It’s difficult to find your way around the book section, especially when it comes to giving books to those around you! If Femina.fr has already advised you in terms of comics not to be missed at the end of the year, as well as on the works of 2024 to be offered in collector’s editions, books written by public figures can also be a good gift option. Below, you will find something to delight aficionados of music (especially live!), gastronomy, cinema and humor…
Also discover: Christmas 2024: 5 gift ideas for less than 40 euros to give to a reading addict
“My life from stage to stage” by Sylvie Vartan and Benoît Cachin (Gründ)
What could be better than celebrating her career, when Sylvie Vartan has announced that she wishes to bow out in 2025? The farewells will be made in music in front of the public for David Hallyday’s mother, but her aficionados can already discover some behind the scenes in this beautiful book in which the singer herself participated, delivering her anecdotes from her residence in Los Angeles. From his first concerts, notably with the Beatles at the Olympia, to those planned in a few weeks at the Palais des Congrès to end his long and rich career, a look back at the tours and shows which marked the life of the star of the years yéyé, that a certain Claude François was jealous of… All accompanied by superb concert photos and vintage posters!
“The jubilant Dictionary of committed cuisine” by Thierry Marx (HarperCollins)
The starred chef Thierry Marx, a great fan of molecular cuisine, here opens the ball of a new collection born at HarperCollins: the Jubilant dictionariesset of (small) fun and thematic lexicons. Obviously, the one who had made himself known to the general public in Top Chefon M6 talks about gastronomy, values, terroir and good products in his own way. The opportunity also to learn more about his career with his apron around his neck (first as a pastry chef!), his sometimes very simple tastes (like his joy of making pancakes) or his family life (at image of his childhood in a working class city in the 20th arrondissement of Paris). Be warned though: this book may make you hungry!
“Step by step in the night” by Bambou (XO)
After Elisabeth Levitsky, Françoise Pancrazzi and Jane Birkin, there was in Serge Gainsbourg’s life a woman nicknamed Bambou, real name Caroline Von Paulus, thirty years his junior. Mother of their son Lucien, known as Lulu, and also an artist like his father, she shared the life of “the man with the head of cabbage” for thirteen years. In this autobiography dedicated to her son, Bambou opens up for the first time at the age of 65 about her journey of being flayed alive, her childhood as a mixed-race girl on public assistance or the artificial paradises to which she would later succumb. Then will come the meeting, saving, with the interpreter of The Javanese…Thanks to the words of this muse (who had inspired Gainsbourg Bambooa song written for Alain Chamfort!), the reader rarely penetrates into the intimacy of this artist who still fascinates as much.
“Pagny by Aël” by Aël Pagny (HarperCollins)
Aël is not only Florent Pagny’s daughter: she is also his official photographer! At his side, the young woman had also begun to immortalize her major 60th anniversary tour initiated in 2021. Before everything came to an end following the singer’s diagnosis of lung cancer. Very modestly, this book of unpublished photos, accompanied by some confidences on the fight and the union of the Pagny family against the illness, reveals the behind the scenes of his convalescence but also many moments of happiness in the company of loved ones. His partner Azucena, never far away, his friends Zazie and Marc Lavoine… Before his return, finally, on stage. In short, here is Florent Pagny as you have never seen him… until now!
“The Splendid by The Splendid” (Le Cherche-Midi)
Josiane Balasko, Bruno Moynot, Marie-Anne Chazel, Christian Clavier, Gérard Jugnot and Thierry Lhermitte confide, with a broken heart, at the beginning of the work: they all hoped to meet again on the occasion of the publication of this beautiful book that They all wrote together. Before the death of the late Michel Blanc, on October 3, 2024, disrupted their plan. This delightful work, a real leap into the past, is obviously dedicated to him. From meeting part of the group during their high school years to receiving their honorary César, through their first steps on stage and their enormous popular successes, The Splendid on The Splendid brings back happy memories and is already among the best sellers of the moment. And makes you want to (re)watch The Bronzedet Santa Claus is trash!
