Kristin Espinasse

Madame Espinasse is a treat to read! This short, self-published book contains items from her popular "French Word-a-day" newsletter/online blog. For those unfamiliar with her format, she presents the reader with a French word, its definition, a sample sentence or relevant quote in both French and English, and then a personal story written in English with some French vocabulary thrown in for good measure. It is a fun way to learn and/or keep up with your French, while also seeing a bit of show more French life through the eyes of an American-born French wife. Espinasse is delightfully self-abasing and modest and her stories really give you the sense of the "everyman" -- something to identify with easily. The book is formatted with words presented alphabetically, rather than the order they appeared in the newsletter. I suppose this could be helpful for readers who want to skip to certain words, but I just read straight through the whole book from cover to cover. My only caveat: this book could have benefited from a good editor. There were a number of typos and other issues interspersed. Otherwise, this book is definitely on my recommend list! show less

This book grew from a blog and the shortness of each of the entries bothered me a bit. I meant to read it at a long (or several long) sittings, but it was so broken up that I couldn't, so I ended up reading it little by little, perhaps as it was intended.

Espinasse has a nice way of viewing things and expressing herself, so it was a pleasant read. Since I am also an American expat, there was a lot there that I could personally relate to.

I wanted to give up on this book. It was too much work to keep flipping between the French words intermingled with the essay and the dictionary at the end of each chapter. Oddly, as I kept going, I seemed to understand more and more of the French words without looking them up. Does Espinasse’s technique really work?

This book is a collection of language and cultural lessons from Kristin Espinasse, an American woman who moved to France after falling n love with the country and a Frenchman. Now the mother of two French children, she offers a charming collection of anecdotes on language learning, cultural navigation, and lessons from children to their parents.

The "lessons" that make up the different chapters each have a unique theme or main idea that links all the different words, phrases, and idioms show more Espinasse introduces. This structure lends itself to easier memorization, which is helpful to those new to French. For more experienced French speakers, Espinasse's linguistic journeys may offer especial charm as they compare and contrast the etymology of certain words and phrases. Espinasse's quips and quirky anecdotes are delightful and heartwarming in small doses. The book is not quite as amusing as I had hoped it would be, but it does have its funny moments.

This is a very quick read, as each "chapter" is really about the size and shape of a blog post. In fact, the book seems to be comprised entirely of Espinasse's past blog posts -- and I'm not sure the formatting or structure transition well into book form. The pacing was rather jarring, and seemed more like a barrage of brief and loosely connected anecdotes than a book (in the more traditional sense). Really, it would make for very good bathroom reading: you could get through one or two "lessons at a time," and then take a break.

I think this book would serve well as a future reference as I get more comfortable with the language. For now, it's been a fun read, but probably one that I'll be shelving for a while. show less