I agree about the Adamsberg novels. Interestingly the one he first appears in has not yet been translated and it contains much that is not repeated which explains his quirks and gives you the background you need. Also in Seeking... Vargas says she only went back to using Adamsberg when she realised that the policeman she was inventing for this book had to be him. I also think she has not quite worked out how she wants Camille and Adamsberg to relate to each other. I find them odd but maybe it is the French way...
What is interesting is that some writers like Mankell are regarded as mainstream and people forget that they are translated. However some less well known ones, particularly French ones like Manchette, Izzo - the more politically motivated writers - are seen as somehow less worthy of notice because they are translated, and published by small presses who have to charge more for paperback originals. The French love the genre and many writers in English are translated. Once they have been published there the French somehow lump all the Anglo-Saxons together and seem unable to tell which writers originate in the UK/Ireland and the US/Canada. In general they are anti Anglo-Saxon though at the moment there are no quotas about non-French novels as there are for films and music.
Is Fred Vargas published in the US or only in Canada - esp as her 2004 novel Sous les vents de Neptune (now Wash this blood clean from my hand 2007) was mostly set there?
Great observation on John Banville. I'm a huge Banville fan, but I really hate it when literary writers are deemed to be 'slumming it' when they write genre fiction. By all means I'm happy for them to jump on board and there's a long tradition of it, as long as they don't demean the genre in interviews by saying they did it for 'a bit of fun' or because it 'amused them'.
Grrrrrrrrrr!!
Thanks for the invite. I was just reading your wall. I'm a librarian also and just this week was talking to my boss about using a wiki for our procedures manual!
My excuse for the invite (I guess) was that I was taking Arnaldur Indridason from Madison to our college, as a guest of the Scandinavian Studies program. The poor man didn't realize it was such a long drive. But we had plenty of time to talk!
I was at Madison, but I was schmoozing it up at the Berkely party. Thought it would go there but St. Martin's called first before it ever got sent out. Woo hoo! I look forward to going to Anchorage. Maybe they'll let me into the St. Martin's bash now.
My new time-wasting discovery: LibraryThing. Wow. I sure wish our opac was half as fun and useful. I put what I'm reading on my webpage at work - the covers show up linked to my reviews. It's hard to get any work done when you're having fun like this :o)
We turned our stodgy newsletter into a blog that feeds onto our front page. We just started our own reference blog to share things like "oh my god, that political science assignment is back! remember to point the students toward..." I like the idea of a facebook group for circ students... hmmm, we should think about that. We talked about a wiki to replace our various procedures manuals which I still think would be a good idea.
2.0 - making library life more exciting all the time!
As for Kate - ah, well... some excitement I can do without. :o)
How fun to hear from you! Not about the Kate part, though :( I can pretty much imagine what you went through, alas. Much sympathy...
Circulation here has started a Facebook group for our student workers, and it's been a big success... Something to chew on. Are you doing 2.0 stuff at your library?
Actually, I, too, am an academic librarian, though I realize community colleges and four-year schools are probably different in that regard. I like that I get to do a whole bunch of different things (instruction, reference, acquisitions, and interlibrary loan) and am not stuck doing one thing all the time. I think I've got your book On Edge somewhere in my towering TBR stack!
Sorry I didn't respond earlier. My computer was back at the library for a couple days. I'm fairly new, too, but I think it's going to be an interesting site.
I'm not too good with some of these machines either. That is what kids/grandkids are for. To guide us through them or just do it for us. Though everytime the teen age grandkids are here, they do strange things to the computer. And my chair.
Ah, me and cameras do not mix. The camera was only pretending to take pictures. I'll try to see if the ones on the phone are salvageable, but my laptop is not talking to its power cord these days.
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Is Fred Vargas published in the US or only in Canada - esp as her 2004 novel Sous les vents de Neptune (now Wash this blood clean from my hand 2007) was mostly set there?
M
Great observation on John Banville. I'm a huge Banville fan, but I really hate it when literary writers are deemed to be 'slumming it' when they write genre fiction. By all means I'm happy for them to jump on board and there's a long tradition of it, as long as they don't demean the genre in interviews by saying they did it for 'a bit of fun' or because it 'amused them'.
Grrrrrrrrrr!!
My new time-wasting discovery: LibraryThing. Wow. I sure wish our opac was half as fun and useful. I put what I'm reading on my webpage at work - the covers show up linked to my reviews. It's hard to get any work done when you're having fun like this :o)
Hmm... you've got me thinking. I love talking to other librarians about what they are doing...
2.0 - making library life more exciting all the time!
As for Kate - ah, well... some excitement I can do without. :o)
Circulation here has started a Facebook group for our student workers, and it's been a big success... Something to chew on. Are you doing 2.0 stuff at your library?
Actually, I, too, am an academic librarian, though I realize community colleges and four-year schools are probably different in that regard. I like that I get to do a whole bunch of different things (instruction, reference, acquisitions, and interlibrary loan) and am not stuck doing one thing all the time. I think I've got your book On Edge somewhere in my towering TBR stack!
Craig
I'm not that bad! but it's pretty addictive - though it's the forums I read most obsessively.
Sorry I didn't respond earlier. My computer was back at the library for a couple days. I'm fairly new, too, but I think it's going to be an interesting site.
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