It’s 27 days until The Bones of Paris, Laurie R. King’s suspense novel of 1929 Paris. For excerpts and information click here. Sylvia Beach with James Joyce at Shakespeare & Co., Paris From page 58: Sylvia Beach stood in the doorway of Shakespeare and Company, looking like a wind-blown city sparrow. She was talking…
Read MoreIt’s 28 days until The Bones of Paris, Laurie R. King’s suspense novel of 1929 Paris. For excerpts and information click here. From page 51: The Préfecture de Police was on the Île de la Cité, between a one-time madhouse and cells used during the Terror for guillotine-bound prisoners: one did not expect a bushel…
Read MoreIt’s 29 days until The Bones of Paris, Laurie R. King’s suspense novel of 1929 Paris. Hotel Benoit: probably in the neighborhood of 8 rue Vavin. From page 9: A dizzying panorama of rooftops: tiles and tin, brick and timber, steeples and drying laundry; centuries of chimneypots and a narrow slice…
Read MoreIt’s 30 days until The Bones of Paris, Laurie R. King’s suspense novel of 1929 Paris. For excerpts and information click here. Pip Crosby’s apartment: possibly the apartment block at 15 rue de la Reynie. From page 13: Two hours after he’d taken Lulu for breakfast (there: he’d even remembered her name) Harris Stuyvesant…
Read MoreI adore guide-books. Not, please, the flavorless modern versions, little more than well-digested lists of places to see and hours of opening. No, I mean the traditional guides written by those who have truly Been There. I use guides from the 1920s as an entree into the time and place I’m writing about, but frankly,…
Read MoreCongratulations to KarenB, and to the Hunterdon Library in Flemington New Jersey, winners of the Touchstone Book-Club-in-a-Box! Thanks to everyone who showed me their love for a library, and we’ll keep on doing these giveaways, since clearly there is plenty of support!
Read MoreOne of the chief reasons I always stay within striking distance of Oxford when I come to England for a few weeks is the Covered Market. The Market is a Victorian glass cover over a hive of shops, from carrots to watches, shoes to fresh pasta, coffee to cheese. It’s where I head if I…
Read More[This giveaway is closed now, thanks for entering!] The second giveaway of the Bones of Paris season is a Touchstone Book-Club-in-a-box. This means fifteen copies of the paperback Touchstone, to be given to one library. Does your favorite library sponsor book clubs? If so, make a comment to this blog post with the name of…
Read MoreEngland is such a tease. When I arrived here, it was the hottest weather since, well, the last hot weather. Which in England isn’t exactly a treat, since the houses are designed more for trapping the air inside than for letting any faint breeze pass through. And as you might imagine, a hot spell of…
Read MoreWhen I travel, I prefer actually settling down in a place for a week or six rather than camping out in hotels. Yes, hotels are nice for providing services like hot and cold running meal delivery, after which one heaves the tray into the hallway rather than dealing with dirty dishes, but one misses so…
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