100 Books Like The Age Of Conversation

I’ve read a lot of biographies of Simone de Beauvoir.

But this is the one that best brought out her importance as a philosopher, the many ways in which her thought differed from Sartre’s and the ways in which this has been obscured by a posterity that just wants to see her as his sidekick.

One thing that this book did for me that others on Beauvoir didn’t was to reconcile me with the unpleasant aspects of her life and relationships – she was human, she was flawed, but so were her male peers! 

When you read the incredible life of some people you don't really need to read fictional stories.

What a life Elisabeth Vigée - Le Brun had! It looks like a wonderful novel. She was a great French portrait painter (she painted 660 portraits!) during an age of revolution.

In 1778, at the age of 23, she painted her first portrait of Queen Marie Antoinette. 

Elisabeth Vigée- Le Brun became one of the rare woman to be member of the prestigious French Royal Academy of paintings. After being exploited by an unfaithful husband she had to face the French Revolution.

She left France and traveled to Europe until the cold and far away Russia. 

How much talent and energy did Elisabeth Vigée - Le Brun have to develop to be one of the best portraits painter of her time?

If you like art, the refined 18th century and audacious women, you… show more.

Maybe you don't know George Sand. 

You should meet her. She is a great woman. She is even the chapter four of my book written in French about 5 inspirational Parisian women.

Unfortunately my book is not translated in English yet. So in the meantime, don't miss this biography of George Sand, famous French writer from Romantic era who took a male nom de plume.

George Sand inspired Charlotte Brontë, she was lover and muse of Chopin and Alfred de Musset.

In the rigid 19th century she did not care to have younger lovers, to wear trousers, when it was illegal for women to wear trousers, and smoking cigars in public. How shocking!

If I tell you I'm coming from Roaring Twenties and I have fascinating conversations with great characters who lived in Paris in 1920s, you will maybe think I'm a bit weird. And you will be right.

That's my Parisian life. In front of a café crème at La Rotonde café in Montparnasse, I fight with Picasso and I flirt with the young Hemingway.

And my best friend is called Kiki de Montparnasse. I know how to choose my best friend. Kiki was friendly with a strong temper and beautiful. She posed for painters and sculpters whose art now costs a fortune.

And of course Kiki was elected queen of Montparnasse, the place where modern art was created and the navel of the world, according Henry Miller. And like Miller, Kiki's book was censured in USA because it was too spicy.

She even has an introduction written by Ernest Hemingway—a rare… show more.

I love how beautifully illustrated the Little People Big Dreams series is and how they follow important people in history through their childhood in a very inspiring, fun, and accessible way. They don’t run away from difficult topics, but they are very age-appropriate.

I have a lot of them, and they are brilliant in showing diversity in a lot of different ways and the world-changing impact of being brave and true to yourself. 

Jean-Marie Roland and Marie-Jeanne Phlipon (later Madame “Manon” Roland) were the Revolution’s power couple, their lives both entwined and contrasting with Robespierre’s. Their fascinating and tragic story, expertly researched and retold by Siân Reynolds, has much to tell us about the power and passions of the Revolution and the personal relationships at its heart. We also learn much about provincial life, parenthood, and a companionate marriage. The Rolands were initially political allies of Robespierre, and “Manon” sought to cultivate personal friendship with him, but their bitter falling-out would be fatal for them in November 1793 – and ultimately for Maximilien in July 1794.

Despite a keen interest in Paris, its history and arts, reading straight history books isn’t my thing.

I prefer to learn by reading narrative nonfiction that draws on historical events as does McCullough’s. He focuses on the period in Paris (1830-1900) when the City of Light was the center of culture, the time when American artists, doctors, writers, musicians, and politicians among others ventured across the Atlantic to gain inspiration and knowledge from living in Paris.

McCullough highlights stories of the famous such as Mary Cassatt, Samuel Morse, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, Oliver Wendell Holmes, as well as lesser-known folks, interweaving their lives with historical events. One surprise was how American physicians benefited greatly from their Parisian colleagues. Other remarkable accounts await you.

An expert in French fascism, Kaplan meticulously documents the career and the fate of the anti-Semitic, collaborationist novelist and journalist, Robert Brasillach. He was one of the few prominent intellectuals executed after the Liberation in France. His trial in late 1944 and execution in February 1945 put on the public stage the drama the country had just experienced: the Occupation, collaboration with the Nazis, the Resistance. As Kaplan presents it, Brasillach’s eloquent defense lawyer, the equally eloquent prosecutor, and Brasillach himself articulated the collision of visions of what it meant to be French and what it meant to be a patriot (or a traitor), arguments that still agitate France today. 

How does an American biographer write about a French philosopher and public intellectual who published copious memoirs of her own life, from girlhood to old age? The multi-talented Deirdre Bair succeeded in gaining access to the extraordinary Simone de Beauvoir and, supplemented by lengthy interviews over a five-year period and research in Beauvoir’s unpublished papers, produced a biography for the ages. In contrast to the biographies recommended above, the author had almost too much material to sift through, plus the challenge of writing about a living person. This is necessarily a fat book but one that is a “must-read.”

“On the morning of its first birthday, a baby was found floating in a cello case in the English Channel.” From the opening line this is a story you will fall in love with!  Sofie, the orphaned baby in the cello case, is rescued from a shipwreck by an elderly gentleman called Charles who decides to raise her himself. He does an excellent job and I adore Sofie’s bravery, her love of knowledge, and her passion for adventure. Certain that her mother is still alive, Sofie and Charles set off for Paris to look for her, believing that you “never ignore a possible.” This is a fabulous book about pursuing your dreams and the power of hope. Plus the writing is just gorgeous!