Alex

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they/he, il. Wikipedian and book reader, mostly. Localization and sociology enthusiast.

Live to work

Replied to Work to Live, Live to Work by Devastatia (devastatia.com)

That said, I have to push back on a suggestion I overheard that one should only have to work twenty-four hours in a week to live comfortably. A popular trope these days goes: « I don’t live to work. I work to live. »

(Note to my readers: Devastatia’s website has mildly erotic content and may not be appropriate for wherever you are right now. I recommend visiting that blog, but make sure you won’t get fired or yelled at over it!) I’m finally at home and ready to engage with other people again, woo! I’m gonna charitably assume…

I have a Now page

Liked Now

🤩 Alex
🎂 30 ans
📍 Grenoble, France
📚 J’apprends | Learning CS50 – Introduction to computer science. Coursera: Introduction to technical writing.
🧳Je voyage | Travel Fini : Interrail en avril 2024. Prochain: probablement en juin pour le travail.
🏗️ J’y travaille | Working on…

made myself a now page! J’ai une page « Now » qui résume rapidement ce qu’il se passe dans ma vie !

La Vérité sort de la bouche du cheval

Read La vérité sort de la bouche du cheval by Meryem Alaoui

Jmiaa, prostituée de Casablanca, vit seule avec sa fille. Femme au fort caractère et à l’esprit vif, elle n’a pas la langue dans sa poche pour décrire le monde qui l’entoure : son amoureux Chaïba, brute épaisse et sans parole, ou Halima, sa comparse dépressive qui lit le Coran entre deux clients, ou encore Mouy, sa mère à la moralité implacable qui semble tout ignorer de l’activité de sa fille. Mais voici qu’arrive une jeune femme, Chadlia, dite « Bouche de cheval », qui veut réaliser son premier film sur la vie de ce quartier de Casa. Elle cherche une actrice…

Dans La Vérité sort de la bouche du cheval, on suit une prostituée marocaine et ses aventures infernales. Elle nous parle, sans patience ni douceur, de ses amies, de sa fille, de ses clients et de son maquereau. Elle est drôle et franche et d’une violence sans fard, et ce qui nous plaît dans la rédaction…

a calculated risk

Read A Calculated Risk by Cari Hunter

Detective Jo Shaw has it all worked out. She’s good at her job, she has loads of mates, and she likes being single. She doesn’t need complications, but an emergency call to the stabbing of a young woman brings plenty of those. Jo has to risk her career to save the woman’s life, and a bad night gets worse when the trauma surgeon turns out to be Isla Munro, Jo’s only real love, who walked out on her fifteen years ago and never came back.

With the victim’s children missing and the husband the prime suspect, Jo’s investigation is stonewalled by a community living in fear. As one dead end leads to another, she and Isla are forced to put their differences aside and work together. But the case is far more dangerous than Jo realizes, and her determination to sort the truth from the lies may put her own life on the line.

Big twist and likeable characters (after a disastrous start from our cop protagonist) in this queer crime novel. It doesn’t reinvent the genre: it does everything we want it to do, but it does it well, with some romance on the side. well done.

western lane

Read Western Lane by Chetna Maroo

Eleven-year-old Gopi has been playing squash since she was old enough to hold a racket. When her mother dies, her father enlists her in a quietly brutal training regimen, and the game becomes her world. Slowly, she grows apart from her sisters. Her life is reduced to the sport, guided by its rhythms: the serve, the volley, the drive, the shot and its echo.

But on the court, she is not alone. She is with her pa. She is with Ged, a thirteen-year-old boy with his own formidable talent. She is with the players who have come before her. She is in awe.

Western Lane is a short novel that uses the pretext of competitive sports to touch upon matters of grief and identity. It was a beautiful and haunting read, following a child poised to become a squash champion after the death of her mother; her father, obsessed with squash, and herself go all-in on the sport…