Wonderful Books to Read

French Country Home ~ A New Book

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My favorite french muse has done it again! Sharon Santoni author of My Stylish French Girlfriends is coming out with a new book this year! I am really excited and can’t wait to get my copy of My French Country Home: Entertaining Through the Seasons.

It is set to be released on August 8. I really enjoyed her last book and wrote about it here, here, and here. I can’t want to see what wonderful ideas, recipes and beautiful photos Sharon has in her book. She gave a sneak preview of it on her blog, see it here.

photo credit My French Country Home
photo credit My French Country Home

I do look forward to reading this book and hope to share what I learn from it. 

The Barefoot Contessa~ Cooking for Jeffrey

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Ina is back with her new book Cooking for Jeffrey and I was so happy that my husband picked me up a copy this weekend! I have been recording her new shows every Sunday and it was been wonderful watching them before I go to bed at night.





 
My copy at home.
 
 
 

I have already looked through the book and she goes into detail about how she and Jeffrey met and her first store in East Hampton.

 

I still can’t believe she was a nuclear analyst for the government! Wow!

 
  

Of course, her recipes are easy and delicious. I made her chicken piccata this year and it turned out great! See my blog post here about that.

 
     

I can’t wait to dig right into this book. Her challah bread in the book looks delish. See what I did to my challah bread here.

 

 

Make sure you pick up your copy soon and watch her show on Sundays on the Food Network.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Polish Your Poise with Madame Chic

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My favorite author Jennifer L. Scott just came out with her third installment of the Madame Chic book series! Polish Your Poise with Madame Chic was released on October 27. I already had my copy pre-ordered!!!

I was so excited to receive my book. I have already begun reading it. I can’t get enough of hearing about the stories of  Madame Chic. How she dressed, how she prepared her meals with thought every day.

It seemed as though she lived her life with purpose. Learning how to live your life with beauty is very hard sometimes. People either love it or hate it. I get a combination of both. I have women who turn their noises up at me because I fresh flowers in my office everyday.

Sometimes the women stare at me because I am at the grocery store in a dress or skirt and pearls. But I know secretly in their hearts they long to be elegant. Most women do. I know that some women don’t have the confidence nor imagination to execute beauty. But one can learn with a good attitude.

In Jennifer’s book she gives 5 Characteristics of Poise. These tips will help you to get your mind set on being elegant. Here is the list….

1. Confidence: Feeling comfortable in your own skin; a genuine self- assurance.

2. Composure: Keeping a positive perspective while maintaining calm self-possession.

3. Compassion: Thinking of others and practicing selfless.

4. Presentation: Appropriately and stylishly dressed, with good posture.

5. Present: Poised people live passionately in the present moment.

Poise is defined as a graceful and elegant bearing. Hopefully these tips you set you on the path to being an elegant bearing person. If you want to read about my other entries in regards to her books see here and here. 






My copy at home







photo via Mrs. Shockley








The Art of Witty Comebacks ~Harper’s Bazaar

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I am so behind on my magazine reading. I mean I am months behind!! So while waiting for the Bloglovin website to come up I picked up the September issue of Harper’s Bazaar and being to read an article called The Art of the Retort.

There were some excellent points on how to master the witty comeback. My husband is a very witty man and sometimes when we are alone at home I ask him how he comes up with his responses. He always tells me that he has no idea. I guess some people are just naturals at being a “smarty pants”.

But Joan Juliet Buck explores the power of wit. He are some of her points:

One, wit is a response.  Two, wit must contain NO aggression.  Three, wit must be fresh.  Four, wit must be uttered with an innocent sincerity that turns reality on its head.



One: A witticism is a spontaneous reaction to a circumstance. A quip never refers to anything that is not happening right now, and cannot begin with “By the way…,” “The other day…,” “When I was a child…,” “or non sequiturs such as “I always thought dandelions were onions.” The quip must magnify the absurdity of the Here and Now, which requires some discipline, even training. There are shortcuts.

Two: There is nothing witty about expletives, aggression, or meanness. Action Theater, teaches you that the richest material comes from playing off a close observation of what the other person is doing or saying. Action Theater also teaches you to think not only on your feet but with your eyes, ears, hands and tips of your hair.

Three: Recycling will save the planet but is the death of wit. The best lines are best used once. Others can repeat your good lines, but you cannot. Quoting yourself is as bad as saying “I’m beautiful.”

The lonely wit must be sincere, unguarded, true. Anything really funny that is going to come out of your mouth won’t be the result of the calculation, research, product testing, rehearsal, dry runs. It will be the kiss of the flying spirit. 


Four. Don’t be too smart. Show-offs depress and irritate.


Photo by Taisiia Stupak on Unsplash
text by Joan Juliet Buck 

My Stylish French Girlfriends ~ An Inspiring Book

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Okay, so I have been hearing about this book for a couple of months now and I just received my copy last week. Let me tell you that I am already halfway through the book! I can’t put it down. It is just that fascinating to me!

I love reading all the stories about each girlfriend and how they accomplished their dreams. Sharon Santoni is the author if this charming book and the author of the blog My French Country Home. She talks about 20 of her stylish girlfriends. She goes and visits their grand chateau’s, parisian apartments and businesses. They are florists, painters, writers, wedding dress designers, and so on and so on. I am so inspired by these women.

Sharon deliberately sought out women from all over the country, reaching from Calais in the north to Provence in the south. Each girlfriend was chosen because she has a story to tell and a great lifestyle to portray.

You should definitely purchase a copy of this book. It is a wonderful example of women inspiring women.

Photo by Beyza Nur Kocaosmanoğlu on Unsplash
The book
Video of the photoshoot for the book 


Grace of Monaco

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As I have said before, I love classic movies. Although, this is not a classic movie, not yet. It is a recent release that I discovered in Netflix. I wasn’t sure about watching it but now I am very happy that I did. I loved it!!! It was such a great movie and I thought Nicole Kidman did such a wonderful job playing Grace Kelly! I truly enjoyed it. If you have the time please watch this movie. The setting in France was wonderful, the costumes, the acting, just everything!!! It was just chic…..



Photo by Alessia Cocconi on Unsplash

Photo by Sophie Vinetlouis on Unsplash

(video via Youtube)

My Life in France

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I love reading. I also love classic movies. I was going through Netflix and came across Julie & Julia. I watched it and loved it! I ended up purchasing the movie and I have watched it a million times already!!



I love the scenes, the clothes and the food. Meryl Streep is a fantastic actress! I then “googled” Julia Child’s books and saw My Life in France. This is a wonderful book! I downloaded it onto my Kindle and I just can’t get enough of it. Julia Child tells the story of how she and her husband Paul lived in France. 


Her husband Paul wrote letters to his twin brother and Julia wrote letters also. No one threw anything away so you have all of this beautiful information that has been put into the book. She gives such vivid details into their lives and the food! This is such a delicious book! Here is a passage from the book that I read recently….


“It was near lunchtime, and though we were hardly used to such elegance, we looked at each other and said, “Why not?’ There weren’t many patrons yet and we were seated in a gorgeous semicircular banquette. The headwaiter laid menus before us, and then the sommelier, an imposing but kindly Bordeaux specialist in his fifties, arrived. He introduced himself with a nod: “Monsieur Henocq.” The restaurant began to fill up, and over the course of the next two hours, we had a leisurely and nearly perfect luncheon. The meal began with little shells filled with sea scallops and mushrooms robed in a classically beautiful winy cream sauce. Then we had a wonderful duck dish, and cheeses, and a rich dessert, followed by coffee”. 


Just wonderful and so is the video of the movie below. Enjoy!

photo by Annie Spratt





(video via Youtube)