French Culture

The year is 1919. Thirty years have passed since the man from Snowy River made his famous ride. But World War I still casts its shadow across a valley in the heart of Australia, particularly for orphaned 16-year-old Flinty McAlpine, who lost a brother when the Snowy River men marched away to war. Why has the man Flinty loves returned from the war so changed and distant? Why has her brother Andy "gone with cattle", leaving Flinty in charge of their younger brother and sister and with the threat of eviction from the farm she loves so dearly?

At the tender age of eight, chimney sweep Tom Appleby is convicted of stealing and sentenced to deportation to Botany Bay. As he sails out with the First Fleet, Tom sadly realises that he will never set foot on English ground again. Luckily, not long after Tom’s arrival in the colony, the fair and kind Sergeant Stanley decides to take on Tom as a servant. Together, Tom, Sergeant Stanley and his son, Rob, build a house, set up an orchard and a vegetable garden for themselves - and thrive, unlike many others in the new colony.

The bombs were falling and the smoke rising from the concentration camps, but all Hitler's daughter knew was the world of lessons with Fraulein Gelber and the hedgehogs she rescued from the cold. Was it just a story or did Hitler's daughter really exist? And If you were Hitler's daughter, would all the horror that occurred be your fault, too? Do things that happened a long time ago still matter?

Learn French with Short Stories is your passport to mastering French while enjoying the adventures of Clara. This book is not just a language guide; it's a gateway to experiencing the vibrancy of French culture and language through enthralling narratives.

It's 1972 in Gibber's Creek, and across the nation, the catchcry is "It's time". As political ideals drift from disaster to the dismissal, it's also time for Jed Kelly to choose between past love, Nicholas, the local Labor member, and Sam from the Halfway to Eternity commune. It's time, too, for Matilda Thompson to face her ghosts and the life that took a young girl from the slums of Grinder's Alley to being the formidable matriarch of Gibber's Creek. During this period of extraordinary social change and idealism, modern Australia would be born.

The year is 1942 and the world is at war. Nancy Clancy left school at 14 to spend a year droving, just like her grandfather Clancy of the Overflow. Now 16, Nancy's family has sent her to Malaya to bring home her sister-in-law Moira and baby nephew Gavin. Yet despite the threat of Japanese invasion, Moira resists, wanting to stay near her husband Ben. But not even Nancy of the Overflow can stop the fall of Singapore and the capture of so many Australian troops. When their ship is bombed, Nancy, Moira and Gavin are reported missing.

Sixteen-year-old Nipper and his Gallipoli mates Lanky, Spud, Bluey and Wallaby Joe are starving, freezing and ill-equipped. By November 1915 they know that that there is more to winning a war than courage. The Gallipoli campaign has been lost. Nipper has played cricket with the Turks in the opposing dugout, dodged rocket fire and rescued drowning, freezing men when the blizzard snow melted. He is one of the few trusted with the secret kept from even most of the officers: how an entire army will vanish from the Peninsula over three impeccably planned nights.

A little over 10 years ago, Janine Marsh and her husband gave up their careers in London to chase the good life in the countryside of northern France. Having overcome the obstacles of starting to renovate her dream home - an ancient, dilapidated barn - and fitting in with the peculiarities of the locals, Janine is now the go-to expat in the area for those seeking to get to grips with a very different way of life. In this book, Janine regales us with the delights and dramas of a year attempting to live the rural idyll.

Les histoires nous ont réunis. Les livres ont diffusé nos idées et nos mythologies. Internet nous a promis le savoir infini. Les algorithmes ont découvert nos secrets – et nous ont divisés. Quel monde nous promet l’IA ? Depuis cent mille ans, nous, les Sapiens, avons acquis un gigantesque pouvoir. Mais malgré nos découvertes, inventions et conquêtes, nous sommes aujourd’hui confrontés à une crise existentielle inédite. Le monde est au bord de l’effondrement écologique. Les tensions politiques se multiplient. La désinformation abonde.

Paul West, a young Englishman, arrives in Paris to start a new job and finds out what the French are really like. They do eat a lot of cheese, some of which smells like pigs' droppings. They don't wash their armpits with garlic soap. Going on strike really is the second national participation sport after petanque. And, yes, they do use suppositories.

From the palaces of Austria to the mirrored halls of Versailles, Marie Antoinette led a charmed life. She was born into royalty in 1755 and married the future king of France at age 15. By 21, she ascended to the throne and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle of masquerade balls, sky-high wigs, and extravagant food. But her taste for excess ruffled many feathers. The poor people of France blamed Marie Antoinette for their poverty. Her spending helped incite the French Revolution. And after much public outcry, in 1793 she quite literally lost her head because of it.

In the Shadow of the Moon tells the story of the most exciting and challenging years in spaceflight, with two superpowers engaged in a titanic struggle to land one of their own people on the moon. Drawing on interviews with astronauts, cosmonauts, their families, technicians, and scientists, as well as rarely seen Soviet and American government documents, the authors craft a remarkable story of the golden age of spaceflight as both an intimate human experience and a rollicking global adventure.

Journalist Maximillian Potter uncovers a fascinating plot to destroy the vines of La Romance-Conti, Burgundy's finest and most expensive wine. In January 2010, Aubert de Villaine, the famed proprietor of the Domaine de la Romance-Conti, the tiny, storied vineyard that produces the most expensive, exquisite wines in the world, received an anonymous note threatening the destruction of his priceless vines by poison - a crime that in the world of high-end wine is akin to murder - unless he paid a one million euro ransom.

Le diagnostic de John G. Miller sur le monde de l'entreprise est sans appel : une singulière absence de responsabilité personnelle mine la cohésion interne, pourrit l'atmosphère et, en définitive, sape les performances individuelles et collectives.

Alors que le progrès technologique a toujours été vu comme l'horizon d'une libération du travail, notre société moderne repose en grande partie sur l'aliénation de la majorité des employés de bureau. Beaucoup sont amenés à dédier leur vie à des tâches inutiles, sans réel intérêt et vides de sens, tout en ayant pleinement conscience de la superficialité de leur contribution à la société. C'est de ce paradoxe qu'est né et s'est répandu, sous la plume de David Graeber, le concept de "bullshit jobs" ou "jobs à la con", comme on les appelle en français.

Sous le regard émerveillé de leur fils, ils dansent sur "Mr. Bojangles" de Nina Simone. Leur amour est magique, vertigineux, une fête perpétuelle. Chez eux, il n'y a de place que pour le plaisir, la fantaisie et les amis. Celle qui donne le ton, qui mène le bal, c'est la mère, feu follet imprévisible et extravagant. C'est elle qui a adopté le quatrième membre de la famille, Mademoiselle Superfétatoire, un grand oiseau exotique qui déambule dans l'appartement.

Lang Lang started learning to play the piano when he was three years old in Shenyang, China. Today he is one of the world's most outstanding pianists. In this engrossing life story, adapted by Michael French, Lang Lang not only recounts the difficult, often thrilling, events of his early days, but also shares his perspective on his rapidly changing homeland.

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Butter has been told there are ghosts at the nearby isolated Howlers Beach, but are there? And how can the children Butter plays cricket with on the beach simply vanish? Who are these children and why do they refuse his help? Butter is certain they're hiding a secret and he's determined to uncover it.

"Le cœur de Simon migrait dans un autre endroit du pays, ses reins, son foie et ses poumons gagnaient d'autres provinces, ils filaient vers d'autres corps." "Réparer les vivants" est le roman d'une transplantation cardiaque. Telle une chanson de gestes, il tisse les présences et les espaces, les voix et les actes qui vont se relayer en vingt-quatre heures exactement. Roman de tension et de patience, d'accélérations paniques et de pauses méditatives, il trace une aventure métaphysique, à la fois collective et intime, où le cœur, au-delà de sa fonction organique, demeure le siège des affects et le symbole de l'amour.