... the books would also all fit for the challenges, but it's all purely by chance.

Simone Bertière's newest, described in her intro as a "light and fun-to-write little book", now in paperback: Dumas et les Mousquetaires - histoire d'un chef-d'oeuvre" , a short history of the writing of Dumas's trilogy (and the origins of the Roman-feuilleton "genre", doubled by her original analysis of the three novels through the eyes of an historian specialist of the times in which the books are set, and even more a specialist of the central figures Dumas has turned into characters (from Retz to Mazarin, Anne d'Autriche to Louise de Lavallière, Bertière has written history books or biographies on each of those people).

I might try to review this one in more details once I've finished, as I guess a few like Camilla and Legolas who like both this French historian and the subject of the new book, might be interested in picking that one eventually.

Umberto Eco's Il Cimitero di Praga (Le Cimetière de Prague in French, coming out in English toward the end of 2011 as Prague's Cemetary).

Eco's new novel, and his attempt at, or perhaps more accurately nod to... roman-feuilleton (and of course Eco couldn't resist turning Alexandre Dumas himself into a feuilleton character...) set in some of the revolutionary (or pre-revolutionary) hotbeds of late 19th century Europe.

I've thrown down a few notes and comments on paper as I read, so I'll almost certainly review it soon. I was reminded while reading it of some old discussions on Eco and Dumas held with Larry and, I think, Tom during the Monte-Cristo read-through. Many things relate to opinions/comments/analysis Eco has made in those previous essays (and novels) that were brought up during that discussion.

I'm about two-thirds into it and the months just begins, so I'll follow it up afterward with a Spanish best-seller by Felix J. Palma: El Mapa del Tiempo" (again, forthcoming only in English for now, coming out in mid 2011 as "The Map of Time", winner of quite a few literary prizes already and called on the cover "a masterpiece by the most brilliant and original of the contemporary Spanish writers", but it's rather the story blurb that made me buy it.

(I summarize it) : In London of 1896, the Murray Time Travel Agency offers the public to come discover the fourth dimension, namely the year 2000, to the deep scepticism and great suspicions of writer H.G. Wells, who doubts such voyages are more than the subject of science-fiction novels. But not Andrew Harrington, the young lover of the Ripper's last prostitute victim who sees an opportunity in that to prevent her murder, or of young Claire who envisions a passionate life and starts a correspondance with a XXth century man. And soon H.G. Wells's doubts must be confronted - as Henry James, Bram Stocker and him must team up in the face of the somber plots of a mysterious individual attempting to steal from them the manuscripts of the works that would one day make them famous. "A new angle on the theme of time travel, anchored in a mythical London, the book explores in the manner of French roman-feuilleton the many traps of time and the powers of writing.". That sounds like WAY too much fun for me to pass it up despite having heard nothing of the book or the writer beforehand, and despite some vague genre and times connections, it sounds like it will be a nice change of pace and mood after the Eco.