Paris Reads for Summer 2026
Heists, crime tales, historical jaunts, memoirs, and more. Plus a note on summer language learning !
It’s my favorite time of year, when I attempt to ignore everyone’s vacation photos and stick my face in a pile of books and work on my personal projects. Here’s what I’ll be reading (or have already read) this summer, with a few extras at the bottom that aren’t Paris-focused but should also find themselves in your collections.
The Parisian Heist by Jo Piazza
It sounds entirely unbelievable, but Piazza conceived, wrote, and edited this high-stakes art-world thriller well before thieves actually shattered windows and broke into the Louvre last October. Her story jumps between the 1890s, when Jo van Gogh battles dismissive experts to secure her brother-in-law Vincent’s legacy and provide for her son, and 1996, when Emma, a struggling American artist working as a cleaner for a wealthy Parisian family, is swept into a dangerous heist inside the Musée d’Orsay. The two women and timelines converge in a wonderfully woven narrative about women reclaiming their own histories. I love the way Piazza writes powerful women characters, especially in her novel The Sicilian Inheritance, and this tale, on my home turf, is in great company. I devoured it in two days!
Note: I’ll be in conversation with Jo Piazza at The Red Wheelbarrow in Paris in September. Stay tuned for more details.
Murder in Paris in ‘68: A True Story of Death and Glamour by Edward Chisholm
The bestselling author of A Waiter in Paris is back with a much different kind of story, a true-crime murder mystery. Chisholm, a cinephile, digs into the still-unsolved murder of Stevan Marković, the Belgrade-born “bodyguard” of the enigmatic French actor Alain Delon. In 1968, he was found in a public dump on the outskirts of Paris, dead from a bullet wound to the head and dressed in Delon’s clothes. The investigation naturally turned to Delon, as well as the Corsican gangster François Marcantoni and Georges and Claude Pompidou (you’ll have to read to find out why!). With a non-fiction narrative that reads like fiction, Chisholm parses a mountain of police report archives, photographs, and source interviews to decode what really happened in the Marković Affair. It’s a rather gripping look at a moment when Delon’s on-screen persona as Tom Ripley, among other anti-heroes, blurred dangerously with real life, exposing the Parisian underworld and high-level political fallout. A page-turner!
My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein by Deborah Levy
Levy’s latest novel (my word, not hers—she calls it a fiction) follows an unnamed Londoner who moves to Paris in 2024 to write an essay on the Jewish-American mother of modernism, Gertrude Stein, only to find herself chasing elusive historical trails while navigating a modern, eccentric city. She befriends Danish Eva and French Fanny and gets wrapped up in a search for a missing cat named Bob, all while trying to get a sense of who Stein really was and what made her so compelling. The book toggles between everyday Parisian life and biographical interludes about Stein’s work and the artistic giants, such as Virginia Woolf and Picasso, who moved through her world.
A SUMMER OF LANGUAGE 🇫🇷 !
I’m not only reading a ton this summer, I’m also getting back to language classes! Not French, as I don’t need help there, but Italian, which I started learning during Covid. I was part of a school in Paris for more than a year, but scheduling was always tricky, and I felt I was advancing faster than my classmates. Other well-known apps helped me when all I wanted was to expand my vocabulary, but they didn’t help with conversation or even simple exchanges.
Now, I’m using Lingoda, an online language school that offers small-group or 1-to-1 classes, an interactive format with certified, native-level teachers, and super-flexible scheduling so I can learn at my own pace. Whether you’re working or on the move this summer, this is a great option to kick-start French language learning or improve your skills. Good timing, too: Lingoda is running a summer sale! Click this link, get a 7-day free trial and then up to 40% off Lingoda Flex using my code: TNP40
Deal ends July 31, commencez maintenant!
The Smallest Restaurant in Paris by Rachel Khoo
Long before supper clubs became popular, I had the pleasure of squeezing into Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef Rachel Khoo’s pocket-sized (21m2) apartment in Belleville for an unforgettable lunch. She could serve two people at a time from her teeny tiny kitchen; If I remember correctly, I was joined by Anne Ditmeyer! Khoo, who eventually moved back to London, went on to write The Little Paris Kitchen, a bestselling cookbook that turned into a popular BBC show. Her latest is a memoir packed with wonderful illustrations and recipes, capturing her early days as a Brit living abroad, with all the attendant missteps, new friendships, and exciting discoveries.
Elisabeth by Eric Rohmer, translated by Aaron Kerner
Film fans might know the late French director Eric Rohmer but perhaps no little about his writing past. Rohmer published Élisabeth under a pseudonym (Gilbert Cordier) when he was only 26. This was fifteen years before completing his first feature film and a decade before an editorial role at Cahiers du cinéma that would bring French cinema into a new era. McNally Jackson, the New York-based bookstore and indie publisher ( McNally Editions) wanted to take it on because, as they put it, “it had never been done, the rights were available, and our editor Jeremy is a big Rohmer fan.” The novel takes place in 1939 in the countryside east of Paris, where an upper-middle-class family is spending an insouciant summer— the last before the German invasion. The protagonists are seemingly unaware of what’s to come, and Rohmer positions them in a kind of “precarious peace” with “desperate boredom, petty romantic agonies— with the unsettling chilliness and the sinister exactitude of details on a tactical map.” From what I have read thus far, the book appears to be a very faithful translation of the original. Nothing has been cut or shortened, which means English readers will have the true experience of a nouveau roman, a literary form that was popular in the 1940s.
Other Summer Reads
They Stole a City by Lauren Collins
An ambitious, meticulously reported multigenerational history of the 1898 white supremacist massacre and coup d’état in Wilmington, North Carolina, where Collins grew up. By tracing the legacy of four families over 125 years, Collins delivers a searing, urgent accounting of American racial terror and its direct echoes in our modern democratic crisis. Catch Lauren on CBS Sunday Morning where she was interviewed about this history and her book.
Crash Into Me by Robinne Lee
From the author of The Idea of You comes a sultry drama following a disillusioned former photographer who relocates from Paris to Los Angeles, whose chance car accident with a captivating model from her past ignites a passionate, secret affair that forces her to confront her deepest desires and what she truly wants for her life. Catch Robinne on Good Morning America! We’re lucky to have her in Paris now :)
How to Kill a Language by Sophia Smith Galer
A fascinating, urgent exploration of linguistic politics and cultural erasure that will completely change how you think about communication and language, from fellow journalist and linguaphile Sophia Smith Galer.
The Great Book of Chocolate (Revised Edition) by David Lebovitz
Okay, not so much a summer read but a recent release that should be on any chocolate lover’s bookshelf! Lebovitz added fifteen new recipes, including a chocolate negroni, but you’ll also find summer-appropriate ice cream ideas.
Selling Sophie, by Bryan Pirolli
Pirolli’s debut is as compelling as I knew it would be. Dual timelines set the tone for this story—one following Danilo, who has invested his family fortune in becoming the first gay president but returns to his family’s homeland in Portugal when the money dries up, and the other tracing Sophie, a stand-in for the French queen during the French Revolution. As Pirolli puts it, the tale is “If Red, White & Royal Blue met Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette and it was all dropped in the middle of Portugal…”.
Coming in Sept.
Pardon Our French by Alex Durand and Tom Carles
The duo behind the viral culture platform AT Frenchies brings their signature humor to this personal, cross-cultural survival guide. While navigating the well-trodden terrain of French clichés, they offer a witty anatomy of social codes, packed with practical advice and recipes. Pre-order now!
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