2014 has been another great year for France Book Tours, its authors and its reviewers!

Here is the year through some graphs and stats.

38 books have been presented in 2014 (23 in 2013)

We had less Romance and General Fiction this past year, and much more Historical Fiction and Nonfiction.
Women writers are even more present then in 2013.
Alas, less books translated from the French. But it means there’s a large interest for English writing authors to focus on France.

in 2013:

in 2013:

in 2013:AND NOW TO THE 3 BOOKS

MOST OFTEN VIEWED IN 2014
(click on the covers to know more)

#1

#2

#3

90 book bloggers and 11 authors have posted reviews for France Book Tours.
And don’t forget book reviewers are entered in $15 gift card giveaway for each 10 stops tour, when they cross-post their reviews. More information here.

HAPPY NEW WRITING AND READING YEAR TO EACH OF YOU!

Author

Marcia DeSanctis

came to Chicago

on January 22

Photo credit: Ron Haviv

Marcia is the author of  100 Places in France Every Woman Should Go.

She explained the background of her book – her many trips to France, her marriage in Paris and the time she lived in that country.
Her book is unique, it is not your usual tourist book, the perspective is very different. Convinced that “women travel differently”, she highlights how she, “as a woman, interacts with the places” presented. She focuses on places where she had a personal story to tell.

We feel at ease in Paris. We feel we belong to France…
The country forces us to slow down.

Then the author spoke about her methodology: how did she choose these 100 places? She used 5 main criteria:

1. a place connected to a woman
2. a very beautiful place
3. a place with which she had a strong personal affinity
4. a French iconic place
5. or a place connected with other women she interviewed during her research trips

Marcia highlighted a few of these places with beautiful slides, allowing her to speak about some important women in the world of French culture or history:

1. Camille Claudel and her sculptures – don’t forget we happen to have a live tour until 1/28 on Rodin’s Lover, by Heather Web, a historical novel on Camille precisely!
2. Marie Curie’s office
3. Marcia’s literary muses: Edith Wharton’s book A Motor-Flight Through France
4. and Colette, a great naturalist – have you read her essay Paris From My Window, written during WWII?
5. Léa Feldblum and La Maison d’Izieu, which housed Jewish refugee children
6. George Sand
7. Louse Vigée Le Brun (1755 – 1842), portraitist of the royal family
8. Josephine
9. Josephine Baker
10. Eléonore d’Aquitaine
11. Catherine De Medici
12. Joan of Arc

A lively Q&A followed. For an accurate representation of Paris in older days, Marcia recommended movies with Audrey Hepburn, and also Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola.

100 Places in France
Every Woman Should Go

(travel essays)

 Release date: October 21, 2014
at Travelers’ Tales

380 pages

ISBN: 978-1609520823

Marcia DeSanctis is a former television news producer for Barbara Walters, NBC and CBS News.
She has written essays and articles for numerous publications including Vogue, Marie Claire, Town & Country, O the Oprah Magazine, Departures, and The New York Times Magazine.
Her essays have been widely anthologized and she is the recipient of three Lowell Thomas Awards for excellence in travel journalism,
as well as a Solas Award for best travel writing.
She holds a degree from Princeton University in Slavic Languages and Literature and a Masters in Foreign Policy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Visit her website. Follow her on Facebook, and Twitter 

Buy the book: Amazon, on Travelers’ Tales

 CLICK ON THE BANNER BELOW TO READ REVIEWS
AND AN EXCERPT OF THE BOOK

Random.org has spoken:

And the happy winners are

goes to
author and reviewer
Lucy at
The Fictional 100

Apart from winning this book,
Lucy will be featured as the blogger of the month
until the last day of December.
Please go visit her book blog!

*

goes to
Serena at
Savvy Verse & Wit

*

goes to
Alyssa at
Musings of a Writer
and Unabashed Francophile

*

And don’t forget to enter the
December books of the month giveaway!