Books of the week

Lately, I’ve started a few books, but never finished them. Just because after the 20 or so first pages they failed to capture me, and because I thought it was a waist of time to continue reading. Surprisingly, one of these books was “Atonement” by Ian McEwan. People say it’s the best book of the last 10 years – but I thought it was written in a style mainly to please the literary critics. A good book makes me forget that it’s a book – I’m in it, I live it. Strangely crafted sentences, weird narrator-jumps, changing viewpoints, style-experiments,....:they usually don’t work for me.
So I was quite happy this week when I finally managed to find 2 books that I really like, and that I will surely finish.

Book 1
“Ma vie est tout à fait fascinante” (my live is completely fascinating) by Pénélope Bagieu. It’s a “BD” (French for comic book), and a little bit of googling learned me that...Surprise....Pénélope’s drawings became famous thanks to her blog :www.penelope-jolicoeur.com.
The little paperback already made me laugh out loud while waiting for the metro and while eating cornflakes in the morning – just to show you how funny it is. Page after page, I completely recognise myself. From the one where she begs her boyfriend to have a small kitten, to the one where she walks next to her Velib ‘cause she’s too afraid to ride it. If you’re female, and you live / lived in a big city as a twenty or thirty-someting, this book is yours. And it’s good to practise your French as well :-).

Book 2
“Pope Joan”. Yes indeed, another book about the fascinating life of a woman, written by Donna Woolfolk Cross. I’ve only started it yesterday, but oh boy : this is a page-turner! History, drama, intrigue, love,...I think it has it all. And I discovered today that the movie is coming out next week! Finally I’ll find my way back to the cinema.

Should I mention book 3?
All right, it’s “The yoga Bible “ by Christina Brown. I’m experimenting a bit with getting my body into strange postures, and the final goal is to get myself back to the gym. (don’t bother – female logic).

All right, yes, there’s a book 4.
(Which I should bring back to the library tomorrow). “Catholicism for dummies”. I have many Muslim students, who are very serious about their Ramadan. They asked me what Christians did during their Lent. And, shame on me, I could only guess “Uhm...no candy??”. I wouldn’t be N if I didn’t ran to the library straight after school to find out, not only about Lent, but about every single detail you need to know as a practising Christian.
As for my Lent-project, I decided to do 2 things : spend less time on Facebook. And don't buy any new clothes. Project 1 is going ok (just checking it every 30 min. instead of every 10 min.). Project 2 is a success as well (lingerie and shoes are not clothes, right?)
Heaven, here I come!(well, only of they've got books there, of course...)