If you know me, you know I love Paris. I have been countless times, studied abroad there in college, and speak French! In my efforts to read 100 books this year, I have been delving deep into books about and set in Paris. These are just a few of my favorite books about or set in Paris that I think you’ll love too.
xx Sarah
First up: Ayşegül Savaş. She’s a Turkish author who lives in Paris, and I just read up two of her books back to back: The Anthropologists and White on White. They couldn’t be more different in *vibe*. Both plausibly set in a ‘European’ city that I read as Paris, The Anthropologists follows a documentary filmmaker as she crafts a film set in her local park. This book renders daily life so specifically that it feels almost like watching one of those slow, ambient day-in-the-life videos that I love so much, except in book form. You will marinate in the atmosphere this book creates.
White on White is perhaps my favorite of the two and is unsettling in the best way possible. This book follows an art history graduate student in Paris who rents an apartment from an elderly couple. As the book progresses, the lives of the characters in White on White start to overlap in ways that feel increasingly strange and uncomfortable. There’s a big reveal near the end I won’t spoil, but I’ll say this: the whole book left me uneasy, which I weirdly loved. Both books come in under 200 pages. Quick, fast summer reads!
I’m working my way toward reading 100 books in 2026, but I’m uninterested in reading 100 forgettable beach reads and calling that a win. So this year I’m trying to mix in shorter, literary, thought-provoking books like Savaş’s alongside fun, longer reads, so that I’m actually reading interesting works not just pursuing the book count.
Savaş also wrote Walking on the Ceiling (also set in Paris), which feels like a bit of a self-insert for her, as the book follows a Turkish writer living in Paris who goes on long walks with her mentor. Paris is an extraordinarily walkable city, and this book captures that perfectly. While I read Walking on the Ceiling I could picture the exact sites her narrator was exploring because I’ve walked them myself. Like much of her writing, this book felt tangibly nostalgic.
A few books about Paris have earned a permanent spot on my bookshelf. The New Paris and The New Parisienne, both by Lindsey Tramuta, are the ones I keep coming back to before every trip. Lindsey is an American journalist living in Paris (and genuinely lovely), and in these two books she deep dives into the city’s newer food and coffee scene, and separately, into the women shaping modern Parisian life.
Jacqueline in Paris by Ann Mah is a novel that imagines Jacqueline Bouvier’s (later Jackie Kennedy) year studying in post-war Paris. This book captures a specific, transitional moment in Jacqueline’s and the city’s history, before she became the Jacqueline Kennedy we all know. If you’ve been pulled into any of the recent Kennedy-adjacent shows (*ahem*) or books, this is a rich, fictional way to go down a rabbit hole into Kennedy family lore.
For a more historical read, Dreaming in French by Alice Kaplan follows three real women who each spent their formative years in Paris: Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela Davis. It’s fascinating to watch the same city shape three completely different women, and to see Paris’s effect on American thought and culture through each of these women.
Paris in Stride is a sweet walking guide, full of gorgeous watercolor illustrations. You’ll walk fifteen to twenty thousand steps a day minimum in Paris, and this little pocket guide will slip right into your purse. I’m planning to reread it before my next trip to Paris this fall.
Okay I’m actually not sure if How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are is satire or sincere. It leans into every stereotype about the Parisienne: rolling out of bed for a cigarette and a croissant, skipping the workout she swore she would do. It’s a fun read, and I’ve read it more than once, but it’s a narrow, white, able-bodied, cis lens on what it means to be French broadly and Parisian specifically. It doesn’t capture the real diversity of the Parisian experience, so take it as a vignette, not a guide. If you’ve read this and have a theory on whether it’s serious, I would love to know in the comments.
Lastly, No. 91/92: Notes on a Parisian Commute by Lauren Elkin. She wrote this entirely as notes on her phone during her daily bus commute, and it circles back to that same feeling I got from The Anthropologists: this quiet, quotidian slice of someone’s actual life. It’s intimate and accessible in a way that made me feel both seen and like a quiet witness to her world. I’d recommend anything by Lauren Elkin, honestly.
How I actually make time to read
Typically I read anywhere from 50-70 books a year. And this year I’m aiming (key word: aiming) for 100. The question I get asked is some version of: how do you read as much as you do? Full disclosure, we don’t have kids, which gives me lots of quiet, free time. But I still make intentional choices that give me an hour (at least) every day to dedicate to reading.
The biggest intentional habit I have around reading is: I put my phone in another room. Not just on silent, in another room. I plug mine in downstairs and read upstairs, so there’s an actual physical barrier between me and the draw of the Endless Scroll. Knowing I’d have to walk all the way downstairs to get it is usually enough to keep me from bothering.
I also make reading into a ritual. A cup of tea, a bubbly water, a quiet corner, or even a coffee shop with just enough background noise to tune out. Your ritual around reading doesn’t have to be elaborate. It just has to feel like an intentional choice to sit down and do.
And, finally, if I’m not into a book by the time I’m 50-100 pages in, I put it down. I never feel guilty not finishing a book. Rather than languish and agonize over a book, I cut my losses and move on. Chances are if a book hasn’t hooked me in the first 100 pages, it’s not going to.
More than anything, I try to read for the sheer pleasure of reading. Some months that means literary fiction that makes me sit with discomfort (aka White on White). Other months it’s a Sarah J. Maas romantasy re-read. Just like any habit you want to (re)establish, if reading starts to feel like a chore, you’ll stop doing it.
If you’re headed to Paris soon, or just want to feel like you are for a little while, I hope one of these finds its way into your hands. And if you want my hand-picked guide to my favorite restaurants, cafés, and wine bars in the city, you can find that on my website too.
My 2026 Paris Guide
This is the the ONLY guide you need to see Paris like a local. Use my exclusive Paris Guide (with 60+ vetted, trendy spots) to plan your next weekend, long weekend, or week-long trip to Paris. Skip the tourist traps and learn to love Paris as I do!
Frequently Asked Questions
What books should I read before visiting Paris? Some favorites include The Anthropologist and White on White by Ayşegül Savaş, The New Paris and The New Parisienne by Lindsey Tramuta, Jacqueline in Paris by Ann Mah, Dreaming in French by Alice Kaplan, and No. 91/92: Notes on a Parisian Commute by Lauren Elkin. Together they span fiction, nonfiction, and memoir.
Are there nonfiction books about daily life in Paris? Yes. The New Paris and The New Parisienne by Lindsey Tramuta document Paris’s modern food, coffee, and cultural scene, while No. 91/92: Notes on a Parisian Commute by Lauren Elkin offers an intimate, memoir-style look at everyday Parisian routine.
How can I make more time to read? Simple habits go a long way: keep your phone in another room while reading, create a ritual (tea, a quiet corner, or a coffee shop) around reading, and give yourself permission to put down a book you’re not enjoying.
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