Bestsellers Around the World: France

 

Once upon a time I had an infrequent feature called Bestsellers Around the World where I would take a look at the bestsellers from a country and see what caught my interest, particularly when I compared it to Australian lists. These days it is even more infrequent as it is something that I save for Paris in July! So, here is this week's bestsellers in France, based on the list from Sens Critique for the week from July 6 to 12.

1 Le Diner (The Dinner Party): A Pick Your Poison Adventure by Freida McFadden

2 La Prof (The Professor) by Freida McFadden

3 Les heures fragiles (Fragile Hours) by Virginie Grimaldi

4 Tata by Valerie Perrin 

5 Un lieu a soi (A room of One's Own) by Virginia Woolf

6 Tout le monde aime Clara (Everyone Loves Clara) by David Foenkinos

7 Quelqu'un d'autre (Someone Else) by Guillaume Musso

8 L'intruse (The Intruder) by Frieda McFadden

9 D'autres printemps (Other Springs) by Virginie Grimaldi

10 A Retardement (Delayed ) by Franck Thilliez

Freida McFadden has really dominated the bestsellers lists over the last couple of years when I have done these posts. I was surprised to see that the number one was a short story though, and it is not one I remember hearing about but that maybe because I don't really read her genre. I did recently read one of her books and I liked it. Just not rushing out to read another one really.

I was surprised when Virginie Grimaldi wasn't on the list last year but she is back with two novels in the top ten this year! I read one of her books a couple of years ago and really liked it. I am tempted to read more, but there are none available in my library system (which isn't really that surprising) and some of her translated novels are more than $30 on Kindle which is too much! 

I own Tata and was hoping to get it read for Paris in July this year but I am rapidly running out of time. I did read Like Water for Flowers for last years Paris in July and really liked it. I think I now have three of her novels waiting for me!

I thought it was interesting to see Virginia Woolf on the list. Seeing it makes me wonder about what has bought it back into the spotlight in France

Franck Thilliez has appeared on a lot of the lists over the years. Delayed was on the list last year so this book has a lot of staying power!

Often when I look at the Australian list there is some crossover, even if it is for an author like Frieda McFadden, but there was none this year!

Previous French lists

2025

2024

2023

2022

2020

I am sharing this with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Hopewell's Library.

This week....

I'm reading

Melbourne weather is notoriously fickle and we have had some really,really hot days this week with more to come. This week it just so happened that I picked up two books set in the Arctic area of the northern hemisphere, so plenty of snow and ice to cool the brain. The first of those books was The Arctic Cruise by Caroline James. Our characters sailed north to Norway chasing the Northern Lights. It was a fun read. (my review)

Then my thoughts turned to France and pastries when I read The Boulangerie on the Corner by Susan Buchanan. As I stated at the beginning of my review...you had me at boulangerie!

I stepped a bit outside of my normal reading this week and read The Housemaid by Freida McFadden. I don't normally read these kinds of psychological thrillers. I picked it up because a friend of mine recently told me that McFadden is her favourite author, and I have noticed how her books are dominated the best sellers lists around the world! Having now read one of her books, I can see why. It was gripping, twisty and turny and definitely made me want to find out what happens next. I have requested the next book from the library but there is a bit of a wait.

Finally, I started Us Against You by Fredrik Backman, which is set in a small town in Sweden. This is the second book in the Beartown trilogy and I'm enjoying it very much. I can't wait to pick it up again today.

I'm watching


I watched the first episode of the Irish show, The Walsh Sisters, which is based on the Marian Keyes books. I wasn't really sure what to make of the first episode. There was lots of drama, but I guess I always think of Marian Keyes as being funny while she tackles heavy issues. I am not sure I got the funny yet. I will keep watching too see if it picks up or not.

Recently, it was announced that the best selling books in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series are being made into a TV series. I thought that it was probably about time that I watched the movie version which was made back in 2018, which is called Cafe Funiculi Funicula. I enjoyed it,, and liked the way that they depicted the person going back in time. It was a bit different to the book, which I guess is to be expected. I liked it, but I am not 100% sure it would have made a lot of sense if I didn't already read the series.

Here's the trailer

Life


It's a long weekend here for Australia Day. It is a bit of contentious holiday. It's not because people aren't proud to be Australian and love our great country, but the date of 26 January is seen as being harmful for indigenous Australians as it represents the day that the British came and took their land and so many of their people in the following years. I would be quite happy to see the date changed to another date that is less painful. It's been changed before and it can be changed again. I am, however, happy to have the additional day off. Work has been pretty stressful so I am grateful for the chance for one extra day to just do not much, especially seeing as we have had some pretty hot days

With the heat comes the threat of fires. Whilst I have never been close to being threatened by a really big fire, I do hate the days that you wake up and all you can smell is the lingering smoke from fires in other parts of the state. It was like that yesterday morning.

Max


Poor Maxxie boy has an eye infection so he looks a bit rough at the moment. It is getting better slowly though. You can also see how bad his blindness is getting. He is, however, still a happy boy. We will see if there is anything that can be done for him this year. With all his other health issues though we are just taking it one condition at a time!

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Goals

Blog Tour: The Croatian Island Library by Eva Glyn

Blog Tour: The Arctic Circle by Caroline James

Weekend Cooking: The Sweet Life Café by Helen Rolfe

Weekend Cooking: The Boulangerie on the Corner by Susan Buchanan

Sunday Salon: 2025 Year in Review



I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date, Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and the Good Book and a Cup of Tea link up hosted at Boondock Ramblings

Sunday Salon/Paris in July: Bestsellers around the world - France

Once upon a time I had an infrequent feature called Bestsellers Around the World. The idea was that I would take a look at the bestsellers list for that week and compare it to the Australian bestsellers list. It turned out it could be quite challenging and so despite my best intentions I haven't kept it going, although I do roll it out every now and again, particularly for Paris in July.It's not always easy to find current lists that are accessible but I try!

Here are the books the readers of France are reading at the moment based on the bestseller list at Sens Critique! Please note that according to the website the last time this list was updated was in May but it was still the easiest site to navigate when trying to collate a list

La Psy (Never Lie) by Frieda McFadden

La Femme de Menage (The Housemaid) by Frieda McFadden

Les Secrets de la femme de menage (The Housemaid's Secret) by Freida McFadden

Lakestone, tome 2 by Sarah Rivens

A retardement by Franck Thilliez - The title translates to Delayed

La Prof (The Teacher) by Freida McFadden

L'Heure des predateurs by Giuliano da Empoli - Title translates to Hour of the Predators

Norferville by Franck Thilliez

Interieur nuit by Nicolas Demorand - Translates to Interior Night

La femme de meage voit tout by Frieda McFadden - I am not entirely sure which book this is. The title translates as The Cleaning Lady Sees Everything so maybe it is another edition of The Housemaid.


Some observations.

On the lists that I found that were up to date, Frieda McFadden is absolutely dominating the best seller lists in France. When I looked at the lists for Australia for this week, we had two books by her in the top 10 as well.

Franck Thilliez is an author who you consistently see on these lists. It did surprise me that there wasn't a Joel Dicker on the list for this year though.

Just outside the top ten is Maud Ankaoua. This author has had books on the bestseller lists for a number of years now, with the exception of 2024. Her tagline on her website is The novelist who brings us back to the essentials, which sounds like good reading to me.

Interesting, Anna Stuart has two books in the top 20 first with her book La Sage-Femme d'Auschwitz and then with La Sage-Femme de Berlin which have the English titles of The Midwife of Auschwitz and The Midwife of Berlin. Last year her Auschwitz book was number 1 on the list. Whilst there is obviously a strong interest in WWII history around the world, it is surprising to me that it is this author that has such consistently strong results in France. I am going to see if I can get some of her books to read.

When I look back on my previous lists, it is interesting to note that this is the first year since I started doing this 5 years ago that there has been no book by Virginie Grimaldi featured. I did enjoy the one book I read in English by her, so I will try and read more from her. There were also no books by Melissa da Costa whose books I haven't been able to find in English. She also regularly appears on this list.

On a couple of the other extended lists I found, Lucinda Riley's Seven Sisters series was doing very well.

Does anything on this list surprise you?