Robin Hobb in Paris today!

For all Robin Hobb's fans, she'll be at the FNAC bookstore St Lazare in Paris for some signing today at 6 p.m. Snif.. I won't be able to go there as I'm working and I guess there will be crowds of people to greet her. So welcome to Paris Robin Hobb and thanks for the great work!
The worlds she creates are so wonderful and the characters so "real" that when I start one of her books, I will use every spare time available to read and read and read... Luckily enough I discovered her recently as I'm a recent fantasy reader and did not have to wait for months the get yet the next publication of the Farseer Trilogy or the Liveship Traders Trilogy... I haven't read Soldier Son's Trilogy - I'm keeping it for summer vacations. My daughter has bought them already.
One thing publishing foreign books here in France that's not nice is the fact that publishers will take a trilogy and split it up in several volumes... yes it's all for the money they can make... So the Farseer Trilogy represents in fact 6 volumes in the French edition, while The Liveship Traders Trilogy comes into 9 volumes and then the Tawny Man Trilogy is 7 more books. Same thing applies for a lot of foreign books, and it costs a fortune for us readers and would take up a lots of place on your bookshelves. As for our home, we bought a couple of volumes and finally read the books from the municipal library - we have a great library... I've ordered the French version of The Rain Wild Chronicles and I guess the library will be buying them pretty soon as they have many Robin Hobb fans!
Here's Robin Hobb's page at Amazon

Hedgehog craft from French blogger

Just take a look at this beautiful hedgehog that was made up from a used book... a rather simple craft project if you are throwing away old books.
Rachel, the blog's author, has put online a tutorial with lots of photos that will help make this hedgehog... if you need translation of any particular sentence, do not hesitate to ask me and I'll be glad to help.

Screenshot of the webpage

Tad Williams, The Dragonbone Chair etc.

My transcription business is keeping me very busy right now and I only have time to look after the family and relax with a film or a book. I'm currently enjoying Tad William's fantasy series "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" "L'Arcane des Epées". While the English version is a trilogy, the French has broken the books down to 8 volumes.
I'm now reading Volume 2 - Stone of Farewell and in my edition it's volume 3 - La maison des ancêtres - The ancestors house. Simon, once a young kitchen boy plus a magician's apprentice has traveled a long, long way and has found sword "Epine". Dark forces comprising Ineluki the Storm King and King Elias from Osten Ard have set out to dominate the world. Simon is on the side of Josua, King Elias' brother, and together with members of various peoples - the Qanucs, the Sithis, secret League of the Scroll have first to understand what's going on and try and get the world out of a terrible nightmare.

I'm really enjoying these books!

I have been shopping at our municipal library once more...

Back to school and to work

Winter holidays are over and we're back to school and to work... it's still cold out here outside Paris but we sure have a beautiful sun and it's getting dark later now. So that's a positive point.
Back to school means that my younger daughter will be preparing her French Bac exam this year. The BAC itself is in the last year of lycée (high school) but a year before you take your French exam and then during the last year you do not have any French classes. Instead you have philosophy classes which is usually not much liked by our students here. Even though she has taken a BAC S - the scientific subjects, my daughter loves reading, it comes before television or the computer. I must confess that when we travel during summer we have a bag dedicated only to books and she will have the 8 books that she can borrow from the library plus around 5 books that I have to buy and a few old comic books that she will take with her and discard during the trip. Sometimes we will go to a flea market to get old books that she will be able to discard along the way - there's no throwing hers away! Anyway I'm quite happy that she's a good reader!

Photos from our town library, Bibliothèque Nelson Mandela in Vitry sur Seine

Kids section

Sword of Truth

Right now I can't stop reading Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" series. I reached volume ten which is "Le fantome du souvenir" in French or "Phantom" in its original version. Richard Rahl is expected to lead D'Haran army against these beasts from the Imperial Order. Richard Rahl also has to find his wife Kahlan who no one remembers at all. I'll have to wait for March to get the French version of book 11.

Here in France we saw the first season of Legend of the Seeker on television. Even though the TV show doesn't match story told by the books, it's a good show with lots of action, you don't get bored at all.
 

Click here for Terry Goodkind's page at Amazon