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Melanie Frances

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Melanie Frances

ŷ Author


Born
in Paris, France
October 18, 1972

Website

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Genre

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Member Since
January 2012

URL


Mélanie Francès was born in Paris, France, in 1972. She grew up in France, but lived for four years in New Delhi, India, as a child. As a college student, she discovered her gift for writing and developed an interest in the arts and American literature. She later moved to Montreal, Canada to pursue her graduate studies at Concordia University and obtained an M.A. Degree in English and Creative Writing. In 2001, she published her first chapbook of poetry, The World is in your Head, with Ginninderra Press in Australia. She now lives in Maryland where she is currently working on her first novel about the immigrant experience and the birth of the movies at the beginning of the century in the USA. She is the founder of the website "My Book Hunte ...more

Why do I read?

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to read for me these days.

Since I had my son Noah in 2015, my feverish days of non-stop reading and devouring books one after the other have long gone. My time is shared with this fiery (and often exhausting) little being, whose development and experience of life requires my attention and love with a ferocity and immediacy that is something to behold.

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Published on April 28, 2021 11:38
Average rating: 3.67 · 261 ratings · 40 reviews · 6 distinct worksSimilar authors
Sherlock Holmes Escape Book...

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3.71 avg rating — 118 ratings — published 2021 — 2 editions
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Sherlock Holmes Escape Book...

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3.60 avg rating — 77 ratings2 editions
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Sherlock Holmes Escape Book...

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3.35 avg rating — 40 ratings2 editions
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Anatomy of a Love Affair: (...

4.41 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 2008
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The Alcatraz Escape Book: S...

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2.67 avg rating — 3 ratings
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Sherlock Escape Book Museum

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liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating
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The Narrow Road t...
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Melanie’s Recent Updates

Melanie is on page 258 of 334 of The Narrow Road to the Deep North
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
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Melanie made a comment on her review of The Antidote
The Antidote by Karen Russell
" @Ellen-Arwen It’s a riveting and highly original novel! "
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The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
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“What was joy, anyway. What was the worth of happiness that left behind a crater thrice the size of its impact. What did people who spoke of joy know of what it meant, to sleep and dream only of the whistle of planes and knocks at the door and on win ...more
Melanie rated a book it was amazing
Lion by Sonya Walger
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“It is hard to compete with adrenaline when you are a child. Children are the opposite of adrenaline. They are routine, grinding, and inexorable repetition. Any parent knows this. Adrenaline is the tingling of freedom in the wrists, the immanence of ...more
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Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks
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“In the novel “Tom Lake�, Ann Patchett’s protagonist observes: “I know the suffering exists beside wet grass and a bright blue sky recently scrubbed by rain. The beauty and the suffering are equally true.”�
~ Geraldine Brooks

I’ve told you this before
...more
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Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
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“Wombats have a thing they do in fires. They take their families underground, into their burrows. They have tunnels under the earth, and they go down there to take shelter, but they don’t just take their families, they also take other animals down th ...more
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The Antidote by Karen Russell
The Antidote
by Karen Russell (ŷ Author)
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“What Zintka was telling me was not a tragic story but a triumphant one, or else it was both and neither, it was a great braid of times and tones, it was her very life pushing at the seams of what could be told as a story. I heard her strength, her l ...more
Melanie rated a book it was amazing
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
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“What was joy, anyway. What was the worth of happiness that left behind a crater thrice the size of its impact. What did people who spoke of joy know of what it meant, to sleep and dream only of the whistle of planes and knocks at the door and on win ...more
Melanie rated a book it was amazing
Lion by Sonya Walger
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“It is hard to compete with adrenaline when you are a child. Children are the opposite of adrenaline. They are routine, grinding, and inexorable repetition. Any parent knows this. Adrenaline is the tingling of freedom in the wrists, the immanence of ...more
Melanie made a comment on her review of Wild Dark Shore
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
" @Karen Yes, I know what you mean! This one stays with you! "
More of Melanie's books…
Quotes by Melanie Frances  (?)
Quotes are added by the ŷ community and are not verified by ŷ.

“I always thought, or imagined, that there were these invisible lines trembling in our wake, outlining our trajectories through life, throbbing with electric energy. Lines that sometimes cross one other, or follow in parallel ellipses without ever touching, or meet up for one brief moment and then part. A universe of lines crisscrossing in the void.”
Melanie Frances

“No truth can cure the sorrow we feel from losing a loved one. No truth, no sincerity, no strength, no kindness can cure that sorrow. All we can do is see it through to the end and learn something from it, but what we learn will be no help in facing the next sorrow that comes to us without warning.”
Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“What happens when people open their hearts?"
"They get better.”
Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it's time for them to be hurt.”
Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“You fight your superficiality, your shallowness, so as to try to come at people without unreal expectations, without an overload of bias or hope or arrogance, as untanklike as you can be, sans cannon and machine guns and steel plating half a foot thick; you come at them unmenacingly on your own ten toes instead of tearing up the turf with your caterpillar treads, take them on with an open mind, as equals, man to man, as we used to say, and yet you never fail to get them wrong. You might as well have the brain of a tank. You get them wrong before you meet them, while you're anticipating meeting them; you get them wrong while you're with them; and then you go home to tell somebody else about the meeting and you get them all wrong again. Since the same generally goes for them with you, the whole thing is really a dazzling illusion. ... The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It's getting them wrong that is living, getting them wrong and wrong and wrong and then, on careful reconsideration, getting them wrong again. That's how we know we're alive: we're wrong. Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that -- well, lucky you.”
Philip Roth, American Pastoral

“Every reader, as he reads, is actually the reader of himself. The writer's work is only a kind of optical instrument he provides the reader so he can discern what he might never have seen in himself without this book. The reader's recognition in himself of what the book says is the proof of the book's truth.”
Marcel Proust, Time Regained

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Comments (showing 1-24)    post a comment »
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message 24: by Melanie

Melanie Ted wrote: "Hi Melanie, I just noticed it is your birthday today!. Please accept my good wishes, and I do hope it is a special day for you!

Ted"


Thank you so much Ted! It was a pretty good day! :)


message 23: by Ted

Ted Hi Melanie, I just noticed it is your birthday today!. Please accept my good wishes, and I do hope it is a special day for you!

Ted


message 22: by Melanie

Melanie Andrew wrote: "Merci pour la demande de m'ajouter! Votre roman me paraît intéressant..."

Merci d'avoir accepté ma demande! :)


message 21: by Andrew

Andrew Schirmer Merci pour la demande de m'ajouter! Votre roman me paraît intéressant...


message 20: by flo

flo Thanks for the friend request, Melanie!


message 19: by Marieke

Marieke Nice to meet you, Melanie!


message 18: by Lisa

Lisa Thanks for the friend request! Looking forward to exploring books with you.


message 17: by Kim

Kim Thank you so much for the friendship request, Melanie. I look forward to reading your reviews and getting to know you through books. We have some great books and some great friends in common.


message 16: by Aloha

Aloha Hi Melanie. Thank you for the friend invite. Your exposure to diverse cultures is great! I'm thankful that my childhood in Asia made me understand the difference and similarity of varying cultures.


message 15: by Deepthi

Deepthi Thanks for the friend request, Melanie! :)


message 14: by Rakhi

Rakhi Dalal Thanks for the invite,Melanie! Looking forward to discussing and sharing with you :)


message 13: by Sue

Sue Thanks for the friend request. I'm looking forward to reading Zadie Smith and to taking a look at your shelves for even more ideas!


message 12: by Melanie

Melanie s.penkevich wrote: "Thank you so very much for the friend request. You have a wonderful taste in books!"

Thanks! Really looking forward to your reviews as well!


s.penkevich Thank you so very much for the friend request. You have a wonderful taste in books!


message 10: by Melanie

Melanie Megha wrote: "Hey Melanie, thanks for the friend invite. I am enjoying Gracq's writing a lot, he write mesmerizing descriptions.

India!! How was your stay there? Which places did you visit?"


Yes, Gracq is quite mesmerizing. It must be such an interesting thing to see what the English translation feels like. His language is like water. :)

I lived in New Delhi and only visited Jaipur and Agra. My father's the one who traveled a lot. He was a foreign correspondent there. :)


Melanie Selim wrote: "Thanks for the request, Melanie! Your book is now on my to-read list. Hopefully I'll around to it soon. Looking forward to bookish discussions with you on here."

Oh, that's too kind of you! I don't even know if the Irish publisher has any copies left but you might be lucky. If you do get around to it, I would love to know your thoughts and impressions. :)


message 8: by Megha

Megha Hey Melanie, thanks for the friend invite. I am enjoying Gracq's writing a lot, he write mesmerizing descriptions.

India!! How was your stay there? Which places did you visit?


message 7: by Selim

Selim Njeim Thanks for the request, Melanie! Your book is now on my to-read list. Hopefully I'll around to it soon. Looking forward to bookish discussions with you on here.


Dolors Hey there!
Thanks for the friend invite, I look forward to reading both your reviews and your comments.


Melanie Cathleen wrote: "Dear Melanie,
Thank you for the friend request. You read such interesting books; I'll look forward to chatting about books with you.
Best wishes,
Cathleen"


Thanks Cathleen! I look forward to seeing your books and reading your reviews too. :)


Cathleen Dear Melanie,
Thank you for the friend request. You read such interesting books; I'll look forward to chatting about books with you.
Best wishes,
Cathleen


Cynthia Dunn Thanks for the friend request, Melanie. I'm happy to join Kris in getting to know you.


message 2: by Kris

Kris Melanie, thank you so much for your kind friend request. I've been following you for a while, and love your taste in books. Looking forward to getting to know you better!


Kalliope Thank you for the Friend request, Melanie.

I look forward to reading your reviews and book comments.


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