French Women

In the natural sequel to her international bestseller French Women Don’t Get Fat, Mireille Guiliano tackles the delicate subject of aging – showing how women of forty and beyond can ‘attack’ the upcoming decades with attitude and style. Witty, perceptive and bursting with Mireille’s personal experiences, the book covers everything from skincare secrets and fashion tips to the role of relationships and the importance of relaxation. The path to aging elegantly lies in lifestyle choices and attitude adjustments rather than Botox and collagen fillers.

The book we've all (certainly every woman between 25 and 75) been waiting for. Classy, chic, convincing, funny, wise, well-written and very timely. It's the ultimate non-diet book, which nonetheless shows us how to eat with balance, control and above all pleasure. Chuck out all the radical diet books, think about what you eat and why, and then enjoy eating the right things (and some of the wrong ones) intelligently, and in smaller portions. Eat, like a French woman, with your head not your stomach.

Charles Smithson, a respectable engaged man, meets Sarah Woodruff as she stands on the Cobb at Lyme Regis, staring out to sea. Charles falls in love, but Sarah is a disgraced woman, and their romance will defy all the stifling conventions of the Victorian age.

Tax cheats, beware: The Treasury Department's Criminal Investigations Division has a new special agent on its payroll. A recovering tomboy with a head for numbers, Tara's fast becoming the Annie Oakley of the IRS-kicking ass, taking social security numbers, and keeping the world safe for honest taxpayers. Or else. Tara's latest mission finds her in hot pursuit of ice-cream vendor Joseph "Joe Cool" Cullen. Along with frozen treats he's selling narcotics-and failing to report his ill-gotten gains on his tax returns. Over Tara's dead body.

When the Saulnier sisters suffer one disappointment too many in their native France, they decide to pack up and try their luck in America. As journalists, they have the run of the country, following stories that take them to places where most Americans have never been - from the back roads of Appalachia to an underground village of homeless people in the New York City subway system. And along the way, they dine on: Nathan's Famous hot dogs at the annual hot dog-eating contest in Coney Island.

In this witty and uplifting audiobook, Mylène Desclaux speaks tenderly and honestly about turning 50 and what it means for herself and for the other women in her entourage. In Why French Women Feel Young at 50, you will learn how to take pleasure from the simple things in life and how to make the most of your 50s, the Parisian way.

When our story begins, Julia Child is an eager but inexperienced codebreaker longing to prove herself in the male-dominated world of intelligence, and Josephine Baker is, well, Josephine Baker—a world-famous entertainer who is now leading a double life as a spy for the French Resistance. When a golden opportunity arises to infiltrate a high-stakes Nazi gala in Vichy France, Julia must put aside her by-the-book mentality to assist her unorthodox new partner.

Transitions are moments in which we step out of our familiar surroundings and into a new landscape - a space that, for many people, is shadowed by confusion, fear, and indecision.

Everyone hates the perfect family. So you’ll love the Battles. Mo is about to hit the big 50, and some uncomfortable truths are becoming quite apparent: She doesn’t understand either of her teenage kids, which as a child psychologist, is fairly embarrassing. She has become entirely grey, inside, and out. Her face has surrendered and is frightening children....

When you speak English with barely an accent, it’s hard for most people to believe that you were born in France. But Elisabeth Bykoff spent the first twenty-two years of her life there, raised in the French culture on a diet of American pop movies, TV, and music. Elisabeth’s love for American movies led her to dream of making them herself in Hollywood, building her American dream full of romance, prosperity, and a fulfilling career.

Saskia Wyle spent one sultry European summer on Île de Re when she was nineteen. The bright salt flats and sun-soaked beaches are now a distant memory, and one she made herself forget after an unspeakable tragedy. But the French heiress she befriended over twenty years ago has left half of her magnificent home to Saskia and the other half to Felix Allard, the now-reclusive film star living on the island. How did Simone Durant die? Was it the family curse that haunted her? And why has she included Saskia in her will after all this time?

Summer 1923. Lady Eleanor Swift is finally persuaded by her butler, Clifford, to take a villa in the south of France for the season. She plans to do what a glamorous lady abroad should: long lunches on the balcony followed by lazy afternoons lounging by the pool. But when Clifford examines the wine cellar, he discovers there are no decent reds, but there is a very dead body. The victim is famous American movie-star Rex Armstrong. Poor Rex seems to have been stabbed with a sword from the film set. So how did he end up in Eleanor’s villa?

Married couple, Miranda and David, move out of London into a beautiful country house with an idyllic garden. But reality turns out to be very different from their bucolic dream. Soon the latent unhappiness in the family begins to come to the surface, isolating each family member in a bubble of resentment and loneliness. Then a mysterious Frenchman arrives on their doorstep. With the wisdom of nature, he slowly begins to heal the past and the present.

Nancy Wake, nicknamed 'the white mouse' for her ability to evade capture, tells her own story. As the Gestapo's most wanted person, and one of the most highly decorated servicewomen of the war, it's a story worth telling. After living and working in Paris in the 1930's, Nancy married a wealthy Frenchman and settled in Marseilles. Her idyllic new life was ended by World War II and the invasion of France. Her life shattered, Nancy joined the French Resistance and, later, began work with an escape-route network for Allied soldiers.

From celebrated author Colombe Schneck, in her first translation into English, The Paris Trilogy is three semi-autobiographical takes on a woman’s life, starting with Seventeen, progressing with Friendship, and then Swimming: A Love Story. Exploring questions of sexuality, bodily autonomy, femininity, friendship and loss, The Paris Trilogy is a moving meditation on a lifelong journey to reclaim the female body, accepting it for all its faults and learning to celebrate its strength.

The once impoverished medical student Agnes Glock is now the fabulously wealthy Mrs Mulberry. Her estate in the mountains is magnificent, a haven for those too ravaged by the Great War to cope with the society that first condemned them to battle and which now shuns them. The War has, however, stolen Agnes's chance to graduate as a doctor, as well as the fiance she adored.

Pour Dee Kwan, merveilleusement interprétée par la comédienne Chloé Germentier, chaque jour est un jour parfait. Non, vraiment. Elle a une maison qu’elle adore, un travail qu'elle chérit et un « rival » incroyablement séduisant qui accepte la défaite de bonne grâce lorsqu'elle gagne leur jeu en ligne favori. Comment pourrait-on en demander plus à la vie ? (C’est impossible, évidemment, ça ne peut aller que de plus en plus mal.) Bientôt, Dee est obligée de partager sa maison adorablement douillette avec ses parents et sa grand-mère acariâtre.

With a sharp eye for comic detail and a wicked ear for the absurdities of life, Dawn French shows just how an RAF girl from the west country with dreams of becoming a ballerina/bridesmaid/thief rose to become one of the best-loved comedy actresses of our time.

The Salpêtrière asylum, 1885. All of Paris is in thrall to Doctor Charcot and his displays of hypnotism on women who have been deemed mad or hysterical, outcasts from society. But the truth is much more complicated - for these women are often simply inconvenient, unwanted wives or strong-willed daughters. Once a year, a grand ball is held at the hospital. For the Parisian elite, the Mad Women's Ball is the highlight of the social season; for the women themselves, it is a rare moment of hope.

The soldiers called her the Angel of Waterloo...Henrietta Bartlett, the esteemed surgeon's daughter who was born on a battlefield, lost her mother on a battlefield, and was widowed on the battlefield, where she worked alongside her father on that fateful day in June 1815. But after the carnage of war, Hen dreams of peace, and her own home, and a society that would allow a woman to practice medicine. The new and faraway colony of New South Wales seems a paradise, where even convicts have a chance of a good life.