jennbairos's review
5.0
Edited by Eleanor Brown (The Light of Paris), A Paris All Your Own is a charming collection of 18 Paris-themed essays written by bestselling female authors who have each published novels set in the City of Light. Authors like Paula McLean - The Paris Wife, Julie Powell - Julie and Julia, and Michelle Gable - A Paris Apartment.
In this anthology each woman was asked to share their own personal stories of Paris.
And Paris, with all of her sophistication and experience, is not a simple city. She is kind to some and not to others.
There were romantic stories solidifying our understanding of why Paris is the city of romance and love, and then other stories that pretty much went the way you'd imagine them to go if you were thinking about dragging sleepy teens around Paris.
Apart from allowing me to daydream about my next trip Paris, I really enjoyed learning about the research phase of the writing process many of the authors described. Some visited the city before writing, some while writing, and others didn't visit until after their books were complete. Nonetheless, it was fascinating to learn about the role that Paris played in their lives and in their careers.
As a final bonus, upon reading A Paris All Your Own, you instantly have the titles of more than 18 Paris-themed books by these authors to add to your "to be read" list! Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler, is one of the new titles I'm interested in checking out.
Whether you've travelled previously to Paris or not, you will love to visit it from the coziness of your own home through A Paris All Your Own.
Disclaimer - I received a complementary copy of A Paris All Your Own from Penguin Random House Canada. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.
In this anthology each woman was asked to share their own personal stories of Paris.
And Paris, with all of her sophistication and experience, is not a simple city. She is kind to some and not to others.
There were romantic stories solidifying our understanding of why Paris is the city of romance and love, and then other stories that pretty much went the way you'd imagine them to go if you were thinking about dragging sleepy teens around Paris.
Apart from allowing me to daydream about my next trip Paris, I really enjoyed learning about the research phase of the writing process many of the authors described. Some visited the city before writing, some while writing, and others didn't visit until after their books were complete. Nonetheless, it was fascinating to learn about the role that Paris played in their lives and in their careers.
As a final bonus, upon reading A Paris All Your Own, you instantly have the titles of more than 18 Paris-themed books by these authors to add to your "to be read" list! Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler, is one of the new titles I'm interested in checking out.
Whether you've travelled previously to Paris or not, you will love to visit it from the coziness of your own home through A Paris All Your Own.
Disclaimer - I received a complementary copy of A Paris All Your Own from Penguin Random House Canada. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.
writerrhiannon's review
5.0
Read my full review here:
https://ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2017/07/review-paris-all-your-own-bestselling.html
Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I received no additional compensation.
This collection of 18 essays was just what I needed in terms of reading material. Since arriving back from Book Expo (a month ago!), I've not gotten much reading done. Most of my time has been spent getting my daughter ready for her study abroad trip to London and trying to keep up with the day to day mountain of daily duties in addition to working. After Kali left on her trip a few days ago, I set about to deep cleaning the house and reclaiming my office (her room when she is home from school). In between tasks, I took to reading A Paris All Your Own. I could start some laundry, read an essay, run to the store, read an essay, do a bit of work, ...you get the point. I enjoyed some essays more than others but will probably reference the book as a whole when speaking to friends about traveling. I've learned to never expected too much when traveling and you've got to be able to roll with the punches. Almost every writer in this collection talked about unmet high expectations or unexpected but highly enjoyable side tracks. I've learned, (through trial and error) that you have to let go a bit and make each journey your own. For example, back to Book Expo, my 1st trip to NYC was not filled with typical tourist destinations. Upon my return I was asked if I visited this or that attraction. When I told them "no" and the places I did visit, I was usually met with strange looks. But I had the perfect NYC trip...for me. This weekend my daughter is going to Paris, and hopefully she'll have the perfect Paris trip...all her own.
https://ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2017/07/review-paris-all-your-own-bestselling.html
Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I received no additional compensation.
This collection of 18 essays was just what I needed in terms of reading material. Since arriving back from Book Expo (a month ago!), I've not gotten much reading done. Most of my time has been spent getting my daughter ready for her study abroad trip to London and trying to keep up with the day to day mountain of daily duties in addition to working. After Kali left on her trip a few days ago, I set about to deep cleaning the house and reclaiming my office (her room when she is home from school). In between tasks, I took to reading A Paris All Your Own. I could start some laundry, read an essay, run to the store, read an essay, do a bit of work, ...you get the point. I enjoyed some essays more than others but will probably reference the book as a whole when speaking to friends about traveling. I've learned to never expected too much when traveling and you've got to be able to roll with the punches. Almost every writer in this collection talked about unmet high expectations or unexpected but highly enjoyable side tracks. I've learned, (through trial and error) that you have to let go a bit and make each journey your own. For example, back to Book Expo, my 1st trip to NYC was not filled with typical tourist destinations. Upon my return I was asked if I visited this or that attraction. When I told them "no" and the places I did visit, I was usually met with strange looks. But I had the perfect NYC trip...for me. This weekend my daughter is going to Paris, and hopefully she'll have the perfect Paris trip...all her own.
eleanormharte's review
5.0
I loved this book. It made me very homesick for Paris but in a good way, because it reminded me of all the wonderful things I love about the city.
balletbookworm's review
3.0
Somewhere between a 3 and 4. I ultimately went with a 3 because the collection began to feel very homogenous to me at about the 50% mark - overwhelmingly white and cis-het. Brown gives kind of a mea culpa in the Introduction that since they only chose bestselling women writers whose books are set/in about Paris that it was a limited pool to start with. Overall, this is a nice collection of personal essays about traveling/living in/thinking about Paris (I particularly liked Susan Vreeland's piece).
mindfullibrarian's review
5.0
I'll preface this with the fact that I have never been to Paris, but am obsessed with reading about it......if a title or book description has Paris in it, I. am. in.
This book of 18 essays includes an astounding collection of female writers, all with books set in Paris, and provides a thoroughly well-rounded take on visiting, as well as living and writing in (and about!) Paris. I say well-rounded not because the essays cover all different topics (although many do), but because the authors are refreshingly diverse on their feelings about Paris. This is a love letter to Paris, but it's also a letter home to your parents from Paris-camp about why it's not as amazing as Mom promised and you really just want to go home. There is love, but there is also loneliness. There are amazing sights and experiences, but there are also rainy days and an inability to communicate in French.
There are essays that are laugh-out-loud funny, and there are essays that are incredibly detailed accounts of the history of Paris during different time periods, as well as essays about mother-daughter relationships and romantic relationships - and more! I adored reading about how these authors all wrote about Paris, but also how they researched their books and ensured the authenticity of their stories. Authors who weren't able to visit Paris before starting their books, but read and read and read extensively and went to Paris later.
It's hard to really describe this whole book since it's such a diverse range of essays, but here are my overall takeaways:
1) I still want to visit Paris
2) I should learn French, but even if I do it won't be usable in Paris so I should just speak English and admit that I'm a tourist
3) Go without an agenda or schedule
4) Sit and watch people
5) Eat all the food
6) Drink all the wine
7) Hotel rooms are small
8) SO MUCH HISTORY
9) Lines for major attractions are so so long - buy tickets ahead if you can, maybe skip some of the most touristy stuff
10) Walk and walk and walk and see the REAL Paris
This is a must-read for anyone who longs to visit Paris, or reads books set in Paris.....or anyone who loves reading about writing in general!
Thanks to Net Galley for the advance copy of this title for review - all opinions are my own.
This book of 18 essays includes an astounding collection of female writers, all with books set in Paris, and provides a thoroughly well-rounded take on visiting, as well as living and writing in (and about!) Paris. I say well-rounded not because the essays cover all different topics (although many do), but because the authors are refreshingly diverse on their feelings about Paris. This is a love letter to Paris, but it's also a letter home to your parents from Paris-camp about why it's not as amazing as Mom promised and you really just want to go home. There is love, but there is also loneliness. There are amazing sights and experiences, but there are also rainy days and an inability to communicate in French.
There are essays that are laugh-out-loud funny, and there are essays that are incredibly detailed accounts of the history of Paris during different time periods, as well as essays about mother-daughter relationships and romantic relationships - and more! I adored reading about how these authors all wrote about Paris, but also how they researched their books and ensured the authenticity of their stories. Authors who weren't able to visit Paris before starting their books, but read and read and read extensively and went to Paris later.
It's hard to really describe this whole book since it's such a diverse range of essays, but here are my overall takeaways:
1) I still want to visit Paris
2) I should learn French, but even if I do it won't be usable in Paris so I should just speak English and admit that I'm a tourist
3) Go without an agenda or schedule
4) Sit and watch people
5) Eat all the food
6) Drink all the wine
7) Hotel rooms are small
8) SO MUCH HISTORY
9) Lines for major attractions are so so long - buy tickets ahead if you can, maybe skip some of the most touristy stuff
10) Walk and walk and walk and see the REAL Paris
This is a must-read for anyone who longs to visit Paris, or reads books set in Paris.....or anyone who loves reading about writing in general!
Thanks to Net Galley for the advance copy of this title for review - all opinions are my own.
leahmichelle_13's review
4.0
Back in 2012 I read Eleanor Brown's debut novel The Weird Sisters and I adored it. It was a fantastic read, although I will confess that it was probably, in parts, a bit too high brow for me. I probably missed a lot of context in the novel, it was written so lyrically, but I loved it. It was such a good read. So much so, that I've been hankering after a new Eleanor Brown book for years. I thought one was coming a year after The Weird Sisters, but that was Amazon being tinkers. Instead it has been four long years, but The Light of Paris is finally here, and it was so worth the wait.
I actually really love stories that are set over two time periods, and have two different voices. It's always so intriguing to me to hear from voices way back when, times I've never heard of or never experienced, it's always really eye-opening and Margie's life in the 1920s was both sad and amazing. It's actually pretty scary how similar Margie and Madeleine's lives are, considering there's 70 years between them, but as it turns out, 70 years changes nothing when it comes to parental expectations, clearly. Considering what Margie goes through, it kind of baffled me how Madeleine's life turned out, you would kind of hoped that something might have changed? But, no. I would have actually loved more of Margie's story, because it just felt like there was more to the story, afterwards.
There was very little wrong with this book, I really loved Madeleine's voice, and it was interesting to see her find herself, after so many years spent under other people's thumbs. Sure, it kind of baffled me how she had lived her life - after all, this was not actually the 1920s but the late 1990s, so if she was unhappy in her marriage surely the right thing to do would be to leave? Instead of stay out of misguided loyalty? But, maybe that's just the way for some people, and not having been in that situation myself it's hard to judge. Seeing her in her element, in her hometown was amazing, and I loved her friendship with Henry. He completely brightened up the novel.
I really enjoyed The Light of Paris. The dual storyline was amazing - Madeleine's voice was strong and really easy to read, and then Margie's story really was thrilling, to see someone experiencing something so transformative was delightful. You could feel Margie's excitement at being in Paris, you could literally walk the streets with her in your imagination. Eleanor Brown truly is an amazing storyteller, and if it takes her another four years to write book three, I am FINE WITH THAT. Because it is so, so worth the wait, and this will be a book I purchase and put on my keeper shelf, because it was truly delightful.
I actually really love stories that are set over two time periods, and have two different voices. It's always so intriguing to me to hear from voices way back when, times I've never heard of or never experienced, it's always really eye-opening and Margie's life in the 1920s was both sad and amazing. It's actually pretty scary how similar Margie and Madeleine's lives are, considering there's 70 years between them, but as it turns out, 70 years changes nothing when it comes to parental expectations, clearly. Considering what Margie goes through, it kind of baffled me how Madeleine's life turned out, you would kind of hoped that something might have changed? But, no. I would have actually loved more of Margie's story, because it just felt like there was more to the story, afterwards.
There was very little wrong with this book, I really loved Madeleine's voice, and it was interesting to see her find herself, after so many years spent under other people's thumbs. Sure, it kind of baffled me how she had lived her life - after all, this was not actually the 1920s but the late 1990s, so if she was unhappy in her marriage surely the right thing to do would be to leave? Instead of stay out of misguided loyalty? But, maybe that's just the way for some people, and not having been in that situation myself it's hard to judge. Seeing her in her element, in her hometown was amazing, and I loved her friendship with Henry. He completely brightened up the novel.
I really enjoyed The Light of Paris. The dual storyline was amazing - Madeleine's voice was strong and really easy to read, and then Margie's story really was thrilling, to see someone experiencing something so transformative was delightful. You could feel Margie's excitement at being in Paris, you could literally walk the streets with her in your imagination. Eleanor Brown truly is an amazing storyteller, and if it takes her another four years to write book three, I am FINE WITH THAT. Because it is so, so worth the wait, and this will be a book I purchase and put on my keeper shelf, because it was truly delightful.
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