This is a big week! Not only is my sister coming to visit for the first time since I’ve lived here (a decade, people), but I am hosting the very first Facebook Live on the Lost in Cheeseland Facebook page! I’m extremely excited to chat with Lauren Collins, a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of “When in French: Love in a Second Language“ which landed on bookshelves TODAY.

To say I am enamored with Lauren’s book is putting it mildly. While she is known for reporting on subjects ranging from Michelle Obama to the political undertones at the Salon de l’Agriculture in Paris, she turned her attention to a much more personal story — her own journey from North Carolina, to London (where she met her French husband Olivier) and to Geneva, where they lived for several years before arriving in Paris. It is at once a hysterical account of the seemingly endless series of hurdles, adjustments, sacrifices and head-scratching moments inherent to expat life and an edifying look at the linguistic implications that run through all of them. She explores identity formation across cultures with an abiding focus on language (and even linguistic theory) — the ways in which it shapes us, why it matters, and how learning a new one can be both a source of tremendous accomplishment and crippling self-doubt (and that’s saying nothing about how infantilizing the process of language acquisition can be). It’s laugh-out-loud funny and resonated with me from the very first page. I know you will enjoy it as much as I did.

I have lots of questions for Lauren and I hope you’ll tune in to the live chat to hear her answers!

FACEBOOK LIVE WITH LAUREN COLLINS
4PM CET
www.facebook.com/lostincheeseland

WIN A COPY OF “WHEN IN FRENCH”
Want your own copy to highlight (that’s what I did, can’t give mine away!)? Enter my giveaway by filling in your information HERE.