Simone

@frauchen

🇨🇦 (🇩🇪🇺🇦) She/her; decidedly liberal and socialist. I work in an independent bookshop, so I like offering up reading suggestions based on books I’ve enjoyed.

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Simone@frauchen· 9d

Benoit Gallot’s memoir about Pere-Lachaise, for which he has been the curator since 2018, is a charmingly chatty dive into all aspects of the cemetery, from his life & job to the animals that thrive there, to the famous, infamous, & ordinary people interred there. Entertaining & informative. 💡📚💙

A photograph of the hardcover Canadian edition (Greystone Books) of Benoit Gallot’s delightful book The Secret Life of a Cemetery: The Wild Nature and Enchanting Lore of Pere-Lachase, translated by Arielle Aaronson. The book includes black and white photographs of wildlife and monuments in the cemetery taken by Gallot.

A photograph of a monument in Pere-Lachaise taken when I was there in 2013: a girl with a long braid hanging over her shoulder kneels in prayer.

A photograph of the monument erected for Oscar Wilde’s grave in Pere-Lachaise, taken when I visited in 2013. The monument was designed and sculpted by Jacob Epstein. A glass barrier had to be installed to protect the stone from all the lipstick left by those kissing the monument.

A photograph of a monument in Pere-Lachaise, taken on my 2013 visit. A woman stands atop a tomb and weeps, face in her hands. I love a good cemetery, and Pere-Lachaise is among my favourites. I envy the curator his job there.

Simone@frauchen· 13d

For fans of post-WWII noir, gritty detective stories, & political intrigue, I can recommend Edward Chisholm‘s true crime book about the 1968 (unsolved!) murder of gangster Stevan Markovic: friend, valet, etc. to “the world’s most beautiful man,” French actor Alain Delon (contains seedy bits). 💡📚💙

A photograph of the cover of the Canadian (House of Anansi) paperback edition of British author Edward Chilsholm’s true crime book Murder in Paris ‘68: A True Story of Death and Glamour. The white cover features a black and white photograph of Alain Delon in one of his fancy cars, looking over his shoulder at the photographer. He’s lovely, but he’s shifty.

The book is written in an occasionally over-the-top noir style, which makes it a lot of fun to read, if you like that kind of thing (I do).

Chisholm’s first book, A Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City is also worth reading. Apparently it’s going to be a movie soon, which is nice for Chisholm.

Simone@frauchen· 19d

Patrick Freyne‘s funny & touching debut novel is kind of like a Gen-X take on The Commitments. A Gen-Xer myself, I had a lot of fun with this novel. Friendships (& bands) form, conflict happens, tragedy strikes, lives are changed, reconciliations ensue. Or they don‘t. But life & music goes on. 🖋️📚💙

A photograph of the (autographed!) hardcover edition of Irish columnist Patrick Freyne‘s debut novel Experts in a Dying Field. I felt very at home with all the Gen-X humour and music references. The writing is light and hilarious, but clever and thoughtful, too. Freyne’s characters are quirky and loveable, even when they’re awful. Good stuff.

Simone@frauchen· 19d

Cory Doctorow‘s newest book about the uses & abuses of AI technology provides a sane, expert, & delightfully snarky analysis of a much-hyped, nefariously misused technology. I especially appreciated his clear explanatory analogies. Highly recommended. 💡📚💙

The North American paperback edition of Canadian author Cory Doctorow‘s latest work of non-fiction, The Reverse Centaur‘s Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence Before It‘s Too Late. I want to give one to every mindlessly AI-enthusiastic tech bro I know (thankfully, their numbers in my life are dwindling).

Simone@frauchen· 27d

Kenyan entomologist/evolutionary biologist Dr. Dino Martins‘ new book about the hidden world of parasites is occasionally super-disgusting & consistently utterly fascinating. His delight in & enthusiasm for his subject is as infectious as many of his subjects. Also, people: Wash👏 Your👏 Hands👏 💡📚💙

A photograph of the North American hardcover edition of Dr. Dino Martins’ book Hidden Creatures: Luscious Leeches, Bashful Botflies, and the Wondrous, History-Shaping World of Parasites. It was the beautiful-yet-revolting illustration of a leech on the cover that made me pick up this book in the first place, wondering what on earth would make anyone want to read it. So I read the first few sentences and then couldn’t stop. Reading this book was like sitting on a rock in one of Dr. Martin’s wilderness classrooms, enthralled and appalled in equal measure by the astonishing lifeforms he winkles out from their hosts and hidey-holes and discusses with such zest and vigour. His compassion, intelligence, and humanity combined with his excitement about his subject make it impossible to look away. I have to say, though, I felt itchy through the whole thing.

Highly recommended. Going off to wash my hands again …

Simone@frauchen· 29d

Unferth’s novel Earth 7 is a study in the resilience of human adaptability & connection; two women who grew up during the great depopulation find love, hope, & reasons to live even in the desert wasteland that was our beautiful planet. Profoundly touching & heartbreaking. 🪐📚💙

A badly lit photograph of the British paperback edition (Daunt Books Originals) of Deb Olin Unferth‘s new novel of love and environmental devastation, Earth 7. Grim but beautiful. It‘s also a kind of portrait of a not-very-good mother who is just doing her best to raise a decent human being in fairly dire circumstances.

Simone@frauchen· Jul 9

In her 2021 publication, Cal Flyn does not suggest that the destruction humans have inflicted on the Earth is without horrifying consequence, but does offer hope that where humans have abandoned the places they’ve destroyed, nature has recovered in unexpected & sometimes abundant ways. 💡📚💙

A photograph of the cover of the North American hardcover edition of Scottish author Cal Flyn’s 2021 book Islands of Abandonment. As I’ve always suspected, the earth will heal quite nicely once humans are gone from it. That we continue to fill our own home with filth and poison, even though we know better and can do better, says a lot about the greed, denial, and sheer stupidity of humanity. Her book left me angry and frustrated, but also hopeful, in an annihilationist sort of way.

Simone@frauchen· Jul 4

Jess Kidd writes thoroughly beguiling ghost stories, & her cozy mystery series is proving to be lots of fun too. Former nun/nurse Nora Breen is a complex, likeable character, & the bad guys Kidd concocts are delightfully awful. I’ll always enthusiastically recommend her books. ⚡️📚💙

A photograph of the North American paperback edition of London-based Irish author Jess Kidd’s newest novel, Murder at the Spirit Lounge. It is the second in her Nora Breen Investigates series, set in the Kentish sea-side town Gore-on-Sea, and is as sprightly and smart as all her other novels. Good, deadly fun.

Simone@frauchen· Jun 25

A gorgeous novel. In Land, O’Farrell charts the path of one Irish family in the wake of the Great Hunger, situating their various fates in layers of geological, political, mythical, & spiritual history. Folkloric, lyrical, & featuring a long line of very good boys. 🐶 🖋️📚💙

A photograph of the North American hardcover edition of Maggie O’Farrell’s latest novel, Land. The cover art echoes the mapmaking art central to the family at the heart of the novel, and also suggests the depths of the spring from which the story … well … springs.

Simone@frauchen· Jun 21

Villa Coco is a charming romp through Italy, full of delicious meals (Buono!), lessons in savouring life, & the joy of saying yes to the occasional mad caper. I always enjoy Greer’s writing & comedy; this sweet Italian lark of a story is just what I needed during these dark, strange times. 🖋️📚💙

A photograph of the North American hardcover edition of Andrew Sean Greer’s lastest novel, Villa Coco. The novel is as full of beauty and sun as the cover, and a perfect antidote to the cruelty and ugliness of the daily news. It’s like a little holiday from the ghastliness of our 21st century reality.

Simone@frauchen· Jun 15

English author Ben Faccini’s latest novel is a beautifully written story about the sacrifices we sometimes have to make to care for ageing or infirm family members, the ravages of war, generational trauma, & the redemptive, healing power of love & compassion. 🖋️📚💙

A photograph of the hardcover British edition, published by Granta, of Ben Faccini’s new novel Other People’s Children. The arresting photograph on the cover depicts two children in a white bathtub full of water; one child is looking at the camera from the murky bathwater and the other is just shins and feet.

Simone@frauchen· Jun 14

Deborah Levy’s new work of autofiction is a charming, thoughtful meditation on Gertrude Stein’s life & works, early 21st century vs early 20th century life in Paris, & the search for the elusive (illusive?) it, where “it” can represent a missing cat, life’s purpose, love, art, self-respect. 🖋️📚💙

A photograph of the North American hardcover edition of Deborah Levy’s delightful new novel, My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein. The cover features surrealist Leonora Carrington’s untitled painting of two cats playing with a ball of yarn.

Simone@frauchen· Jun 10

Kehlmann’s fictional account of the life of German director G.W. Pabst (Greta Garbo, Louise Brooks) is brilliantly told with a kaleidoscope of increasingly surreal, film-like perspectives, as Pabst’s personal & professional compromises in WWII Germany lead to his artistic & moral downfall. 🖋️📚💙

A photograph of two paperback editions, North American and German, of Daniel Kehlmann’s highly acclaimed latest novel, The Director/Lichtspiel. In the novel, director G.W. Pabst sees and experiences the world as though it were a movie he is directing; as he makes moral and ethical compromises which in turn compromise the integrity of his art, his perspective becomes more and more unmoored from reality, until he seems thoroughly disengaged. It is part of Kehlmann’s genius that Pabst is not an unsympathetic character through all this, but a tragic protagonist faced with impossible choices. Highly recommended.

Simone@frauchen· Jun 1

A memoir from the late ‘90s about a successful, ambitious magazine editor felled by a massive stroke in his mid-40s. He wrote it by blinking the alphabet with his left eye. Although reduced to a mind inside an unresponsive body, he still managed to appreciate & relish the small wonders of life. 💡📚💙

A photograph of a paperback English language edition of journalist and magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoir The Diving-bell and the Butterfly. The diving-bell refers to his physical condition, locked-in syndrome, and the butterfly to his mind, which takes off on elaborate flights of memory and invention. That he seems to have been cut down in the middle of a mid-life crisis (I’m guessing, but: new girlfriend, new high-performance car) makes his situation even more poignant. Life is short and fragile, and any of us can die quite suddenly, even when we’re feeling our most vital and vigorous. It is our good fortune that Bauby lived long enough to write this, to remind us how important are even the smallest joys, how very remarkable are our lives. He died shortly after publication.

Simone@frauchen· May 29

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m seeing a lot of extinction narratives these days. This one, by Irish author Walls, features the demise of the Great Auk. It also features the demise of a great many Irish during the potato famine in the mid-19th C. An unusual, tormented, funny, & often touching novel. 🖋️📚💙

A photograph of the paperback edition of Eoghan Walls’ 2026 novel Field Notes From an Extinction. In it, English ornithologist Ignatius Green is distracted from his concerns over the extinction of the Great Auk on a rocky island north of mainland Ireland and is forced to acknowledge and contend with the oppression and attempted annihilation of the Irish during the Great Potato Famine. Along the way, he begins to understand the meaning of love and family, and what it sometimes takes to survive in desperate times. Also, Aisling O’Leary, a central character in the novel, is a fierce and frightful delight.

Simone@frauchen· May 26

Every time I picked up Jo Bell’s memoir about life on her boat Tinker, traveling up & down England’s historic canal system, it felt like a refreshing litte getaway, a glimpse into a life of freedom & natural beauty in a part of England many people never get to experience. Wonderful. 💡📚💙

A photograph of the hardcover edition of poet and archaeologist Jo Bell’s charming (and frequently funny!) memoir about her time living on her boat, exploring England’s canals and rivers. Not only does she let us peek into her freewheeling lifestyle, she also explains the fascinating history of the canal system, and its vital historic importance to England’s economy and, today, to its natural environment.

Simone@frauchen· May 22

Ukrainian author Kurkov’s funny yet profoundly sad novel Grey Bees is about a simple bee keeper, who would like to go about his daily life, caring for his bees, but finds himself subject to the vagaries of a war he doesn’t understand being fought on either side of his mostly deserted village. 🖋️📚💙

A photograph of the North American paperback edition of Andrey Kurkov’s novel Grey Bees, beautifully translated into English by Boris Dralyuk, sitting on the wooden lunch table at work next to my bright green water bottle. The novel is terrific: touching and funny, brimming with metaphor (much of which has likely gone over my head). A good man attempts to live his life in the middle of a conflict he doesn’t fully understand and over which he has no control. His frustration leads to adventures which lead to more frustration and confusion for the poor guy, but he always tries to do the right thing, whatever the challenges he faces.

Simone@frauchen· May 13

Wharton’s 1927 novel Twilight Sleep feels surprisingly modern. Members of a wealthy NYC family use frantic social activity, quack spiritual healing, drugs, sex, & plain old denial to distract themselves from the unhappiness & meaninglessness of their lives. 🖋️📚💙

A photograph of the cover of the Smith & Taylor paperback edition of Edith Wharton’s 1927 novel Twilight Sleep. It’s funny in an acerbic, tragic sort of way, and brilliantly written. The casual racism is a bit jarring, mind you.

Simone@frauchen· May 7

Pratchett is one of my favourite authors; I am happy to see that Night Watch has been honoured by Penguin as a Modern Classic. Here he (hilariously) tackles time travel, authoritarianism, & the importance of doing the right thing in the face of violence & futility. Highly recommended, always. 🖋️📚💙📚🪐

A photo of the Penguin Modern Classics paperback edition of Terry Pratchett’s brilliant retelling of the French Revolution … sort of … Night Watch. His books are funny, poignant, rude, and still so relevant. I guess human nature really never changes, so Pratchett’s enthusiastic skewering of it will endure.

Simone@frauchen· May 3

A gothic-scented novel about the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire and the rise of the communist takeover of Hungary through the eyes and experiences of several generations of one land-owning Hungarian family of nobility. It doesn’t go so well for them. 🖋️📚💙

A photograph of the North American hardcover edition of Swiss-Hungarian author Nelio Biedermann’s novel Lazar, beautifully translated by Jamie Bulloch. This novel is quite good although some terrific stories and characters are introduced and then never really heard from again (the deep dark forest is quite wonderful). There is a lot of uncertain parentage involved in this Hungarian line of succession, which is maybe meant to be a comment on the illegitimacy of ruling classes generally. While the family fortunes rise and fall together with the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s, they seem to be too absorbed their own adulteries and mental illnesses to believe their lives will change much, until they do.

Simone@frauchen· Apr 27

Camille de Peretti imagines the story behind the astonishing real-life anonymous purchase, over-painting, theft, & subsequent return of Klimt’s ‘Portrait of a Lady’ painting. She creates a tale of love, betrayal, obsession, & mystery, all beautifully translated by Hildegarde Serle. 🖋️📚💙

A photograph of the Europa Editions paperback of French author Camille de Peretti’s latest novel, Portrait of an Unknown Woman. The cover features the portrait in question, Klimt’s ‘Portrait of a Lady.’ It’s worth looking up the painting to see the original work that was painted underneath this one, and which is also mentioned in the book.

Simone@frauchen· Apr 25

Pocock’s account of 2 Greyhound bus trips across the USA, 17 years apart, is one of the more bleak things I’ve read lately: poverty, the consequences of rapacious corporate greed, environmental devastation, technology-driven isolationism. But she also finds solace, friendship, beauty, & hope.💡📚💙

The North American paperback edition of Irish-Canadian London-based writer Joanna Pocock’s excellent travel memoir Greyhound. Bonus: she gives us her playlists, to which she refers several times in the text as the scenery passes by. Much of the trip feels positively dystopian, but Pocock does eke out bits of joy in the quirky companionship and small kindnesses of fellow travellers, beautiful sunsets and sunrises, happy memories of her first cross-country bus trip in 2006, and the grief she is able to leave behind as her journey progresses. I also really enjoyed her references to other travel memoirs by Simone de Beauvoir, John Steinbeck, Irma Kurtz, and others. Highly recommended.

Simone@frauchen· Apr 20

I just started this one, too, albeit the North American edition.

A photograph of the North American paperback edition of Joanna Pocock’s memoir Greyhound. The black and white photo in the cover features an old, decrepit motel sign in front of a large bush and what might be a wasteland.

Simone@frauchen· Apr 20

Not just the tragic story of a teenager mixed up with very bad people, Keefe’s brilliant London Falling explains & exposes the corrupt, often violent world of a burgeoning London-centred oligarchy, police (wilful?) incompetence, & government (collusion?) indifference.💡📚💙

A photograph of the British hardcover edition of Patrick Radden Keefe’s newest book about the brief life and tragic death of Zac Brettler, whose teenage antics turned dead serious when he got mixed up with a bunch of gangland thugs, keen to liberate him from millions of British pounds he didn’t really have.

I will always read anything Keefe writes. His brilliant analysis and storytelling are, as usual, wide-ranging yet exacting, as he manages to distill a larger world of shady finance and law enforcement incompetence into a grim consequence for one (highly relatable) family; ultimately, the consequences are bad for society generally, if governments continue to allow avarice & violence, rather than justice and equity, to run riot in our countries.

Simone@frauchen· Apr 19

The decision Gisele Pelicot made to open up her most private life to the world in order to refuse to carry the shame her rapists tried to force upon her required extraordinary courage, wisdom, & self-respect. She is a beacon of hope & an example of strength & integrity to me & millions of others.💡📚💙

A photograph of the North American hardcover edition of Gisele Pelicot’s memoir A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides. I had the great good fortune to attend an interview she had with Canadian journalist Anna Maria Tremonti, herself a survivor of intimate partner violence, to launch the memoir here in Toronto. Gisele Pelicot’s steadfast refusal to carry the shame for having been raped has resonated worldwide, and I will always be grateful to her for her courageous stance in the face of so much misogyny, fear, and ignorance. Bravo Gisele. Thank you.

Simone@frauchen· Apr 17

I am loving this 2026 page-a-day calendar published by Hachette. It’s called A Book Lover’s Year. Today’s page is a shelfie from the library in the Nova Scotia Provincial Legislature in Halifax. Wonderful. 📚💙

A photograph of today’s page in my 2026 Book Lover’s Year page-a-day calendar (the library in the Nova Scotia Provincial Legislature in Halifax). Shelfies, book recommendations, quotes by authors, quotes from books, quites about books … it’s a nice way to start the day. The calendar sits atop my radio in my bathroom.

Simone@frauchen· Apr 15

The Palm House offers exquisitely written vignettes of ordinary life, its tragedies & disappointments, delivered with poignancy & wonderfully dry humour. The story focuses on Laura & Putnam who, despite being of different generations & experiences, find solace & friendship with one another. 🖋️📚💙

A photograph of my not-long-enough denim clad legs mimicking the long naked legs on the cover photograph of the paperback New York Review of Books edition of Gwendoline Riley’s new novel The Palm House. Also, my planters in the background need cleaning. Anyway, I loved this novel and Riley’s spare, succinct writing. Highly recommended (Clare Clark’s review in the Guardian is worth reading, if you’re uncertain).

Simone@frauchen· Apr 13

Finnish author Turpeinen’s prize-winning first novel is a devastating look at humanity’s relentless, greedy push toward “progress” & scientific understanding at the expense of the very wonders of nature we obsessively exploit & examine. The extent of our destruction is staggering. 🖋️📚💙

A photograph of the North American hardcover edition of Iida Turpeinen’s debut novel, Beasts of the Sea. The cover features a detail of an illustration depicting the shipwreck of one of Danish-Russian explorer Vitus Bering’s ships on the Aleutian Islands in 1741. It was on this expedition that Georg Steller “discovered” the Steller Sea Cow (a drawing of which overlays the painting on the cover) and, in his enthusiasm and the hunger of his shipmates and the explorers (exploiters) that followed, drove the creature to extinction. Not only was the Steller Sea Cow destroyed, but hundreds of other species were driven to extinction by the rapacious greed and acquisitiveness of colonisers and scientists. Turpeinen’s novel acts as an introduction to the causes of this devastation, which continues today. We don’t even really know how much of our world we have lost, all in the name of ego and power and money. Infuriating, informative, and well worth reading.

Simone@frauchen· Apr 9

In The Lost City of Z, Grann deftly spins the story of Victorian explorer Percy Fawcett‘s ultimately doomed search for a fabled Amazonian city. Full of arrogant imperialist adventures, harrowing tests of endurance through impenetrable jungle, SO MANY INSECTS, & the dangers of mad obsession. 💡📚💙

A photograph of the North American paperback edition of The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann. As infuriating as the misadventures of arrogant imperialist explorers can be, Grann makes the story of Percy Fawcett‘s quest for immortality into a fascinating character study, bringing his grisly, manic tramps through the jungle to often horrifying life. The story is further enriched by all the events happening alongside the decades of Fawcett’s career: technological advancements, rivalries, WWI, changes in attitude toward indigenous cultures and the collection of ancient artefacts.

Even more eye-opening is the juxtaposition of a early 20th century rainforest teeming with dangerous life with the present-day bristling, burnt expanses of the same forest cleared to make way for cattle and palm oil farms. Grann‘s conclusion, having gone to the jungle to seek for himself Fawcett’s fate, is poignant, satisfying, and tragic - highly recommended reading.

Simone@frauchen· Apr 6

The 3rd (& last) in Tana French’s Cal Hooper series, The Keeper explores environmental crime, greed, & the secret alliances & rivalries that guide & propel (& sometimes end) life in a small Irish village. As always, the characters she creates are half the fun. Highly recommended, always. ⚡️📚💙