samedi 5 décembre 2009

Bon Bien Mauvaise Mal

I've been thinking about this a lot over the past few weeks and it's doing my head in! It seems simple but it's not! I've had it explained to me too but I still don't quite get it as there seem to be so many exceptions to the rule..


Here are some links which explain it

French.about.com
Word Reference
French spanish online




Test your knowlege

French.about.com - bon vs bien, mauvaise vs mal
Français facile - bon(ne) ou bien
Français facile - bon bien meilleur mieux
Jeu de l'oie - bon bien mal mauvaise


After reading through all of that I think I understand it better now but I am still not correct 100% of the time...

lundi 30 novembre 2009

Free French books online

Children's library.org

Childrens books forever

Classiques

Gallica

la Bibliothèque Universelle

Project Gutenberg

dimanche 29 novembre 2009

Petite Anglaise the book by Catherine Sanderson

So over the past week or so I read Petite Anglaise and finished it today.

I'd heard about her and her blog a while ago. In fact, I had her blog bookmarked in my RSS reader but I never read much of it (mainly because I didn't want spoilers before I had finished (or started!) reading the book).

I bought the book many months ago but only got around to reading it now...

The book reminded me of Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. Another true story of an early 30s woman at a crossroads in her relationship and her life...

I felt I could relate easily to both these women because I have had many of the same thoughts that they have had, or even if I hadn't, I could relate to their feelings and emotions (some of which were very raw and painful).

I thought the book was about expat life in Paris but it was actually mainly about her relationship/s... I think many people (judging by the criticisms on Amazon) were expecting a different kind of book, a light, fluffy, chick-lit book so they were probably disappointed with Catherine's very emotional tales of her real life. Admittedly I wish she had written more about her earlier life at the beginning... her book covers her from the age of about 18-33 (roughly) and reading it reminded that one's early 20s, a time that seems so different from one's early 30s... a more carefree time with less responsibility and a different view of the world. Everything seemed so much easier back then.

I know these types of books are not everyone's cups of tea but I loved both of them.

I found Catherine's story fascinating and the ending is even more amazing... not mentioned in the book but she was sacked from her job because of her blog. She took them to court and won £44,000, and then of course she got a (£400,000) book deal! Wow!

So I've been slowly making my way through her blog after I'd finished reading her book and admittedly it's not half as interesting. Mainly because the book is more honest and there are no holes in the storyline... the blog seems really disjointed as she admits she leaves out a lot of details.. also being a website, I'm tempted to just scroll past the bits that don't interest me whereas I didn't do that with her book.

Her daughter, 'Tadpole' seems adorable and incredibly intelligent and has been bilingual her whole life but then again her parents both also seem very intelligent.

Anyway I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Not sure which of these 3 lovely covers I like the most.. I like them all!







You can also listen to a 40 min interview with her here on the BBC site.

Petite Anglaise the blog (she's actually said that she's going to stop blogging her personal life now and only pop into her blog sporadically).

Added link 10 Feb 2010 Interview with Catherine on a blog

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