Florence, lost in the plot in 2025

My name is Florence and I live in a suburb of Paris, France. I work as a consultant in information systems, and in my free time I do a little visual art on the side, mostly these days in the form of video improvisations, working with musicians.

I wanted to title this thread "Florence loses the plot", but that would have been a lie, since you can't lose what you never had. I am hopelessly plot-challenged, and I usually have only a very vague idea of what is going on in a book. Thus I tend to focus mostly on characters and writing. I must also confess that I have a weakness for romance. I also read a lot of fantasy. And once in a while I might tackle a "difficult book", although these days I am making zero progress on Moby Dick and Metamorphoses. I do insert a nonfiction book once in a while. Currently it's (supposedly, though I doubt I will be able to finish it) La Distinction by Pierre Bourdieu. And I'm also reading a graphic novel inspired by it, which is great and a much easier read: La distinction - librement inspiré du livre de Pierre Bourdieu.

Next thread title idea: Florence doesn’t need no stinking plot.

And, I promise, I will not delete this thread!

Also i love that image

>2 dchaikin: Thank you! And >3 dchaikin: Thank you 😁

Beautiful topper! Although you didn't mention it in your intro, I feel like you also discuss interesting social issues on your thread, inspired by articles, blog posts, vlogs, and books. I quick a lot of links following you.

>5 labfs39: Thank you! Yes, I’ve been increasingly interested in social and political topics there last years, which I guess is why I’m attempting to read Bourdieu.

Here's to a year of meeting interesting and enjoyable characters then!

Love your topper! And thanks for taking on The Greenhouse.

Happy New Year!

Bourdieu he of the theory of cultural capital? That's all I know about his work, and I've heard it discussed rather than actually read it myself but I find it interesting. Maybe I should give the graphic novel a go - would you recommend it?

>7 mabith: Thank you! What a wonderful new year wish!

>8 markon: Thanks! Nature and the environment are another subject I'm interested in.

>9 rachbxl: I do absolutely recommend the BD. I'm loving it but of course YMMV. Yes, Bourdieu is I think the one who invented the great notion of cultural (and social) capital. I just watched a very interesting video (in French) about his theories:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qcty61XGs2w&si=id3OlAPX6TP_6OYg

And I would also recommend Grégoire Simpson's YouTube channel (also in French), he was the one through which I discovered Bourdieu:

https://youtube.com/@gregoiresimpson4123?si=89fCzYRSg9NzeRVT

>10 FlorenceArt: Thanks! I just watched the Blast video (excellent), and I’ll have a look at the other link later. I find this stuff fascinating and I’d been sort of half-thinking for a while that I’d like to find a way in. Noting the BD for next time I’m at my local library…

>1 FlorenceArt: Happy New Year! I'm looking forward to your thread.

>12 rasdhar: Thank you! I don’t comment much but I do follow your thread, you have such interesting reading!

Happy new year, Florence! La distinction is still on my TBR and you've renewed my interest in it...

>14 Dilara86: Thanks! I’ve only read the introduction and a few pages of the first chapter. The introduction was an eye opener, but I can confirm that Bourdieu’s reputation as a very hard to read author is fully justified.

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Heather Fawcett
Emily Wilde 1

Excellent! Emily Wilde is a scholar engaged in a field study of faeries, which can be a dangerous pursuit, as soon becomes clear from the footnotes. It can also sometimes be difficult to keep your scholarly life separate from your personal feelings. Original, funny and engaging.

I read this book because its sequel, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands, has been cited as one of 2024’s best books, so I wishlisted it (the sequel) immediately.

Happy new year and new reading year, Florence!
I second you on recommending the graphic adaptation of La Distinction, that I read in 2023 when it was published. It's a great book! I should read a proper book by Bourdieu but have not found the energy for it yet!

>17 raton-liseur: Thank you! Yes, I saw your review of the BD on LT.

>16 FlorenceArt: sounds fantastic. Yes, fairy pursuits have certainly taken some odd directions

Happy new year! I presume the picture in >1 FlorenceArt: is yours? So great!

>20 LolaWalser: Thank you! Yes, it’s mine 😊

The colours are beautiful and the whole is so dynamic, so alive. Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but is it traditional or computer graphics? I'd say the former but I simply don't know these days.

It's purely digital, made on iPad with Procreate.

I'm glad you like it, it felt like rather a mess to me.

Wow, I was almost sure I was seeing cardboard texture in the centre! It doesn't look like a mess to me, it has a vivacious disco cave painting vibe. :)

Two short stories from Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2020 edition

Sinew and Steel and What They Told by Carrie Vaughn
A nice feel good story, well told.

Little Free Library by Naomi Kritzer
Liked the story, based on a fun idea. Didn’t take much to the writing, which felt a bit flat though not bad.

I've been watching a lot (for me) of videos lately, mainly various Star Trek series. In DS9 S5 E6, Sisko goes back in time and meets Kirk ... and the tribbles!, then has to explain himself to the Time Inspectors. Fun!

I also went on a binge of Notre Dame restoration videos. Arte.tv has 4 of them: a 3-part series plus a bonus one on what they found below the ground. I almost missed them because I've been avoiding any mention of this. I find it disturbing that we could find millions of euros virtually overnight to restore Notre-Dame, when we let refugees die at our borders and on our streets.

Also, mildly annoyed that it was decided to rebuild it exactly as it stood before the fire. This building is almost nine centuries old, and each century up to and including the 19th has left its mark on it. I get that the first reaction would be to want it back exactly to the state that "everybody" knows from photos and movies, and I suppose it was inevitable to bow to what was probably the wish of an overwhelming majority. But what does it say about our culture that we can't muster the will to put our 21st century mark on this building that has been changed by everyone but us? We have all those millions of images, the 19th century cathedral wouldn't be lost, contrary to all the other versions before it. But instead of giving us the freedom to change it, all those images are condemning us to desperately cling to what should only be one of a never-ending series of changing states. I mean, I love that we can find all these images of everything on the internet, but what if those images make us cling to a snapshot of reality as the only "real" one? We can't freeze time, and we shouldn't want to.

Anyway. About those documentaries. Nobody was happy to see Notre-Dame going down in flames (even I was a bit sad, though I felt that all the pathos was a bit disgusting - see above, refugees). But all those scientists were evidently in heaven. This was an incredible opportunity to access parts of the cathedral that were normally inaccessible, and to gather huge amounts of data on how it was built. And I enjoyed learning about what they learned.

>26 FlorenceArt: Interesting, Florence. I'm with you: sad to see it burn, but bewildered by the amount of money that appeared overnight. I wonder how much of the investment was because it is a fixed amount with a definite done date. Helping refugees is much more open=ended. Also, the investors got a lot of publicity, much more than they would have with projects working with refugees. And finally, here in the US at least, but I suspect there as well, there is a misplaced (IMO) nostalgia for the past that glorifies former "greatness" at the expense of present problems.

>27 labfs39: "there is a misplaced (IMO) nostalgia for the past that glorifies former "greatness" at the expense of present problems"

Very true!

I don’t know, Florence. I’m way more jaded, if also less artistically or architecturally aware. But my uniformed gut reaction is to think that I can’t think of any architecture since at least before Art Nouveau, perhaps not since before 1700, that is as elegant as the what Notre Dame was. Wikipedia says it was completed in 1345. What could the 21st-century offer other than metal and contemporary antipathy? Architecture seems to have become less and less overtime. Apologies if that exposes too much about me.

>29 dchaikin: Obviously I disagree with you on modern and contemporary architecture 😉. But it seems I was a bit hasty in implying that the cathedral had evolved continuously over centuries. Indeed, according to Wikipedia, the structure hasn't changed that much, and from what I heard in the documentaries, it has remained remarkably stable. It's mostly the interior and exterior decoration that have known numerous changes, and sometimes destruction.

However, the aspect we know today is the work of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc's 19th Century "creative restoration" in the neogothic style of the time. The spire that was rebuilt after the fire is the one Viollet-le-Duc designed. It's higher than the medieval original (which was dismantled in the 18th century for fear that it would fall down) and the statues of the apostles on it had no equivalent in the first version. Many of the gargoyles were also added by him.

It is now common to frown at the liberties he took with the original, but he was trying to apply the technologies of his time to restore an ideal gothic cathedral, the one that the builders of the Middle Ages would have built, had they had access to these technologies. And anyway, which is the original cathedral? There was a Romanesque church before, that was taken down to put the gothic monument in its place. And the building as a whole did evolve over time as the liturgical and esthetic requirements changed. Wanting to freeze the state of a monument to a moment in time that just happens to be the one we live in seems to me just as futile as wanting to stop the constant changes of language and culture, although it is probably a very natural tendency that is not unique to our time.

Been busy and I'm behind on my reading log. Let's see:

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath
Moniquill Blackgoose
Nampeshiweisit 1

A very interesting coming of age story exploring issues of colonialism from the point of view of a young native woman.

A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel
KJ Charles
Doomsday Books 2
Another of these gay regency romances that KJ Charles manages to somehow make work for me. Very enjoyable.

Fledgling and Saltation
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller
Liaden 11 and 12
Back to the Liaden universe with these two books introducing Theo Waitley. Loved it as always, even if Theo might be just a tiny little bit of a Mary Sue.

Currently reading:

La Distinction - librement inspiré de l'œuvre de Pierre Bourdieu: wonderful! A great explanation and illustration of Bourdieu's book, which I'm also trying to read but unlikely to finish.

Mouse and Dragon: I was expecting a continuation of Theo Waitley's story, but instead this goes back to the story of her father, which was hinted at in previous books. I like how this series jumps back and forth in time and between characters, even if it's a bit frustrating at times.

Les Vœux téméraires, ou l'enthousiasme by Madame de Genlis: this is a book we found while cleaning out my mother's house. It's one of a small collection of rare books that my father inherited from his father, and it might be a first edition, being dated from "Year VII", which would, if I'm not mistaken, match with the year of its first publication (1799). I was curious and took it home to read it before we sell it. It's obviously a book with a moral lesson. I'm having fun with it so far.

Sorry, touchstones are not working on the two French books!

Wonderful topper, and I enjoyed the discussion of Notre Dame. No matter which side a person comes down on, I think the efforts to discover how so many of the building materials and tools were originally created, and then to apply these techniques and materials, was fascinating.

>32 SassyLassy: Yes, it was!

Catching up on my short stories reading

An Explorer’s Cartography of Already Settled Lands by Fran Wilde
In Some of the Best of tor.com: 2020 Edition
Interestingly postmodern (or something), but I’m not sure it completely worked for me.

The Night Sun by Zin E. Rocklyn
In Some of the Best of tor.com: 2020 Edition
A woman and her abusive husband spend a weekend in an isolated cabin in a last chance attempt to salvage their marriage. Obviously, things start getting a little strange even before they arrive. Not bad.

The Piranhas by Jianan Qian
In Granta magazine 169, free to read throughout February.
A woman starts noticing strange wildlife during her daily commute. Intriguing.

Mouse and Dragon
Steve Miller, Sharon Lee
Liaden Universe 13

Back in time again with the continuing story of Daav and Aelliana. I liked this even though I am just as bad at keeping track of characters as at following plots. I was a bit confused as to who was who’s father, son, cousin, nephew… But I’m really enjoying this series.

The Mysterious Howling
Maryrose Wood (with very nice illustrations by Jon Klassen, even if I only saw them in black and white on my e-reader)
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place 1

I don’t usually read children’s books, but I saw a review of this one in the Category Challenge group, and it sounded silly and fun, so I decided to give it a try. It is indeed silly and very funny. This is the first of a 6-book series, and I will definitely follow up on it. There are still a lot of unanswered questions at the end of this one.

Masters in this Hall
KJ Charles

Yes, another one of those queer Victorian romances. (I know it’s Victorian because trains are mentioned. If characters traveled to London by coach or any kind of horse drawn conveyance, then it would be Regency. Aren’t I clever?) just as much fun as usual.

>36 FlorenceArt: This one sounds fun, and you're not the only one who enjoyed it. Adding to my audio wisthlist.

>38 markon: Hope you enjoy it. I liked the voice of the author (figuratively, I don’t do audiobooks) and how she added some light commentaries for her young 21st century readers. And some not so young!

Ghost Ship
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller
Liaden Universe 14

Lots of things happen in this one, which continues the story of Theo Waitley. In the bigger picture, the Korval clan (with tree!) relocates to a backwater planet and works to make a new home and strike a balance with the locals, not all of them enthusiastic about the newcomers.

I am already about one quarter into the sequel, Dragon Ship. Still totally hooked on this series!

Yesterday I visited the Fondation Vuitton with my mother. She just moved to an assisted living facility and it’s hard on her (and her daughters), but the bright side is that she is now in Paris and I can take her to museums.

The exhibition Pop Forever, Tom Wesselmann & (35 other artists) was extremely interesting, and not too crowded since no big names were put forward. There were works by heavyweights such as Warhol, Lichenstein and even Jeff Koons, but also many other artists that I had never heard of, which I think was the point of the exhibition. We both had a great time, and the taxi ride back was cool too (if expensive) as the driver took us through Paris instead of around. TBH it was probably a bad decision time and expense wise, but I got to see again neighborhoods I never visit any longer.

I got to see again neighborhoods I never visit any longer.


When I was able to get out and about I’d feel the same when friends from overseas visited and I’d take them to places in New York that I no longer visited frequently. It was strange living in a city with so much to see but feeling blasé about it. Though I was a member of the Metropolitan Museum (MET) and visited there regularly.

Now I am more like your mother and wheelchair-bound though I live in my own condo. Even if I could get someone to take me to galleries, I can’t see paintings properly from a wheelchair. Still I’m sure your mother enjoyed the trip to the museum and the buzz of driving through Paris.

I even look like your mum, having the same hair style and dressed in black. Used to even have the same shaped glasses!

Dites-lui bonjour depuis son double à New York.

>42 kjuliff: Yes, it’s been a very long time since I lost that starry eyed love of my city, and moving to a suburb, no matter that it’s near, hasn’t helped.

>41 FlorenceArt: fantastic. And sounds worth a little expense to me

>41 FlorenceArt:

Nice looking duo. You and your mum "rhyme". :)

>44 dchaikin: Thanks, it was!

>45 LolaWalser: Thank you 😊

Great photo, and I like the artwork that you are in front of. It sounds like a good day out.

>47 wandering_star: Thanks! The artwork behind us is one of the huge 3D paintings by Tom Wesselmann. The whole exhibition was very interesting.

>45 LolaWalser: Nice looking duo. You and your mum "rhyme". :)
And their clothes "rhyme" with the painting behind them! That's a very cool photo.

>49 Dilara86: Thanks! She’s wearing my mittens, I guess that explains part of it ☺️

Sorry I haven't been very active lately. I've been busy with work and family, then took a sorely needed holiday in La Rochelle, a city with a fascinating past, which might color my reading for a while.

In the meantime I've been reading a lot, mostly quick, easy and comforting stuff, mostly from series:

Liaden Universe by Sharon Lee and Lee Miller:
Necessity's Child, 16
Trade Secret, 17
I liked Necessity's Child very much, it had two moving characters and stories set on Surebleak, the new Korval home world. Trade Secret was a difficult read, I had no idea what was going on most of the time. I'm used to it, mostly, but it was especially hard to follow all the politics and secrets.

Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place by Maryrose Wood (but it should be Wooo really)
The Hidden Gallery, 2
The Unseen Guest, 3
Still just as silly and fun, this series makes me laugh a lot.

Emily Wilde by Heather Fawcett:
Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands, 2
Just as good as the first one, and I'm happy number 3 is available already.

A Charm of Magpies World by KJ Charles
A Queer Trade
Rag and Bone
Yes, more queer Victorian romance, only with magic this time. Nice.

No particular series:
A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
Had been on my wishlist for a while and it got some mentions here recently, so I decided to give it a try. I liked it, but maybe I was expecting too much.

Vies de femmes: les travaux et les jours de la femme à la belle époque (touchstone now in!)
Landed upon this one while looking for something on the strike of women sardine canners, mentioned by Raton-liseur. It was free with my Kobo subscription so I gave it a try, and it was better than I expected. It's not a literary masterpiece and there's probably nothing original as far as historical research goes, but it's a very interesting look at the different roles and positions women could have in 19th century France. I think there's even a brief mention of the sardine workers.

Nice to get an update from you. Sorry the Carr was oversold (maybe by me. I really enjoyed it). As for the Women sardine canners strike - cool!

>51 FlorenceArt: Vies de femmes à la belle époque sounds a good read! I'm glad I'm indirectly responsaible for you stumbling on that book. The women srading canners stricke is a century old, so there is a lot of books on it those days... Difficult to escape, even if I live not that close to Douarnenez!

>52 dchaikin: it wasn’t just you but you were the most recent. It’s Ok though, I’m glad I read it.

>53 raton-liseur: I don’t think I had heard of this strike before, but I might be wrong. To be honest il not sure I’m interested enough to read a whole book about it, but it’s an interesting event so it was nice to read your review about it.

The Tomb of Dragons
Katherine Addison
Cemeteries of Amalo 3

I’m a little sad to have finished this book, and now I’m thinking maybe I could reread the whole chronicles of Osreth, starting with The Goblin Emperor and then the three Amalo books. If I read them all in a row, maybe I could finally understand who’s who among the many characters? Nah, probably not. But it’s tempting. I suppose those book may not be for everyone. They are rather slow and a bit sad, and they end with no really satisfying closure. A bit like life, I guess. I really like the characters and how they slowly develop.

>54 FlorenceArt: I understand, it's not a crucial historical event, but nice to have heard about it. I did read about it in a few instances because I like regional books about Brittany (I don't say "roman du terroir" because I usually don't like the books that fit the criteria for this category).
And I think it's interesting that Brittany has this religious / right-wing image (which is true most of the time...), while in fact there are a few deeply red cities. Douarnenez was one of the town having the first woman elected at the city council, even before women had the right to vote! And she was called Joséphine Pencalet: if you pronounce it the breton way, it means "tête dure" ("strong head":"stubborn"). It's a word we still use fairly often today, as Bretons are known to be stubborn, right?

Yesterday I visited the library, and borrowed again a book that I had started some time ago and then returned after only reading a few chapters. When I opened it, I found the marker that I had forgotten in the end notes section!

The book is Les défricheurs du monde and it about the history of geography. It's not very detailed and I found it a bit disappointing the first time, but for some reason I felt like giving it another try. It's a coffee table kind of book, with illustrations of all sorts of ancient maps.

Just catching up now—love the photo of you and your mom. A friend and I used to do "Moms' Days" and take our mothers to galleries and museums, then have a nice lunch out. Both of our moms are gone now, but those are sweet memories. Also: Love your scarf. And that sounds like a fun show, even if crowded (I'm in NYC and appreciate that problem).

>58 lisapeet: Thank you! Yes, the exhibition was excellent. And the next one, starting next week, is going to be about David Hockney. Now that one is going to be really crowded!

Still chugging through the Liaden series:

18 - Dragon in Exile
19 - Alliance of Equals
20 - The Gathering Edge

And already started Neogenesis, number 21. Every time I feel that this series may be starting to fall back on comfortable tropes and losing some of its originality, they surprise me in the next volume. I really love how they tell the larger history through individual stories.

Short story:

Into Duty, Into Longing, Into Sparrows

By Nne Ukwu & Somto Ihezue
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue #425, February 6, 2025

I don’t remember how this story ended up on my Pocket feed. It was a difficult read about a young woman’s struggle with the tradition that suffocates her. I liked it.

https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/into-duty-into-longing-into-spar...

Graphic series:

Frances episodes 1, 2, 3
Joanna Hellgren

I had read the first episode some years ago and always vaguely meant to follow up, and I was reminded of this series when I saw it in the museum shop at Beaubourg (centre Pompidou) after the BD exhibition. And so, yet some months later, I finally read the whole series, starting with the first episode again. I’m not quite sure what I think of this. It’s rather rambling and haphazardly follows the life of Frances, a young girl, and some of the people around her, mainly her father and aunt. I liked it but was really confused in the last book, there was a whole stretch where I didn’t know whose story I was reading (still don’t know). It was not a gripping read and I would not recommend it if you need closure in books, but if you don’t mind drifting in and out of people’s lives for a bit, and if you like the drawings, it’s a nice read.

>53 raton-liseur: Vies de femmes à la belle époque sounds a good read!
Agree! I'm wishlisting it...

>61 FlorenceArt: My thread possibly - I read it in February and posted about it. :)

>64 AnnieMod: Ah, that must be it then!

Féonie and the Islander Regalia
Victoria Goddard
This made me feel that Goddard may be better at doorstopper novels than short stories. Here she tried cramming a lot of background info into this short text, and the result is not as elegant as usual. I still enjoyed this as another glimpse at Kip, and a reminder that I still have quite a few of Goddard’s books to read.

Last month, I read qebo’s comments on Number Go Up by Zeke Faux, where she stated that cryptocurrencies were in fact Ponzi schemes. Now I’ve always have a lot of distrust for these, because I see them as instruments of speculation without any link to the real economy. Still, I was surprised and a bit skeptical of the notion that they may actually be pyramid schemes. But at the time I didn’t pursue the subject.

Until today, when I happened on an interview of Nastasia Hadjadji on the podcast Le code a changé. She wrote a book called No crypto: comment bitcoin a envoûté la planète, which unfortunately does not seem to be available as an ebook, but I listened to the podcast and also to another interview on the web TV Blast, and now I agree that indeed, so called cryptocurrencies are pyramid schemes.

Because they are not really currencies (you can’t buy your baguette with them, not even in El Salvador, or your tortilla either), and because they do not generate revenues. On the other hand, they have a financial (and environmental) cost, so the system as a whole generates losses, and the only way to avoid it crashing to the ground is to keep people coming in at the bottom, so that their losses can translate as gains for those at the top. Pyramid scheme.

Here are the links to the two interviews, both in French:

Au fait, à qui profite le Bitcoin? | France Inter

Bitcoin : la nouvelle religion (Blast)

Short story:
The Flaming Embusen - Uncanny Magazine
By Tade Thompson

Again, no idea how that ended up on my Pocket feed. The story was OK but the writing was extremely bland and clunky. I only finished it because it was very short.

>67 FlorenceArt: Thanks for that. I don’t really understand bitcoins but had a gut feeling they were ponzi.

I’ll look at your recommended references.

I've been reading a lot, mostly forgettable fluff, and neglecting posting about them. Here's an attempt at catching up.

Jackdaw
KJ Charles
Not my favorite of hers, it felt overly unrealistic, but hey, it was free with Kobo Plus.

The Magpie Lord
KJ Charles
A Charm of Magpies who knows what number
Plus bonus short story: Interlude With Tattoos

The Interrupted Tale
Maryrose Wood
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place 4
Still silly and fun, but I think I need to take a break, I've been reading them too close to one another and getting a bit tired of the series.

A Case of Possession
Plus bonus short story : A Case of Spirits
KJ Charles
Charm of Magpies 2

Flight of Magpies
KJ Charles
Charm of Magpies 3
+ bonus story Feast of Stephen

Olive Juice
TJ Klune
Heartbreaking novella about loss, and definitely not what I needed to read right now.

Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales
Heather Fawcett
Emily Wilde 3
Just as good as the first 2 volumes.

How To Be a Movie Star
TJ Klune
How to Be 2
This is practically a carbon copy of the first one, and that annoyed me for about half a second, right before I started laughing to tears. That's the IJ Klune I love. Nothing about this is believable, but the characters are adorable and the writing is hilarious.

An Unseen Attraction
KJ Charles
Sins of the City 1

Mortal Follies
Alexis Hall
Very funny, mostly thanks to the narrator, a sarcastic sprite exiled to the world of humans

I've also been watching Babylon 5 and am now at the beginning of season 5. I feel that the show has lost some of its believability but I'm still on board.

Seriously behind on listing my readings!

Short stories from Carrie Vaughn's Graff series:
Time: Marked and Mended
Not the Most Romantic Thing
I ended up buying those to read them on my Kobo, and I have one left to read in the series: Bravado

Trader's Leap
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller
Liaden Universe 23
(And started the next one, Fair Trade, though I've been distracted by other books so it's more or less on hold now.)

I've been binge reading the queer romances of Alexis Hall and KJ Charles.

Alexis Hall:
A Lady for a Duke (a bit annoyed by the unbelievability of everyone accepting queerness without batting an eyelash, but OK anyway)
Confounding Oaths, which the blurb falsely advertised as stand alone, even though the numerous allusions to the previous book were so annoying that I had to stop and read Mortal Follies before I came back to this one. Both were very funny and enjoyable.

KJ Charles:
The Will Darling trilogy: Slippery Creatures, The Sugared Game, Subtle Blood
Proper English
Spectred Isle (Green Men 1)

And also

The Magic That Binds
AJ Sherwood
Haelan 1
Clumsily written, too sweet queer romantasy. It was OK, but it made me appreciate the better written stuff.

The Glassblower
Victoria Goddard
Much better than the previous short I read from her. No info dump, quite the contrary, a mere drizzle of suggested information that leaves you wanting more, but done so beautifully that you won’t mind not knowing. Well, I didn’t.

An Alien Heat
Michael Moorcock
Dancers at the End of Time 1
I'm not sure when this happened, but I've been noticing many old SFF classics are being republished in ebook format. This trilogy was a big favorite of mine, years ago, and I was happy to rediscover it, and even happier to find it as funny and moving as I remembered it. I bought the two next books and will certainly read them very soon.

I am on holiday and doing pretty much nothing in the sun, which is great. Quick update on my reading:

Archangel's Ascension by Nalini Singh. I like her Psy-Changeling series very much but this one, the Guild Hunter series, not as much. Singh does have a slightly annoying tendency to gush, but this installment seemed to be almost all gushing without much happening.

Bravado by Carrie Vaughn, the latest in her Graff short story series. Taken individually these are nice, but I like it better as a series of connected stories.

The Henchmen of Zenda, another book by KJ Charles. As the title suggests, it's a retelling of The Prisoner of Zenda, from the point of view of the Duke's Henchmen. Fun but also a bit melancholy. I liked it.

Fair Trade by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. I like their "trader" books less than the ones centering on clan Korval, because the plot is hard to follow, but I got more interested toward the end... right before the almost cliffhanger ending in the middle of a critical congress! And this is the last one for now, so when the rest of the story becomes available I will probably have forgotten all about it! But I'll forgive the authors anything, I'm just a bit worried that I am getting very close to the last published book in the series.

As usual I have too many books on the way, among which François Ier by Didier Le Fur, which is the most surprising history book I've ever read, not so much because of the content as because of the way the author chooses to tell it. I expect a history book to give me a general view and critical analysis of a time and place, with enough detail to make things interesting. This is only about factual descriptions, apparently extremely well researched, and told in so much details that somehow the big picture seems to emerge naturally. It is still too much centered on the actions of one person for my taste, especially since so far it describes only military action. I should have dropped the book in boredom ages ago, and yet here I am not being bored or annoyed. Amazing.

Also, just before I left, I visited the David Hockney exhibition at the Louis Vuitton Foundation, and this inspired me so I'm drawing a lot on my iPad.

Thanks for sharing your art!

An illustrated update: nice!

Still binging on KJ Charles:
Any Old Diamonds
An Unnatural Vice
An Unsuitable Heir
Gilded Cage
Think of England
The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting
The Duke at Hazard

Other books finished:

Introducing Mr. Winterbourne
Joanna Chambers
Winterbourne 1
Another queer romance that I downloaded out of curiosity because it was included in my subscription. I was surprised that it was a short story. It was OK I guess, but I’m not sure I will pick up more by this author.

Not Compatible
Viola Grace
Stand Alone Tales
Back to Viola Grace and the stories she produces at an alarming rate. They tend to be largely similar, but they are quick and easy reads and I do enjoy them.

Les fiancés de l’hiver
Christelle Dabos
La passe-miroir 1
This series was recommended on Reactor Mag, though I dont remember in what context. I was intrigued because it’s a French author (I think? Francophone at least). I never read fantasy in French, because I’m so used to reading it in English that it would feel weird. Plus, I am much more forgiving of liberties taken with language (made-up words, but worst of all clumsy language) when it’s not my native tongue. But this was free with my subscription so I gave it a try, and was happily surprised. The language is indeed a bit clumsy, but the world building is excellent, the characters are very lifelike, the heroine is a lovable, plucky and terminally clumsy young woman, and the plot is interesting. I already downloaded the next book in the series.

And short stories:

We’re Here, We’re Here
K.M. Szpara
In Some of the Best of tor.com, 2020 Edition
Not sure what to say about this one. I liked it although it felt a little too sweet and heartwarming, maybe. Seems I’m never satisfied!

The Stop After the Last Station - Uncanny Magazine
A. T. Greenblatt
I loved the first story I read by A. T. Greenblatt, so I tend to read anything by her I chance upon (doesn’t happen often). This one was rather confusing, it seems to go backward in time. I liked it but not as much as Questions Asked In The Belly of the World.

Asymmetrical
Garth Nix
Found this while looking for works by Garth Nix and read it to see if I might like him. I’m unconvinced. The story was OK but the writing rather bland.

>70 FlorenceArt: Enjoyed these quick reviews. I know most of these authors but haven't read any of their books recently. Taking notes for the TBR.....I think I read the first of the Will Darling series and it was ok. Joanna Chambers writes very consistent and formulaic stuff - if you like one, you're pretty much guaranteed to like the rest.

Just finished number 25 in the Liaden universe, Salvage Right, and loved it. Unfortunately that makes me just one book away from being caught up with the series. After that I’ll just have to wait for the next one like everybody else.

I like your painting!

>72 FlorenceArt: I’d never thought of drawing on my iPad. I love what you did here.

>79 lisapeet: Thank you!

>80 kjuliff: Thanks. I’ve been making art on my iPad practically from the beginning, but now with the Apple Pencil I can draw too. I participate from time to time to a “drawing marathon” organize by a friend and local artist. He hires models for a day and we all draw them. I use my iPad for this too, mostly.

>81 FlorenceArt: Intrresting. I’ll have to try it with the pencil. My eyesight isn’t good enough for writing words might be OK for a bit of abstract art.

On Friday I visited my mother, and we tried out the text-to-speech option in the Le Monde app. I can see this being useful for her, because she can no longer read. The mechanical voice is a bit annoying, and there are some pronunciation errors, but on the whole I think it's usable.

I struggled to find non-depressing articles, but we listened to this article about Alexandre Dumas (it's under a paywall, and in French). He was a larger than life character. He did nothing in small measure, and to keep himself and his many projects afloat financially, he produced an amazing number of works. Well, him and his assistants. He was indirectly responsible for the use of the word nègre in French for a ghost writer, following a disparaging and racist comment about how he used slave labor to produce his books, because of course he, being black, could not have any literary talent. He did know how to write, but he couldn't have produced as much as he did alone. Auguste Maquet was his first and best ghost writer, and together they produced his best works, until they fell out when Dumas went bankrupt and became unable to pay his dues.

His sex life was also all over the place, and he had 5 children of different women, all of them out of wedlock. He didn't legally recognize the first one, Alexandre Dumas fils (author of La Dame aux camélias), until he was 7 years old.

An interesting life! I only learned relatively recently that he was the son of a former slave turned general in Napoleon's army. I had no idea about the rest.

The Hollow Lands
Michael Moorcock
Dancers at the End of Time 2
Still enjoying this reread.

Soul Keeper
Viola Grace
Tales of the Citadel 1
Another Viola Grace, not my favorite but as always a quick fun read if you’re not picky about the writing quality.

Stargazy Pie
Victoria Goddard
Greenwing & Dart 1
Starting a reread of this series, and enjoying it in spite of the crappy ebook formatting.

The Bloody Ruin Asylum & Taproom
Seana Kelly
Sam Quinn 7
I finished this book because I wanted to clear it from the «reading» pile on my reader. I didn’t hate it, but I think I’m done (for now?) with this kind of vampire/werewolf romance, with their (now that I think of it) largely interchangeable heroines (and their just as interchangeable lovers).

>83 FlorenceArt: There's a great book about Dumas' father, The Black Count. Though what particularly lingers for me about that one is how many old records of the time were still available for the author to use!

>85 mabith: The Black Count is on my wishlist, and it was from reading LT reviews some years ago that I learned about Dumas’ father. Still haven’t read it though.

I should probably stop my Paramount subscription, as I almost never use it lately. I did watch a Voyager episode just now and was annoyed. The basic principle of evolution is so simple, why do so many people get it wrong?

Duplicate post

I just reread the whole (so far) Greenwing & Dart series by Victoria Goddard:
Stargazy Pie
Bee Sting Cake
Whiskeyjack
Blackcurrant Fool
Love-in-a-Mist
Plum Duff

Plus all, I think, the short stories, except Stone Speaks to Stone
Clary Sage
Traveller's Joy
Balancing Stone
The Saint of the Bookstore

I enjoyed it a lot in spite of the questionable (to my mind) metaphysical stuff toward the end, but I have to tolerate that if I want to keep reading fantasy. Anyway, I was sad that it was (so far) over, but I understand that the next in the series is scheduled for the end of this year, so there is hope. I want to see how Mr Dart develops, and of course all the other wonderful characters.

Then I read the latest Penric and Desdemona book, The Adventure of the Demonic Ox. That was probably not the best idea. After all the drama and soul searching of the young heroes of Greenwing & Dart, the much more domestic concerns of the middle-aged Pen felt a bit flat. I do enjoy this series though.

And my latest finished book is Ribbon Dance from the Liaden series. There is only one more book before I'm caught up with it. I was shocked and saddened at the end to learn that Steve Miller has died, and I hope Sharon Lee will continue to write the books they have planned together.

Rois et guerriers d’Hawaï
Dessins du pacifique
Maarten Hesselt van Dinter

A strange little book that I found by mistake (I was searching for Maarten ’t Hart, mentioned by Thorold) and downloaded out of curiosity, since it was free with my monthly subscription. This author has several more books like this one, which he apparently assembled by collecting public domain pictures about tribes of the Pacific and South America. The scans are of decent quality for viewing on my reader, and the book is well designed and easy to read, which is not always the case with this kind of book. But it’s just a collection of pictures, mostly 18th and 19th century engravings, with practically no context apart from a 1 page introduction. So I’m not sure what the point of this is. It might be useful as a visual complement to a history book on the subject. Maybe I’ll download it again if I ever read something about Cook.

A short story:

Good Stories
Ken Liu
In The Digital Aesthete: Human Musings on the Intersection of Art and AI

My first Ken Liu. Interesting! A nuanced view on the impact of AI (the subject of this magazine issue).

>91 FlorenceArt: I found the story interesting as well.

Les disparus du Clairdelune
Christelle Dabos
La Passe-miroir 2

Really enjoying this series, and I bought the third volume already. The writing is weird, and I’m pretty sure she uses words she doesn’t understand sometimes, but the characters are so engaging, and the world building intriguing, that I don’t mind very much.

A short story reread:

The Stop After the Last Station - Uncanny Magazine
A. T. Greenblatt

I came across this story again and just reread it, and I must say I liked it much better this time, maybe because I read it in one stretch, or maybe because I knew in advance that it was going to be confusing. But since when did confusing stop me from enjoying a read? This time I stopped expecting it to make sense to me and concentrated on the confusion and pain of the character(s). I think I like it even better now that I wrote to say I like it better 😊

The End of All Songs
Michael Moorcock
Dancers at the End of Time 3

I’m so glad I reread this series, and that it has not lost any of its charm for me. Now I’m thinking maybe I should seek out more Moorcock. The (very) few other books I’ve read from him felt like they had a lot more pathos and a lot less humor though, so I probably won’t like just anything by him. But there is a lot that is available as e-books for very reasonable prices, so I guess I can take a small risk once in a while. I might try to look for books featuring Captain Bastable and Una Persson, who make appearances in The End of All Songs.

A couple of short stories:

The Night Soil Salvagers by Gregory Norman Bossert, in Some of the Best of tor.com: 2020 Edition

Not sure what to think of this one. I disliked it at the beginning, and then it grew on me, possibly because it reminded me of The Age of Wire and String, which is a very special book for me. But maybe also on its own merits. I ended up not hating it.

A Record of Our Meeting with the Grand Faerie Lord of Vast Space and Its Great Mysteries, Revised by A.T. Greenblatt, in Beneath Ceaseless Skies magazine.

Mentioned by Chlorine on the Short Stories thread. I think I may have to read this one a second time. In fact I should probably reread both these stories.

Diviner’s Bow
Sharon Lee, Steve Miller
Liaden Universe 27

So sad to have finished the last book (for now) of this series. I’m considering rereading them from the beginning, though maybe not all of them. And I will be waiting for the next one to come out!

Carousel Tide
Sharon Lee
Carousel Tides series 1

Since I ran out of Liaden novels (still haven’t tried the short stories though), I looked for other stuff by the same authors and found this. It wasn’t as good as the Liaden books, but then it’s probably not fair to compare one single book with one plot and one set of character, with a whole galaxy of 27 books. I already bought the next one in the Carousel series.

A Fashionable Indulgence
KJ Charles
A Society of Gentlemen 1

Another enjoyable KJ Charles. I’ve run out of Kobo Plus books by her, I think, and have started actually buying her books!

Today I was very happy to discover that the Pocket service on my Kobo (now defunct) has been replaced with Instapaper. Kobo even gave instructions on how to migrate my saved articles from Pocket to Instapaper, which was very easy to do. Instapaper seems much better than Pocket at converting articles to a clean, reader compatible format. So I read one of the short stories I had saved but never read, and liked it very much.

Half-drowned by S. L. Harris, in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #423

I don't remember on whose recommendation I saved this one. The story is nice but not groundbreaking, but it's very well told and the characters and world building are done with just the right amount of detail for me, which is, very light but evocative.

The Difference Between Love and Time
Catherynne Valente

A short story recommended by Chlorine, and I'm grateful to her, not only for pointing it out, but her recommendation made me decide to give it a chance despite my strong reservations. Because come on, a love story between a woman and the space-time continuum? That sounded like a silly gimmick. In fact it's a beautiful story, and I ended up loving it.

>101 FlorenceArt: Ooh, sounds interesting!

>102 Dilara86: It is!

Can’t resist a couple of quotes:

“Do you really want to live in a universe where the space/time continuum has become fully self-actualized?”

(That one probably only makes sense if you read the whole thing)

“Sometimes things just don’t work out. You want them to, but they don’t want to, and their vote counts for more than yours, so they don’t.”

>103 FlorenceArt: Love those quotes!

Been lazy about listing my readings lately. Well, as always.

I finished the Society of Gentlemen series by KJ Charles:
A Seditious Affair (2)
A Gentleman's Position (3)
The Ruin of Gabriel Ashleigh (short story)

I've been too tired to read new stuff, even the rather undemanding one that I have going, so decided it was time to reread:
Waiting For the Flood, followed by Chasing the Light (two novellas in one ebook), by Alexis Hall
Just what I needed, especially the first one which is very soft and mellow and tender. The second one is more angsty but, of course, all's well that ends well.

Lord Valentine's Castle is a classic that I knew about but had not read, and once again I took advantage of an ebook reprint. I liked it. At first I was a bit put off by some implausible interactions between characters, but that was soon explained. Still, the whole thing feels a bit dated and naive, especially the politics of Majipoor. We are very far from Game of Thrones. Which I appreciated but never actually finished. I enjoy a simple storyline with a single viewpoint, especially at the moment when I'm in need of escape.

>105 FlorenceArt: Oh, those sound fun. I have a few books by both Alexis Hall and KJ Charles high up on my TBR, though I don't think I've gotten to any by them yet. Historical romances make such great reads for stressful times.

>106 JesseMC: They do!

Finished the Carousel Tide series by Sharon Lee, which was good but didn't quench my thirst for more Liaden books.
Carousel Sun (2)
Carousel Seas (3)

Another reread:
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles

I had read the whole Spires series by Alexis Hall, except for some reason the first one, so I remedied that:
Glitterland

And I just finished The Bone Harp by Victoria Goddard, and loved it.

François Ier by Didier Le Fur - Livre premier

Aaand he's dead! Sorry but I'm not sorry, and there are hints that some of his contemporaries may have felt that way too. Especially the populace who had to pay more and more taxes so that he could get to destroy cities, burn crops and get people killed while he never really managed to clearly win anything, except that single battle whose date was learned by heart by generations of French schoolchildren: 1515, Marignan.

I knew very little about Francois Ier before I started reading this book, except that he built a lot of castles and invited Leonardo to his court, which got us Mona Lisa as heritage. I guess I had a vaguely positive image of him, as apparently many French people. He is one of the best known and best loved kings in today's public opinion.

Le Fur apparently decided to systematically destroy this image and a lot of the myths that go with it (many of which I was unaware of). The first part of the book (the part that I just finished reading) is basically a blow by blow account of all his wars, and apparently he was at war for almost the whole of his reign. He (in line with his predecessors Charles VIII and Louis XII, and followed by his son Henri II) insisted that Naples and Milan belonged to France. This sounds silly today when France and Italy are firmly established as nation states, but I guess it made sense at the time, when royal mariages and inheritance decided what belonged to whom, and François's arch rival Charles V could be at the same time Holy Roman Emperor, Archduke of Austria, King of Spain, King of Sicily and Naples, and also Lord of the Netherlands and Duke of Burgundy. So the Kings of France claimed a right to Naples since the 14th century or so, and later to the Duchy of Milan. So did Charles. And of course those two were the most powerful men in Europe at the time, and this was a very violent period altogether. So I guess war was inevitable. It still wasn't pretty.

If you remember my previous complaints about this book, you may wonder why I keep reading it. So do I. This is the strangest, most fascinating and infuriating history book that I have ever read (not that I read that many).

It should bore me to tears, this detailed description of battles and diplomatic maneuvering. It did frustrate me to read only a chronological account of wars when I had been expecting an explanation and analysis of the local and international context. I also wanted to read about the castles, goddammit. And about the political and social changes of the period, the beginnings of the slow transformation of France into the centralized state it is today, the beginnings also of absolute monarchy. I'm still hoping to read about this in the second, shorter, part of the book.

But something really weird happens with this book. Through the accumulation of details, I am learning about the context and customs of the time. Le Fur seems to be relying heavily on primary sources, and he quotes them judiciously. He seems to be fascinated (or anyway, I was) by the various means of propaganda deployed by François and Charles (the French material of course gets the lion's share in the book). Private letters (later made public), poems, songs, public notices... he had a whole host of writers working for him, including some that are still well known today. Clément Marot in particular seems to have worked for the king for most of his reign, except for a short period when he had to make himself scarce, under suspicion of protestant sympathies. Just the description of the "entrées de villes", the processions and spectacles at the gates and in the cities the first time a monarch entered it, was worth the price of admission for me.

So, there you are. I should hate this book, and I love it, even if it's been a very slow read. I can't wait to see what's in store in the second part.

>109 FlorenceArt: You make it sound really intriguing. I love it when a book grows on you like that. Persistence pays off!

>100 FlorenceArt: I also migrated from Pocket to Instapaper recently, it was very seamless and convenient. Thanks for the link to Half-Drowned. I agree with your assessment: it is pleasant to read, but not overly impressive. I am seeing so many familiar names of authors I haven't read in a while on your thread - Alexis Hall, KJ Charles, and it's so nice to revisit them.

>109 FlorenceArt: very interesting. He was the king that installed Leonardo da Vinci near the chateau de Amboise. We visited the chateau a few years ago and went on to see the Clos Luc. My knowledge of renaissance french history is very sketchy almost non existent and I was surprised to discover that Da Vinci had stayed at Amboise. I knew he had fled to France after things got too difficult for him in Italy and it was when I visited Amboise that I discovered he had been sheltered by François Ier

Good luck with part 2

>110 SassyLassy: It did pay off, though to be honest it wasn’t much of an effort. I was hooked at about the same time I realized this was not the kind of biography I was expecting.

>111 rasdhar: Those authors are relatively new to me, and at the moment I need the kind of books they write. It’s a fun binge.

>112 baswood: Thanks. I’m starting to suspect that part 2 will also not be what I expected, and just as interesting as part 1.

>109 FlorenceArt: You make this book sound interesting, despite the slowness. I look forward to your comments on the second half.

>112 baswood: We bicycled around that area when we took my daughter to France 12 years ago. Clos Luc was an unexpected highlight.

>114 labfs39: Thanks!

I finished François Ier!!! (Small victory dance.) The second part was much shorter than the first, and mostly described how the legend of François Ier built up and evolved over time, oscillating between the tyrant, the hero and the protector of arts (all of them false) depending on the needs of the time.

I'm still ambivalent about this book. I loved reading it but I feel slightly cheated. I was expecting an overview of France in the 16th century, instead I got a deep dive into detail that still manages to impart a lot of information about the context, but indirectly. I'm not sure what to do next, I was thinking of reading another biography but I think Le Fur ruined all others for me. Of course I can't judge whether all he says is true, but judging from the notes (which I mostly didn't read as they were almost all references to his sources), he made heavy use of primary sources. Also, it's pretty obvious that the image of Francois Ier was a political tool for all generations, so it's easy to believe that most of the received knowledge about him would be wrong. If I read another biography I am bound to encounter things that he has contradicted, so then I'll have to choose who to believe and it will probably be Le Fur. Maybe I should read something about the 16th century in general, preferably from a non French perspective. I have Atlas de l'Europe moderne, de la Renaissance aux Lumières, which I have been reading a little along with François Ier. I guess I'll finish that first, then see if I still want to read about this period.

I have two other nonfiction books on the way, Paris-Babel, a history of the language(s) of Paris that I've been reading as a palate cleanser, and Atlas de l'Europe moderne which I mentioned above. I will probably finish both soon, and then I'll have to decide what nonfiction to read next.

On the fiction side I'm still deep into comfort reads, and just reread the whole Sword Dance trilogy by AJ Demas. Last week I also read The Bone Harp by Victoria Goddard, which was very good. And I started Silver and Lead, the latest October Daye book by Seanan McGuire. I'm thinking of picking up Moby Dick again, which has been languishing at the bottom of my "supposed to be reading" pile. Which also and more recently contains La Mémoire de Babel and The Saint of Bright Doors.

Short story:
can i offer you a nice egg in this trying time
By Iori Kusano
In Uncanny Magazine

I came across this by following a link on Reactor Mag, I think. I found it beautiful but sad.

>116 FlorenceArt: I might regret it given its potential tediousness, but I've wishlisted the book. I need to get a clearer, more accurate picture of Renaissance France and François 1er. School left me with the impression that it was all fun and art and games (with the occasional uncontextualised war or hostage-taking) until the Saint-Barthélémy massacre.
As an aside, I've never seen a less flattering photo for an author: it looks like a mugshot taken after a 24-hour bender :-\

>117 FlorenceArt: Looking forward to your review of Paris-Babel.

>119 Dilara86: I don’t know if you will like it, it’s a hard book to recommend, but it was really fascinating, in between the wars I mean. Which I still feel are over represented. He reigned for 32 years and was at war for 17, so about half the time. On the other hand, when he wasn’t at war he was preparing it, so maybe my impression that the Le Fur spends too much time on it is unfair.

Le Fur has written many other books and I wishlisted several of them, including Une autre histoire de la Renaissance.

>119 Dilara86: LOL about the author’s photo! Strangely enough, there are two other photos of him, both obviously professional studio photos and of course much better. Maybe we should change the default one!

>121 FlorenceArt: This one is much better!

>122 labfs39: Indeed it is!

In the Realms of Gold
Victoria Goddard
I’m not very good at keeping track of my short story reading, and I forgot to log this book that I finished last week I think. It’s a collection of five short stories. I bought two of them before I realized this book was free with my Kobo subscription. I liked them, but none of them left a lasting impression. I definitely like her novels better.

De l’amitié
Cicero
Audiobook narrated by Jean-Pierre Michaël
Unknown translator

Despite a strong bias against audiobooks, I decided I had to try them. This one (my first one ever) was a bit of a risk, but it was short and I was curious. I must say it worked much better than I expected. I did miss footnotes, as there were some allusions to historical context that I couldn’t get, but I’m used to not getting everything I read anyway. The reader was probably not perfect (I can’t compare, being a total beginner) but didn’t get in the way. Of course it helped that it was very short. I couldn’t find the translator’s name, I suspect a 19th century public domain version, but it worked for me too. And after a couple of false starts, I finally managed to read something by Cicero!

The text itself expressed ideas that are mostly familiar from reading about stoicism, in the form of a discussion. Well, a monologue really, but that worked well with the audio format.

I have started a free trial period with Spotify, so I’m planning to try a couple more audiobooks to see if they continue to work for me.

One of my sisters who lives outside Paris visited my mother, so for the last two weeks I've had more free time and head space. Inspired by my recent readings about Renaissance, I just spent the weekend in Fontainebleau. Of course I visited the castle, which is way bigger and more impressive than I imagined. The gardens are beautiful. And I made two short hikes in the forest, which is also way bigger and more impressive than I imagined. Alas, I didn't meet the ghost of the grand huntsman !

I bought a book about the castle, of course, but now that my quick holiday is over, I'm not sure I will finish it. Fontainebleau - Mille ans d’histoire de France.

Silver And Lead
Seanan McGuire
October Daye 19
Not my favorite of the series, it was a bit heavy on the pathos and plot twists.

The Unmapped Sea
Maryrose Wood
Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place 5
I enjoy this series very much, but I need to pace myself as I tend to get tired of it toward the end of each book. But I will absolutely get back to it.

The Breaking Point
Mary Rinehart
This is the third book by Mary Rinehart I read. The Circular Staircase was OK, and I liked K. very much. This one falls about in the middle. She writes slow books, and I rather like that from her, but this one was maybe a little too drawn out. The crime plot felt like nothing more than an excuse to describe the people of a small town. Again, that's fine by me, they were interestingly ordinary people.

>126 FlorenceArt: The girls and I are still enjoying the audio versions of the Incorrigibles. We need to take breaks occasionally too though. I'm so glad you recommended the series to me.

I just almost finished Kolkhoze by Emmanuel Carrère. Almost because, just a few minutes from the end, I suddenly heard a nice lady telling me that I had exhausted my audiobook credits for the month. I had (in hindsight a little optoomuchistically, as a certain governess might say) assumed I could listen to as much as I wanted as part of my trial subscription to Spotify. I’m not sure what I will do (buy the ebook, wait 8 days for my credit to replenish, buy an extension from Spotify, or maybe try another service) but I only had 8 minutes to go, so I think I can say already that I liked it very much. I don’t know how much is due to the audio format (new and therefore a bit exciting to me, and the reader, Denis Podalydès, was excellent). I’m sure I would have loved it in written form too, but I would probably have taken longer to read it. It’s a memoir of the author’s stormy relationship with his mother, and also her own complex history.

I don’t know how well known Hélène Carrère d’Encausse is outside France, but here she is a celebrity. For a long time she was the only expert we had on the then USSR. She was the perpetual secretary of the Académie française, and got a state funeral in 2023 when she died. Her maiden name was Zourabichvili, and her Georgian/Russian/German family’s story is fascinating, even taking into account that Emmanuel admits he might have embroidered on the facts here and there. Emmanuel himself, from what he lets us see of himself through this very personal memoir, is an interesting character, and probably just as hard to live with as his mother. This books felt very honest to me, and well written and read.

>128 FlorenceArt: I think the limit here is 15 hours of listening time per month with Spotify premium. I ran out once too, and since then I try to get audiobooks through the library, and save my Spotify time for books that have too long a wait time.

>129 labfs39: here it’s 12 hours apparently. I don’t think Spotify is the right service for audiobooks anyway. I found another one, Nextory. They have Kolkhoze, and they show chapter titles instead of just track numbers. I’ll give this one a try.

I'm making a note of K.. I found The Circular Staircase interesting for how modern it felt compared to when it was published. I've been meaning to check out another of her books.

>131 mabith: I,don’t remember a single thing about The Circular Staircase, but I think there was no romance in it, and that may be why I found it a bit disappointing. K. does have a romance, and for me that’s clearly a plus, but also I liked the writing. As I said it’s very slow, and spends a lot of time on the character’s feelings, all the characters, not just the main ones. Also, to me, the writing has a sort of dreamy quality that I like.

Managed to finish Kolkhoze using Nextory. It's a beautiful book. I suppose it's fitting that I finished it on my way to visit my mother. I started another audio book, also read by Denis Podalydès: Voyage en terres imaginaires, which is Lucian's True History followed by another text by Lucian. Of course this true story is anything but true, and promises to be a fun romp.

>133 FlorenceArt: I read an English translation Trips to the Moon which is The True Story. It is fun and perhaps the first ever science fiction novel.

Sometimes if you are offline Spotify tells you that you're out of time when you aren't, which is really annoying if you were planning to listen to an audiobook during (say) a long journey

>135 wandering_star: Must be annoying indeed. But in my case I was really out of time. I’m testing different options for reading audiobooks, but I don’t think Spotify will be it. It’s early days though, I might change my mind later on.

>136 FlorenceArt: Yes, it’s often mentioned that it may be the first sci-fi book. Not the first fantasy one though, as Lucian stresses in his introduction, citing such famous precedents as Ulysses (not Homer mind you, it’s Ulysses who is confabulating).

I finished Histoire véritable, which was very short but fun. I can’t say the same about the other text, where Lucian pours on hateful sarcasm, with a side serving of homophobia, on a man who is buying many books in order to appear cultivated. The man may deserve scorn or pity, but not this torrent of vomit, and neither did this reader. I suppose the editors wanted to add to the length of the book, but I understand Lucian was a very prolific writer, maybe they could have chosen something else.

Testimony of Mute Things
Lois McMaster Bujold
Penric and Desdemona 15
A nice addition to the series, where we go back to when Penric was younger and single.

Unremarkable
Viola Grace
Viola Grace is always good when I’m looking for fun, a writer who never takes herself seriously (and never uses a word she doesn’t understand, in fact her vocabulary is remarkably limited), and multiple partners sex. 100% empty calories, but for some reason I keep enjoying her from time to time.

Eyes of Amber and Other Stories
Joan D. Vinge

I actually went to the trouble of ordering the physical book to read this one. It all started years ago, when I was reading a magazine called Univers that published French translations (and some original French) of SFF stories. There were a few that stayed with me, and one in particular that kept coming to my mind when I read about @KeithChaffee’s endeavors to read SF awarded stories. Of course I didn’t remember the title or the author’s name, but that’s what the Name that Book group is for. And so I now had an author name, and managed without too much trouble to locate this book, first on archive.org, and then the first story was so intriguing I decided to buy it.

Eyes of Amber was very intriguing. It felt very original to me, although I’m not that familiar with vintage SFF. I was rather confused by the ending, but I felt it was very modern in its take on media and power.

To Bell the Cat was another very modern, original and thoughtful story of first encounter.

View from a Height was again original and thoughtful (am I repeating myself here?).

Media Man was the weakest of the lot. It felt very naive and simplistic, which the others were definitely not.

The Crystal Ship was a bit less believable maybe, but moving. Probably not the best of the lot but the almost romance got to me. I resent the epilogue a little, I think an open ending might have worked better.

Tin Soldier, ah, finally, the reason I bought the book in the first place! This one is more old fashioned romance, which is probably why it has stayed with me all these years. I still love it, but it feels less mature than the rest. Maybe I only say that because it was the first story she wrote.

Anyway, I’m very happy I bought and read this book, and I might look for a novel of hers. The book cover says that she is the author of The Snow Queen…

Some Desperate Glory
Emily Tesh
What a surprising book. I bought it because I had loved the Greenhollow duology from the same author. This one is completely different, and defied my expectations almost to the end. I loved it, and it made me want to reread Greenhollow.

Fontainebleau - Mille ans d’histoire de France
Jean-Francois Hebert
Thierry Sarmant

This is the book that I bought while in Fontainebleau. I didn’t really expect to finish it, but it managed to hold my interest to the end. It provides an overview of the political history of France since Francois Ier (not enough is known about the history of the medieval castle to write much) as it intersected with the history of the palace, and it quite often did.

My various readings so far have comforted me in the opinion that François Ier’s biography by Le Fur is unfair. I understand that he was not the knight in shining armor who single-handedly reintroduced art and literature to the kingdom after the so called dark ages. But he was still a renaissance prince, and as such he had to project the image of a connaisseur and collector of arts, which he was. Le Fur says that he wasn’t into literature, he was not very good at reading or writing even in French, never mind Latin, and the books he had read to him at dinner were mostly light entertainment. So he wasn’t an intellectual in that sense. But he was interested in visual arts and architecture. After all, he had several castles built or renovated (at least 7 according to Wikipedia), including of course Fontainebleau. He convinced several major Italian artists to come work for him (*). In a quote I saw somewhere, he flattered himself to be a connoisseur. He had a whole gallery built and decorated by Primaticcio and Rossi Fiorentino at Fontainebleau. He also kept his favorite paintings in his bath pavilion, which, yeah, not a great way to conserve paintings, but at least he could enjoy them while taking a bath, how cool is that?

(*) Italy was not a safe place with all those wars, of which ironically he was one of the major causes, and many artists were happy to leave it for France. There was of course Leonardo, but also Francesco Primaticcio who was sent on a mission to make moulds of classic statues from Italy, Rosso Fiorentino who was a major actor, with Primaticcio, in the remaking of Fontainebleau, Benvenuto Cellini and many others.

Le Fur does not mention any of this, except for a passing remark that the castles were not as big a drain on the kingdom’s finances as you might think, because labor was so cheap.

Wikipedia has a list of biographies, including a very recent one (2020) by Pascal Brioist who (again according to Wikipedia) is a specialist of the Renaissance, so hopefully he knows what he’s talking about too. I think I might read that one too, though I do hope he will not spend as much time as Le Fur on the wars.

>140 FlorenceArt: Time to revisit Fontainebleau - its 55 years since I was there.

>141 baswood: Definitely worth another visit!

Dans le café de la jeunesse perdue
Patrick Modiano

I just finished listening to this with my mother. We both loved it. She is a great fan of Modiano. I have liked the few I’ve read, but this one felt special. The reader was Denis Podalydès again, and I’m sure he contributed to making this special.

Modiano is an author who has only ever told one story, but each time it feels more poignant. I also love how he traces the characters’ walk through Paris, street by street and metro station by metro station. My mother says that she has retraced those steps with the books in hand.

We started a new audio book, but this one is not read by Podalydès and it’s hard not to compare. It’s a collection of three of Karen Blixen’s tales.

>138 FlorenceArt: The snow queen sounds interesting. I may obtain a copy for myself. It was on sale for $1.99 on Kindle, so I grabbed it.

>144 markon: I’ll be interested in what you think. I just started Psion and it’s off to a good start.

>143 FlorenceArt: That was a book that has stayed with me for some time now. I think listening to it would amplify the effect in a positive way.

>146 SassyLassy: I think it did. But I’d like to read it on paper at some point.

Fontainebleau
Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos
Photographs by Georges Fessy

The second of my Fontainebleau readings, this one borrowed from the library after my visit. They had to bring it back from the reserve. Despite the beautiful photos, it’s a rather dry and sometimes technical book, with some discussions on which pavilion should be attributed to which architect and why. I skimmed a few paragraphs but on the whole I found it very interesting. And it has a very useful map of the palace, which I think I will scan in preparation for my next visit.

Psion
Joan D. Vinge

After reading and loving Eyes of Amber and Other Stories, I went in search of other books by Joan D. Vinge on Kobo, and found several. I picked this one, and loved it too. I found the writing a first, especially in the expository parts, but then I forgot all about it and just enjoyed the story.

The book has two forewords by the author, and I read the first and oldest one, where she explains why Cat is her favorite character. I quite agree with her that he is a wonderfully rich and complex character, and he is the main reason I enjoyed the book so much. There are two other books featuring him, and I look forward to reading them.

Rêveries d’un promeneur solitaire - Promenades I à V
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Read by Denis Podalydès

When I was young, I affected to disdain Rousseau. I’m not sure I had any reason for this beyond showing how cool and smart I was. It certainly wasn’t based on my reading of him, since I had never tried it until this came up while looking for audiobooks read by Podalydès. This is not the whole book, but if there is a plan to publish the rest, I don’t think I will bother with it. I didn’t care much for his whining or his philosophy of life. I skimmed the Wikipedia page about him, and his political philosophy sounds rather interesting, but I’m not interested in hearing more of his thoughts on how everybody hates him and he’s so unhappy, and he’d rather spend his life communing with nature but evil people won’t let him. I was also rather disturbed by his morals. Apparently he felt deep remorse over a lie that had terrible consequences for someone else, but abandoning his five children doesn’t seem to keep him awake at night. I’m sure this is mostly a reflection on the moral of his time, but.

>150 FlorenceArt: I have never read anything by Rousseau and so it was interesting to read your thoughts on him.

>151 baswood: Maybe I should try his political writings, some time…

I recall the book The Trouble with Women (and another I can't remember off hand) absolutely soured me on Rousseau. Girls must be thwarted in order to more naturally perform their natural role of pleasing men, etc...

>153 mabith: The Trouble With Women sounds like fun!

Paris Babel
Histoire linguistique d’une ville-monde
Gilles Siouffi

A linguistic history of Paris could only be interesting, and this book did not disappoint. This history is of course linked to the many different populations that have come to Paris to visit or stay over the ages, but also to the political history of our centralized country, where language could sometimes be a weapon in political or social wars. (That last part is probably true anywhere.)

Short story:
Psiren
Joan D. Vinge

Appended at the end of Psion as a sort of epilogue, and I loved it too. It won’t be long before I read the next book in Cat’s story, Catspaw.

>155 FlorenceArt: This is the linguistics book I didn't know I needed :-D

>157 Dilara86: TBH it’s more history than linguistics. The linguistics part is mostly anecdotal. But I do recommend it!

I just finished listening to an amazing four part interview with Edouard Louis on Les couilles sur la table. I haven’t read any of his books, in fact I had only vaguely heard about his first one, En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule, and had never felt the need to know more, which turns out to be a grave mistake. He talks (in the podcast and his novels) about his life as a gay boy in a poor rural environment, and later as a "transfuge de classe", learning to live according to the rules of higher classes. Part 4 made me think hard about my literary tastes, which of course are those of my class. I need to read some of his books. Maybe his latest, an essay and not a novel, Que faire de la littérature ? Méditations et manifeste. I need to add this one to LT as it doesn’t have a touchstone yet apparently.

Addendum to the Martian Social Studies Textbook, 5th Ed.
By Maya Wristen
In Strange Horizon

This is presented as poetry, but I rather see it as flash fiction. The two often intersect, and both descriptions seem to fit. Anyway, il liked it.

The Long-Lost Home
Rosemary Wood
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place 6

Wonderful finish to this delicious series!

>126 FlorenceArt: I think the best Mary Rinehart is The Haunted Lady which wraps up her Hilda Adams series, but yes, she does write a slow story! There is a nice romantic element there, too.

>161 rasdhar: Thanks, will look it up! It’s nice to have another one to look forward to.