Author Therese Ann Fowler explores the Fizgerald’s time in Paris and beyond, in her much buzzed-about book, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, which debuted at #10 on The New York Times Bestseller List and garnered much media attention from The Wall Street Journal, the Kirkus Reviews and more.

In May, my friend Anna visits Paris for the first time.

As a former temporary resident, she asked me for recommendations. In French fashion, my first suggestions were culinary: chocolat chaud at Angelina’s, magret du canard at Dernier Metro and falafel in the Marais. Then the requisite stops: Louvre, Notre Dame, Orsay, etc. And personal favorites: browsing the shoe department at Galeries Lafayette, drinking a 1664 beer at The Moose bar in Odeon and reading books at Shakespeare and Company.

“No iron can strike the heart with as much force as a period in exactly the right place.”

Isaac Babel wrote that. The sentence appears in a short story called “Guy de Maupassant.” Which is appropriate, because that is exactly how de Maupassant wrote --- sentences that advanced the narrative, paragraphs with punch, stories that stopped on a dime.

On a beautiful day in spring David Downie and his wife, photographer Alison Harris, set out on an unconventional pilgrimage, walking along ancient roads out of Vézelay.  Six months and 750 miles later, they reach their journey’s end at an abbey in Roncesvalles. In Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of St. James, readers can join them in a fascinating journey through the backroads of France, meeting a variety of characters along the way, asking the questions any thinking person must ask from time to time…

It’s hard to believe Cara Black has just published her thirteenth book. It seems like yesterday when we met in cyber space. Cara was researching her first book, Murder in the Marais and private investigator Aimée Leduc had yet to make an appearance. Ah, how time flies in real and in virtual life. Now, Aimée is a force on the Parisian mystery scene and Cara's become a good friend.

Alert readers already know Joel Stratte-McClure, author of “The Idiot and the Odyssey: Walking the Mediterranean,” published in 2008, and erstwhile publisher of The Paris Metro fortnightly rag from 1976-1979. BUZZ met him in Paris recently where he revealed all on his latest book, “The Idiot and the Odyssey II: Myth, Madness and Magic on the Mediterranean,” his favourite addys and what the Idiot's planning next.

The streets of Paris honor its history and its heroes. Walking through the 12th arrondissement, you may pass the Place Moussa et Odette Abadi, a small, tree-lined square that pays homage to a young couple who founded and led of one of the most successful resistance efforts of the Holocaust. The Marcel Network is their story. 

As an incorrigible lover of almost everything French, I can't seem to pass by any book about the country.  I am seduced by its history, design, art, architecture and music.  I am also particularly fond of books that capture the experience of actually living in France, like Laurence Wylie's Village in the Vaucluse or Peter Mayle's, A Year in Provence. So when I saw Lunch in Paris - A Love Story with Recipes by Elizabeth Bard at my local bookstore, my heart skipped a beat.

French born, London based, award winning food-journalist Jean Cazals was in Paris recently to launch his latest book, “Tea-Time”, a delicious “coffee-table” tome takes the reader around 50 of London's traditional and wild and wacky tea-rooms. Cazals' book is a contender for an award at The Paris Cookbook Fair and get a room at the chic Hôtel Regina.