Le Bilboquet: A French Toy

A 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.

French Comics Framed Festival

If 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!

Lessons Learned From The Brooklyn Book Festival

Never 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.

Beth BeauchampOctober 1, 2016 Comments

Jerusalem 1000 -1400: Every People Under Heaven

“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.

Meet Me at the Brooklyn Book Festival!

This 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.

Writing and MarketingBarbara DonskySeptember 17, 2016 Comments

Free trip to Paris and New York

ONE DAY ONLY!

Visit 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

Barbara DonskySeptember 16, 2016Comment

Bienvenue à New York, Le Coucou

For 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.

French Restaurants '15-16Barbara DonskySeptember 10, 2016Le Coucou Comments

An exciting week for Veronica's Grave

Not 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:

Beth BeauchampSeptember 7, 2016Comment

Press Release: Breaking News!

Barbara DonskySeptember 4, 2016 Comments

Stuart Davis: A Seminal Year in Paris

Don’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.

Fabulous Summertime Reads

What 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.

Inspired by Books

I 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:

Does the Past Define Us?

This 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.

Barbara DonskyJuly 31, 2016Comment

Le Coq Rico: A Beautiful Bird

It 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.

"The Innocents": Women in Wartime

Writers and film-makers continue to successfully mine stories stemming from World War 2. “The Innocents” is such a film—a Polish-French film by the director Anne Fontaine that takes place in December 1945. Based on real events as described by Madeleine Pauliac, a French Red Cross doctor who had served with French troops in war-torn Poland, the film illuminates the various crises of faith that befall a convent of nuns who have been ravaged by marauding Russian troops who forced their way into the monastery and raped the helpless women.

Paris on the Hudson

When a nephew’s wedding in June brought us north to Poughkeepsie for a weekend of festivities, we thought it the perfect time to squeeze in a visit to the CIA – not to the Central Intelligence Agency, but to the legendary Culinary Institute of America. So it was we arrived on a Saturday morning at the campus in Hyde Park, not knowing exactly what to expect, but having been forewarned by a desk clerk at the hotel that reservations for the dining rooms, be it for lunch or dinner, are hard to come by.

A great article by completefrance.com: 10 Paris museums you can visit for free

One of the great joys of Paris has to be the scores of specialty museums, each with its own focus, each with its own charms. Some of the museums mentioned in the following article will be familiar to the readers of ‘Desperately Seeking Paris,’ in that I’ve blogged on them: le musée Picasso in the exquisite Hotel Salé; the musée D’Orsay in the magnificently reconstructed train station; and the challenging musée du Quail Branly, a veritable vertical garden, its walls cloaked in greenery.

What intrigued me about the article was how, if you planned well, you could save yourself a bundle of euros, enough to splurge on a lovely lunch with a glass of vin rouge between the morning and afternoon visits.

Beth BeauchampJune 26, 2016Comment

Independent Journal Review on 'Veronica's Grave'

Happy Father's Day! The following quote, which says it all, comes from T. D. Jakes, an American author, pastor and filmmaker:

I want to congratulate all the men out there
who are working diligently to be good fathers
whether they are stepfathers, or biological fathers
or just spiritual fathers.

And what follows is an article that appeared about Veronica's Grave in the Independent Journal Review.

Beth BeauchampJune 19, 2016Comment

The Power of Nancy Drew

Hello, Everyone!

When publishing a book nowadays, it's not enough to simply write it. You must 'support' it and one way of doing so is by writing related articles that, hopefully, will be picked up and published by others. Recently, I had the privilege of posting the following article on the influential website, Women Writers, Women's Books. I know that some of you who are on my Facebook have seen it, but for those of you who haven't, I'm publishing it today, along with a few added photos. Enjoy!

Barbara DonskyJune 12, 2016Nancy Drew, Bill OReillyComment

Springtime at Gabriel Kreuther

Across the street from Bryant Park on East 42nd Street, on the ground floor of the Grace Building, is the eponymously-named Alsatian-inspired Gabriel Kreuther. Barely a year old, Guide Michelin has awarded it one star, with many patrons insisting it deserves better than that.

Having left The Modern after nearly ten years at the helm, Mr Kreuther has repeated the highly successful concept seen at MoMA of a more casual bar room adjoining a luxe dining room. The overall effect is welcoming, a bright and airy space in the heart of Midtown. A desirable addition to a street that's overloaded with fast food places.