This month, while mostly still staying home and finishing my CELTA English-teaching course, the world of languages was much on my mind; I finished a book in French (don’t be too impressed, it took me several months), I decided to start an other-language challenge, and I read Gaston Dorren’s Lingo, a fun and informative tour of “Europe in Sixty Languages.” Recommended if you’d like some easy-to-understand facts about languages without having to actually learn them.
Where have you gone in your reading this month?
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Reviews
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes had some interesting features, but in the end for me was too repetitive and one-sided.
- I Contain Multitudes was a must-read about the world of microbes that is all around and within us.
- Shadowplay is a witty pastiche of a novel centered around the author Bram Stoker and his theatrical colleagues– brilliant for theatre lovers as well as Dracula fans.
Other Books Read
Chime by Franny Billingsley – Reread- Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey – Reread
- Home and Home Work by Julie Andrews – Review to come
- Good Morning, Monster by Catherine Gildiner – Review to come
- Et Puis, Paulette by Barbara Constantine – Summer in Other Languages
- Lingo by Gaston Dorren
Other Features and Events
- I asked Do you dislike first-person narratives? A preference I find hard to understand…
- I invited others to join me in a spontaneous challenge: Summer in Other Languages
On my other blog
- I moved Entering the Enchanted Castle from WordPress.com to self-hosted; fingers crossed that everything is working properly. Changes are coming soon, and I will have exciting news to share!
Shared in the Sunday Post hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and the Monthly Wrap-up Round-up hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction
The Emerald City Book Review Archive 
The NYPL has Dorren’s book, so I’ve just downloaded that (they also have another by him, called Babel, which I may read later). I’ve pulled out my French version of Harry Potter, as well as my English-French version of Candide. I make no promises, except to give each a try.
Of the books I read in June, I can highly recommend Sheila Burnford’s ‘Bel Ria’. She wrote ‘The Incredible Journey’, and this is another animal tale involving a journey, at the start of WWII. The depiction of the evacuation at Dunkirk gave me a good taste of the horrors encountered that day. Remarkable.
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Lingo was great for my attention span. Hope you enjoy it too.
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You did a lot! Learning languages can often be so rewarding as well as fun! Happy July!
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It’s very rewarding, I wish I could spend more time on it!
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Whether it took months or not, I am still impressed you finished a book in French! I struggled with even snippets of French in Charlotte Brontë’s The Professor. My reading in June was completed dominated by non-fictions: two Christian theologies and one history of the fascinating Lady Sarah Churchill. Happy reading in July! 😀
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Thanks Jessica, I’m glad you had something good to read in June too.
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Thanks for the reference to Lingo. Whenever I think about what I’d do differently if I had my life to live over again, the answer is always that I would have learned more languages. On a recent cruise we had a staff member who spoke German, French, Russian, Spanish, one other I can’t remember, and English. I always wish I could communicate with more people whenever I’m lucky enough to travel.
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I’m especially impressed by those who manage to learn very different languages – the basic European set seems easy in comparison (not that it is easy for me).
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I’m learning French with Duolingo, whilst I doubt I’ll ever be fluent I’m really enjoying learning another language, I’ve downloaded a book of easy French stories to try.
Hope you have a good week.
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It’s great that you are enjoying your learning. Hope the French stories work well for you.
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Congrats on finishing the French book. I read books in Spanish when I was a teen, but I’ve forgotten so much Spanish that I probably can’t do that anymore.
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It would come back if you had to use it in a Spanish-speaking country. I’m impressed at how much I retained from high school and college (though there is still a lot of work to do).
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I cannot not be impressed! Finishing a whole book in another language is a huge feat, way to go!! And Lingo sounds really fun, I’m adding it to my TBR. 🙂
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Coming from a vast more or less monolingual country it’s quite mind-boggling the number of languages that can exist in this relatively small area. Every family would like to have its own dialect, it seems.
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Very little of my French language skills remain unfortunately, certainly not enough to read a whole book. I haven’t given much thought to the settings of the books I have read recently..I think mostly the UK, US and Australia.
Wishing you a great reading week
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Thanks Shellyrae. I hope you enjoy your summer reading too.
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I hope you are doing well. It looks like your self hosted site is up and running so far in good.
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It’s up and running and I’ll keep the two going simultaneously till the end of the year.
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Great job finishing your book in French! I had hoped to find a class to learn Japanese, but for now I’m just picking up a few pieces here and there until our state is ready to open up again (I have workout classmates from Japan and they help me). I enjoy learning about other cultures through reading and will have to find Lingo–maybe our library has it.
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Update–I was able to place a hold for Lingo at my library. We can visit wearing a mask for a max of 30 minutes, so to make my time there efficient and very short, I place holds to get in and out. Thanks for the rec!
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Oh good, I do hope you enjoy it. I found it a fun and quick read.
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