Edith de Belleville is a native Parisian woman who was an attorney for many years. Her passion for Paris led her back to university to get her official tour guide license. Deeply inspired by great Parisian women of the past, Edith decided to write a book, in French, entitled The Beautiful Rebels of Paris (Belles et Rebelles Editions du 81). She just published her memoirs in English to share her literary & dreamy adventures in Paris, Parisian Life, adventures in the City of Light. When she's not at Versailles or the Louvre Museum to do her 'Beautiful Rebels of Paris Tour' Edith is sitting on a café terrace in Paris watching the world go by.
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…
In the bohemian and brilliant Montparnasse of the 1920s, Kiki managed to escape poverty to become one of the most charismatic figures of the avant-garde years between the wars. Partner to Man Ray - whose most legendary photos she inspired - she would be immortalised by Kisling, Foujita, Per Krohg, Calder, Utrillo and Leger. Kiki was the muse of a generation that seeks to escape the hangover of the Great War, but she was above all one of the first emancipated women of the 20th century.
I loved this book because it is a deeply emotional story.
Partly it was the juicy sex scenes that drew me in and had me rooting for Ned and Charlie to get together and stay together. There were so many obstacles preventing these guys getting together: class differences, accents and vocabulary, the constant tension around being caught in an illegal sex act, and mutual misunderstandings regarding the other’s motivations at pivotal points in the story.
These are distinct, well-drawn characters with strengths, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities that are conducive to secrets. All this makes these people believable and lovable.
The narrative is structured in an interesting way, moving backward and forward in time, each time period informing the others. The story starts in the middle, but by the end the puzzle pieces all fall into place.
A second chance at love for two men who fought together in the trenches of WWI. Class, ideals and prejudice drove them apart, but now, in the safety of peacetime, an illicit gay relationship has its own joys and risks.
1916, Northern France. Corporal Charlie Villiers breaks the monotony of the trenches by having sex with whoever is willing, including the posh Lieutenant Ned Pinsent. Except their stolen moments are becoming more than just a distraction — Ned actually listens when Charlie talks. But can Charlie share how going over the top is crushing his soul with the golden boy…
I have picked these books because I have a passion for good reading material. All the books I have chosen have become reading classics in their own way. They are well written and have plots that go well beyond normal literature in a sense that they unveil the 'human condition' into the realm of the protagonist being up against all odds, where in the end, truth reveals all!
Everybody loves this book because it, of course, has become an international classic of literature and one of the best works F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, which takes the reader on a time-traveling secretive world of the upper-class set in New England life in the 1920s.
In F. Scott's work, we are casually and comfortably introduced to an America where new money met old money, and the tender tightrope one had to walk in order to vie for position, marriage, and peer acceptance in a world founded on wealth and prestige.
As the summer unfolds, Nick is drawn into Gatsby's world of luxury cars, speedboats and extravagant parties. But the more he hears about Gatsby - even from what Gatsby himself tells him - the less he seems to believe. Did he really go to Oxford University? Was Gatsby a hero in the war? Did he once kill a man? Nick recalls how he comes to know Gatsby and how he also enters the world of his cousin Daisy and her wealthy husband Tom. Does their money make them any happier? Do the stories all connect? Shall we come to know…
Do you feel like you have a handle on the perils and possibilities of AI?
Do you understand the risks to us all in terms of international relations, employment, the environment, intellectual property, and “Zero Day” algorithms that could end the human race?
I gained a lot of clarity regarding these issues in The new Roaring Twenties and didn’t put the book down feeling any easier. In addition, the book cautions that we all need to educate ourselves about the inevitable changes AI is bringing into all our lives nearly every day, why we need do due diligence in accepting the news we receive over social media, and why we all need to be more human to each other in the “New Roaring Twenties.”
In short, a very important and indispensable read in 2023.
The world and its economic foundations are shifting beneath our feet!
We are at the threshold of the new roaring twenties—a resurgent era of technology-driven advancement with greater financial equity and economic expansion.
Not unlike the famed decade of the previous century, our next ten years will be filled with striking cultural shifts, new challenges, and, ultimately, abundant financial opportunities.
Paul Zane Pilzer, the economist/entrepreneur and New York Times bestselling author of 13 books, sees a better world on the horizon. In The New Roaring Twenties he imparts inspiration and a new template for escaping the shadow of a global…
Originally from Punta Gorda, Florida, I am an exiled Florida Man, living in Texas, and specialize in creative nonfiction. I love the absurd, the unusual, and enjoy finding ways to examine and teach history through unexpected topics and sometimes maligned or ridiculed things. My first book, for example, was on the infamous Yugo car. I then wrote a history of the ill-starred Sarajevo Olympics and the oh-for-twenty-six 1976-1977 Tampa Bay Bucs, and most recently a book on the wild heydays of Florida land development in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. I have a PhD in history from Indiana University Bloomington and have appeared on NPR’s "Weekend Edition," APM’s "Marketplace," and C-SPAN’S "Book TV."
The 1920s in Florida was a time of incredible excess, immense wealth, and precipitous collapse. The decade there produced the largest human migration in American history, far exceeding the settlement of the West, as millions flocked to the grand hotels and the new cities that rose rapidly from the teeming wetlands. The boom spawned a new subdivision civilization—and the most egregious large-scale assault on the environment in the name of “progress.”
Christopher Knowlton, author of Cattle Kingdom and former Fortune writer, takes an in-depth look at the spectacular Florida land boom of the 1920s and shows how it led directly to the Great Depression.
The 1920s in Florida was a time of incredible excess, immense wealth, and precipitous collapse. The decade there produced the largest human migration in American history, far exceeding the settlement of the West, as millions flocked to the grand hotels and the new cities that rose rapidly from the teeming wetlands. The boom spawned a new subdivision civilization-and the most egregious large-scale assault on the environment in…
This book was recommended to me by a therapist who knew both that I was a beekeeper and that I was a Sherlock Holmes fan. Holmes has oft been associated with beekeeping and I was keen to see how Laurie R. King was going to incorporate it in her tale of a bright, independent young woman's unlikely apprenticeship with the aged detective. Fans of Enola Holmes will delight in this novel's pairing of characters.
In 1915, Sherlock Holmes is retired and quietly engaged in the study of honeybees when a young woman literally stumbles into him on the Sussex Downs. Fifteen years old, gawky, egotistical, and recently orphaned, the young Mary Russell displays an intellect to impress even Sherlock Holmes--and match him wit for wit. Under his reluctant tutelage, this very modern twentieth-century woman proves a deft protegee and a fitting partner for the Victorian detective. But even in their first case together, the pair face a truly cunning adversary who will stop at nothing to put an end to their partnership.
Growing up in a small town and realizing I was gay, I saw nothing but dread ahead of me. In graduate school, I came across a one-sentence description of Margaret Anderson as a “lesbian anarchist.” I knew I was home. My book is the first full-length biography of Anderson and her partner, Jane Heap. They went through a lot of crap–they were tried for publishing Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses–but above all, they were witty rebels, strong women, and proud and out.
A murder mystery set in Prohibition Greenwich Village–fun, frothy, and a fictional but true new take on all of these lovely ladies.
I love the recapturing of the Village of the era–the winding streets, brownstones, speakeasies, and gangsters. Who is the dead woman detective Olivia Brown tripped over?
In a mystery set in New York's Greenwich Village during the Roaring Twenties, newly published poet Olivia Brown, determined to experience everything her bohemian neighborhood has to offer, suddenly finds herself embroiled in a murder and on the trail of a killer bent on revenge
When I was a teen, I had zero aspirations to become a writer. I didn’t discover my passion for writing until I was thirty! But once I started writing, it was these books and the way they made me feel that I drew on. I wanted strong heroines that I wanted to be—and be friends with. I wanted a slow burn, skin-tingling romance with a lot of push and pull. I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself. To go on a quest. To feel victorious. And it is my hope that I can give my readers all the feels these books gave me.
I devoured everything in the Sweet Valley world as a teen, though I was more into Sweet Valley Twins than Sweet Valley High for some reason. Maybe it’s because I liked the twins’ innocence, and the high school drama was too much (or too relatable!) to me. I like to escape to a happy ending! And in complete seriousness, I debated naming my daughter Lila because I didn’t want her to be associated with mean girl Lila Flower. In the end, I named her Delilah (Lilah—with an h!—for short) and that eased my worries.
At any rate, I’ll read a family saga any day. And we’ve established that I love historical romance and costumes, so give me all the Wakefield history.
Historical fiction, specifically historical mysteries, is my favorite category whether I’m reading for pleasure or writing my own stories, and the decade of the Roaring Twenties is certainly the most colorful era in American history. As a historian, I want to learn; as a writer, I want to teach. But—and this is a big “but”—it’s critical that historical novels are both accurate and subtle. If I find the author has misrepresented the history or larded the story, I’m done. Which is why I can recommend the following five Roaring Twenties series. All feature characters that grow as the series progresses so it’s best to begin at the beginning and proceed mostly in order.
Daisy has solved 23 murder mysteries so far. These Christie-esque plots are set in London, at posh country estates, and in other parts of the British landscape. Daisy works as a journalist—an unusual job for a young woman in the ‘20s, especially one who is aristocratic and wealthy and, therefore, shouldn’t be working at all. Her assignments and social connections inevitably entangle her in murder investigations, which she solves with the help of a competent Scotland Yard inspector who in later books becomes her husband.
No stranger to sprawling country estates, well-heeled Daisy Dalrymple is breaking new ground at Wentwater Court to cover a story for Town & Country magazine. But her interview gives way to interrogation when suave Lord Stephen Astwick meets a chilly end on the tranquil skating pond.
With evidence that his death was anything but accidental, Daisy joins forces with Scotland Yard so the culprit can't slip through their fingers like the unfortunate Astwick slipped through the ice ...
Praise for The Daisy Dalrymple Mysteries:
'Appropriate historical detail and witty dialogue are the finishing touches on this engaging 1920s period piece.'…
I lived in Paris for six months when I researched and wrote my first Paris book, One Thousand Buildings of Paris, walking every quarter of Paris including some rather dicey areas. I discovered most Parisians don’t wander very far from their own neighborhoods, and casual tourists tend to stay in the center. The first time my boyfriend and I went to Paris together, I planned daily excursions to all the neighborhoods where he had never been. We became flaneurs (wanderers) at outdoor markets, small museums, parks, and we ventured into unknown spaces. There is always something fascinating to discover in Paris and new ways to gain a sense of history.
One of the photographs in my book, One Thousand Buildings of Paris, was the first apartment that Hemingway and his wife, Hadley, shared when they moved to Paris.
Hemingway’s description of the apartment and the period is illuminating and introduces the reader to the famous and infamous and the life they led after the end of WWI and during the Roaring 20s when Paris was the center of artistic life.
Hemingway also reveals his likes and dislikes and his writing life there, and, notwithstanding their friendship, his jealousy of F. Scott Fitzgerald. I’m not a great fan of Hemingway’s writing. I actually prefer Fitzgerald and especially The Great Gatsby, but I digress.
A Moveable Feast reveals Paris as indeed a moveable feast to savor.
Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway's most beloved works. Since Hemingway's personal papers were released in 1979, scholars have examined and debated the changes made to the text before publication. Now this new special restored edition presents the original manuscript as the author prepared it to be published.
Featuring a personal foreword by Patrick Hemingway, Ernest's sole surviving son, and an introduction by the editor and grandson of the author, Sean Hemingway, this new edition also includes a number of unfinished, never-before-published Paris sketches revealing experiences that Hemingway had with his son Jack and…
