Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

Best thing happening on the internet? Last Week Tonight's John Oliver

Foreign funnyman John Oliver has lined up the most penetrating - and also hilarious - videos of investigative journalism you can find anywhere.

Honed by years of aggressively funny muckraking for Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, Oliver's Last Week Tonight is absolutely mustsee reporting of the highest grade.

Segments are long - usually nearly 15 minutes - detailed and amply documented. And they attack, with intelligence and wit, the most horrific abuses of the current American Republic: massive shakedowns by police;  cable monopolists' attack on the internet; the terrifying mess that is our nuclear arsenal.  Why, one wonders, weren't these stories brought to our attention earlier?

A taste:

CIVIL FOREITURE

 

 OUR NUCLEAR WEAPONS

 

 STUDENT DEBT AND FOR PROFIT COLLEGES

 

 

FERGUSON

 "more than just a couple, but I don't think many more than that..."

 

Hot new books about France, Paris

If you are a reader/writer who would like to interview one of the authors of the books below, please contact me about publishing the interview in the Author on Authors series!

If you read French and have a particular interest in cheating husbands or the future of France, don't miss France's hottest bestseller of them all, Trierweiler's ferocious tell-all Merci pour ce moment. (More on how the former first girlfriend evaded French censors here.) Also, just released, bad boy French expat and immense talent Gerard Depardieu's memoirs, Ca s'est fait comme ça. In English, hot new titles include Flirting with French, How to be a Parisian, Tita, French Pastry Murder, Mademoiselle: Coco Channel, My Grandfather's Gallery, Murder in Nice and more! (see below)

French schoolchildren continue to suffer due to absent teachers

A few years ago my Franco-American daughter was visiting Mississippi, and she met a 10-year-old boy whose situation was unlike any she had ever encountered in France.

"He doesn't go to school!" she said. "His parents refused. Said he should be homeschooled. But they're busy. So he's homeschooling - HIMSELF!"

Paris Literary Events, Readings, New Books October 2014

This October in Paris, news from July Carr, Leslie Kaplan, Joan Schenkar, Marylee MacDonald, Nancy Green, Alexander Lobrano, Clotilde Dusoulier, Marie Houzelle, Meredith Mullins, Margaret Macmillan, Paul Ham, de Selby Press, Judish Starkston, Milly Unwin, Dan Gunn, Daniel Hartley, Bonnie Greer, Joanna Walsh, Harriet Alida Lye, Samuel L Barrantes, Johnny Lloyd, Hayden Kays, Will Cox and... UPDATE ONGOING! send us your events  and new books or post in comments!

Judith Starkston, author of Hand of Fire, on writing the Trojan War

I discovered Judith Starkston's wonderful historical fiction in a group of talented novelists that met in Tempe, Arizona to workshop writing. After majoring in classics, Judith put her passion for ancient civilisations into creating historical fiction and mysteries set in Troy and the Hittite empire. Her new novel, Hand of Fire is being released in paperback this month to excellent early reviews.

Interview with Judith Starkston, author of Hand of Fire,

 

Fake Microsoft Service Center calls continue in France #scam

Hello this is the Microsoft Service Center.

The accent is Indian, so I am inclined to believe the call legit. But when I ask the caller to identify himself and to give me references for the PC he claims is infected with a virus, he falters.

Paris Literary Events, Readings, New Books September 2014

This month, news from Festival America in Vincennes, Mandy Hager, Richard Nahem, Meredith Mullins, Charles Trueheart, Kate Noakes, Rod Mengham, Dylan Harris, Marc Atkin, François Busnel, Marie Houzelle, John Banville, Kate Stables, Jake Lamar, Hazel Manuel, David Scott Clegg, Marina Warner, Frédéric Beigbeder, Ruth Ryan, Andrew Miiller, Anne Berest, Caroline de Maigret, Sophie Mas, Chris Savery, Debra Wiess, Shannon Cain, The Bilingual Acting Workshop, update ongoing!!! 

NEW BOOKS

Tita by Marie Houzelle (Sep 15, 2014)

"Marie Houzelle is a master of the first-person narrative. In Tita she has created a strange, utterly original child whose deadpan certainties are a beguiling invitation to readers of all ages."- Katharine Weber, author of Triangle and True Confections;

"Like opening the door to a secret garden, TITA transports the reader straight into life in a small town in the south of France during the 1950s, as seen through the eyes of a precocious seven-year-old heroine not soon to be forgotten. Houzelle's prose is unfailingly deft and refreshing. This book is a delight!" -Anne Korkeakivi, author of An Unexpected Guest ;

"The best book I read this year.  I cannot recommend it enough!" - Janet Skeslien Charles, author of Moonlight in Odessa)

 

How Trierweiler secretly prepared her bombshell book #publishing

Mega-bestseller. A first print run of 200,000 copies released September 4 and already out of stock in many stores and being reprinted.

Valérie Trierweiler's kiss and tell off Merci pour le Moment is a publishing success.

Lying, cheating politicos beware: French women don't keep quiet.

The myth that French women don't mind if their husbands (or boyfriends) cheat on them might just be a myth after all.

 Not only did Ms Trierweiler mind - which is kind of funny if one remembers that her ill-starred love affair started with the future president betraying his own wife with her - but she minded so much that she tried to commit suicide, followed by political murder.

(That's minding)

The real mystery here is how this book got into bookstores in the first place, since France has a long and not particularly distinguished tradition of censorhip of books.

Paris Writers Needed: Contact Jen Dick

HELP WANTED : Jen K Dick launches a call for guest bloggers for her excellent literary Paris event list and for an intern (stagiaire) for the  Ivy Writers Paris bilingual reading series! 

 

Tom Reeves on How to Enjoy Dining Out in Paris

 

Tom Reeves (seated) interviews restaurant owner Jérôme Luc

The Paris restaurant scene can be intimidating. So when Francophile and longtime Paris Insider Tom Reeves announced the launch of  Dining Out in Paris - What You Need to Know Before You Come to the City of Light, people took notice. Twelve terrific Paris bloggers(see below) joined Tom and his wife Monique in a friendly new wine bar ( En Vrac, in the 18th) to celebrate his new insider guide to Paris. A delight!