Why did her mother want her to go to Paris?

Stella liked her quiet, solitary life and her predictable job at the publishing house.

She wasn’t a spender.

She wasn’t one to be extravagant, and she definitely wasn’t someone that liked to socialize like her mother did.

After her boss forced her to go on a vacation, she decided she might as well head to Paris. She didn’t like it at all.

Or she didn’t like it until she was enticed by an eccentric woman to buy a very expensive dress created by Dior that made her feel amazing in all ways.

She didn’t know this dress would make her see things differently and meet wonderful people or was it just Paris itself?

Is this what her mother wanted her to feel and where she wanted her to be?

Besides loving how Stella is able to find herself you will love all the name dropping of fashion icons, famous artists, places in Paris, and the mystery Stella was trying to solve and a mystery she was not trying to unravel, but so happy she did.

You will love the characters - eccentric, sweet, and loving. And of course you will fall in love with Paris.

A delightful, breezy read, but don’t read this book if you are hungry. 5/5

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ( )

This book feels like a fantasy, a fairy-tale where the main character gets all her wishes fulfilled. That wasn't what I was expecting. but it has definitely stayed with me much longer than I expected as well, and I love the dreaminess of it. I guess it must be nice to be Stella and have all your wishes magically come true thanks to Paris and friends with money -- oh, and slender, gamin, beauty doesn't hurt at all -- but at least her adventures were interesting and full of passionate connoisseurs of art and literature and food.

Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss. ( )

If you read my reviews, you've probably noticed that I pick up any book that has PARIS in the title -- sometimes it's a good choice and sometimes not but this new novel by Ruth Reichl was definitely a good pick. Not only was there a good story line and a couple of great characters but parts of it were like a travel log around the best sites in Paris in 1980!

Stella is a copy editor who lives a very lonely and secluded life. She was raised by a mother who was always looking for a good time and Stella wished to be nothing like her mother. When her mother died, she left Stella and some money and a note that said that she should go to Paris to spend the money. Reluctantly she decides to go to Paris despite the fact that she doesn't really want to leave her current life. Alone in a foreign city, she falls into her old habits by living frugally and not doing anything new and exciting. One day she goes into a vintage dress shop and the shopkeeper acts as if she's been waiting for Stella. She has the perfect vintage Dior and when Stella tries it on, she feels and even looks like a new person. She takes a chance and buys the dress and her adventure begins. She goes to Les Deux Magots where she tries oysters for the first time. While she's there she meets an older gentleman who is an art collector and he tells her wants to show her the real Paris. He takes her to all of the fabulous restaurants in Paris at the time and the author makes sure that the reader learns all about the food that they try. She also starts living and working at Shakespeare and Company, the iconic Paris bookstore where she uncovers a mystery about a Manet painting. So we have a mystery, a bit of romance and lots of food as Stella changes her life from shy and lonely to adventuresome!

I was intrigued with all of the wonderful descriptions of food until I read an article about the author and found out that she has several nonfiction books about food in France. I think it's time that I read one of them.

So open this book and take a tour of the Paris that existed in 1980. It will be eye-opening and fun. If you've already been to Paris, this book will help bring back wonderful memories of your trip. This book is a definite delight for not only foodies but also for people who either love to travel or yearn to travel. ( )

Having recently read The Paris Bookseller, a novel that tells the story of Sylvia Beach and Shakespeare and Company, I was especially interested to read Ruth Reichl's novel about George Whitman's second generation of that famed bookstore. This is the story of Stella who leads a humdrum life in New York as a copy editor, and who is socially frozen because of her emotionally unhealthy childhood. Her mother, who was anything but giving in any way, bequeathed Stella money to spend time in Paris, and that became a complete turning point for her. Perhaps due to serendipity she encountered people who opened her eyes to new experiences and ways to interact with the world. Her quest to locate the story and works of Victorine, the model for Manet's "Olympia," and her search for her unknown father, are made possible because of her tenacity and relationships. Reichl's background as restaurant critic, Gourmet editor in chief, and cookbook author is obvious throughout in her descriptions of Parisian cuisine and Stella's sensual response to tastes and textures of food. The glimpse into the real Shakespeare and Company store, its owner George Whitman, the Tumbleweeds, and the visiting authors like Ginsberg and Baldwin, was intriguing enough to motivate me to track down a documentary about them. ( )