Hollins Abroad Paris II: Paris Today! Recommended Reading and Resources This list isn’t meant to be definitive or exhaustive (we could bind an entire book on everything worth reading about Paris) but rather, it includes specific books, articles, and on-line sources that pertain to specific lecture topics, museums, artists, and guides who are part of the 2017 HAPII program, as well as a few we consider to be classics. We keep discovering that the more we read, the more we realize there is to know, and while we’re not suggesting you read all of these, we hope you won’t be content with just one. You may also find that simply reading about certain books or topics will be of interest, and perhaps you will discover you want to delve more deeply into a particular topic. For the ‘Companion Reading - Fiction’ and ‘Paris’ selections, we’ve mostly focused on books published recently – there are hundreds of titles in these two categories in particular – and if, as you’re preparing for this trip, you discover a resource you think the other program attendees would be interested to know about, please let us know! Language Immersion (Thursday and Friday, 19 and 20 October) “There have never been as many French speakers in the world as there are today. The number has tripled since the Second World War.” -- Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow, The Story of French, 2006 Learning programs and directories for all levels: 501 French Verbs (Barron’s) Fluent in French: The Most Complete Study Guide to Learn in French (Frédéric Bibard, CreateSpace Independent Publishing) Living Languge French (Living Language, a division of Penguin Random House) Language sources with a targeted twist (mostly for those with a basic knowledge of French): At Home Abroad: French – Practical Phrases for Conversational French (Helen and Nigel Harrison, Passport Books, 2000) Insiders’ French: Beyond the Dictionary (Eleanor Levieux and Michel Levieux, University of Chicago Press, 1999) Les Bon Mots: How to Amaze Tout le Monde with Everyday French (Eugene Ehrlich, Holt, 1997) Pardon My French: Unleash Your Inner Gaul (Charles Timoney, Penguin, 2007) Tune Up Your French: The Top Ten Ways to Improve Your Spoken French (Natalie Schorr, McGraw-Hill, 2009) A unique book and a blog: Words in a French Life: Lessons in Love and Language From the South of France (Kristin Espinasse, Touchstone, 2006). Though Espinasse doesn’t live in Paris, she’s an American married to a Frenchman and she shares all the joys and pains of learning French (the book came about from her popular blog, French-word-a-day.com, where her husband Jean-Marc produces spoken French recordings) and chapters are named from A to Z with corresponding French words. Saturday, 21 October “Avec l’âge, l’art et la vie ne font qu’un.” (With age, art and life become one) -- Georges Braque Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain www.fiac.com/ Sunday, 22 October “Yet, most importantly of all, Hollins Abroad Paris is an individual experience. Each of us emerges with her own interpretation of what happened to us there.” -- Hollins magazine, October 1980 Je ne regrette rien: 60 Years of Hollins Abroad Paris by Jean Fallon (ebook for download onto iPad or as a pdf) Diane Johnson: among her most famous works of fiction are Le Divorce (1997), Le Mariage (2001), and L’Affaire (2004), all published by Plume. A reviewer for the New York Observer opined that “She knows Paris from gutter to rooftop; she knows the natives as well as she knows the cozy community of expat Americans…a highly entertaining culture clash.” Johnson is also the author of Into a Paris Quartier: Reine Margot’s Chapel and Other Haunts of St.-Germain, and she is a two-time finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize (Persian Nights for fiction; Terrorists and Novelists for non-fiction) and the National Book Award (Lying Low for fiction and Lesser Lives for biography). John Baxter: author of a number of books about Paris, including We’ll Always Have Paris, Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas, and the bestseller, The Most Beautiful Walk in the World, Baxter’s relatively new ‘Great Parisian Neighborhoods’ series is most welcome. Current editions include Saint-Germain-Des Prés: Paris’s Rebel Quarter (2016) and Montmartre: Paris’s Village of Art and Sin (2017). Baxter was also a visiting professor at Hollins in 1974, and he has called Saint-Germain home for more than two decades. David Burke: Burke’s unique and engaging book, Writers in Paris: Literary Lives in the City of Light (Counterpoint, 2008) appeared in an updated edition in 2016 (Paris Writers Press). Working on the book gave him the opportunity to page through books, study maps, paintings, and photographs, and walk all over the city tracking down literary sites. Burke moved to Paris in 1986 intending to stay for a year but has now lived there ever since. Terrance Gelenter: Gelenter – “your American friend in Paris” -- maintains a great website, Paris Through Expatriate Eyes, as well as a biweekly electronic newsletter, ‘The Paris Insider.’ He is also the author of From Bagels to Brioches: Paris par Hasard (2010), an entertaining story of how he got from Monongahela, Pennsylvania to Brooklyn and on to Paris, where he’s been since the mid-1990s. His other book is Travels in France With Terrance (2015). Monday, 23 October “As an artist, a man has no home in Europe save in Paris.” -- F. W. Nietzsche Street Art in Paris: The Ultimate Guide ‘Gehry’s Paris Coup’ by Paul Goldberger, Vanity Fair, August 2014 ‘Why Paris’s Newest Art Museum – the Foundation Louis Vuitton – is Like None You’ve Ever Seen’ by Leslie Camhi, Vogue, September 2014 Claude Monet: Life and Art (Dr. Paul Hayes Tucker, Yale University Press, 1995) and Monet or the Triumph of Impressionism (Daniel Wildenstein, Taschen, 2010). Dr. Tucker is one of America’s foremost authorities on Monet and Impressionism, and former art dealer Wildenstein (1917-2001) produced a five-volume catalogue raisonné of Monet that was published between 1976 and 1992. Both are excellent books to page through in preparation for Monet’s waterlilies at the Musée de l’Orangerie – the eight compositions there, at Monet’s own suggestion, are arranged in two consecutive oval rooms. Tuesday, 24 October “The realities of French society today call for a more pragmatic and flexible approach, with fewer ideological diktats and less anxiety about plurality. France isn’t what it used to be, and it’s time it came to terms with that idea.” -- Farhad Khosrokhavar, ‘Jihad and the French Exception,’ The New York Times, July 2016 French Law ‘Laïcité’ Restricts Muslim Religious Expression, NPR, 2015 The Professor and the Jihadi, The New York Times Magazine, 2017 The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews During the Holocaust (Karen Gray Ruelle and Deborah Durland Desaix, Holiday House, 2010). This picture book opens with a quote found in both the Islamic and Jewish traditions: "Save one life, and it is as if you've saved all of humanity." Despite various opinions on the true interpretation, and though the authors state that "many of the details are destined to remain forever uncertain, with few facts proven to a historian's satisfaction," it's clear that something courageous and brave and kind happened here. Whether the number of Jews saved is 100 or over 1,000, the story is worth telling and sharing. Appropriate for all ages. L’Institut du Monde Arabe in Arch Daily, “the world’s most visited architecture website” A Fuller Understanding of the Paintings at Orsay (Franҫoise Bayle, Éditions Artlys). This excellent book is unique in that there are chronological pages enabling readers to discover and place the artists in their time and thematic pages allowing for comparing and appreciating their work. The History of Impressionism (first edition 1946, revised editions 1955, 1961, and 1973) and Post-Impressionism: From van Gogh to Gauguin (1956), both by John Rewald, both published by The Museum of Modern Art). Of the hundreds of books published about these popular art movements, Rewald’s have long been the leading and acclaimed volumes. ‘For a New Paris Museum, Jean Nouvel Creates His Own Rules,’ by Nicolai Ouroussoff, The New York Times, June 2006 (about Quai Branly). Stuff Parisians Like: Discovering the Quoi in the Je Ne Sais Quoi (Olivier Magny, Berkley, 2011). Magny opened Ô Chateau wine-tasting school when he was 23 and is one of France’s most charismatic sommeliers (and he’s funny). For each topic in this book – such as ‘Wondering What the Point of Living in Paris is’ – Magny provides a ‘Useful Tip’ and a ‘Sound Like a Parisian’ sentence in French. Wednesday, 25 October “It is hardly news that the words food and French are inseparable. Back when heads were piling up in baskets in a Paris square, and revolution in France shook the world as nothing had before, a pudgy, balding savant reminded citizens to keep their priorities straight. Great human events are fine, Anthelme Brillat-Savarin observed, but let’s not forget lunch.” -- Mort Rosenblum, A Goose in Toulouse and Other Culinary Adventures in France Markets of Paris: Food, Antiques, Crafts, Books & More (Dixon Long and Marjorie Williams, second edition, The Little Bookroom, 2012). ‘Why Chef Guy Savoy’s 3-Michelin-Starred Monnaie de Paris Restaurant Sizzles’ by Rooksana Hossenally, Forbes, February 2016. “From Hermès to Eternity,” by Laura Jacobs, Vanity Fair, August 2007. ‘Despite Pledge, France Lags in Hunt for Looted Art,’ The New York Times, 2013 (Elizabeth Royer, art historian and owner of Galerie Elizabeth Royer, is interviewed).