Hillary Clinton’s Confidences
The literary rentrée is upon us and soon, we will be inundated with books. Among those that pique my curiosity, that of Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State, Senator and First Lady of the United States. A fascinating and sometimes controversial character, she revisits her life in a confidential tone, we are promised. She will talk about her relationship, of course, her family, friendship, but above all, she will return to the highlights of her term as Secretary of State which placed her in absolutely exceptional situations. Very eager to read Something Lost, Something Gained – Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty, which will be released on September 17.
Something Lost, Something Gained – Reflections on Life, Love, and Libertyby Hillary Clinton, Simon & Schuster, 336 pages
Our new lives
Published in the middle of summer, this book by science fiction author Alain Damasio is definitely worth a read. He spent time in Silicon Valley, where we find all these big companies that govern our lives. In a series of essays, he reflects on the omnipresence of technology, whether it be artificial intelligence, our beloved “smart” phones, and our addictions to these new tools that are supposed to make us freer. The book ends with a short story of anticipation that is not so far from the present, after all.
Silicon Valley, by Alain Damasio, Seuil, Seuil, “Albertine” collection, 318 pages
Simone’s mail
The National Library of France preserves the abundant mail received by Simone de Beauvoir throughout her life. Mostly women who wrote to the philosopher to ask for her advice. We are talking about around 20,000 letters! An editor has selected a few of them and is publishing them, accompanied by the philosopher’s responses. Released during the summer, this book went somewhat unnoticed. It sheds new light on an era, and on the thinking of Simone de Beauvoir.
Dear Simone de Beauvoir – Lives and voices of “ordinary” women. Crossed correspondences 1958-1986published by Marine Rouch, Flammarion, 384 pages
The Kamala Harris Story
Coverage of the Democratic convention in Chicago took up a lot of media space last week. If you didn’t have time to watch and listen to everything, and you want to learn more about candidate Kamala Harris, this podcast called The Story of Kamala Harris is for you. It paints an interesting portrait of the politician, her career and the political battles she led in the shadow of Joe Biden as vice president. It also sketches the contours of a Harris presidency, if ever she were elected next November.
Listen to the podcast (in English)
Diary of a Drainer
Among the Quebec titles to be released in the fall, there is one that particularly intrigues me: Garbage! – Diary of a Garbage Man. “By telling my story, I want to share my passion. I want to bring drainers out of oblivion,” writes the author, Simon Paré-Poupart, in his presentation text. This is a profession that is rarely talked about, even less from the point of view of those who practice it. Very eager to discover the pen and point of view of this author. To be published on September 5 by Lux éditeur.
Garbage! – Diary of a Garbage Man, of Simon Paré-Poupart, Lux Publisher, 140 pages