France Memoir

Marie Antoinette was the last queen of France. After eight years of marriage, her position at court improved when she started bearing kids. Nonetheless, she ended up out of favor amongst the people, with French "libelles" accusing her of being inefficient, promiscuous, holding sympathies for France's nemeses—specifically her home Austria—and having invalid kids. Her credibility was more tainted by the phony claims surrounding the Diamond Necklace Affair. At the time of the revolution, she was called Madame Déficit because of her elegant spending and enmity toward monetary reforms.

The painting of her on the battlefield with only one breast covered and holding a flag is probably one of the most famous paintings from European history. Many people have heard of Joan of Arc, but only a few know what she did or how her life was. Joan of Arc is a French heroine who was venerated as a saint for her role in the Lancastrian part of the Hundred Years' War. Joan said she saw visions of archangels and saints telling her to support Charles VII and free France from English supremacy late in the Hundred Years' War. She is one of France's nine secondary tutelary saints.

The year was 1832, a cholera pandemic raged, and the French royal family was in exile, driven out by yet another revolution. From a drafty Scottish castle, the duchesse de Berry - the mother of the 11-year-old heir to the throne - hatched a plot to restore the Bourbon dynasty. For months, she commanded a guerilla army and evaded capture by disguising herself as a man. But soon she was betrayed by her trusted advisor, Simon Deutz, the son of France's Chief Rabbi.

In this haunting memoir that reflects on the Holocaust and its legacy, award-winning author Sandell Morse discovers stories of bravery and resistance enacted during WWII in Southern France. In the course of six years at a writing residency in France, during which she met with survivors and historians, she painstakingly pieces together the puzzle that had been beguiling her over the years: What was the real story of the French Jews under the Vichy government during The Second World War?

Have you ever dreamed of quitting your job, traveling the world, and falling in love in a foreign land? Narrated by the author, Black Gypsy is the true story of Shawna Sharee, a 30-something inner-city black girl that did just that...After quitting her entire life following an ultimate betrayal, she makes her way traveling across three continents and six countries spanning seven months. This sometimes funny, sometimes spiritual, sometimes gritty, but always inspiring memoir is an urban fairytale and worldwide adventure filled with real life characters around every corner.

"Chère Maître", c'est en ces termes que Gustave Flaubert s'adresse à George Sand. Au fil de la correspondance qu'ils échangèrent, de 1866 à 1876, se révèlent deux conceptions du monde, deux esthétiques, deux tempéraments. La générosité et l'attention aux autres de George Sand et l'esprit torturé et solitaire de Gustave Flaubert. L'amitié forte et durable qui les unira ne sera interrompue que par la mort de George Sand. Cette correspondance, belle d'intelligence, pose sur la société du XIXe siècle, un regard d'une grande pertinence.