Ooh La La (Callan)

Ooh La La:  French Women's Secrets to Feeling Beautiful Every Day
Jamie Cat Callan, 2013
Kensington Books
224 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780806535579


Summary
French women seem to have a special knack for life's most important things—food, love, raising children. And in matters of beauty and style, they appear to be at an unfair advantage.

But the good news is that everything French women know can be learned.

French women are not born more attractive than anyone else. They simply learn at a very young age how to feel beautiful, confident, and sexy, inside and out. It's an allure that outlasts youth—in fact, some of France's most celebrated women are femmes d'un certain âge. Experience only makes them more irresistible.

Growing up, Jamie Cat Callan had a French grand-mere to instruct her on style, grooming, and genuinely liking her reflection in the mirror. Now she shares that wisdom along with advice from other French women on fragrance, image consulting, makeup, and more, and shows you how to:

♦ Discover the power of perfume
♦ Find mentors who will help hone your personal style
♦ Begin at the ends—hands, feet, and hair
♦ Choose lingerie that makes you feel magnifique
♦ Get an internal makeover and nourish your soul
♦ Embrace your age gracefully and gorgeously

Bid au revoir to Botox, fad diets, and agonizing over every imperfection, and say hello to the truly timeless beauty that comes with making the most of your own unique je-ne-sais-quoi. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1954-55
• Raised—Stamford, Connecticut, USA
• Education—B.A., Bard College; M.F.A., University of California-Los Angeles
• Currently—lives in Cap Cod, Massachusetts


Although raised in the U.S.A., Jamie Cat Callan grew up under the tutelage of her French grandmother. She has traveled to France many times, lived in France, and fallen in love with all things French. That fascination led Callan, eventually, to publish three books about French women and "their secrets to joie de vivre, timeless beauty, love, romance...and lingerie." In the space of four years, from 2009-2013, Callan published French Women Don't Sleep Alone; Bonjour, Happiness; and Ooh La La.

Callan earned her B.A. from Bard College and an M.F.A. in Screenwriting from the University of California-Los Angeles. Her writing career took off at 26 when she published her first book under a New York State grant from the Council of the Arts Program. That book, Over the Hill at Fourteen sold nearly half-a million copies and became a Scholastic Book Club selection.

Over the next five years, Callan published two more young adult books including The Young and the Soapy (1984) and Just Too Cool (1987).

Since then her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Modern Love column, Missouri Review, American Letters & Commentary, and Best American Erotica.

Her book Hooking Up or Holding Out was issued in 2006, followed by her three advice books on the style and love lives of French women.

Callan has taught writing at Wesleyan University's Graduate Liberal Studies Program and conducted writing workshops at Grub Street in Boston and through New York University. She lives with her husband on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. (Adapted from the publisher and Cervena Barva Press.)

Book Reviews
[A]n important look at American women, how we may be selling ourselves short, and how the women in that strange land called France may have much to teach us. It may change you.... Ooh La La is a reminder that you get to choose so many things about who you are and how you want to be seen.... This book will help you do just that. Take possession of your future. Buy it. Read it. Gift it. Hurry.  Read more . . .
Christine Merser - LitLovers


In this combination lifestyle guide and travelogue, Callan interviews French women...on topics like beauty, fashion, and feminine hygiene in an effort to divine the wellspring of a French woman’s je ne sais quoi.... This charming foray into French femininity will make a perfect cadeau for any Francophile lady.
Publishers Weekly


The good news for women around the globe is that they don't have to be French to develop a chic sense of style.... [This] delightful romp through France...provides universal lessons on looking and feeling fabulous and will appeal to Francophiles. —Ajoke Kokodoko, Oakland P.L.
Library Journal

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available by the publisher; in the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for Ooh La La...then take off on your own:

1. What are the differences Callan sees between French women and American women? Do you agree, or not? Has she overstated her case...or hit the nail on the head?

2. How do French women handle aging? Do they "age gracefully" and if so, how? In fact, what does it mean to "age gracefully"? Based on Callan's observations, does France seem to be as caught up in the idea of youthful beauty as America? Or do the French see aging as an advantage rather than a loss?

3. If you have traveled in France, what did you take away from your time there—in terms of lifestyle, attitudes between the sexes, work, consumerism, sexuality, beauty, or fashion? Are French values different from American values?

4. How do you feel about lingerie after reading Ooh La La?

5. Callan begins each of her chapters with an epigraph. How do they relate to what follows? Do any strike you as particularly inspirational, astute, helpful, funny?

6. Overall, what do you think of Ooh La La? Does it offer sound advice, something you can take to heart, and use to make changes in your life? Is the book insightful, or do you find it shallow?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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