From the Bookshelf of Bound Together…

The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free

Paulina Bren

Start date: September 1, 2021

Finish date: October 31, 2021

Discussion: If the Truth be Known...

Why we're reading this: Nonfiction selection
September and October 2021
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September and October 2021

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If the Truth be Known...

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* Non-fiction Selections
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last updated Dec 27, 2019 06:56PM

2025 Sept/Oct Nonfiction ~~ Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown
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What Members Thought

Mar 28, 2021 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it

Shelves: nf-2021

This was the last book unfinished in March and it was the perfect one in which to end Women's history month. So much history inside all seen through the eyes of the Barbizon. So many women stayed, passed through its doors. Hearts and dreams of becoming more than just a housewife mother. After WWII, women had more opportunity and they came to this safe haven from all over the country.

The Gibbs secretary school opened in the Barbizon, Ford models provided a different opportunity and Madamoiselle ...more

85 likes · Like · see review

Sep 25, 2021 ♥ Sandi ❣ rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, cultural, 300-350-pages-minus-plus, based-on-truth, 1-have, historical-history, edelweiss

3 stars

There were parts of this book that I really enjoyed- then there were parts that I was not so fond of. I think this book gave a lot of information about the early days - meaning the 1920's through the 1950's - of both the woman's hotel and of New York City. And some information about the later days, as in the 1980's up to current, of both the hotel itself and of "The Women" who still inhabited it.

However I did not find this book as enjoyable when it rattled off into the realm of the life ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Nov 14, 2022 Melissa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Through the tales of mostly of residents at an exclusive, women-only hotel in Manhattan, interesting exploration of (mostly middle to upper class, white) women in New York/American history from the 1910s New Woman/1920s flapper to the 1970s and beyond, when the hotel faded out and became generic condos. A bit too unfocused at the start, and too much focus on modeling and Grace Kelly's (probably the most famous Barbizon resident) sex life, but overall informative and gives an interesting outline ...more

2 likes · Like · see review