Why am I passionate about this?

First, I'm a woman and I'm inspired by women from the past who overcame the rules of the day in which they lived. It doesnā€™t matter where they lived, or what they tried to overcome, but to have bucked the patriarchal system and achieved some measure of success, is phenomenal. Second, I became inspired by silent film star Marion Davies, and I wrote a book about it. I never intended to write historical fiction. My first book was a memoir about sailing to Tahiti at fourteen with my father and two sisters. But life has a funny way of directing us where we need to go. Here I am: inspired by women from the past! 


I wrote

The Blue Butterfly: A Novel of Marion Davies

By Leslie Johansen Nack,

Book cover of The Blue Butterfly: A Novel of Marion Davies

What is my book about?

The true-life story of Marion Daviesā€™ thirty-four-year relationship with William Randolph Hearst including a whirlwind courtship, a movie career spanningā€¦

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Girls in the Picture

Leslie Johansen Nack Why did I love this book?

I love to read about women who broke the mold.

Women lived sheltered and protected lives in the early 1900s, and without much power, there wasnā€™t much they could do to break free of societal norms. But freedom comes at a price.

Meet Mary Pickford and Frances Marion, best friends in an era that denied women power. Mary Pickford was perhaps the most popular film star and powerful woman in the 1910s, and her screenwriter, Frances Marion, the first woman to ever win an Oscar in screenwriting.

Follow their true life story through the ups and downs of successes and failures as they try to find love, happiness, and some semblance of autonomy. 

By Melanie Benjamin,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Girls in the Picture as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue and The Aviatorā€™s Wife, a ā€œrich exploration of two Hollywood friends who shaped the moviesā€ (USA Today)ā€”screenwriter Frances Marion and superstar Mary Pickford

ā€œFull of Old Hollywood glamour and true details about the pairā€™s historic careers . . . a captivating ode to a legendary bond.ā€ā€”Real Simple

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE

It is 1914, and twenty-five-year-old Frances Marion has left her (second) husband and her Northern California home for the lure of Los Angeles, where she is determined toā€¦


Book cover of The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post

Leslie Johansen Nack Why did I love this book?

How would you feel to inherit your family business (the Post cereal company) but not be able to run it? Iā€™d be infuriated.

Here is the story of one of the richest women in the country who needed to marry so her husband could have a seat on the board. But men in the early 1900s did not abide women on the Board of Directors of any corporation.

Learn how Marjorie Post navigates the world trying to find love and be true to her fatherā€™s dream. 

By Allison Pataki,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NATIONAL BESTSELLER ā€¢ ā€œMarvelous . . . I just had to be there with the Post cereal heiress through every twist and turn.ā€ā€”Martha Hall Kelly, New York Times bestselling author of Lilac Girls

ā€œNew-money heiress Marjorie Post isnā€™t content to remain a society bride as she remakes herself into a savvy entrepreneur, a visionary philanthropist, a presidential hostess, and much more.ā€ā€”Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code

Mrs. Post, the President and First Lady are here to see you. . . . So begins another average evening for Marjorie Merriweather Post. Presidents have come and gone,ā€¦


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Book cover of Songbird

Songbird by Laci Barry Post,

It's 1943, and World War II has gripped the nation, including the Stilwell family in Jacksonville, Alabama. Rationing, bomb drills, patriotism, and a changing South barrage their way of life. Neighboring Fort McClellan has brought the world to their doorstep in the form of young soldiers from all over theā€¦

Book cover of Under the Wide and Starry Sky

Leslie Johansen Nack Why did I love this book?

I grew up reading Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, and found this book about the woman who changed his life riveting.

I also loved it because Stevenson sails to French Polynesia and I have sailed to French Polynesia and written a book about it. So there are many connections for me. Plus, itā€™s about the real life of scorned woman, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne who flees San Francisco and her philandering husband and eventually falls in love with Stevenson.

An adventure that is history. Yes please! 

By Nancy Horan,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Under the Wide and Starry Sky as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'FABULOUS' The Times
'FASCINATING' New York Times

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

At the age of thirty-five, Fanny van de Grift Osbourne leaves her philandering husband in San Francisco and sets sail for Belgium to study art, with her three children and nanny in tow. Not long after her arrival, however, tragedy strikes, and Fanny and her brood repair to a quiet artists' colony in France where she can recuperate. There she meets Robert Louis Stevenson, ten years her junior, who is instantly smitten with the earthy, independent, and opinionated belle Americaine.

A woman ahead of her time, Fanny doesā€¦


Book cover of The Age of Light

Leslie Johansen Nack Why did I love this book?

I love to read about artists in Paris in the 1930s. And this book is about a woman who tries to leave the world of modeling to become a photographer, and then she morphs again into one of the only WW2 journalists.

Lee Miller was a real person and she fell in love with Surrealist Man Ray in Paris. 

By Whitney Scharer,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Age of Light as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Scharer captures the thrill of artistic creation and the swirling hedonism of Paris's beautiful people.' The Times

Model. Muse. Lover. Artist.

'I'd rather take a picture than be one,' Lee Miller declares, as she arrives in Paris one cool day in 1929. Lee has left behind her life in New York and a successful modelling career at Vogue to pursue her dream of becoming a photographer. She soon catches the eye of renowned Surrealist artist Man Ray and convinces him to hire her as his assistant. Man is an egotistical, charismatic force, and as Lee becomes both his muse andā€¦


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Book cover of A Last Survivor of the Orphan Trains: A Memoir

A Last Survivor of the Orphan Trains by Victoria Golden,

Four years old and homeless in 1930, William Walters climbed aboard one of the last American Orphan Trains, and, without knowing it, embarked on an extraordinary path through nine decades of U.S. history.

For 75 years, Orphan Trains transported 250,000 children from the East Coast into homes in the emergingā€¦

Book cover of Circling the Sun

Leslie Johansen Nack Why did I love this book?

Wild Africa is romantic and daring and I loved the danger and inspiration of 1920s Africa, when British born real life woman Beryl Markham becomes one of the first female pilots. Itā€™s a bit of Out of Africa and riveting.

Markham encounters many obstacles and has several disastrous relationships but eventually she overcomes and succeeds. She becomes the first person (not woman) to fly solo from Britain to North America. 

By Paula McLain,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Circling the Sun as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The New York Times bestseller

As a young girl, Beryl Markham was brought to Kenya from Britain by parents dreaming of a new life. For her mother, the dream quickly turned sour, and she returned home; Beryl was brought up by her father, who switched between indulgence and heavy-handed authority, allowing her first to run wild on their farm, then incarcerating her in the classroom. The scourge of governesses and serial absconder from boarding school, by the age of sixteen Beryl had been catapulted into a disastrous marriage - but it was in facing up to this reality that sheā€¦


Explore my book šŸ˜€

The Blue Butterfly: A Novel of Marion Davies

By Leslie Johansen Nack,

Book cover of The Blue Butterfly: A Novel of Marion Davies

What is my book about?

The true-life story of Marion Daviesā€™ thirty-four-year relationship with William Randolph Hearst including a whirlwind courtship, a movie career spanning two decades and forty-four films, a secret child, and harrowing family excesses, not to mention a secret love affair with Charlie Chaplin. The Blue Butterfly is a behind-the-scenes look into the opulent private life of Marion Davies and how the movie Citizen Kane stole her legacy and turned everyone against her.

Book cover of The Girls in the Picture
Book cover of The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post
Book cover of Under the Wide and Starry Sky

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