Let's Learn French, Part 1

One of the best ways to learn words is to link them with pictures.

I'm hoping to learn these words and phrases in French so well that I can easily say them.

So I'm pairing up the words/phrases with some of my favorite pictures...

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered, or spotlight words you love.  Feel free to get creative! It was first created by Kathy over at Bermuda Onion and is now hosted at Elza Reads.

21st Century Books I Think Will Become Classics

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

The Goldfinch by Donna Tart

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Thank you to Lisa of Hopewell for this wonderful prompt today.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.    

And, Though I Can't Hardly Believe It, I'm Off to Paris This Week!

 

I've collected all kinds of books to take along with me to Paris. 

I plan to read on these for the next month while I am away.

Nana by Émile Zola (Classic)

Murder on the Marais by Cara Black (Mystery)

Madame de Treymes by Edith Wharton (Classic)

Martha in Paris by Margery Sharp (Fiction)

The Paris Connection by (Contemporary Fiction)

An Omelette and a Glass of Wine by Elizabeth David (Foodie Nonfiction)

A Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake (Foodie Nonfiction)

Dear Paris: The Paris Letters Collection by Janice MacLeod (Nonfiction)

Castles and Châteaux of Old Touraine and the Loire Country (Nonfiction)

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy (Classic)

Nobody's Boy by Hector Malot (1001 Children's Books You Must Read)

Captain Fracasse by Théophile Gautier (1001 Children's Books You Must Read)

Last week I posted here at Readerbuzz:

Adjectives in Children's Book Titles: A Careful Study of the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read List

Weekend Cooking: Wine for Normal People

I will be leaving for Paris this week! 

Good Things: A Waking-Up-in-Paris Playlist

I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below. 

Wine for Normal People

Are you a wine expert? Or are you like me, a person who doesn't know much about wine, but wishes she did?

I happily received Wine for Normal People by Elizabeth Schneider for Christmas. The subtitle tells it all: A Guide for Real People Who Like Wine, But Not the Snobbery That Goes With It.

The first thing I learned is that there is a process to tasting wine: 

See. Swirl. Sniff. Sip. Size up.

I come from the learn-by-doing school. Maybe it would help if I tried out the steps.

I'll start with Bota Box Old Vine Zinfandel. This is how little I know about wine: Is this a wine glass? Not sure. 

Author Elizabeth Schneider, described on the cover as a "Certified Sommelier, Certified Specialist of Wine, MBA, Normal Person," cautions us not to fill the glass too full. Okay. That is probably the first thing I've always done wrong. I thought you filled a glass with wine like you do Coca-Cola. 

The first step is to see the wine. Schneider tells us not to hold the glass up to the light; instead, set the glass on a white table and look at the color. To help us, she provides a Basic Wine Color Descriptions chart. Hmmm...I'd say this one is Purple/Black.

The next step is to swirl the wine. Give it a good swirling, she urges us. Swirl for 10-15 seconds. 

Okay. Did that. Properly swirled. Now it's the trickiest step of all...sniff. She offers four basic categories to think about when you are smelling wine: fruity stuff, herbs and spices, outdoor smells, and additions from the winemaker.

Here we go. Smelling the wine...fruity, definitely. Maybe a bit of grassiness...and a little earthiness...

How's that?

And now, the big moment...sip. There are three phases wine people talk about when they are tasting: the attack, the first impression; the mid-palate, the taste after holding the wine in the mouth for a moment; and the finish, the lasting flavors in your mouth after the swallow.

And voilà! It's time for the sizing up. Schneider encourages us to look at the four main structure components of a wine: acid, tannin, alcohol, and sugar. Here she goes through several pages to explain complexity, insipid, flabby, extracted, dry, cloying, legs, hot, big, and more. I'll just say it's refreshingly acidic, dry, with an earthy taste...

Whew! And that's all in Chapter 1...Do I have a lot to learn?!

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered, or spotlight words you love.  Feel free to get creative! It was first created by Kathy over at Bermuda Onion and is now hosted at Elza Reads.

Weekend Cooking was created by Beth Fish Reads and is now hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader (and Baker). It is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

Adjectives in Children's Book Titles: A Careful Study of the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read List

(little)

The Little House

The Little Mermaid

The Little Engine that Could

Little Spook's Baby Sister

Little Toot

Little Lord Fauntleroy

Little Bookroom by Eleanor Farjeon

Fly, Little Bird by Francesco Tullio Atlan

The Little Princess

Can't You Sleep, Little Bear?

Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lioni

The Little Engine That Could

The Little Captain by Paul Biegel

Little Women

Little Onion by Gianni Rodari

The Little Bird by Paro Anand

Garden of Little Creatures by Antoon Krings

Story of the Little Mole by Werner Holzwarth

The Little Fox by Istvan Fekete

Sleep Well, Little Bear by Quint Buchholz

The Little Horse Bus by Graham Greene

Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain

Little Pot Boiler

Little Old Mrs. Pepperpot

The Little Wooden Horse

The Little House on the Prairie 

The Little Red Lighthouse

The Little Red Engine Gets a Name

The Little White Horse

The Squirrel, Hare, and the Little Grey Rabbit

(big)

Clifford the Big Red Dog

Go Away, Big Green Monster

The Big Sister by Siv Widerberg

The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl

My Big Birkett by Lisa Shanahan

Sons of the Great Bear by Liselotte Welskopf-Heinrich

Big Tiger and Christian by Fritz Mühlenweg

The Giant Jam Sandwich by Janet Burroway

The Biggest Kiss in the World by R. Chavez Casteneda

(both little and big)

The Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

(colors)

The Red Pony

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

The Black Stallion

Children of Green Knowe

The Orange Cow

Where the Red Fern Grows

The Little Grey Men by B. B. 

The Black Corsair by Emilio Salgari

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit

The Red Shoe by Ursula Dubosarsky

White Fang

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Mystery of the Yellow Room

Kimba the White Lion by Osamu Tezuka

The Blue Fairy Book

Llama, Llama, Red Pajama

Treasure in Silver Lake

Green Eggs and Ham

Red Zora by Kurt Held

Chlorophyll from the Blue Sky by Bianca Pitzorno

Gold Dust by Geraldine McCaughrean

The Scarlet Letter

The Silver Jaguar by Herman Scholz

The Dog with the Yellow Heart by Jutta Richter

Lily's Purple Plastic Purse

Pastures of the Blue Crane by H. F. Brinsmead

The White Stone by Gunnel Linde

Ameliaranne and the Green Umbrella

The Silver Brumby

Island of the Blue Dolphins

(numbers)

One Woolly Wombat

One Snowy Night by Nick Butterworth

Two Little Bears by Hanna Muschg

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

A Kid for Two Farthings

The Three Pigs by David Wiesner

The Three Musketeers

Six Companions by Paul-Jacques Bonzon

Now We Are Six

Seven Little Australians

The Twenty-One Balloons

The 13 Clocks

Five Children and It

The Eighteenth Emergency

The Hundred Dresses

A Hundred and One Dalmatians 

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

The Cat that Lived a Million Times

A Hundred Million Francs

(old and new)

The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

Old Bear by Jane Hissey

Old Master Q by Wong Chak

Old Tom by Leigh Hobbs

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot

Old Yeller

Bill's New Frock by Anne Fine

Children of the New Forest

The Emperor's New Clothes

The New Kid on the Block

New Policeman by Kate Thompson

(magic)

The Magic Pocket by Michio Mado

The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl

The Magic Fishbone by Charles Dickens

The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig

The Princess Who Had Magic Fingers by Maria Luisa Gefaell

My Friend Percy's Magical Gym Shoes

(positive qualities)

Good Dog, Carl

The Amazing Bone by William Steig

Brave Irene by William Steig

Gentle Ben

The Giving Tree

A Tree is Nice

Joyful Noise by Paul Fleishman

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlof

The Best Nest by P. D. Eastman

The Wonderful Farm by Marcel Ayme

The Good Master by Kate Seredy

Adventures of the Ingenious Alfanhui by Rafael Sanchez Ferlosio

The Jolly Postman

The Extraordinary Adventures of Massagran by Josep Maria Folch i Torres

The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Jolly Aunt by Lothar Meggendorfer

Clever Bill by William Nicholson

Curious George

Lucky Luke by Morris

Charmed Life

Some of the Kinder Planets by Tim Wynne-Jones

The Incredible Journey

The Bonny Pit Laddie

The Wonderful Tree by Ulf Lofgren

The Happy Return by C. S. Forester

(pejorative qualities)

The Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieska

Horrid Henry

Bad Habits! by Babette Cole

My Naughty Little Sister

Ordinary Jack

Strange Objects by Gary Crew

The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy

Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems

Mog the Forgetful Cat by Judith Kerr

Quirky Tails

The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen 

A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon

Stony Heart Country

The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler

Just Annoying by Andy Griffiths

Sarah, Plain and Tall

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

That Pesky Rat by Lauren Child

Something's Fishy, Hazel Green

The Vile Village by Lemony Snickett

Harry the Dirty Dog

(most complex)

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Thank you to Nicole @ How to Train a Book Dragon for today's prompt.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.    

Enjoying Time with Family in San Antonio

 

What I Read Last Week:

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants 

by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Naturalist Book Club)

The Country of Pointed Firs (Chapter-a-Day)

What I Am Reading Now:

Another Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Everyday by Clemency Burton Hill (Nonfiction)

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery (Book Club)

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien (Book Club Read)

The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis (Narniathon)

The Surprising Adventures of Baron Münchausen (1001 Children's Books)

Last week I posted here at Readerbuzz:

Books On My Spring 2022 TBR

Wondrous Words Wednesday: French I Learned from The Paris Apartment

Good Thing #1, #2, and #3

We are spending time this week with

our family in San Antonio.

I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below. 

French I Learned from The Paris Apartment

You can learn something from a book, even books you don't really like all that much.

I just finished The Paris Apartment. I didn't really like it all that much, but I got a chance to practice a little French for my upcoming trip abroad.

First of all, this is a grown-up book. And it's a thriller. So, as you might expect, the most common French words spoken in the book are curse words. And I'm not going to translate them here. Because if you are a grown-up and you know French, you probably need no translation. I'm not a fan of curse words. So I'm skipping them. Well, okay, here's a couple: Putain. Merde. Sometimes both of these together. They are on almost every page. If you don't know them, you will pick them up fast without my help. 

There are also a lot of words that you probably know even if you've never studied French. Oui. Monsieur. Bonjour. Non. Salut. D'accord. S'il vous plait. Excuse-moi. Merci. No need for translation here. 

Some you can figure out from their similarity to English. Alcoholique. Charmant. Enchanté. Comprenez-vous? So do you? Comprenez-vous?

Let me share a few phrases in French from the book that I'd like to know and use. And I'm carefully choosing words that only hint at the plot, because who wants a spoiler, even for a disappointing book. Instead of defining these. I'll share the context. The author (and I found this very annoying, as it doesn't seem natural) adds the definition to French words and phrases that might not familiar to the casual reader, within the story. Here we go...

Ça va?   '"Ça va?" he asks. Then, in English: "Are you OK? I came to get my laundry and I heard---"'

Qu-est-ce queue tu veux?   '"Qu-est-ce queue tu veux?" the stranger asks, looking irritated, then: "What do you want?"'  

Je ne sais pas.   '"I'm getting this," he said, holding up his record. "The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. You like them?" I shrugged, "Je ne sais pas." I'd never heard of them.'

Okay, and then there are lots of words and phrases I don't think I'll need to know in French. Let's hope I don't have to use these...

Tu ne feras rien de la sorte.   'His arm shot out; his hand gripped her wrist, hard. The wine glass in her hand jerked, a crimson splash landed on the pale knit of her dress. "Non," he said. "Tu ne feras rien de la sorte." You'll do no such thing.'  

Qu'est-ce qui se passe?     '"Qu'est-ce qui se passe?" he asks, dangerously, quietly, as he begins moving toward us. What are you doing down here?'

Ferme ta gueule.     '"Ferme ta gueule." Shut your mouth. I take a step toward him. The anger is sudden, blinding. And when I'm next aware of what I'm doing I realize my hand is around his throat and his eyes are bulging."

That's probably enough...

Wish me luck in France. Bon chance. I'm flying out in two weeks. 

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered, or spotlight words you love.  Feel free to get creative! It was first created by Kathy over at Bermuda Onion and is now hosted at Elza Reads.