Desperately Seeking Paris
Bonjour mes amis!
The current exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Max Beckmann in New York," was a breath of fresh air, as well as a chance to revisit an old friend. The focus is on 25 paintings he did between 1920-1948 that would enter New York collections and 14 other paintings done during the sixteen months he and his wife lived in New York (1949-1950).
Read MoreNew York: The fifth annual BEVERLY HILLS INTERNATIONAL 2016 AWARDS® has recognized Veronica’s Grave: A Daughter’s Memoir by Barbara Bracht Donsky as a 2016 FINALIST in the category of memoir.
The competition, with thousands of entries, is judged by experts from all aspects of the book industry, including publishers, writers, editors, book cover designers and professional copywriters. They select the award winners based on overall excellence.
After months in the works, this week finds us doing the final edits of the audio-book of Veronica’s Grave: A Daughter’s Memoir. The Audible version, narrated by Leslie S. Miller, will be released shortly on Amazon, iTunes and through other nationwide outlets.
Listening last week to Leslie’s reading of my memoir was a joy! I became so carried away, that it was as if I was listening to someone else’s story. So, who is this enchantress?
Read MoreAfter dipping a madeleine in a cup of verbena-infused tea, Proust’s boyhood memories played out before his very eyes. After a few more sips and a few more dips, he transformed his entire life — all that he knew about history, cultural mores, social privilege, art, science, and human nature—into what is arguably the greatest novel of the 20th century. If not a memoir, it’s an autobiographical treatise in the guise of a novel. Dipping the madeleine proved an antidote to the much-dreaded writer’s block.
Read MoreHello Guys and Gals!
Francophiles keep popping up in my life, the latest being Roni Beth Tower with a fabulous new memoir out this month. Miracle at Midlife: A Transatlantic Romance chronicles a two year courtship between a divorced American attorney living on a converted barge in Paris and a clinical research psychologist working from her home in Connecticut.
Naturally, when Francophiles get together we love nothing better than to talk about all things French. And although it's true that every country has its own customs and rituals, it seems that the French have a unique way of throwing a bachelor party for a young man about to be married. I hope you will find it as entertaining as I did!
Read MoreCalling all Francophiles! Calling all fashionistas! Calling all bookworms!
The stars fell into alignment over The Museum at FIT this week as several international experts on Proust and the Belle Époque, gathered for a fashion symposium marking the opening of a superb exhibition: Proust’s Muse, The Countess Greffulhe.
Read MoreA toy? Taking in the posh digs, the white napery and a stunning floral arrangement, I’m thinking: This is one expensive toy!
Later I googled bilboquet to learn it’s a small wooden cup on a spiked wooden stick attached to a ball on a string. The idea is to toss the ball into the air and catch it in the cup. Good for eye-hand coordination.
Then I checked Zagat 2016: “One does not go for the food alone to this “see-and-be-seen” UES French bistro that functions as a clubhouse for “power” types like “Euros locals” and “Park Avenue dowagers.” The mix of personalities made it hard to resist; I made a reservation.
From the get-go, with a 7:30pm reservation on a Saturday night, the place was a-buzz, and the staff could not have been more accommodating, the hostess showing us to her favorite table, a lovely corner table for two. Once seated, I could see why it was a favorite as it offered an excellent view of the dining room.
Read MoreIf you like comics and live in New York, you're in luck! The French Comics Framed Festival featuring leading French cartoonists has arrived in town, with nearly all the events open free to the public. The festival runs from September 27 to November 5, 2016 with events scheduled at various venues. ‘Meet the Artists,' for instance, is scheduled for booth #1558 at the Comic Con Convention Oct.6-9, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. This event, with many attendees wearing the costume of their favorite comic book or video game hero, in not open free to the public. In fact, I've been told it sells out within minutes of the tickets becoming available on-line. Had you wanted to go this week, you would have needed to buy a ticket last April. And thousands did!
Read MoreNever having been a vendor at a book festival, I jumped at the chance to share a booth at the Brooklyn Book Festival with two other She Writes Press authors, Sande Boritz Berger, author of The Sweetness, A Novel and Liz Gelb O’Connor, author of The Angelorum Chronicles and Caught Up in Raine—romantic women’s fiction.
Read More“Jerusalem 1000-1400: Every People Under Heaven,“ opening September 26, 2016 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, does what every monumental exhibit aspires to do: It enlarges the mind and nourishes the spirit. And in this particular case, it brings hope that a luminous city that once brought together people from all over the world, to live and trade in harmony, might become that way again. The exhibition accomplishes this by opening a portal to a poorly understood era in human history; namely, the Medieval epoch in Jerusalem. That was a time when the city was the one place on earth for which all hearts ached and the focus of three major faiths -- Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Read MoreThis week there's more news to share, news that's dear to my heart. For many years, while living in Oyster Bay, New York, I had a private practice for children having difficulty in learning to read. Most were not what you’d call dyslexic, though a number of them—all boys—confused the letters ‘b’ and ‘d’ and didn’t recognize that ‘p’ was standing on its ‘long leg.’ To them the letters were mirror images of one another.
So we set to work, tracing and writing large on the blackboard, linking the shapes of the letters with the sounds they made -- the Orton-Gillinham method -- while encouraging their parents to read to them so they could hear the beauty of the language and enjoy the magic of children's literature.
Read MoreVisit http://amzn.to/2chtm7L to claim your free digital copy of Desperately Seeking Paris: 13 Places to Find Art and Artists, Beauty and Inspiration in New York and Paris
Read MoreFor those of you following my blog, you’ll remember that last week Veronica’s Grave won a silver medal for memoir in an international competition, with entries coming from more than a dozen countries. Thinking such good news called for a celebration, we headed for one of the hottest destinations in town, Le Coucou on Lafayette Street, sharing as it does the corner at Howard Street with the new Eleven Howard hotel.
Read MoreNot only did this week find Veronica's Grave winning the Readers' Choice Silver Medal, it also has been named one of Women Writers, Women's Books recommended reads for September.
Here is what they had to say about Veronica's Grave:
Read MoreDon’t delay, hurry on down before September 25th to see “Stuart Davis: In Full Swing,” a retrospective of more than 80 significant works by the American modernist painter on exhibition at the Whitney Museum.
At the age of 16, Davis talked his parents into letting him quit school and join a group of painters known as the Ashcan School, under the leadership of Robert Henri. Other notables in this group included Edward Hopper and George Bellows, both of whom have major works in the Whitney’s permanent collection. What was revolutionary about the Ashcan School was their subject matter—the urban landscape of America, bustling with millions of immigrants and stamped with grittiness and vitality.
Read MoreWhat books are tucked away in your beach bag this summer? on your Kindle? lying next to the bed on the night-table? Did you say Veronica’s Grave? Well, that certainly makes me as happy as the day is long. As do your notes and emails telling how much the book has meant to you. Keep them coming! It has long been my hope that Veronica's Grave would shed light and bring understanding to a neglected problem -- that of children who have been silenced for a lifetime by family secrets.
Read MoreI am honored that Veronica's Grave received such a thoughtful and charming review from Inspired by Books -- a thinking woman's blog devoted to seeking the inspirational in books. Be it in the classics or in poetry, in memoir or in mystery. This lover of books, Andrea Laszlo, does it all! Here is her recent post on Veronica's Grave:
Read MoreThis week I have the great pleasure of hosting the author, film critic and my friend, the multi-talented Diana Y. Paul.
Born in Akron, Ohio, Diana is a graduate of Northwestern University, with a degree in psychology and philosophy, and of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, with a PhD in Buddhist Studies. Her debut novel, Things Unsaid (She Writes Press, 2015) has won the award for best New Adult Fiction from Beverly Hills Book Awards for 2016, as been ranked #2 in the “Top 14 Books about Families Crazier Than Yours” and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Read MoreIt came as a shock to learn last week that I have a number of symptoms associated with ‘Untreated Francophilia.’ They vary in both severity and in the type of activity one chooses to engage in. Less acute symptoms, for instance, might include planning the next trip to Paris, within minutes of having returned home from France. Markedly more severe symptoms include the stalking of French restaurants, cafes and patisseries wherever you happen to find yourself. Experts say the only cure for French Stalker Syndrome is total immersion in French culture -- a month of two in the south of France would be therapeutic.
But finding it impossible to jet off to France any time soon, I head downtown for a few hours to check out a new French outpost in the Flatiron District, Le Coq Rico: The Bistro of Beautiful Birds.
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