Tag: Paris

The Acts of Friendship.

Book Review for “Goodnight from Paris” by Jane Healey. Summary: "Paris, 1939. Hollywood actress Drue Leyton, married to Frenchman Jacques Tartière, lives as an expatriate in love. But when her husband is dispatched to Brittany to work as a liaison for the British military, Drue finds herself alone with her housekeeper, adrift and heartsick in … Continue reading The Acts of Friendship. →

Finding Nita.

Book Review for “The Direction of the Wind” by Mansi Shah. Summary: "Sophie Shah was six when she learned her mother, Nita, had died. For twenty-two years, she shouldered the burden of that loss. But when her father passes away, Sophie discovers a cache of hidden letters revealing a shattering truth: her mother didn’t die. … Continue reading Finding Nita. →

American Icon in Paris.

Book Review for “Jacqueline in Paris” by Ann Mah. Summary: "In August 1949 Jacqueline Bouvier arrives in postwar Paris to begin her junior year abroad. She’s twenty years old, socially poised but financially precarious, and all too aware of her mother’s expectations that she make a brilliant match. Before relenting to family pressure, she has … Continue reading American Icon in Paris. →

On the Prowl.

Book Review for “The Ghosts of Paris” by Tara Moss. Summary: "It's 1947. The world continues to grapple with the fallout of the Second World War, and former war reporter Billie Walker is finding her feet as an investigator. When a wealthy client hires Billie and her assistant Sam to track down her missing husband, … Continue reading On the Prowl. →

Sadly Hysterical.

Book Review for “City of Incurable Women” by Maud Casey. Summary: "“Where are the hysterics, those magnificent women of former times?” wrote Jacques Lacan. Long history’s ghosts, marginalized and dispossessed due to their gender and class, they are reimagined by Maud Casey as complex, flesh-and-blood people with stories to tell. These linked, evocative prose portraits, … Continue reading Sadly Hysterical. →

The Incomparable One.

Book Review for “The First Actress” by C. W. Gortner. Summary: "The tumultuous life of the legendary French star Sarah Bernhardt--the world's first modern actress and international celebrity--dazzles in this stunning novel for readers of Love and Ruin and Mistress of the Ritz. From her beginnings as the daughter of a high-class courtesan to her … Continue reading The Incomparable One. →

A Fashion of Fighting.

Book Review for “Sisters of the Resistance” by Christine Wells. Summary: "France, 1944: The Nazis still occupy Paris, and twenty-five-year-old Gabby Foucher hates these enemies, though, as the concierge of ten rue Royale, she makes it a point to avoid trouble, unlike her sister Yvette. Until she, like her sister, is recruited into the Resistance … Continue reading A Fashion of Fighting. →

Reading French History.

Book Review for “The Paris Library” by Janet Skeslien Charles. Summary: “Paris, 1939: Young and ambitious Odile Souchet has it all: her handsome police officer beau and a dream job at the American Library in Paris. When the Nazis march into Paris, Odile stands to lose everything she holds dear, including her beloved library. Together … Continue reading Reading French History. →

Breaking the Broadcasts.

Book Review for “The Lost Girls of Paris” by Pam Jenoff. In the last years of WWII, the UK set into motion a plan to send people into Nazi occupied France where they would work as couriers in situ for the resistance and allied forces, or send vital information, by special coded radio transmissions, back … Continue reading Breaking the Broadcasts. →