* image source: vintage card
Showing posts with label 1920s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1920s. Show all posts
Sunday, December 25, 2016
Monday, December 1, 2014
The Beautiful American by Jeanne Mackin
by Jeanne Mackin
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Published: June 2014
Publisher: New American Library/Penguin
Genre: France, Historical, 1920s, WWII
Paperback: 352 pages
Rating: 5
From Paris in the 1920s to London after the Blitz, two women find that a secret from their past reverberates through years of joy and sorrow....
As recovery from World War II begins, expat American Nora Tours travels from her home in southern France to London in search of her missing sixteen-year-old daughter. There, she unexpectedly meets up with an old acquaintance, famous model-turned-photographer Lee Miller. Neither has emerged from the war unscathed. Nora is racked with the fear that her efforts to survive under the Vichy regime may have cost her daughter’s life. Lee suffers from what she witnessed as a war correspondent photographing the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps.
Nora and Lee knew each other in the heady days of late 1920s Paris, when Nora was giddy with love for her childhood sweetheart, Lee became the celebrated mistress of the artist Man Ray, and Lee’s magnetic beauty drew them all into the glamorous lives of famous artists and their wealthy patrons. But Lee fails to realize that her friendship with Nora is even older, that it goes back to their days as children in Poughkeepsie, New York, when a devastating trauma marked Lee forever. Will Nora’s reunion with Lee give them a chance to forgive past betrayals…and break years of silence to forge a meaningful connection as women who have shared the best and the worst that life can offer?
A novel of freedom and frailty, desire and daring, The Beautiful American portrays the extraordinary relationship between two passionate, unconventional women.
My two-bits:
Loved how this story weaves the life of the model/photographer, Lee Miller, with historical events all told from the perspective of the fictional character, Nora. Reading about Lee's background and of the events that shaped her left me in awe of this amazing woman.
I am now compelled to check out the works by Lee Miller, Man Ray and Pablo Picasso to seek out the artwork references made and to see more.
The side story of Nora, was also just as compelling to read. She turns out to be a strong and independent woman in her own right during that time period.
After moving to France, Nora's description of living in the hip and happening Paris and then the quiet suburb Grasse gave wonderful snapshots of the two cities.
Nora's connection with the world of perfume and being a kind of "nose" in that business provided an interesting exposure to that world and how it fared through the time period presented.
Author guest post:
a bit about the main character, Lee, in the story...
I first ‘met’ Lee Miller when I was looking at some of the surrealist photography of Man Ray, who lived in Paris in the 20’s and 30’s, and again after World War II. She was such a stunningly beautiful woman with this magical, mysterious and also somehow tragic face. I wanted to get to know much more about her, and that fascination was the beginning of my novel about Lee, The Beautiful American (New American Library 2014).
Turns out, she was an upstate girl, born in Poughkeepsie! How she became a Vogue model, with her face and figure setting the standards for flapper beauty in the 20’s, and then a glamorous expat living in Paris and meeting Picasso and other celebrities, was the heart of the story, and a really great place for a writer to ‘live in’ for the length of time it took me to write the book.
What made Lee a truly unforgettable, writable person, though, was the fact that during and after the war, she was so brave, so determined, to record what was going on in Europe. She had already become a photographer herself, taking portraits and doing marketplace shoots. But this beautiful, talented woman who could have gone back home and stayed safe not only stayed on in England and Europe photographing the blitz and the battles, she photographed the liberation of the concentration camps.
The initial tragedy in her beautiful face stemmed from a violence done to her in childhood; the later tragedy reflects those haunting photos of war.
That was Lee Miller, to me: a gorgeous yet haunted woman who lived through some of the best and worst moments of the twentieth century.
About the author:
She lives in upstate New York with her husband, cats and herd of deer, and is still trying to master the French subjunctive.
WIN a print copy of this book!
For 5 winners.
US/Canada residents only
* review copy and giveaway courtesy of book tour - check out the other stops here for more details on this book and goodies sponsored by France Book Tours.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
The Bones of Paris: A Novel of Suspense by Laurie R. King
A Novel of Suspense
by Laurie R. King
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Just released: September 10, 2013
Publisher: Bantam
Genre: 1920s, Historical, Mystery
Hardback: 432 pages
Rating: 5
Series:
Touchstone
Bones of Paris
Amazon | BarnesNoble
In this thrilling new book New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King, beloved for her acclaimed Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, leads readers into the vibrant and sensual Paris of the Jazz Age—and reveals the darkest secrets of its denizens.
Paris, France: September 1929. For Harris Stuyvesant, the assignment is a private investigator’s dream—he’s getting paid to troll the cafés and bars of Montparnasse, looking for a pretty young woman. The American agent has a healthy appreciation for la vie de bohème, despite having worked for years at the U.S. Bureau of Investigation. The missing person in question is Philippa Crosby, a twenty-two year old from Boston who has been living in Paris, modeling and acting. Her family became alarmed when she stopped all communications, and Stuyvesant agreed to track her down. He wholly expects to find her in the arms of some up-and-coming artist, perhaps experimenting with the decadent lifestyle that is suddenly available on every rue and boulevard.
As Stuyvesant follows Philippa’s trail through the expatriate community of artists and writers, he finds that she is known to many of its famous—and infamous—inhabitants, from Shakespeare and Company’s Sylvia Beach to Ernest Hemingway to the Surrealist photographer Man Ray. But when the evidence leads Stuyvesant to the Théâtre du Grand-Guignol in Montmartre, his investigation takes a sharp, disturbing turn. At the Grand-Guignol, murder, insanity, and sexual perversion are all staged to shocking, brutal effect: depravity as art, savage human nature on stage.
Soon it becomes clear that one missing girl is a drop in the bucket. Here, amid the glittering lights of the cabarets, hides a monster whose artistic coup de grâce is to be rendered in blood. And Stuyvesant will have to descend into the darkest depths of perversion to find a killer . . . sifting through The Bones of Paris.
PeekAbook:
My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): disturbing
A bit of the dark and creepy side of Paris in the late 1920s is described here as a mystery unfolds.
You will be guided in the story with the perspective of an American in Paris.
Loved how actual artists and entertainers of the time interact and take part in this story.
WIN a copy of this book!
-for 5 winners
Open to US only.
Offer ends: September 20, 2013
TO DO: (2-parts)
1. ADD this book to your Goodreads Want To Read list.
OR
Tweet about this giveaway.
2. TELL me what you did in comments.
AND, leave your email (if I don't already have it
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Contest has ended - winner is here
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* review copy courtesy of tour
* giveaway courtesy of Bones of Paris tour - check out the other stops for more details on this book and goodies sponsored by France Book Tours
Thursday, August 8, 2013
The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon
by Ariel Lawhon
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Release date: January 2014
Publisher: Doubleday
Genre: 1920s, Mystery
Hardback: 320 pages
Rating: 5
Amazon | BarnesNoble
A wickedly entertaining novel that reconstructs one of America’s most famous unsolved mysteries–the disappearance of Justice Joseph Crater in 1930–as seen through the eyes of the three women who knew him best: his wife, his maid, and his mistress. Representing three very different walks of life, Stella, Ritzi and Maria reveal a New York City brimming with seediness and contradictions, a place where women are second-class citizens and greed and desire permeate the lives of those who live on both sides of the law.
On a sultry summer night, as rumors circulated about the judge’s involvement in wide-scale political corruption, Judge Crater stepped into a cab and vanished without a trace. Or did he?
After 39 years of necessary duplicity, Stella Crater is finally ready to reveal what she knows. Sliding into a corner booth at Club Abbey, the site of many absinthe-soaked affairs and the judge’s favorite watering hole back in the day, Stella orders two whiskeys on the rocks—one for her and one in honor of her missing husband. Stirring the ice cubes in the lowball glass, Stella begins to tell a tale—of greed, lust, and deceit. As the novel unfolds and the women slyly break out of their prescribed roles, it becomes clear that each knows more than she has initially let on.
With a layered intensity and tipsy spins through subterranean jazz clubs, THE WIFE, THE MAID, AND THE MISTRESS is a gripping tale that will transport readers to a bygone era. But beneath the Art Deco skyline and amid the intoxicating smell of smoke and whiskey, the question of why Judge Crater vanished lingers seductively until the very last pages.
My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): vacant elegance
This tale definitely transported me into its world with its attention to details of the time period.
Loved how this story is told via three story lines with the perspectives of women from different classes during the late 1920s in which you a complete picture of the mystery involved. A page turner - indeed!
* review copy courtesy of publisher via Shelf Awareness
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell
The Other Typistby Suzanne Rindell
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Just released: May 2013
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
Genre: 1920s, women's fiction
Hardback: 368 pages
Rating: 5
Amazon | BarnesNoble
Rose Baker seals men’s fates. With a few strokes of the keys that sit before her, she can send a person away for life in prison. A typist in a New York City Police Department precinct, Rose is like a high priestess. Confessions are her job. It is 1923, and while she may hear every detail about shootings, knifings, and murders, as soon as she leaves the interrogation room she is once again the weaker sex, best suited for filing and making coffee.
This is a new era for women, and New York is a confusing place for Rose. Gone are the Victorian standards of what is acceptable. All around her women bob their hair, they smoke, they go to speakeasies. Yet prudish Rose is stuck in the fading light of yesteryear, searching for the nurturing companionship that eluded her childhood. When glamorous Odalie, a new girl, joins the typing pool, despite her best intentions Rose falls under Odalie’s spell. As the two women navigate between the sparkling underworld of speakeasies by night and their work at the station by day, Rose is drawn fully into Odalie’s high-stakes world. And soon her fascination with Odalie turns into an obsession from which she may never recover.
First sentence:
They said the typewriter would unsex us.
My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): villainess
Cleverly told thriller tale of friendship and obsessions among women. The ending snapped at me!
* review copy courtesy of publisher
* rumor has it that Keira Knightly will produce and take the leading role for the movie version of this book - i think she would be perfect in it
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn
A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn
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Just released: May 2013
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Genre: 1920s, Africa, Romance
Paperback: 384 pages
Rating: 5
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Paris, 1923
The daughter of a scandalous mother, Delilah Drummond is already notorious, even among Paris society. But her latest scandal is big enough to make even her oft-married mother blanch. Delilah is exiled to Kenya and her favorite stepfather's savanna manor house until gossip subsides.
Fairlight is the crumbling, sun-bleached skeleton of a faded African dream, a world where dissolute expats are bolstered by gin and jazz records, cigarettes and safaris. As mistress of this wasted estate, Delilah falls into the decadent pleasures of society.
Against the frivolity of her peers, Ryder White stands in sharp contrast. As foreign to Delilah as Africa, Ryder becomes her guide to the complex beauty of this unknown world. Giraffes, buffalo, lions and elephants roam the shores of Lake Wanyama amid swirls of red dust. Here, life is lush and teeming—yet fleeting and often cheap.
Amidst the wonders—and dangers—of Africa, Delilah awakes to a land out of all proportion: extremes of heat, darkness, beauty and joy that cut to her very heart. Only when this sacred place is profaned by bloodshed does Delilah discover what is truly worth fighting for—and what she can no longer live without.
Amusing quote:
Where are you going?
For a walk. Africa beckons.
- page 89, chapter 6
1920s series:
A Spear of Summer Grass
City of Jasmine - May 2014
As a sixth-generation native Texan, I grew up in San Antonio, where I met my college sweetheart. I married him on graduation day and went on to teach high school English and history. During summer vacation when I was twenty-three, I wrote my first novel. After three years as a teacher, I left education to have a baby and pursue writing full-time.
Fourteen years and many, many rejections after my first novel, I signed two three-book deals with MIRA Books.
"Sex, lies and awesome clothing descriptions" is how one reader described my debut novel, Silent in the Grave, published in 2007. The first in the Silent series, the book follows Lady Julia Grey as she investigates the mysterious death of her husband with the help of the enigmatic private enquiry agent Nicholas Brisbane. From the drawing rooms of the aristocracy to a Gypsy camp on Hampstead Heath, Silent in the Grave was my love letter to Victorian London.
The series continues with the second book, Silent in the Sanctuary (2008), a classic English country house murder mystery with a few twists and turns for Brisbane and Lady Julia along the way, while the third book, Silent on the Moor (2009), is set in a grim manor house on the Yorkshire moors. My favorite part of writing Moor was getting to spend time in Yorkshire, one of the most wildly beautiful places I have ever been.
March 2010 saw a departure from the series with the release of The Dead Travel Fast, a mid-Victorian Gothic thriller that chronicles the adventures of novelist Theodora Lestrange as she leaves the safety and security of her Edinburgh home for the dark woods and haunted castles of Transylvania. I returned to Lady Julia and her companions with Dark Road to Darjeeling (October 2010), this time delving into my most exotic setting yet in the foothills of the Himalayas. The fifth series book, New York Times bestseller The Dark Enquiry (July 2011) saw Lady Julia back in her beloved London again, while a digital holiday novella, Silent Night (November 2012) highlighted the March family festivities at Bellmont Abbey.
But 2013 introduces a new setting to my work—1920s British East Africa. In A Spear of Summer Grass (May 2013), disgraced flapper Delilah Drummond is sent to Africa to weather the storm of her latest scandal. There she meets Ryder White, a local legend for more reasons than one—and the perfect man to teach her about the continent he loves. Ryder was introduced to readers in the digital prequel novella Far in the Wilds (March 2013).
I am thrilled that 2014 will see another 1920s release, City of Jasmine (May 2014), and I am hard at work on my next project in my little pink study in Virginia with a doodle draped over my feet as I write.
PeekAbook:
My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): Black Velvet - champagne with stout
Loved how this story pulled me in by way of the independent spunky main character that is Delilah.
The ambiance of the time period is portrayed well. Got a nice dose of Africa in the 1920s with the lush descriptions of the land, animals and people.
WIN a signed trade paperback!
Open to US and Canada only.
Offer ends: July 21, 2013
TO DO: (2-parts)
1. ADD this book to your Goodreads Want To Read list.
OR
Tweet about this giveaway.
2. TELL me what you did in comments.
AND, leave your email (if I don't already have it)
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Contest has ended - winner is here
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
* review copy courtesy of publisher
* featured in past event: Flappers at Floyd's
* part of A Spear of Grass tour - check out the other stops for more details on this book and goodies sponsored by France Book Tours
Monday, June 24, 2013
Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood
Cocaine BluesA Phryne Fisher Mystery - book 1
by Kerry Greenwood
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Published: 2007
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Genre: Historical, Mystery, 1920s
Paperback: 175 pages
Rating: 4
Amazon | BarnesNoble
This is where it all started! The first classic Phryne Fisher mystery, featuring our delectable heroine, cocaine, communism and adventure. Phryne leaves the tedium of English high society for Melbourne, Australia, and never looks back.
The London season is in full fling at the end of the 1920s, but the Honorable Phryne Fisher--she of the green-grey eyes, diamant garters and outfits that should not be sprung suddenly on those of nervous dispositions--is rapidly tiring of the tedium of arranging flowers, making polite conversations with retired colonels, and dancing with weak-chinned men. Instead, Phryne decides it might be rather amusing to try her hand at being a lady detective in Melbourne, Australia.
Almost immediately from the time she books into the Windsor Hotel, Phryne is embroiled in mystery: poisoned wives, cocaine smuggling rings, corrupt cops and communism--not to mention erotic encounters with the beautiful Russian dancer, Sasha de Lisse--until her adventure reaches its steamy end in the Turkish baths of Little Lonsdale Street.
Series:
Cocaine Blues (1989) aka Death by Misadventure
Flying Too High (1990)
Murder on the Ballarat Train (1991)
Death at Victoria Dock (1992)
The Green Mill Murder (1993)
Blood And Circuses (1994)
Ruddy Gore (1995)
Urn Burial (1996)
Raisins and Almonds (1997)
Death Before Wicket (1999)
Away With the Fairies (2001)
Murder in Montparnasse (2002)
The Castlemaine Murders (2003)
Queen of the Flowers (2004)
Death By Water (2005)
Murder in the Dark (2006)
Murder on a Midsummer Night (2008)
Dead Man's Chest (2010)
Unnatural Habits (2012)
My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): determined sheila
Slight difference with the portrayal of this Phryne character versus the tv version. The book version is still very likable but a touch more serious.
I like that Phyrne is a single older female detective who is sexy, smart and sassy (for the 1920s time period). Other strong female characters are introduced that make this an appealing mystery series who gravitate towards women's fiction.
* story is part of Introducing the Honorable Phryne Fisher: The First Three Phryrne Fisher Mysteries by Kerry Greenwood courtesy of publisher
* part of past event: Flappers at Floyd's
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Vixen by Jillian Larkin
Vixenby Jillian Larkin
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Published: 2010
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Genre: 1920s, YA
Hardback: 432 pages
Rating: 5
Amazon | BarnesNoble
Jazz . . . Booze . . . Boys . . . It’s a dangerous combination.
Every girl wants what she can’t have. Seventeen-year-old Gloria Carmody wants the flapper lifestyle—and the bobbed hair, cigarettes, and music-filled nights that go with it. Now that she’s engaged to Sebastian Grey, scion of one of Chicago’s most powerful families, Gloria’s party days are over before they’ve even begun . . . or are they?
Clara Knowles, Gloria’s goody-two-shoes cousin, has arrived to make sure the high-society wedding comes off without a hitch—but Clara isn’t as lily-white as she appears. Seems she has some dirty little secrets of her own that she’ll do anything to keep hidden. . . .
Lorraine Dyer, Gloria’s social-climbing best friend, is tired of living in Gloria’s shadow. When Lorraine’s envy spills over into desperate spite, no one is safe. And someone’s going to be very sorry. . . .
From author Jillian Larkin, VIXEN is the first novel in the sexy, dangerous, and ridiculously romantic series set in the Roaring Twenties . . . when anything goes.
Flappers series:
Vixen
Ingenue
Diva
PeekAbook:
My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): booze in books
Loved how this book captured most aspects of the Flapper lifestyle through the three young women's stories. This 1920s story is presented in an exciting way with Flapper speak and mentions of popular books and music of the time period.
* part of event: Flappers at Floyd's
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Call Me Zelda by Erika Robuck
Call Me Zelda by Erika Robuck
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Just released: May 7, 2013
Publisher: NAL Trade
Genre: 1920s
Paperback: 352 pages
Rating: 5
Amazon | BarnesNoble
"Everything in the ward seemed different now, and I no longer felt its calming presence. The Fitzgeralds stirred something in me that had been dormant for a long time, and I was not prepared to face it...."
From New York to Paris, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald reigned as king and queen of the Jazz Age, seeming to float on champagne bubbles above the mundane cares of the world. But to those who truly knew them, the endless parties were only a distraction from their inner turmoil, and from a love that united them with a scorching intensity.
When Zelda is committed to a Baltimore psychiatric clinic in 1932, vacillating between lucidity and madness in her struggle to forge an identity separate from her husband, the famous writer, she finds a sympathetic friend in her nurse, Anna Howard. Held captive by her own tragic past, Anna is increasingly drawn into the Fitzgeralds’ tumultuous relationship. As she becomes privy to Zelda’s most intimate confessions, written in a secret memoir meant only for her, Anna begins to wonder which Fitzgerald is the true genius. But in taking ever greater emotional risks to save Zelda, Anna may end up paying a far higher price than she intended....
My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): faded dance card
This book houses two storylines that are equally interesting to read.
One story is composed of glimpses of Zelda and her well-being and not-so-well being with and without her husband, Scott. This story follows Zelda at the start of her mental illness problems.
The second storyline follows the life of Zelda's nurse, Anna and the positive effect Zelda has on her personal life.
* review copy courtesy of publisher
* part of event: Flappers at Floyd's
Friday, May 31, 2013
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgeraldby Therese Anne Fowler
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Just released: March 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Genre: Biographical, Fiction, 1920s
Hardback: 384 pages
Rating: 5
Amazon | BarnesNoble
"I wish I could tell everyone who thinks we’re ruined, Look closer…and you’ll see something extraordinary, mystifying, something real and true. We have never been what we seemed."
When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the “ungettable” Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn’t wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame. Her father is deeply unimpressed. But after Scott sells his first novel, This Side of Paradise, to Scribner’s, Zelda optimistically boards a train north, to marry him in the vestry of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and take the rest as it comes.
What comes, here at the dawn of the Jazz Age, is unimagined attention and success and celebrity that will make Scott and Zelda legends in their own time. Everyone wants to meet the dashing young author of the scandalous novel—and his witty, perhaps even more scandalous wife. Zelda bobs her hair, adopts daring new fashions, and revels in this wild new world. Each place they go becomes a playground: New York City, Long Island, Hollywood, Paris, and the French Riviera—where they join the endless party of the glamorous, sometimes doomed Lost Generation that includes Ernest Hemingway, Sara and Gerald Murphy, and Gertrude Stein.
Everything seems new and possible. Troubles, at first, seem to fade like morning mist. But not even Jay Gatsby’s parties go on forever. Who is Zelda, other than the wife of a famous—sometimes infamous—husband? How can she forge her own identity while fighting her demons and Scott’s, too? With brilliant insight and imagination, Therese Anne Fowler brings us Zelda’s irresistible story as she herself might have told it.
My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): world of make-believe
I found it fascinating to read about the behind-the-scenes relationship of what could have been between this celebrity couple of the 1920s - especially a couple involved in the world of authors and books.
The ups, downs and ugliness of this couple's relationship are revealed to be just as entertaining to read as reading about the sordid characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald's works.
* image source: Zelda and Scott
* review copy courtesy of publisher
* part of event: Flappers at Floyd's
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Bright Young Things: A Modern Guide to the Roaring Twenties by Alison Maloney
Bright Young Things:A Modern Guide to the Roaring Twenties
by Alison Maloney
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Just released: March 2013
Publisher: Potter Style
Genre: 1920s
Hardback: 128 pages
Rating: 5
Amazon | BarnesNoble
For lovers of the glamour and scandal of the roaring twenties and the millions of fans eagerly anticipating the return of Downton Abbey (the third season opens in the twenties), an illustrated lifestyle guide to the fashion, the parties, the notrious personalities, and all the glittering trappings from the unforgettable era of the flapper.
Bright Young Things is a perfect guide to the roaring twenties--hot jazz and hotter all-night dance halls, high society's scandalous exploits, fresh new fashions, Prohibition cocktails, costume parties, and of course, the notorious flapper. Decorated throughout with art deco illustrations and packaged in a beautiful foil-stamped case, this book looks stunning resting on a coffee table and makes a fabulous gift.
PeekAbook:
Table of ContentsWelcome, You Bright Young Thing
The Bright Young State of Mind
The Postwar Party
How to Be Bad: The Flapper Life
Liberated Ladies: Meet the Iconic Flappers
Learn the Lingo: The Flapper Vernacular
Across the Pond: Meet the Bright Young People
Rubbing Elbows: Meet the Mayfair Set
Host a 1920s-Themed Scavenger Hunt
Cause a Scandal: Bright Young Shenanigans
Choose a Mentor: Bright Young Influencers
Further Reading: Start Your Own Roaring Book Club
Dress Like a Bright Young Thing
The Sartorial Rebellion
Flirting with Fashion: Flapper Wardrobe Essentials and Accessories
Bright Young Faces: Bold Beauty Tips
Chop Chop!: Get Your Own Bobbed Look
Not Your Father’s Suit: Casual and Formal Looks for the Modern Man
Sporting a Bowtie: How to Properly Tie One On
Hook Up (and Get Hitched)
A Roaring View of Marriage
The Flapper Bride: What to Wear for a Trip Down the Aisle
In the Spotlight: Bright Young Celebrity Couples
Read All About It: Scandals in the Tabloids
Mad About the Boy: Homosexuality in the 1920s
Throw a Scandalous Soirée
The Never-Ending Party
Throw Your Own Bath and Bottle Party
Plan Your Own Red and White Party
Party like a Bright Young Thing: Themes for Your Next Fête
Prohibition Cocktails Guide
The First Mixologists
Criminal Behavior: Bathtub Gin and Bootleg Booze
Pick Your Poison: Intoxicating Homemade Brews
Shaken and Stirred: Mix Your Own Prohibition Cocktails
Dance All Night
The Jazz Age
Roaring ’20s Playlists: Tunes for a Big Night Out . . . and the Morning After
Dance Crazy: Learn the Steps to the Charleston
Speak Easy: The Underground Social Scene
Where to Be Seen: “It” Clubs Abroad
Come to the Cabaret
Cabarets for the Modern Flapper
Nightlife Royalty: Famous Musicians, Dancers, and Club Owners
Entertain Yourself
Entertainment and Glamour
Tinseltown: Hollywood Studios and the Silent Silver Screen
Silent Slapstick: Host a ’20s Comedy Night
Drama and Intrigue: Oscar-Worthy Dramas of the ’20s
Dashing Heroes and Mysterious Villains: 1920s Action Flicks to Get Your Heart Racing
The Jazz Singer: Enter, The Talkie
Dawn of an Animation Empire: Mickey Is Born
Who’s Your Idol?: Celebrities of the Screen and Stage
Sources and Bibliography
My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): the elephant's instep
Absolutely adorable gem of a book! Visually pleasing and fun to just flip through.
This is a mini guide that highlights things in the 1920s with lists, recipes, quotes and illustrations.
* review copy courtesy of publisher
* part of event: Flappers at Floyd's
Monday, May 27, 2013
The Diviners by Libba Bray
The Diviners by Libba Bray
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Published: 2012
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: Historical, 1920s, Paranormal, YA
Hardback: 592 pages
Rating: 4
Amazon | BarnesNoble
Evie O'Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City--and she is pos-i-toot-ly thrilled. New York is the city of speakeasies, shopping, and movie palaces!
Soon enough, Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfield girls and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is Evie has to live with her Uncle Will, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult--also known as "The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies."
When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer--if he doesn't catch her first.
PeekAbook:
My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): heebie jeebies
Various characters meet or cross paths to solve a scary mystery.
* part of event: Flappers at Floyd's
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen
Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen
Visit Anna:
Book Excerpt
Website
Goodreads
Shelfari
Published: 2010
Publisher: HarperCollins
Genre: Historical, 1920s, YA
Hardback: 400 pages
Rating: 4
Amazon | BarnesNoble
From bestselling author Anna Godbersen comes the Bright Young Things series set in the last breathless days of Gatsby’s Roaring Twenties.
The year is 1929, and New York is ruled by the Bright Young Things: flappers and socialites chasing their dreams. Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey have escaped their small Midwestern town for the glittering city. Letty wants to see her name in lights, and Cordelia is searching for the father she’s never known. But overnight, they enter a world more thrilling, glamorous and dangerous than they ever could have imagined. It’s a life anyone would kill for . . . and someone will in this thrilling, romantic, page-turner.
Bright Young Things series:
Bright Young Things
Beautiful Days
The Lucky Ones
PeekAbook:
Behind the scenes photo shoot of cover
My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): swell
Three gals represent different aspects of independent flappers in the 1920s. With this first book you get to watch the transformation and transition of two girls from small town to the big city of New York.
While exciting at times, the girls experience the not-so-pretty effects of prohibition and power of the times.
* part of event: Flappers at Floyd's
Friday, May 17, 2013
The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures by Caroline Preston
The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: A Novel in Pictures
by Caroline Preston
Visit Caroline:
Book Excerpt
Website
Blog
Goodreads
Shelfari
Published: 2011
Publisher: Ecco
Genre: Crafts, Historical, 1920s fiction
Hardback: 240 pages
Rating: 5
Amazon | BarnesNoble
The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt is a visually stunning, totally unique, full-color novel in the form of a scrapbook, set in the burgeoning bohemian culture of the 1920s and featuring an endearing, unforgettable heroine.
Caroline Preston, author of the New York Times Notable Book Jackie by Josie, uses a kaleidoscopic array of vintage memorabilia—postcards, letters, magazine ads, ticket stubs, catalog pages, fabric swatches, candy wrappers, fashion spreads, menus and more—to tell the tale of spirited and ambitious Frankie’s remarkable odyssey from Vassar to Greenwich Village to Paris, in a manner that will delight crafters, historical fiction fans, and anyone who loves a good coming-of-age story ingeniously told.
PeekAbook:
My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): the Bee's Knees
Loved the visual way this story is presented - so creative!
Bits of history and a romance are portrayed through clippings, pictures, courier typewriter text inserts, and other treats.
Make sure and view the book trailer below to get an idea of what is in between the covers. It is sure to delight!
WIN a copy of this book!
Open to US only - for 3 winners!
Offer ends: May 31, 2013
TO DO: (2-parts)
1. ADD this book to your Goodreads Want To Read list.
Or on Shelfari if you prefer.
OR
Tweet about this giveaway.
2. TELL me what you did in comments.
AND, leave your email (if I don't already have it)
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Contest has ended - winner is here
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