pen name!!
@Simone This isn't about sentimentality! It's if I don't bring books with me, then I'll buy new ones. And that's unacceptable given my 1000 books!
THANKS EVERYONE!
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