Kerri MaherRecensioni

Good Book

This novel centers around a group of women, linked by friendship and relationships, who range from deep involvement to the outer perimeter of the Jane Collective, an underground abortion provider in 1970s Chicago. While police surveillance increases, these women find ways to help each other and empower each other to improve their own lives. One of my favorite stories within this novel was that of Patty, a housewife who begins the book deeply suspicious of the work of the Jane Collective and ends the book supportive enough of her friends that she's arrested alongside them. I'm glad to see more novels centered around these themes and I hope to see more about this history, which I don't see represented often enough in historical fiction.

Historical fiction written and researched very well. This novel is a fictional portrait of the life of real American ex-pat Sylvia Beach, who opened a famous English-language bookstore and library in Paris in 1919, just after World War I, and also published its first and only book: James Joyce’s controversial Ulysses, which in its serial parts had been banned in the United States. The store, which Sylvia called Shakespeare and Company, was inspired by the Parisian bookstore—eventually called La Maison des Amis des Livres—run by Adrienne Monnier, the woman who would become Sylvia’s lover. When the two stores were across the street from each other on rue de l’Odéon, all the bright lights in the French and English literary worlds converged; Adrienne coined the term for the two stores together: Odeonia. Shakespeare and Company drew all the literary ex-pats living in France during a time in which censorship and morality crusades (the Comstock Act, Prohibition, etc.) made writing life in the United States inhospitable to many artists in terms of censorship and sponsorship. The real patrons of Odeonia were a who’s who of the literary literati—Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, Sherwood Anderson, to name a few—and these people appear in the pages of this novel to varying degrees.

The story is written in the third person from Sylvia’s viewpoint, and Ms. Maher convincingly fills in the fictional dialogues and Sylvia’s internal struggles when she is working tirelessly to bring Ulysses to print and her interactions with Joyce himself during the finishing of the writing, the revisions, the printing, and an ugly period when Joyce got Random House to publish it in the United States, cutting Sylvia out of the monetary rewards she might have easily gotten if she had not been a woman. The story seemed to sag in a few places; otherwise, it would have been a five-star review.

Fun fiction but in retrospect, it's kind of strange to read a fictional account of someone who lived in our time. I was surprised by and wondering if the $2million payment to Rainier was real or fiction but after googling, it appears that was real. And still she married him!

It's the story of Sylvia Beach, a women's rights activist, a bookseller, the woman who was the first to produce Ulysses when no male publisher cared and nearly perished in the process.
In 1919 Sylvia opened her bookshop 'Shakespeare and Company'. She did this with the support of her friend and later partner Adrienne Monnier, who already had a French bookshop where French authors and intellectuals came and went. This encouraged Sylvia to open an English-language bookshop. Not only did the French authors support her, but she soon counted American and English authors among her friends. On the one hand, she ran the bookshop as a kind of lending library and on the other, she also sold the books.
Everything was going well until James Joyce came to her, who was looking to get his book Ulysses published somehow. In America, the first chapters were already among the 'forbidden books'. There was no chance that his work would ever be published. Joyce was a very unpleasant contemporary. Many of Sylvia's friends called him the false Jesus. He took the worst possible advantage of his fellow human beings and disappeared when he had to pay his debts.
Sylvia, however, felt that she had to support him and threw herself into an adventure as a publisher, but also into debt and hopelessness until her health suffered.

I was very impressed by this story. I also didn't realise that at the beginning of the 20th century, same-sex love and cohabitation were not a problem in France.
I can warmly recommend this book.

I did enjoy this book very much but I found it too easy to devolve into skim reading it.

This is the story of Sylvia Beach and the start of her bookstore Shakespeare and Company (which I think I visited when I passed through Paris in the early 90s). She definitely was someone who had a goal and sallied forth to try to achieve it. She was definitely fortunate in getting support from others but there was a lot of work that she needed to put in herself.

One of the reasons I particularly was inclined to read this book rather than leave it until 2024 was that I'm planning on gifting it to my mother for Christmas. I don't quite know whether it's something she'd enjoy but I'll give her the choice. The main source of my hesitation is that I don't think she has any interest in Ulysses by James Joyce and there's a lot of the book that revolves around it's publication as well as Joyce himself. I don't think she'd be particularly impressed by the way he's presented. Still the setting may outweigh.

As other reviews have mentioned there was a lot of name dropping but it was woven into the text quite nicely.

Trigger Warnings: women’s health care/reproductive rights

Who does a woman call when she needs help? Jane.

Jane is a women’s health organization composed entirely of women helping women with their reproductive needs - including illegal abortions. The women who run Jane lead double lives and All You Need to Do Is Call follows three of the members as they must make decisions that will change the course of all their lives.

I think nowadays it’s important to really know about our history and how we should try our hardest to not repeat it. But also, if stuff does get repeated, looking back and seeing how it was handled and managed before (usually in the underground).

This story is loosely based on the Jane Society from Chicago in the 1970’s and it was really nice to read about and learn how women were helping each other out as much as they could when society wasn’t. It was also nice to read about the different types of women that Jane brought together - both as in the members and the tidbits of information we got about those who used the service. We really got a look into the housewife’s role in a turning point of history.

Overall, I really enjoyed this historical fiction and will be recommending this to those who like historical fiction. This would also be a good book group read as it can bring up tons of discussion points for groups as well.

*Thank you Berkley and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Although I am not usually a historical fiction reader, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
The liberalism of the times, the Paris setting and the cameos of emerging writers visiting Sylvia Beach’s Shakespeare and Company bookshop were really engaging. Sylvia’s own development as a businesswoman as early as 1919 made for a compelling central character.
Although Sylvia is affected by a lack of confidence, she is really brave in running her own business and supporting the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses, a book that had been banned for obscenity. Joyce is depicted as as a self centred, heartless bastard who doesn’t share the same integrity when it comes to business agreements and publishing. A lot of the authors who come into Sylvia’s orbit can also be considered as egotistical and unstable. Sylvia is continually forgiving and supportive. Sylvia and her partner, Adrienne act as patrons of many artists.
This was a really interesting look at Paris and the literary arts in the early 20th century.

Excellent book about women who band together in a time when abortion was illegal. Amazing what was done without cell phones etc.

This book follows the lives of three women, Veronica, Patty, and Margaret. Jane, a female empowerment, underground abortion group is designed to provide women with choice and safe medical treatment. Veronica, the founder of Jane, lives a double life. On one hand, she is the typical suburban housewife who bakes and takes care of her child. On the other, she coordinates and performs illegal underground abortions. Patty, Veronica's best friend, does not know about Jane and is horrified at the thought of abortion. She focuses her time and energy on her children and boosting her lack luster marriage. Margaret is a young college professor who is trying to make a difference in a male dominated profession.

I thought the storyline was a bit lacking in this book. The story was slow to develop and very predictable. The characters felt stereotypical, and not particularly likeable. I was a bit horrified that women with no medical training were performing abortions, and was interested to learn more about Jane itself, however that part of the book was lacking. Overall, 3 out of 5 stars.

All You Have To Do Is Call, is a powerful and thoughtful read. I grew more and more intently interested as I progressed through the book-basically meaning that I found it slow getting started initially. By midway through, I was mesmerized and had a hard time pulling myself out of the book.

The subject is of course controversial and although Ms. Maher began the book while Roe was still the law of the land, its repeal lands us right back into a similar era to the late sixties and early seventies. She does a great job of incorporating the feel of that era into the story and presenting all the reasons for why choice became the passionate issue that it still is today.

Although Ms. Maher has based the story on the historic organization of Jane in Chicago, she has created her own characters and developed interactions and relationships that are delightful to experience. The characters flesh out and become real as do their struggles and challenges making the story feel genuine and giving the reader reasons to care about them and cheer them on. For me, this was a true 5 star read.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. I am happy pass on my recommendation.

Based on actual events of the early 1970's, this is a novel about the brave women involved in providing illegal abortions through an organization called Jane in Chicago. Given current events, this book could hardly be more timely in its description of what happens when abortion becomes outlawed. Told from alternating perspectives of three women, and their observations of other women, we catch a glimpse of varied points of view regarding not only abortion but also relationships, academia, and health care. At times the cast of characters seemed a bit confusing, as the author included a single mother artist, a stay-at-home conservative mother, the pregnant founder of Jane, a new tenure track professor, a graduate student, and all of their various partners. The conversion at the end of Patty from staunchly anti-abortion to supporter seemed fairly abrupt. but satisfying, and the passage of Roe v Wade by the Supreme Court happened just in time -- as it did for untold women. This book serves as an all too painful reminder of how bad things used to be, pre Roe v. Wade, and how bad they may become once again.½

Una novel·la sobre l’epopeia de la fundació i l’auge d’una de les llibreries més mítiques del món. Un cant emocionant a l’ofici de llibreter i a la literatura universal.
Quan la Sylvia Beach, una jove americana amant dels llibres, obre Shakespeare and Company en un carrer tranquil del París de 1919, no s’imagina que canviarà el curs de la literatura. Shakespeare and Company és molt més que una llibreria. Hemingway i molts dels escriptors de la Generació Perduda la consideraran la seva segona casa. Allà també es forgen algunes de les amistats literàries més importants del segle XX, com la de James Joyce amb la mateixa Sylvia. Quan la controvertida novel·la de Joyce, Ulysses, és prohibida, Beach decideix publicar-la sota la protecció de Shakespeare and Company.Però l’èxit i la fama que comporten publicar la novel·la més controvertida i influent del segle té uns costos molt elevats: la rivalitat d’altres editors que també somien publicar Joyce. Les seves relacions més estimades es posen a prova mentre París cau en la Gran Depressió. Davant d’una crisi personal i financera, la Sylvia ha de decidir què significa per a ella Shakespeare and Company. Amb La llibretera de París, Kerri Maher ha aconseguit construir un fresc inigualable d'una llibreria, una ciutat i una època essencials per entendre d'on venim i cap a on anem.

I cracked this one open eagerly diving into the world of Sylvia Beach and Shakespeare and Company during my favorite Parisian literary era. There was no shortage of name dropping and lusty lesbian romance which I was all in for...but then the novel honed in on James Joyce. After awhile I began to wonder if the novel was actually just an excuse to write about Joyce under the guise of a more interesting lens. Then it turned into a full on James Joyce spotlight. I kept on hoping that the tide would turn and the story would focus back in on Beach but nope. It felt like she was just a tool to tell the Joyce publishing obscenity debacle so I tapped out. This was DNF about halfway through. The writing itself was great but I feel tricked into reading about another white dude for which women were props. No thank you.

“What if instead of a French shop in America, I open an American shop here in Paris? There seems to be a hunger here to read more works in the original language and no shop or library to supply them.” (Quotation page 28)

Content
Opening her own English bookshop in Paris, Sylvia Beach has made her dream come true. Together with Adrienne Monnier’s well known French bookshop, this literary cluster at rue de l’Odéon soon is highly acclaimed, well-known and almost daily visited by young and famous French and American writers of the 1920s and 1930s in a bohemian, sparkling Paris. When James Joyce tells her that his avant-garde novel Ulysses is officially banned and forbidden in America, before it even was published, she just has to do something, because she is absolutely convinced that readers could not be deprived of the possibility to read this innovative novel. There could be only one solution and she is ready to accept the challenge and risk everything.

Theme and genre
This novel about Sylvia Beach, her friends and these exciting years between the two world wars in Paris is a very well balanced mixture between researched facts and fiction. It is about well-known bookshops, literature, artists, especially writers, but also about publishing, friendship, family and love.

Characters
Most characters are real and described in a vivid way, always based on reality.

Plot and writing
The author tells the story of Sylvia Beach and her famous bookshop “Shakespeare and Company” during the most important years between 1917 and 1936, as these years are the years where Sylvia’s life as a bookseller and publisher takes place. This marvelous journey through literature, love and friendship is told from Sylvia’s point of view, but in the third-person-form, which made it possible to share not only Sylvia’s story, emotions and opinion, but add many other details that made the picture complete. Mostly written during the two years of the Covid pandemic, when libraries, publishing houses and bookstores with engaged staff made online events and information possible, this novel once again reveals the magic of books and reading.

Conclusion
A gripping, interesting, lively story about a famous bookshop, literature, artists und confident, modern women, set in the bohemian metropole Paris during the roaring twenties.

Kick Kennedy has fascinated me for years (for the full background on my love of Kick, see my review of Barbara Leaming’s biography, Kick Kennedy) so when Cheryl, our Penguin sales rep, told me about The Kennedy Debutante, I begged her to send me an advance copy. I happy wrote an Indie Next nomination for it, even though I didn’t love it as much as I hoped. And it didn’t make the list, but I felt a sense of accomplishment in doing it!

The Kennedy Debutante has taken Kick’s story and turned it into commercial women’s fiction. And for someone who doesn’t read a great deal of commercial fiction, particularly this year, I wasn’t entirely thrilled with the focus of the story being almost exclusively on Kick & Billy’s love story. Which has always been the least fascinating part of Kick’s story. The best parts of the book involved one of the few invented characters (no historical counterpart), a priest, Father O’Flaherty, who serves as Kick’s moral and religious counselor and is a bright spot in the face her parents’ darkness in the disconcerting time in London leading up to World War II. O’Flaherty is kind and compassionate and helps Kick come to terms with who she is, and the role that she has to play in British society, and subsequently it’s history, during her lifetime.

Additional bright spots include any time the Kennedy kids come into the frame, Joe & Jack (JFK) are quite a pair, and the inner glimpses into Rosemary and Eunice’s lives also show how close the sisters were and the obvious inspiration for Eunice’s founding of the Special Olympics. The siblings’ closeness was another bright spot of the book and I found myself often reading in anticipation of the next time the Kennedy clan would appear on set.

Overall, I enjoy The Kennedy Debutante, but if Kick was not the protagonist and it was say, about one of the Mitford sisters or a generic English woman living during WWII book, I would not have picked it up or bothered to be interested in it, given its position in the very saturated field of WWII fiction.

La història, novel·lada, de la Sylvia Beach i la seva llibreria Shakespeare & company, i a la vegada del París de la seva època, de les circumstàncies històriques nord-americanes i, sobretot, dels escriptors francesos i americans que freqüentaven la llibreria. Menció especialíssima a Joyce, del qual la Sylvia va ser l'editora del seu Ulysses, llibre smb què va creure des del primer moment i per al qual sentí una gran passió.

Al meu entendre, la novel·la és entretinguda però, en alguns moments, es fa una mica, mica, pesada, potser massa incisiva en aspectes de la mateixa faceta de la història.

Molt bona traducció.½

The Girl in White Gloves is a novel about the actress Grace Kelly. Grace's life was one of wealth. She worked hard to get her father, and mother's approval which never really happened. Because Grace Kelly truly led a charmed life, she is difficult, in this book, to like. One learns how difficult it is to live a life that is constantly being watched by strangers. The book has a beginning, middle and an end that was planned. It is an entertaining and well researched book that received three stars in this review.

Cuando Sylvia Beach, una joven americana amante de los libros, abre Shakespeare and Company en una tranquila calle en el París de 1919, no tiene ni idea de que cambiará el curso de la literatura.

Shakespeare and Company es mucho más que una librería. Hemingway y muchos de los escritores de la Generación Perdida la consideran su segunda casa. Allí también se forjan algunas de las amistades literarias más importantes del siglo XX, como la de James Joyce con la misma Sylvia. Cuando la controvertida novela de Joyce, Ulysses, es prohibida, Beach decide publicarla bajo la protección de Shakespeare and Company.

Pero el éxito y la fama que conllevan publicar la novela más controvertida e influyente del siglo tiene unos costes muy altos: la rivalidad de otros editores que quieren a Joyce para ellos. Sus relaciones más queridas son puestas a prueba mientras París cae en la Gran Depresión. Ante una gran crisis personal y financiera, Sylvia debe decidir qué significa para ella Shakespeare and Company.

Con La librera de París Kerri Maher ha logrado construir un fresco inigualable de una librería, una ciudad y una época esenciales para entender de dónde venimos y hacia dónde vamos.

Paris in the years between the wars was home to a multitude of famous writers, most of whom gathered at a bookshop called Shakespeare and Company. Sylvia Beach was the proprietor of this iconic shop and she makes for a fascinating heroine of this novel. Much of the plot in this novel is focused on Sylvia's work to publish James Joyce's Ulysses, a groundbreaking novel which other publishers wouldn't touch due to charges of obscenity and which was banned for years in the U.S. I enjoyed learning more about Sylvia, especially her relationship with another bookseller Adrienne Monnier, and her friendships with so many notable 20th-century writers.

The Kennedy Debutante is an excellent historical fiction book about Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy and her rebellious life. Kathleen Kennedy's debutante ball occurred as a presentation to the King and Queen of England. This is how the book begins. Her life was much of parties, friends and a desire to help others. There were terrible losses in her family. The book was well written and received four stars in this review.

I've long had an interest with the Kennedy family and this book about Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy was one that I had been looking forward to reading for a long time. Kick, the next oldest daughter of Joe and Rose Kennedy is one of the lesser known Kennedys. Her life and death have been overshadowed by her famous brothers. Kick's life was cut short, but she managed much during her short life. However, much came at a great cost. In the 1930s, her father Joe was the ambassador in London and Kick loved her life there. She had great friends and she also met the love of her life Billy Hartington, the future Duke of Devonshire. But, Kick came from a devout Catholic family and Billy was Protestant. Neither could compromise their faith. She would lose her family and his family would never accept that Billy converted nor that their future children would be raised Catholics. And, then England is drawn into WW2 in the middle of this emotional turmoil. Will they ever be together?

READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!

The Paris Bookseller is about the life of Sylvia Beach, the woman who founded an English language bookshop and lending library in Paris called Shakespeare and Company. Sylvia also met many authors during her time in Paris, including James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Ernest Hemingway. Many of them became members of her lending library, and due to this relationship, Sylvia learned about the James Joyce manuscript, Ulysses. When he was having difficulty getting it published, Sylvia offered to publish it for him. She gained fame from this publication, but later she and Joyce would have differences on how to promote the book, and they had a bit of a falling out.
The book also examines Sylvia's relationship with her wonderful mother, who gifted Sylvia with the funds to begin the bookshop, as well as Sylvia's relationship with her lover, Adrienne Monnier, who ran a bookshop and lending library. It seemed that when Sylvia first saw Adrienne, she fell for her. It was with Adrienne's encouragement that Sylvia began her own shop/library.
I never knew this story about Sylvia Beach, and her influence on the works of the 20th century.

The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher

This was a beautiful story! Just appreciating all of the research and dedication that the author put into this book this alone makes this book worth reading! Kerri Maher did exactly what evey good historical fiction book should transport us back in time and bring an old story back to life! The time and detail she put into building her characters was done so well I felt like I knew them! This book is one that all book lovers will cherish! Truly an amazing experience reading this book! I hope to read more by this author in the near future! Happy reading everyone!

Perhaps I just wasn't in the mood for this book, but I never quite got into the characters based on real people in Paris during the 1920's. Sylvia is American who comes to Paris for adventure, meets Adreinne, a lesbian book seller, they begin an affair and work to fulfil Sylvia's dream of owning a bookstore - this one designed for Americans: Shakespeare and Company.

Soon the store becomes the hangout for many famous ex-pats in Paris: Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas, Ernest Hemingway, etc. The most important writer is James Joyce whose novel "Ulysses" is being written and printed in small sections getting rave reviews and notices of censorship in the US. Sylvia eventually becomes the publisher for the novel and in essence "owns the rights" - things get complicated with Joyce, who is difficult and clueless about many things.

The setting is perhaps the most important part of the book - the background of Paris and all the famous writers. Sylvia herself never seems to come alive for me.½