We are excited to present our new blog of the season. Thirsty for French reads this summer? Look no further, we have concocted a quirky literary cocktail of French books (in French and in translation), just for you. Each week, we will post thematic lists of great titles so you can let your bookworming desires run wild. Too hot, too cold, too angry, too quiet, too busy, too lonely? We have the solutions here! Fun, fear and passion await.

Don't miss our first list "Just for Kicks" and the second one "Candy Crush Thrown Away for Reads on the Subway"!

Discover a brief preview of the events for the Fall 2014:

-The opening of a bookshop solely devoted to works in French and in translation, offering more than 15,000 titles in genres ranging from literature, non-fiction, and children’s books, to art books and comic books. A five-day literary festival in the early fall will celebrate the opening.

-Minds in Migration: a series of events on philosophy, featuring interdisciplinary panels of artists, fiction writers, movie directors, etc. Non-fiction books translated from the French and recently published in the U.S. will be discussed. September 22nd, 2014 - April, 2015.

-Critic & Create: a magazine, journal and review symposium. November, 7-8th, 2014.

-Authors on Tour: Barbara Cassin (October, 12-20), Lola Lafon (October 13-26), Arthur de Pins (October 13-24), Marc Crépon (October 23-November 4), Oliver Rohe (October 30-November 14), Philippe Vasset (November), Marie-Laure Cruschi (November), Françoise Vergès (November 10-22).

With only 1% of fiction in translation in the U.S., quite a few books (not only French) remain unknown to the American audience. We have compiled an extensive list of the latest award-winning French fiction and non-fiction books to be one day (hopefully soon) translated by American publishers.

This last French Fiction Fridays of the season deals with growing pains. Young author Faïza Guène draws portraits of characters afraid of the ticking clock and social constraints keeping them from growing up as what they aspire to become. Lola Lafon's fairy-like gymnast Nadia Comaneci is petrified at the idea of having to grow up and destroying the myth she has become. Time-flying phobics, be warned!

Our latest My French Library is on Jeremy Mercer and his, as he calls it, "gleam" in the eye for several translation babies. On his dream list: Madeleine Kahn's L'Echarde, awarded the Prix Littré in 2001 (Editions des Ecrivains); Frédéric Lenoir’s Le Christ philosophe (Points, 2014); and Images de Pensée co-authored by Marie-Haude Caraës and Nicole Marchand-Zanartu (RMN, 2011).

The Book Department of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy works with FACE (French American Cultural Exchange), the Institut français and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote French and Francophone literature and to encourage English translations of French fiction and non-fiction. The French Voices Award honors both translators and American publishers for English translations of works that have been published in France in the last 6 years. Award recipients are selected by a literary committee. Each book receives $6,000. The submissions are open for our next 2014 fall session!

The deadline for the second 2014 session is August 29th, 2014.
(Expected date of printing: no sooner than March 2015 for the upcoming session.)

At once an affectionate portrait of mid-century Paris and a daring pointillist autobiography, I Remember is the last of Georges Perec's major works to be translated into English. Consisting of 480 numbered statements, all beginning identically with "I remember," and all limited to pieces of public knowledge, the book represents a secret key to the world of Perec's fiction.

Anna Banana can't settle down tonight, even though her stuffed animal friends are tired and just want to sleep. They suffer through delay after delay and excuse after excuse, until Anna Banana is finally sleepy. And then . . . it's time for their revenge! Anna Banana is about to get a taste of her own medicine.

The long-awaited English-language translation of Hervé Guibert’s arresting journals kept from 1976–1991 forecasts the writing of a novel. Sensual exigencies and the forms of address in "The Mausoleum of Lovers" are often compared to Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse.