Posts mostly about swing era novels, modern novels set in the era, biographies and how-to books. If you have a book you’d like The Girl in the Jitterbug Dress to review please contact her at: https://www.girlinthejitterbugdress.com/about-tam-francis/contact-tam/
~ Call the Midwife: Vintage Reviewer ~ by Tam Francis The Synopsis Call the Midwife (Penguin Group, 20o9), originally The Midwife (Orion, 2002), by Jennifer Worth is a memoir of birth, joy, and hard times set in post WWII England against the backdrop of the East End of London, generations of families living, loving, birthing, and […more…]
~ The Secret Life of Dresses: Vintage Reviewer Book Review ~ by Tam Francis The Synopsis The Secret Life of Dresses (5-Spot Hachette Book Group, 2011), by Erin McKean is the story of a young college girl realizing her potential through the secret life of the dresses she begins to wear. When Dora’s grandmother unexpectedly ends […more…]
The Paris Wife: 1920s Hemingway’s Hadley Book Review by Tam Francis The Synopsis The Paris Wife written by Paula McLain (2012 Random House), tells the story of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife Hadley Richardson at the cusp of Hemingway’s writing career. The story opens with Hadley visiting friends in Chicago and meeting the pre-published Hemingway. McLain gives […more…]
~Some Girls, Some Hats And Hitler: Book Review with a Vintage Slant~ By Tam Francis The Synopsis Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler by Trudi Kanter (originally self published in 1984, republished by Virago Press 2012), is part love story, part Holocaust, and very much vintage fashion and lifestyle memoir. We follow Trudi, a half-Jewish milliner, […more…]
Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: Vintage Reviewer by Tam Francis As I was writing The Girl in the Jitterbug Dress (a story told in a parallel narrative with two points of view), my mother insisted I read this book. She thought it similar to my novel and thought I’d love it. It […more…]
~ Meet Django Reinhardt: The Gypsy Jazz Man ~ by the late Jacob Faust edited by Tam Francis Django Reinhardt, an in-depth biography on the late jazz guitarist virtuoso, written by his good friend and colleague Charles Delanunay, (published by Da Capo Press, London 1982). If ever there was a worthy account of this fascinating […more…]
~ The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion: Book Review ~ by Tam Francis Anyone who knows me, and even those who just met me, can tell I like the 1940s; I almost always dress vintage. Sometimes they’re an era off, but since I like the 1920s through 1950s its an easy in to a conversation. […more…]
~ Style Me Vintage: Book Review ~ I received a fabulous little gem for Christmas from my sister. It’s a must have for any gal who loves dressing vintage and needs a little help with the vintage hair. The book is expertly written by […more…]