Welcome into 2023. To celebrate this new year, there is often nothing better than books. Here are the ten books I have just ordered and received at the end of January.
In time, I will update this page with some of my comments and notes for each of them. Images are not my own, taken from Wikipedia and all rights belong to their authors.
1. La mémoire, l'histoire, l'oubli, Paul Ricoeur
The master of subjectivity and hermeneutics, which I have not yet dived into. This is one of his latest books from 2004, before he passed away in 2005 aged 92. I have been suggested to start with this one, as it is considered to be one of his best works. I will only be able to appreciate it with the help of critics that I am going to research online. Understanding his methods, the man and the background behind his ideas is going to take me some years. He had a young archivist to help him out on his last work. Better start now.
2. La Guerre, Bruno Tertrais
French expert in political relations, specialist in analysis of geopolitics and strategy. He is currently co-director of the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS) and a senior fellow of Institut Montaigne. I have been following him for a long time and this book is an addition to my readings on his work. He has great content published online from the aforementioned groups, and a great Twitter feed especially regarding the current war in Ukraine.
3. Le Mage du Kremlin, Giuliano Da Empoli
Grand Prix's novel of the Académie 2022. This fiction relates the meeting with a character named Vadim Baranov, artist in the past, producer, and now eminence grise of Vladimir Putin. I am curious about this book as it won perhaps the most prestigious prize in 2022 in French literature, and because it shares similarities with real events and characters. Let's see.
4. History of Beauty, Umberto Eco
Gift I received trying to answer "What is Beauty?". The book tries to cover this question through time and across cultures.
5. History of Ugliness, Umberto Eco
One does not go without the other, so here is the version about the rest of the spectrum from the same author.
6. Talleyrand, the Immobile Prince, Emmanuel De Waresquiel
The limp devil, the vice himself. A biography about the man who is nicknamed the Prince of Diplomats. Orchestrating the rise and demises of almost every regime during the French Revolution, minister of foreign relations working secretly with the Tsar towards Napoleon's fall, and getting very wealthy along the way. This is one of the best biographies on Talleyrand from De Waresquiel which received high praise among his peers.
7. Diplomatic Stories: Yesterday's Lessons for Today's World, Gérard Araud
Former ambassador of France to the United States highlighting the end of the 'moment occidental' that the Western block experienced since the end of WW2. Many international customs need to be reinvented, and Mr. Araud goes over past diplomatic events to prepare the future.
As Sisyphus, the diplomat of any age and any country is sentenced in tirelessly trying to avoid the worst, this worst that men carry in themselves and particularly cherish when they can disguise morals into law.
8. Henry Kissinger, the Diplomat of the Century, Gérard Araud
Second book from Monsieur l'Ambassadeur. Henry Kissinger made his PhD thesis on Metternich, the master who shaped Europe in the XIXth century by being a prominent architect in the congress of Vienna and in the establishment of a concert of nations which avoided major wars between powers for a consequently long period of time until WW1 (omitting Prussia's wars towards German unification). Henry Kissinger is viewed as one of these giants, and I am very interested to see his successes and blunders from the eye of another major diplomat in the person of Mr. Araud.
9. The Dawn of Unicorns, Julie Girard
First novel from Ms. Girard. I saw very good critics from people I follow, and if they recommended this book, I believe it has something great to offer. It is a novel set in our modern times of tech, of a character Zack building mathematical models. I am intrigued by the synopsis because part of my booking background is sci-fi and post-modernist authors. Thus I am curious how this translates in a novel if I can relate myself with those elements and see a new shade of tech startups.
10. Pensées, Blaise Pascal
Did not own the book, so I went for a classic. Loved my last year of high school every time we mentioned him. A true genius across many disciplines that I can read without opening endless PDFs online. (No pressure.)
