Audiobooks narrated by Elisabeth Lagelee

Chloe C. Peñaranda (Author), Elisabeth Lagelee (Narrator)

Audiobook

It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin

"The first comprehensive biography of Jane Birkin—actress, singer, and legendary style icon—and her profound cultural impact, from the "acerbic, culturally astute, and genuine" (The New York Times) author of the instant New York Times bestseller Glossy. Jane Birkin was synonymous with chic. Her effortless style and artistic legacy have been immortalized through her music and film career. And, of course, she was the inspiration behind one of the world's most coveted bags, the Hermès Birkin. But who was the real woman behind the it girl? Now, New York Times bestselling author Marisa Meltzer sheds new light on Birkin's enigmatic life and explores her profound influence on generations in a rigorously reported biography unlike any other. It Girl paints a vivid portrait of Birkin and her profound legacy, from her early years in 1960s London to her rise as a beloved celebrity in France, detailing personal challenges, her relationships with creative powerhouses, and the duality of her public and private selves. Based on interviews and deep archival research, Meltzer reveals the nuances of Birkin's character: her famously tempestuous romantic relationships, life with her three famous daughters, and the creative energy that drove her. It Girl tells the story of her indelible impact on femininity and style, and how what we think of as French girl style grew from her. Far from being just a muse, Birkin is at last given her well-deserved due."

Marisa Meltzer (Author), Elisabeth Lagelee (Narrator)

Audiobook

Chanel: A Woman of Her Own

"A fascinating look at the real Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel, the designer who forever revolutionized the way women look. She was a free spirit, brilliant business woman, and beauty who never found reciprocated love. Madsen, with authority, delves into this fashion doyenne's business and private lives to reveal one woman's extraordinary progress: from orphan to millinery shopkeeper, from lodestar of feminine style to a very rich woman with a closet full of dark secrets."

Axel Madsen (Author), Elisabeth Lagelee (Narrator)

Audiobook

When Stars Dream at Midnight

"Unveiled truths. Unrequited love. A world torn apart. Mireille When war threatened Europe, my parents sent me from our vineyard in France to safety in America, where I found a new life, with friends who become family. But even in a land untouched by the bombs, the shadows of war loomed over my heart. As secrets from my past emerge and the world around me is torn apart, I must confront the grief of loss, the weight of duty, and the delicate balance between love and loyalty. Peter I’ve always stood in the background—quiet, loyal, and resigned to love a woman I could never have. While her heart belonged to my best friend, mine was hers, a silent devotion that I buried beneath duty and the horrors of war. When tragedy sends me home, scarred and broken, I don’t expect to find healing in the life I left behind. But as grief turns into something deeper, I must decide if I have the courage to face a future shaped by love, hope, and loss. The third installment in the Midnight Stars Saga follows Mireille Perrin, the baby Estelle entrusted to her twin sister Mauve in When Stars Fall at Midnight. Now grown and navigating the heartache of war, Mireille’s journey will unearth family truths, test her resilience, and challenge her heart in ways she never expected. In this American Historical romance, Tess Thompson delivers a heartwarming, sweeping family saga filled with long-buried family secrets, unspoken desires, and characters torn between love and duty. A clean wartime that explores the power of second chances and healing nature of love is perfect for fans of 1940s historical fiction and WWII love stories. This sweet, inspirational tale will tug at heartstrings while reminding readers of the enduring resilience of the human spirit."

Tess Thompson (Author), Elisabeth Lagelee, Evan Sibley (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Resistance Lily

"Paris, 1941. At the height of World War II, young and headstrong Josephine Portier is the protégé of a wealthy family in the highest echelons of Paris society. When she meets the arrogant but handsome Gabriel, she wants nothing to do with him—until he reveals a shocking secret about her adoptive family that puts her in grave danger. With her life turned upside down and the Nazi forces ever advancing, Josephine finds a new calling when she joins the French underground Resistance. Her dislike for Gabriel soon flourishes into love, but their romance is short lived as she sacrifices her own freedom to allow his escape. Alone, she must brave the secret missions and Gestapo interrogations of a 1940s Parisian resistance girl. In a city ravaged by war, Josephine is drawn into a dangerous game of survival, in which losing is simply not an option."

Dana Levy Elgrod (Author), Elisabeth Lagelee (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Life In Letters

"Now in the pantheon of great thinkers, Simone Weil (1909–1943) lived largely in the shadows, searching for her spiritual home while bearing witness to the violence that devastated Europe twice in her brief lifetime. The letters she wrote to her parents and brother from childhood onward chart her intellectual range as well as her itinerancy and ever-shifting preoccupations, revealing the singular personality at the heart of her brilliant essays. The first complete collection of Weil's missives to her family, A Life in Letters offers new insight into her personal relationships and experiences. The letters abound with vivid illustrations of a life marked by wisdom as much as seeking. The daughter of a bourgeois Parisian Jewish family, Weil was a troublemaking idealist who preferred the company of miners and Russian exiles to that of her peers. An extraordinary scholar of history and politics, she ultimately found a home in Christian mysticism. A Life in Letters depicts Simone Weil's thought taking shape amid political turmoil, as she describes her participation in the Spanish struggle against fascism and in the transatlantic resistance to the Nazis. An introduction and notes by Robert Chenavier contextualize the letters historically and intellectually, relating Weil's letters to her general body of writing."

Simone Weil (Author), Elisabeth Lagelee (Narrator)

Audiobook

Liberty Equality Fashion: The Women who Styled the French Revolution

"Joséphine Bonaparte, future Empress of France; Térézia Tallien, the most beautiful woman in Europe; and Juliette Récamier, muse of intellectuals, had nothing left to lose. After surviving incarceration and forced incestuous marriage during the worst violence of the French Revolution of 1789, they dared sartorial revolt. Together, Joséphine and Térézia shed the underwear cages and massive, rigid garments that women had been obliged to wear for centuries. They slipped into light, mobile dresses, cropped their hair short, wrapped themselves in shawls, and championed the handbag. Juliette made the new style stand for individual liberty. The erotic audacity of these fashion revolutionaries conquered Europe, starting with Napoleon. Everywhere a fashion magazine could reach, women imitated the news coming from Paris. It was the fastest and most total change in clothing history. Two centuries ahead of its time, it was rolled back after only a decade by misogynist rumors of obscene extravagance. New evidence allows the real fashion revolution to be told. This is a story for our time: of a revolution that demanded universal human rights, of self-creation, of women empowering each other, and of transcendent glamor. This audiobook includes bonus lectures from the author's 'Clothing' course she teaches as professor of art history at Barnard College, Columbia University."

Anne Higonnet (Author), Anne Higonnet, Elisabeth Lagelee (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Jacket Off the Gorge: True Story of the Biggest Liar

"A must-listen real-life psychological thriller Jon Fontaine's teenage years are shaped by his motivation to run a lucrative drug-selling enterprise. Despite the many tricks up his sleeve, the law catches up with him time after time. To escape a lengthy prison sentence, Jon bails out of jail and fakes his own death. He throws his jacket off a gorge, the pinnacle of a meticulously staged suicide. Police find the jacket and declare him dead, only to capture him later as a fugitive from justice. Seven years after the ruse, Jon meets Susan, who is unaware of his criminal past. And he's keeping a secret: he's stolen a treasure of ancient gold and silver coins. He will never give away its location. Jon sends Susan on a roller-coaster of love and fear, and exploits the weaknesses in the criminal justice system to work his biggest cons yet, ending in a trail of victims—and death. A Jacket Off the Gorge peels back the layers of the criminal mind, revealing a fascinating look at one man's struggles within himself and with others. Jon's story raises questions about incarceration versus rehabilitation, lack of mental health treatment for offenders, and abuses by those we entrust to uphold the law."

Susan Ashline (Author), Elisabeth Lagelee (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Sword from the Embers

"When a true heir awakens, a returning past can break. And when war follows, a lifelong vow may shatter. A RISE . . . Awakening from a dark defeat, Faythe discovers a greater threat to the life she took back. Staggering truths will challenge her and reveal that some bonds were forged to defy. With the battle lost, the war has just begun, and as an enemy is captured, it soon becomes clear a storm can be tamed but never bottled. A THRONE . . . Her return to Rhyenelle stirs Faythe's rival to the throne. In this new twist of fate, against the pressures of the court, it's a test of strength and will to keep her cunning cousin at bay. Two hands reaching for a crown is a challenge bound to end in blood, but which one will bleed for their right to reign? A PHOENIX . . . Still, no conflict in the realm can match that which began long ago. The time is now for Faythe to face her title of heir before kingdom. But not without the help of those tied in destiny may the Phoenix Queen rise should all burn and fall."

Chloe C. Peñaranda (Author), Elisabeth Lagelee (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Betting Woman: A Novel of Madame Moustache

"Born Simone Jules, reinvented as Eleanor Dumont, and largely remembered as Madame Moustache, A Betting Woman is a historical novel inspired by the tumultuous life, times, and loves of America's first professional croupier of modern-day blackjack, bringing to life an intrepid and entrepreneurial real-life woman who lived on her own terms. When her whole family dies in a fire, young Simone Jules flees her grief and travels west to reinvent herself in burgeoning San Francisco. Down to her last dollar and facing some unsavory options, Simone quick-wits her way to a gambling table where she begins to deal vingt-et-un—modern-day blackjack. Word travels fast among of this French-speaking, card-playing novelty, and she begins to build a new life for herself. Fans of Thelma Adams, Therese Anne Fowler, and Marie Benedict will root for the quick-witted, charming, and self-sufficient Eleanor as she paves her way in a man's world and into the pages of history."

Jenni L. Walsh (Author), Elisabeth Lagelee (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture, 2nd edition

"Why are there restaurants? Why would anybody consider eating alongside perfect strangers in a loud and crowded room to be an enjoyable pastime? To find the answer, Rebecca Spang takes us back to France in the eighteenth century, when a restaurant was not a place to eat but a quasi-medicinal bouillon not unlike the bone broths of today. This is a book about the French revolution in taste—about how Parisians invented the modern culture of food, changing the social life of the world in the process. We see how over the course of the Revolution, restaurants that had begun as purveyors of health food became symbols of aristocratic greed. In the early nineteenth century, the new genre of gastronomic literature worked within the strictures of the Napoleonic state to transform restaurants yet again, this time conferring star status upon oysters and champagne."

Rebecca L. Spang (Author), Elisabeth Lagelee (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Long Way From Warsaw: A Novel of World War II Poland

"Torn apart by war. Reunited by love. Warsaw, 1939. Poland is on the brink of war, and for Anna Nowak, life will never be the same again. Her brother, Lech, is called up to fight as an officer in the Polish army. He expects to be home in a matter of weeks, but it will be many years and a journey of thousands of miles before he can be reunited with those he loves. Anna's younger brother, Jan, dreams of being a soldier too. But his dreams turn into nightmares when the Germans invade and his best friend is incarcerated within the ghetto. As for Anna, her hopes of studying art are crushed when the German occupiers close Polish universities. Instead she risks her own life by serving in the resistance. But with the Gestapo closing in, and with rumors of prisoners being sent to concentration camps, how far is she willing to go to save her country? As Poland is carved up by both Germany and the Soviet Union, the fate of ordinary people hangs in the balance. What does it mean to be Polish when Poland itself is threatened with extinction? Packed with authentic historical details, A Long Way From Warsaw is a sweeping novel of family, courage, and the indomitable human quest for freedom."

Margarita Morris (Author), Elisabeth Lagelee (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Elisabeth Lagelee