Opravy

- Books: My top books for this autumn/winter time are: English: Carpe Jugulum, by Terry Pratchett.

I love the author’s fantasy world and these crazy stories happening in a flat planet somewhere in the universe.

In this particular book, three witches and a rather strange and clumsy priest get involved in a fight against vampires.

A book full of humour and incredible happenings that will make you laugh during the long winter evenings.

Caution, it’s pretty addictive!

French: Quitter Moscou, by Emmanuelle Réné (unfortunately only in French for what I could see…).

To put you into a wintry mood, nothing better than a story taking place among the thick snow of Moscow, Russia.

A young French woman leaves the city to go back to Paris, but she leaves there a part of herself and she’ll always feel melancholic when thinking about the time she spent there.

At the same time, in the Russian capital city, a young boy is struggling against his father’s absence and trying to live along with it.

The only thing that links the two characters is a mysterious fur coat.

A splendid and delightful story full of surprises and true feelings that will make you think about life and your own relation to it.

Spanish: Histoiria De Una Gaviota Y Del Gato Que Le Enseñó A Volar (The Story of A Seagull and The Cat Who Taught Her To Fly), by Luis Sepúlveda (translated in English).

A fat but honourable domestical cat discovers one day on “its” balcony a seagull egg and will have to raise it, with the help of its cat friends.

They all have difficulty understanding the little new creature, until one day they realize that it has to be educated its very own way… This book is basically a kid’s tale, but if you think a bit further while reading it, you’ll see that it’s much more than just this and that its moral and philosophy refer to life in a very accurate way.

- Movies: I’ve been to the cinema quite a lot recently and here are the three movies I liked the most: The Butler: a fascinating movie about slavery and the condition of Black people in the US from 1920 until the election of Barack Obama in 2008, all this through the eyes of a black butler who worked at the White House during more than 50 years.

A story that starts with horror and finishes with the glory of seeing the first black president in the USA.

Very enriching!

La vie d’Adèle (Blue Is The warmest Colour): This movie is about a young woman’s life, that changes completely when she meets Emma, a young woman with blue hair that will allow her to get to know herself, her desires and her sexuality, to accept what she is and to slowly become an adult.

A brilliant movie about finding oneself, the difficulty of being different and the struggle against one’s own feelings.

Adèle Exarchopoulos, who embodies the main character, is one of the best actresses and the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen.

Her acting in this movie is definitively totally convincing!

Music: The songs I’ve been listening to the most lately are: Love Is A Loosing Game (cover of Amy Winehouse’s song by Troye Sivan) I’m completely addicted to this cover!

The song is originally already great, but sang by Troye’s delicious voice it becomes just marvellous Agua De Mayo (Malú) This song is not exactly new but I’ve just discovered it an I really like it, the voice, the melody, the energy in it… Divisés (Zaho) A profound and still song by one of my favourite French singers Lyubov Suka (Dima Bilan and Yulia Volkova) You may not understand anything (neither do I actually…) but just listen to it anyway, this song is absolutely rousing and the video is amazing.

When my two favourite Russian singers decide to collaborate…