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Independent Bookstore Day – 26 April

Saint George is the patron of booksellers thus his day was chosen as Independent Bookstore Day, an initiative of Association Verbes, which aims to promote independent bookstores and to maintain the special status they have in France in the face of ever more present threats, such as e-books. This initiative was started twenty-three years ago and today, Independent Bookstore Day is celebrated in 80 countries. Each year, the association publishes 23,000 copies of a book whose purpose is to acquaint people with publishing and with the demands of running a bookstore. This year's book, on sale for just 3€, is a compilation of reading lists that ispired 50 French authors. Each author also has a page to describe the view from their writing space. This year, to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day, we thought you'd like to meet a French libraire. Libraires are important people in French social fabric. The French have a close relationship and follow closely the suggestions of their li…

A brief History of the Cookbook

Most households have at least a few cookbooks: perhaps some have been passed down through generations; perhaps others, more recent, cater to the various dietary needs and restrictions in the household. Cookbooks are a familiar sight, but what do we really know about their history? One of the most famous early cookbooks dates back to the 2nd century BCE. It is called the Deipnosophistai (“The Learned Banquet”) and is a treatise on food and food preparation written by Athenaeus, a Greek gourmet. This was however not the earliest cookbook by any means. That honor goes to the Yale Culinary Tablets, three of which date back to 1730 B.C. They are from the Mesopotamian region, or what is today Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. In fact, much of what we eat today was cultivated or domesticated in that region. The tablets provide recipes for more than two dozen Mesopotamian dishes, such as stews of pigeon, lamb or spleen (A team of international scholars set out to recreate three of the r…

Happy Birthday to John Steinbeck

Happy Birthday to John Steinbeck a giant of American Literature

February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968

1962 Nobel Prize in Literature: Awarded "for his realistic and imaginative writings, which combine sympathetic humor with keen social perception."

The Grapes of Wrath Winner of The Pulitzer Prize in 1939 is considered John Steinbeck's masterpiece and part of the American literary canon. Tortilla Flat Steinbeck's initial commercial success, an episodic fiction, narrates the experiences of a group of disreputable residents in a rundown coastal area of California. Of Mice and Men A 1937 novel about ranch workers George and Lennie, striving to buy their own farm. It delves into The Great Depression and explores themes of racism, loneliness, mental illness, and the quest for independence. Cannery Row The 1945 novel follows a marine biologist in a shabby di…

Cowboy Cookies for Buffalo Bill’s Birthday

Stop by for a free homemade Cowboy Cookie. February 26th is Buffalo Bill’s 179th Birthday and Bill & Rosa’s Book Room is celebrating with «Cowboy Cookie Day». The origins of "cowboy cookies" are unknown but Old West lore claims that they were eaten by cowboys as a high energy snack that could be easily carried in a saddle bag. Its a “drop” cookie mashup of oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies, Cowboy cookie dough typically includes flour, brown sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla, oat and coconut. It’s the oat/coconut combination that gives them their chewiness. But the really good stuff is up to the maker. The typical cookie includes a variety of rich ingredients, including chocolate and pecans. Substitute your favorite type of nut if you can’t find pecans which are a specialty of the American south. Other ideas are to add raisins, cranberries, M&Ms, butterscotch chips, corn flakes, rice krispies or pretzel pieces. A teaspoon of cinnamon is an option too. Cowboy cooki…

Romance novels

A little history of Romance novels, the top selling fiction genre in the US, though it is widely dismissed by critics. The classic story of two characters who encounter an obstacle they must overcome for their love to endure appeals to many people. Even more so since the pandemic, when many were stuck at home and turned to reading to pass the time; romance is particularly appreciated during stressful and uncertain times. According to The New York Times, sales of romance novels more than doubled recently, from 18 million copies in 2020 to 39 million in 2023. Social media contributed to the genre’s popularity — most books recommended and reviewed on #BookTok and on #bookstagram are romance novels. This has also brought the average age of romance readers from 35-55 down to 18-44. To celebrate romance, Saturday 8 February 14:00-18:00 is «Seduction Day» at Bill & Rosa's Book Room. In anticipation of Valentine’s Day receive a FREE COPY of the book "La Seduction: How the Fren…

Les Livres français au English Book Room!

Comme Bill & Rosa's English Book Room est en France nous mettons en avant de temps en temps des livres qui nous plaisent en français. Et comme le français est en apprentissage continuel parmi nos lecteurs (les franco et les anglos) ici nous avons sélectionné un livre qui parle des néologismes en Français depuis 1905. Le titre Du Poilu au Métavers des éditions Larousse vient de sortir. Ce nouveau livre présente 300 mots qui sont entrés dans le Petit Larousse illustré entre 1905 et 2025. Ce sont 300 mots qui reflètent l'évolution de nos sociétés, 300 mots qui retracent l'histoire de la société française. Découvrez dix de ces mots ici, do you know them? Croque-note : on connait tous le croque-mort, mais pouvez-vous deviner la signification du croque-note ? Entré dans le dictionnaire en 1905, ce mot désigne quelqu’un qui joue et exécute une partition sans faute mais aussi sans âme. Stichomythie : Dialogue rapide où les interlocuteurs se répondent de façon symétrique. …

International Bookstores in Paris

FUSAC's own Bill & Rosa's Book Room, is composed mainly of used English books. We also have a certain number of French language books. And when we also receive books in other languages Norwegian, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Polish we are reminded what a cosmopolitan city Paris is. In fact we read recently on the city of Paris' website in carefully inclusive French that the population of the city is composed of 22% Paris-born, some place else we saw 26% foreign-born and the rest of Parisians are non Parisian French. The international community stems from 176 nationalities. And 3/4 of Parisians think the ideal city is multicultural. This got us to thinking that there must be bookshops that deal in other languages beyond English and French so we set out to see what we could find and composed this list. After the foreign language shops there's a list of English bookstores in Paris and a few of the historic French shops we thought we just couldn't leave out. If you love…

Literary Fun and Games

Time for some English Literary Fun and Games Identify the following Literary Fun first lines with the novel or short story that they open. Who was the author? He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone 84 days now without taking a fish. When Mrs. Frederic C. Little's second son arrived. Everyone noticed that he was not much bigger than a mouse. A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak and studded with iron spikes. We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. One thing was certain, that the white kitten had nothing to do with it --it was the black kitten's fault entirely. "Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug. Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, there was a mooc…

Paris peep shows!

Inspired by Philippa Campsie’s excellent blog Parisian Fields https://parisianfields.com/ where she talks about her husband's Paris peep show collection of stereoscopes. I started exploring stereoscope peep shows of Paris and Montana - my two favorite places. I thought I’d share a couple of the images of bridges that I found. But first what is a stereoscope. Like it sounds there’s stereo (from more than one source) and scope (view). A stereoscope is an optical trick, a dual or double view; the art of capturing and displaying two slightly offset photographs to create three dimensional images. Of course you need a special viewer to see the overlaid images. Remember that Viewmaster you had as a kid? That's a "modern" stereoscope! I came across a Viewmaster wheel recently in a book which had been donated to Bill & Rosa’s Book Room. What a blast from the past. I had mine when I was about 10. Our family travelled across the USA that year, 1975, in a green Dodge Maxivan. Fo…

Vintage & Classic Murder Mystery

If you’re looking for some gripping reads to take with you on holiday, we’ve got you covered! We picked four vintage classic murder mystery authors who will keep you hooked. A lot of their books are available at Bill& Rosa’s Book Room, starting at 3€! Read on and pick your favorite flavor of mystery. Agatha Christie (born in England in 1890, died in 1976). Homeschooled from an early age and the youngest of three (much older) siblings, she was used to making up stories to entertain herself and started writing around the age of 18. After marrying Archie Christie in 1914, she served for a while as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment, where it is said that she learned about poisons and medicinal plants. She would later use this knowledge in The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1919), in which her exceptional description of the murderer’s use of poison garnered her a review in the Pharmaceutical Journal. Her most famous character, Hercule Poirot, is believed to have been …

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