Jane Rosebery

Author Archives: Jane Rosebery
- Pairing books with tea (Entre Nous: A Woman’s Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl)
  
  Posted at 8:51 am by Jane Rosebery, on February 17, 2020
  
  Entre Nous by Debra Ollivier is my favorite “French girls” book! I’ve had my weather-beaten copy since 2003 and it’s what inspired my very first solo trip to Paris. Even if you’re tired of these types of books, please believe me this one is a must read.
  
  Debra Ollivier lived in Paris for a decade before returning home to the US. So she feels quite confident writing about that elusive ‘je ne sais quoi’ and how the rest of us can attain it.
  
  The book has chapters on how to look stylish, how to shop like a French woman and how to feel comfortable eating by yourself in a Parisian bistro. How French women style their hair (spoiler alert: they keep it classic and simple and don’t alter their hairstyles as the seasons change, the way we do in the US.) How French women don’t chat up strangers and give away all of their secrets. There are interesting sidebars of observations about French women and society, fun tips and interesting quotes to live by. At times it feels like you are chatting with your closest friend. Which is maybe why the book is titled Entre Nous, French for between us.
  
  So, have I found my je ne sais quoi? Probably not. I’m an eternal klutz and my hair won’t ever behave, no matter how hard I work at keeping it tamed. I can’t seem to master French, no matter how many classes I take and I seem to talk too much and overshare with the lady at the deli counter (all verboten in the world of French women).
  
  But none of this stops me from living my best life, reading good books, attempting to look somewhat chic and returning to Paris as time (and money) permits. Oh, plus I enjoy eating alone in restaurants. So, perhaps it’s mission accomplished after all?
  
  Forget tea! Honestly, I’d pair a glass of French wine with this book. Voila.
  
  à la prochaine, Jane
  
  | 1 Comment Tagged French, non-fiction, nonfiction, Pairing books with tea
- Thursday Reading Links #45
  
  Posted at 5:33 am by Jane Rosebery, on February 13, 2020
  
  Hi guys! I hope you have a very happy Valentine’s Day! Here are some links that I’ve enjoyed reading, plus one of my posts from earlier this week.
  
  xoxo, Jane
  
  Meghan Markle and the Myth of Happily Ever After.
  
  Books Briefing by The Atlantic.
  
  Not January, but…The Best January Poems Everyone Should Read.
  
  The Art of Fiction by Elie Wiesel. From 1978.
  
  My latest book/tea pairing: All The Time In The World.
  
  Harry Potter quotes about love.
  
  The 100 best books of the 21st century. How many of these have you read?
  
  Rounding Up the Spies of World War II in 4 New Books.
  
  A good book review for A Darker State by David Young.
  
  This is cool! Dozens of Historic Mexican Cookbooks Are Now Available Online.
  
  (Image via Pexels.com.)
  
  | 0 Comments Tagged books, links, lists, reading links
- Pairing books with tea (All The Time In The World)
  
  Posted at 7:56 pm by Jane Rosebery, on February 11, 2020
  
  All The Time In The World by Jessica Kerwin Jenkins is inspired by the medieval book of hours. According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, a book of hours is a “devotional book widely popular in the later Middle Ages. The book of hours began to appear in the 13th century, containing prayers to be said at the canonical hours in honour of the Virgin Mary. The growing demand for smaller such books for family and individual use created a prayerbook style enormously popular among the wealthy. The demand for the books was crucial to the development of Gothic illumination. These lavishly decorated texts, of small dimensions, varied in content according to their patrons’ desires.”
  
  All The Time In The World, complete with whimsical drawings and filled with fascinating anecdotes and witty articles, is meant for reflection and leisurely enjoyment. The entries are to be read slowly, with the passing seasons.
  
  The more than seventy-five articles are cleverly divided by the hour of the day. The first article (6:00 AM) is about the circus and the last article (5:00 AM) is about the songbirds waking you up at dawn. Fitting.
  
  I’d pair an herbal tea with this book. Particularly Twinings Buttermint. Sipping a nice, steaming cup of herbal tea is perfect while leisurely reading the entries.
  
  So let me ask you this, which drink would you pair with your current read?
  
  xoxo, Jane
  
  | 3 Comments Tagged books, Pairing books with tea, tea, tea lovers
- An unexpected surprise (new book)
  
  Posted at 8:59 pm by Jane Rosebery, on February 9, 2020
  
  I came across an unexpected surprise. I discovered that I’m the owner of a lovely book of French fairy tales, Perrault’s Fairy Tales. The book is published by Dover Illustrations and illustrated by Gustave Doré.
  
  I literally have no recollection of ever purchasing this book. The only reasonable explanation I can come up with is that I must have gone hog wild in a fit of rage purchasing as many books as possible during the Borders final closing sale all those years ago.
  
  Nevertheless, I’ve spent a leisurely weekend enjoying every page. The illustrations are in black and white, detailed and expressive.
  
  There are eight fairy tales translated from the French. My favorite story in this collection is Cinderella. The moral of that story is that the nice girl finishes first. Not sure this is an appropriate lesson for this day and age because sometimes you have to fight hard to get what you deserve, but the Cinderella-type theme is still my favorite trope in modern fiction.
  
  Have you discovered something unexpected recently?
  
  xoxo, Jane
  
  | 0 Comments Tagged books, fairy tales
- Thursday Reading Links #44
  
  Posted at 5:49 am by Jane Rosebery, on February 6, 2020
  
  Flowers and tea!
  
  Happy February! Here is what I’ve been reading during my commute this week (plus a throwback blog post).
  
  Yoga poses you should do everyday. If someone else has better ideas for daily yoga poses, please let me know. 2020 is the year of good health! Let’s do this!
  
  The Lutetia Hotel in Paris.
  
  Re-reading Persepolis in 2020 and What to Read Next.
  
  What to do in Paris in February. No, I’m not going. Just daydreaming.
  
  Some really great romance novel recommendations.
  
  A US Veteran in California is over 100 years old. All he wants is for you to send him a Valentine’s Day Card. I sent him one and if you want to do so too, here is the mailing address.
  
  9 Independent Bookshops in London. Do you have any favorite bookshops anywhere?
  
  Notes of a Chronic Rereader.
  
  Let’s all read more fiction.
  
  xoxo, Jane
  
  | 2 Comments Tagged links, lists, reading links
- Thursday Reading Links #43
  
  Posted at 5:36 am by Jane Rosebery, on January 30, 2020
  
  I am surprised how fast January flew by. They say that January feels like the longest month of the year, but I blinked and now it’s gone.
  
  What are you doing this weekend? I’ll be cleaning the house and reading a book. As you can see, I am a very exciting person. Ha!
  
  Katerina Sakellaropoulou becomes Greece’s first woman president. !! So exiting and about time.
  
  Who was the Iron Butterfly?
  
  Who was St. Valentine?
  
  2020 Historical Fiction We Can’t Wait to Read.
  
  Kelly Faircloth writes about the “petty politics of who gets to be Her Royal Highness.”
  
  How Three Bestselling Authors Boost Book Sales by Writing Collaboratively.
  
  Benefits of fresh flowers at home.
  
  Camera Faces.
  
  Why We Need Essay Collections Now More Than Ever.
  
  xoxo, Jane
  
  (Image via Pexels.com)
  
  | 0 Comments Tagged links, lists, reading links
- Women in History – Eloise Randolph Page, the Iron Butterfly
  
  Posted at 8:31 pm by Jane Rosebery, on January 29, 2020
  
  Women (and their accomplishments) are often left out of history. This is nothing new and we are well aware of it. It’s not right and it’s not fair. I’m going to do my part to write about women in history (especially in the Cold War era). Please join me as we kick off this new series with Miss Eloise Randolph Page.
  
  Eloise Page began her career as a secretary in the OSS (the precursor to the CIA) in 1947. What’s remarkable about her is that she moved up through the ranks to become the CIA’s first Chief of Station in an era where women in intelligence were simply not promoted.
  
  Miss Page was born in Richmond, Virginia. Emphasis on the Miss. She did not like being referred to as Ms. Miss Page never married or had children. Instead, she chose to break the glass ceiling in the intelligence community, steadily climbing through the ranks and eventually earning the nickname “the Iron Butterfly.” She retired in 1987 as one of the highest ranking female officer.
  
  Miss Page is not mentioned in my Encyclopedia of the Cold War which I find to be a grave oversight. She is, however, mentioned in Spy Sites of Washington, D.C. which is how she came to my attention.
  
  I tip my hat to this incredible woman who paved the way for other women to lead in intelligence.
  
  (Image via Pexels.com)
  
  | 3 Comments Tagged Eloise Page, Heroines of the Cold War, history, Women in History, women's history
- Thursday Reading Links #42
  
  Posted at 5:18 am by Jane Rosebery, on January 23, 2020
  
  Goodness, January is running away from us. I hope it’s been a productive and/or wonderful first month of this new decade for you. It’s been productive on my end but also wonderful. We’ve had some fun dinners out, good books to read and are currently binge watching Good Girls.
  
  Have a great rest of the week and a lovely weekend!
  
  Michelle Obama: By the Book. Love her!
  
  Frogmore Cottage & House.
  
  Novels with Incredible Child Caregivers.
  
  Neil Gaiman Talks Dreamily About Fountain Pens, Notebooks & His Writing Process.
  
  The Birth of Fashion Magazines.
  
  How Charles de Gaulle Rescued France.
  
  I wrote a short article about a historic hotel in Paris, Lutetia Hotel.
  
  Find me on Twitter and on Instagram.
  
  Why I Insist on my Guilty Pleasure Novels.
  
  How Hallmark Took Over Cable Television. (The New Yorker, so there may be a paywall.)
  
  Pairing Books with Tea – The Scarlet Pimpernel.
  
  Here’s Exactly How You should Be Applying Fragrance. (Short answer: however you want.)
  
  xoxo, Jane
  
  (Photo via Pexels.com)
  
  | 0 Comments Tagged links, lists, reading links
- Pairing books with tea (The Scarlet Pimpernel)
  
  Posted at 2:59 pm by Jane Rosebery, on January 20, 2020
  
  Who is the Scarlet Pimpernel? He is an English aristocrat who makes it his mission to rescue French aristocrats from Madame la Guillotine. He doesn’t do this alone. He has a secret league of 19 aristocratic young men assisting him in snatching French aristocrats from certain death and escorting them to England. The league is so secret that even the Scarlet Pimpernel’s wife doesn’t initially know about her husband’s alter ego.
  
  The first book in the series, The Scarlet Pimpernel, was written in 1901 and became a play in 1903.
  
  “They seek him here, they seek him there
  Those Frenchies seek him everywhere
  Is he in heaven or is he in hell?
  That demmed elusive Pimpernel”
  
  Baroness Emmuska Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel
  
  Which tea goes well with The Scarlet Pimpernel? I think a French tea would be perfect. The Scarlet Pimpernel is so good at evading the French authorities and saving the aristocrats from right under the noses of the French authorities, that I can imagine him drinking a cup of French tea while silently laughing to himself. Paris Earl Grey by Mariage Frères would be perfect. What do you think?
  
  Happy reading and happy tea-drinking!
  
  xoxo, Jane
  
  | 1 Comment Tagged Baroness Orczy, books, Pairing books with tea, tea, The Scarlet Pimpernel
- A very short history of The Lutetia Hotel in Paris
  
  Posted at 7:47 am by Jane Rosebery, on January 19, 2020
  
  Embed from Getty Images
  
  They say that old mansions and grand hotels are haunted by ghosts. If that’s true, then the Lutetia Hotel in the 6th arrondissement of Paris is the most haunted of them all.
  
  If ghosts exist, then the corridors of this storied hotel must be filled with the spirits of cabaret singers, artists, writers, Josephine Baker and Nazis.
  
  Built in 1910, during France’s Belle Époque, this architectural gem hosted James Joyce where he wrote parts of Ulysses. Josephine Baker and Picasso were regular guests, as was Ernest Hemingway.
  
  Embed from Getty Images
  
  A young Charles De Gaulle stayed there for his honeymoon. And it was this fortuitous visit that would change the course of the hotel’s history.
  
  During the occupation of Paris, the Nazis requisitioned the hotel to house and feed their officers and French collaborators.
  
  After the war was over, hundreds of thousands of former prisoners and Holocaust survivors began to make the trek home to France. The now General Charles de Gaulle remembered his luxurious stay at the Lutetia and demanded that the hotel house the survivors of the Holocaust because he wanted them to be housed in comfort after the horrors they suffered.
  
  And this is how it came to be that the grandest hotel in Paris opened its doors to displaced persons and Holocaust survivors. The first survivors arrived at the hotel in April 1945. They received food, shelter, money and clothing.
  
  The hotel also became the Paris headquarters for those searching for loved ones or waiting on Red Cross updates of family members sent to camps. An entire wall of the hotel was filled with photographs of missing persons. Relatives desperate for reunification with loved ones regularly stopped by to see whether missing family and friends had arrived from the camps.
  
  The last displaced person left the hotel in September 1945. Soon thereafter the hotel reopened its doors for business as usual and celebrities once again flocked to the grandest hotel in Paris.
  
  Embed from Getty Images
  
  The Lutetia closed in 2014 for renovations and reopened in 2018. The old-fashioned decor was replaced by chic, contemporary pieces. The dark paneling was removed to make room for a marbled lobby that boasts an airy, light-filled space. Once again, celebrities and the well-to-do made the Lutetia Hotel their home away from home.
  
  As for the ghosts, they probably still roam the halls.
  
  ***
  
  Note: If you want to learn more about the Holocaust survivors who stayed at the Lutetia Hotel, please search for “Lutetia Hotel” at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website.
  
  | 6 Comments Tagged article, history, hotels, The Lutetia
- Thursday Reading Links (on a Saturday. Again.) #41
  
  Posted at 11:54 am by Jane Rosebery, on January 18, 2020
  
  I hope your weekend is off to a nice, relaxing start! Here is my round-up of reading links.
  
  Interesting reading. How the baby boomers – not millennials – screwed America.
  
  This week on the blog, Dilemmas of a Book Nerd Tag.
  
  12 Decadent Hot Chocolates to Sip on in Paris.
  
  100 Great Books by African American Women.
  
  In Defense of Being a Night Owl. “I’d much rather watch Colbert than Good Morning America, and I’d take another glass of wine over squeezing in a morning workout class any day.”
  
  The 50 Best Writing Websites of 2020.
  
  Reading Positions. Haha. Which one are you? I’m the “Just a few more pages…” position.
  
  How to De-Puff Your Eyes in 3 Minutes or Less. I googled this topic because my eyes are super puffy for no reason at all. My eyes look as if I’ve been crying all night, when I’ve been sleeping soundly instead. The perils of being a woman, I suppose.
  
  Your Watch Says More About Your Status Than You Think. (WSJ, so there may be a paywall if you exceeded your free articles.)
  
  The teenage Dutch girls who seduced and killed Nazis.
  
  Cheers! xoxo, Jane
  
  (Photo via Pexels.com.)
  
  | 0 Comments Tagged links, lists, reading links
- Dilemmas of a Book Nerd Tag
  
  Posted at 4:39 am by Jane Rosebery, on January 13, 2020
  
  My Jane Austen books.
  
  One of my favorite podcasters, Miranda Mills, started a YouTube channel all about books. A recent video of hers is titled “Dilemmas of a Book Nerd Tag” where she answers bookish questions. It was so much fun to watch and I wanted to join in. This fun tag was created by Lindsey’s Little Library.
  
  I haven’t been tagged and I don’t plan to tag anyone, but because I do love books and talking about books, I’m going to participate. Here we go…
  
  Dilemma #1: Book Storage – How do you store and organize your books?
  
  I have limited space in my small house. I have two overflowing bookshelves in my study and one in the living room. Every once in a while I make room for new books by donating books I don’t want to keep. It’s not feasible for me to keep every book.
  
  Dilemma #2: Tracking – How do you keep track of what you have read and what books you own?
  
  I don’t normally keep track of what I’ve read, but for 2020 I’m going to keep track of the read books in my 2020 Planner. It should be easy to jot down the title of the book and the name of the author. Also, I daydream of creating a spreadsheet to keep track of the books I own. Someday I may get to that project.
  
  Dilemma #3: Borrow – Do you lend your books out?
  
  Absolutely not. I’d never get them back. And I learned that lesson the hard way.
  
  Dilemma #4: Buying – How do you buy or acquire your books?
  
  I’d say that 75% of my books are borrowed from the library. 20% are bought from bookstores during my travels. (I scope out bookstores in advance of a trip. Please tell me you do the same?) And 5% are bought from Amazon. I have it down to a science because I really do borrow most of my books.
  
  Dilemma #5: Comments – How do you respond to the “How do you read so much” comment or similar comments?
  
  No one has ever asked me this question, actually.
  
  Dilemma #6: Next Book – How do you pick your next read?
  
  It depends on my mood (or on which books come through my library hold).
  
  Dilemma #7: Travel – How do you pick what book(s) you bring on vacation with you?
  
  I don’t really do much reading on vacation. I’ll read on the plane, but I’m normally way too tired to read after spending a day exploring a city. And we hardly ever take beach vacations. But I do bring a paperback or two with me, just in case. Plus I have books on my reading device. The key is not to be weighted down by books because I want to come home with book purchases.
  
  Dilemma #8: Annotate – Do you write or highlight or mark up your books in any way?
  
  No. That really bothers me. I like to keep my books pristine. But I have a reader’s journal in case I want to write quotes or keep plot notes.
  
  View this post on Instagram
  
  I’ve started to keep a reader’s journal for the books I read. Not all of them, just a few select. 📚🖌 My tea today is Fortnum’s Breakfast Blend. ☕️💙 #fortnums #fortnumstea #royalalbertchina #roseconfetti #breakfastblend #readersjournal #bibliophile
  
  A post shared by Jane ✍🏼 (@janerosebery) on Jan 12, 2020 at 4:58am PST
  
  Dilemma #9: New or Backlist – Which do you prefer, new releases or backlist books?
  
  It doesn’t matter. Depends on what I want to read.
  
  Dilemma #10: Sequels – Do you read books as they are released or wait for an entire series to be published before reading 1 book?
  
  I read them as they are released. For example, I’m waiting with bated breath for the next Clara Vine book by Jane Thynne.
  
  **
  
  This was fun. Thank you for reading!
  
  You should leave your own answers below or at least direct me to your blog so I can read your answers!
  
  xoxo, Jane
  
  | 5 Comments Tagged books, Dilemmas of a Book Nerd, thoughts
← Older posts