A short and happy travel book I read at a time when traveling was not in the realm of possibilities (ie pandemic). You already know the story, but have you read the book? It is the comical tale of a man who tries to win a bet by traveling around the world in eighty days, and ends up finding love along the way. Charming and accessible.
Reviews and Comments
She/her/elle
Reader, writer. Liseuse, écriveuse.
Reading a mix of French and English books, mostly fiction, some classics and poetry, Canadian contemporary, sci-fi, socialist, and more.
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roxdub reviewed The tour of the world in eighty days by Jules Verne (The best novels of Jules Verne -- v. 2)
roxdub reviewed La guerre et la paix by Leo Tolstoy
An epic classic
5 stars
For many years, I have been working through a rather long list of literary classics in chronological order of publication. I have reached the late 1800s, and it just so happened that the start of 2021 coincided with La Guerre et la Paix, or War and Peace (1869) by Leo Tolstoy. Looking back, it seems like a completely unreasonable project for me to start the year with such a dense classic. This book spans more than 1600 pages and features more than 500 characters. Lockdown life demanded ambitious personal goal-setting, and so I did what I could to stay the course.
Every day, I opened my beautiful green paper edition of this novel and read a few short chapters. War and Peace is the historical and philosophical novel by excellence. It narrates the invasion of Russia by France, and alternates between scenes of military conflict and high society. The complex …
For many years, I have been working through a rather long list of literary classics in chronological order of publication. I have reached the late 1800s, and it just so happened that the start of 2021 coincided with La Guerre et la Paix, or War and Peace (1869) by Leo Tolstoy. Looking back, it seems like a completely unreasonable project for me to start the year with such a dense classic. This book spans more than 1600 pages and features more than 500 characters. Lockdown life demanded ambitious personal goal-setting, and so I did what I could to stay the course.
Every day, I opened my beautiful green paper edition of this novel and read a few short chapters. War and Peace is the historical and philosophical novel by excellence. It narrates the invasion of Russia by France, and alternates between scenes of military conflict and high society. The complex web of characters is made accessible by the serial format - very short chapters allow for a rapid pace reading of this long-winded novel.
It took me 4 months to read War and Peace - I started on January 15 and finished, with a great sigh of relief, on April 19. It was a ridiculously long and epic adventure. Of course, it was worth it! Like many Russian novels, War and Peace lends itself extraordinary well to the colder months - do read it in the winter.
roxdub reviewed Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
roxdub reviewed What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad
Memorable and important
5 stars
A book that dives into the migrant crisis like few others do. The story begins when bodies wash up on the shores of a small island. In alternating chapters, the situation unfolds either from the perspective of young migrant Amir, or from the perspective of the girl who shelters him, speaks a different language, and zigzags around the authorities to keep him safe. A beautiful and difficult book, haunting and devastating, that navigates a political and personal storyline.