The library will be closed Sunday, March 31st, for Easter

Memorial Hall Library

Parisian Reads

Fancy a literary jaunt to the City of Light? Here are twenty books from a variety of genres that will take you there. And if you're lucky enough to be planning a real trip to Paris, don't forget to practice your French with Mango Languages (available for free to MHL cardholders)!

Giovanni's room
Giovanni's room
by James Baldwin

An American, separated from his fiancée, becomes involved in an intense relationship with a young Italian bartender while in Paris.
The caretakers
The caretakers
by Amanda Bestor-Siegal

In 2015 Paris, a young au pair is arrested after the sudden death of her young charge and finds herself caught in the middle of turbulent dynamics of her host family's household, in this novel told from six women's point of view--all of whom know the truth. 
The Paris showroom
The Paris showroom
by Juliet Blackwell

In Nazi-occupied Paris, a talented artisan must fight for her life by designing for her enemies. From New York Times bestselling author Juliet Blackwell comes an extraordinary story about holding on to hope when all seems lost. Capucine Benoit works alongside her father to produce fans of rare feathers, beads, and intricate pleating for the haute couture fashion houses. When Capucine saves herself from deportation to Auschwitz by highlighting her connections to Parisian design houses, she is sent to a little-known prison camp located in the heart of Paris, within the Lévitan department store. When an old acquaintance arrives to go "shopping" at the Lévitan department store on the arm of a Nazi officer and secretly offers to help Capucine get in touch with her daughter, this seeming act of kindness could have dangerous consequences.
Martita, I remember you 
Martita, I remember you 
by Sandra Cisneros

When she unearths a letter in a closet, Corina finds the memories of her days spent in Paris rushing back as she remembers her intense friendships with two women with whom she fell out of touch and out of mind. 
The queen of the night
The queen of the night
by Alexander Chee

Lilliet Berne is a sensation of the Paris Opera, a legendary soprano with every accolade except an original role, every singers chance at immortality. When one is finally offered to her, she realizes with alarm that the libretto is based on a hidden piece of her past. Only four could have betrayed her: one is dead, one loves her, one wants to own her. And one, she hopes, never thinks of her at all. As she mines her memories for clues, she recalls her life as an orphan who left the American frontier for Europe and was swept up into the glitzy, gritty world of Second Empire Paris. In order to survive, she transformed herself from hippodrome rider to courtesan, from empresss maid to debut singer, all the while weaving a complicated web of romance, obligation, and political intrigue.
Half-blown rose
Half-blown rose
by Leesa Cross-Smith

The story of a woman remaking her life after her husband's betrayal leads to a year of travel, art, and passion in Paris, from the award-winning author of This Close to Okay.
Lost and found in Paris
Lost and found in Paris
by Lian Dolan

When her husband announces he's fathered twins with another woman, Joan books a last-minute trip to Paris as an art courier where she, after the priceless drawings are stolen, is led on a treasure hunt all over the city hoping to recover the lost art, and her own sense of adventure.
Mrs. Harris goes to Paris
Mrs. Harris goes to Paris
by Paul Gallico

The irrepressible Mrs. Harris, part charlady, part fairy godmother, finds adventures that take her from her humble London roots to the heights of glamour in Paris, and to keep house for a wealthy American couple in New York.
The little Paris bookshop
The little Paris bookshop
by Nina George

Prescribing books that offer therapeutic benefits to his customers, a literary apothecary in a floating bookstore on the Seine struggles with private heartbreak before embarking on a journey of healing at the side of a blocked writer and a lovelorn chef. 
A Caribbean heiress in Paris
A Caribbean heiress in Paris
by Adriana Herrera

Three best friends at the 1889 Worlds Fair have goals: going to the most scandalous places in Paris, kissing disreputable men and absolutely not falling in love in the first novel of a new series. 
Josephine Baker's last dance : a novel
Josephine Baker's last dance : a novel
by Sherry Jones

A novel based on the life of the legendary performer and activist follows Josephine Baker, from 1920s Paris to 1960s Washington to her final, triumphant last performance. 
Paris is a party, Paris is a ghost
Paris is a party, Paris is a ghost
by David Hoon Kim

Haunted by the woman he once loved in a strangely distorted Paris, Henrik Blatand searches for the truth surrounding her death—an inquiry that expands to the figures who wander the streets who are also haunted themselves. 
Eight weeks in Paris
Eight weeks in Paris
by S. R. Lane

During eight weeks of filming the LGBTQ-masterpiece "The Throne," Nicholas Madden, one of the best actors of his generation, is upstaged by newcomer Chris Lavalle until their story line brings them closer than they thought possible as they try to figure out their own conclusion.
Vanessa Yu's magical Paris tea shop
Vanessa Yu's magical Paris tea shop
by Roselle Lim

Vanessa Yu never wanted to see people's fortunes-or misfortunes-in tea leaves. Ever since she can remember, Vanessa has been able to see people's fortunes at the bottoms of their teacups. To avoid blurting out fortunes, she converts to coffee, but somehow the fortunes escape and find a way to complicate her life and the lives of those around her. To add to this plight, her romantic life is so nonexistent that her parents enlist the services of a matchmaking expert from Shanghai. After her matchmaking appointment, Vanessa sees death for the first time. She decides that she can't truly live until she can find a way to get rid of her uncanny abilities. When her eccentric aunt Evelyn shows up with a tempting offer to whisk her away, Vanessa says au revoir to California and bonjour to Paris. There, Vanessa learns more about herself and the root of her gifts, and realizes one thing to be true: Knowing one's destiny isn't a curse, but being unable to change it is.
The Paris bookseller
The Paris bookseller
by Kerri Maher

Opening her Shakespeare and Company bookstore on a quiet street in 1919 Paris, American Sylvia Beach finds her business becoming a second home for some of the most important writers of the Lost Generation until the Depression causes her to question her promise to honor the life-changing impact of books.
24 hours in Paris
24 hours in Paris
by Romi Moondi

Escaping on a business trip to Paris to forget the pain of a broken engagement, Mira finds herself at the mercy of travel plans that force her to spend an extra day in Paris with her insufferable co-worker Jake, but as they explore the city in all its beauty, Mira discovers that she and Jake have more in common than she thought.
The ghosts of Paris
The ghosts of Paris
by Tara Moss

In 1947 Paris, as the world continues to grapple with the fallout of WWII, former war reporter-turned-PI Billie Walker is hired by a wealthy client to track down her husband, which leads Billie to famous hotels and the infamous Paris morgue, where something terrible lurks in the shadows.
Paris : the novel
Paris : the novel
by Edward Rutherfurd

Taking readers on a journey through Parisian history, this sweeping multigenerational saga, filled with romance, danger and rich detail, beautifully illuminates the City of Lights, from its founding under the Romans to the hotbed of cultural activity during the 1920s and 1930s that included Picasso.
The stone face
The stone face
by William Gardner Smith

First published in 1963, The Stone Face tells the tale of a young African-American man who takes refuge from American racism in France, only to find himself complicit in a racist order of another sort. Simeon Brown, a journalist who, as a teenager, lost an eye in a racist attack, lives in his native Philadelphia in a state of agonizing tension, and after a violent encounter with some white sailors on shore leave, he decides to pack up and leave for Paris, known as a safe haven for black artists and intellectuals. At first, the City of Light seems close to idyllic to Simeon: He can do what he wishes and go where he pleases without fear. But soon Simeon discovers that Paris is not the racial wonderland he took it to be--not when Algerians are being raided, beaten in the streets, and sent to detention centers--and his friendship with Hossein, an Algerian radical, will lead him to realize that he can no longer remain a passive spectator to French injustice and that he must decide where his loyalties truly lie.
The honeybee emeralds
The honeybee emeralds
by Amy Tector

Iranian refugee Alice Ahmadi grew up in Northern England, never certain of where she belonged. Interning at a struggling expat magazine, Bonjour Paris, she discovers a priceless diamond and emerald necklace with a golden honeybee pendant. Alice shares the discovery with the magazine's American editor, Lily Wilkins, who sees it as a lifeline to save the magazine: they will put the necklace, and its history, on next month's cover. Lily's best friend and fellow American, Daphne Smythe-Baird joins them in their quest. Forming the 'Fellowship of the Necklace'' with a trio of unlikely men, the women dive into research. Through diaries, letters and reminiscences, the romantic story of the necklace is unravelled. Commissioned by the lusty Napoléon III for his favourite mistress, the 'Honeybee Emeralds' was next owned by ill-fated First World War spy, Mata Hari. During the Roaring Twenties the necklace found its way onto the elegant neck of Josephine Baker, the American singer, dancer and sex symbol who took Paris by a storm. As the Fellowship unravels the twists and turns of the necklace's life, one secret remains: how did it end up in a Parisian basement?
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