Tag: France

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Living, aging; what are you doing?

I am tired of seeing and hearing the word aging.

Living, people, that is what we are here to do.

I am living in France since late August after 875 fabulous days of living in Spain.

I came here to represent the Office of the President at The American College of the Mediterranean and I am glad I did.

Some days ago, I began reading the notebooks in which I wrote and drew during the Barcelona days. It’s wonderful to be inspired by that Marianne who dared to return to Spain without knowing how it would all work out.

Aix is inspiring me, too.

I popped in to say HI – (my new abbreviation for Human Intelligence).

Since I began working at ACM-IAU aka The American College of the Mediterranean-Institute d’Universités Americains, life has been filled with newness and learning. Less posting, too.

I love to put together images to share with you, and that takes time, and today I will post with less images than I would like, because I want to post something.

Still writing.

Still heartened to see Lucy, go see. and I am home. moving in the world, being read, talked about. Still dreaming about translations and films.

Repeating the phrase Je veux encore jouer daily.

Sketching, snapshotting, looking at it all.

Also working on the delicious project of tasting and ranking French desserts.

Doors, stone heads, shafts and splashes of light. Virgin vines (les vignes vierges have a different translation, but I like this one). I enjoy these things and so much more in Aix.

It’s a curlicue place. Water running everywhere under the surface, making man-made structures lopsided, floors curvy. Immense plane trees, pines, cypress, walnuts, chestnuts. Ochre stone, a city chock-full of centuries of stories. Heads were chopped off here in a beautiful plaza in front of a church and stone heads adorn intricately carved wooden majestic doors. Places fit for royalty, archbishops.

Strange note to end on but there it is, thought about constantly as I walk through the city-center’s labrynth of wonder.

Here’s a slide show for you, quickly clicked together. A smattering. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for your attention. Love, Marianne

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I am home. for Christmas, on Main Street, at River Lights in Dubuque.

Stop in at River Lights and do all your Christmas shopping this year. This is one of my favorite bookstores in the world. It’s about more than books, just like books are. Find great gift ideas in every corner of the store and enjoy the warm and welcome atmosphere. I am thrilled that I am home. is on the shelves in this place where I feel very much at home. The setting for I am home., this non-fiction tale, is Dubuque, Key West, and many other places in Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, and across the United States of America. You can also travel to Iceland, France, and Spain within. It’s a story that shows it is possible to go home again, and to leave home again, and to carry it with you always, and have a great time doing it despite all the challenges. You will laugh and you will cry. And maybe even think about things in a different way. It is a gift of light and love, this book, and thus fits with the season.

After you leave the bookstore with all your Christmas shopping in the bag, stop and enjoy other great places nearby like L. May Eatery, Salsa’s Mexican Restaurant , and Jitterz, where I wrote a lot, and had great conversations. I miss all that. I’ll be back.

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I am home. in the library.

Sweet news via Chez Soi Press. I love knowing I am home. will be on the shelf in the Iowa City Public Library, one of the many places where I worked on it.

I moved to Iowa City from Chicago with a first draft completed (started in Dubuque and written throughout the Midwest, Iceland, France, and Spain then completed in Chicago on a fine day in May, hours before I did a reading and presentation of Lucy, go see. at the wonderful 3rd Coast Café).

When I left Iowa City nine months later to move to Los Angeles, the fifth, or was it the sixth, or maybe the seventh? draft went with me. Anyway, there were more drafts to come until I finished it there on the Pacific with the Angels. And here I am with the fox in Barcelona. We made it this far home.

Available wherever books are sold.

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P.S. – If you have wondered what Chez Soi means, it is French for At home. And it is pronounced shay-swa.

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I am home. in La Rochelle, France.

Chère Marianne,

J’ai fini la lecture de ton livre que j’ai beaucoup aimé pour différentes raisons.

It’s a real journey for the reader, who really gets to experience what the narrator feels and goes through.

It is full of sensations, sensations of nature, sensations of water, of light, sensations of the body

The narrator is very generous in sharing what she feels, her vulnerability, her strengths–

I felt close to the other characters, the son, the father, the mother. I liked her a lot, she is so special, with such a nice spirit, sense of humor. I was very moved and touched all through the reading and of course at the end. It made me think about my mother and I wanted to be as good as the narrator is, to her.

The relations with men are also very interesting.

Also, the fact that the son is a man too, and is going to be another kind of man because he had such a great mother.

I really liked what the narrator says about the wound, this passage where she shares her research/work is very interesting.

I would very much like to read the thesis! If there is a possibility to read it?

So, wouaw, reading this book, Marianne, made me experience a bit of your experience and helped me grow as well. It is really a good book, that gives strength–strength to be vulnerable, strength to be what you want to be in life, strength to be free.

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#home in #La Rochelle, #France #goodbook #beauty #wonder#joy #grief #adventure #remembrance #moving #touching #travel #bookrecommendation

this message from author Astrid de Laage (https://www.grasset.fr/…/de-la-main-dune-femme…

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I am home. on the Mississippi.

I am home. resting between tastings amid beauty in a home overlooking a beloved American river in the Upper Mississippi Valley. #goodbooks #bookstagram #bookstoread #bookrecommendation #mississippi #riverlife #beauty #wonderful_places #joy #grief #adventure #travel #iowahomeland #iowa #france #spain #iceland #midwest #midweststories #worldstories #philosophy #love #barcelonalovers

Available in hardcover and paperback wherever books are sold.

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I am home. in Paris.

I am home. in Paris with Patricia! The book opens in Paris 🎠 Patricia finds the book #inspiring #lyrical and #poetic and enjoys the constant presence of nature in its pages. She honors it by calling this #remembrance a pastoral #masterpiece! Thank you @triciakilleen ❤️🥂💐#bookrecommendations#greatbook#nonfiction#kaleidoscope#love#grief#beauty#wonder#joy#paris#france#reading#travel#home

“Friend and author Marianne Maili’s I am home. is a page-turner and inspirational in describing both her life and the accessible pleasures open to us all if we are mindful enough to accept life’s gifts sprinkled among its challenges. Her lyrical and poetic depictions of nature–constantly present on the pages–place Maili’s memoir among pastoral as well as memoir masterpieces. Her previous award-winning novel, Lucy, go see. is also a must-read.”

Available in hardcover and paperback wherever books are sold.

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