All-night Party by Andrea Barnet

ALL-NIGHT PARTY : THE WOMEN OF BOHEMIAN GREENWICH VILLAGE AND HARLEM, 1913- 1930 by Andrea Barnet is one of my favourites non-fiction books. It contains the stories of such woman of Avant-garde as Djuna Barnes, Marianne Moore, Mabel Dodge, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ethel Waters and many more of the bright young things who lived and loved in New York at the jazz age.

Meet e.g. “the Mama of Dada” Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven who used to shave half her head and wear the left hair in henna-coloured red and the bolded half lacquered in bright red, while her face was dusted with yellow powder, her lips tinted in black and a birdcage (with a living canary in it) was hanging on her neck. (Great image, isn’t it? I like Dada very much – though it disturbs me sometimes.. – but hey! That’s Dada for you!)

(Elsa von Freytag-Lothringhoven)

And this was just one example of the fascinating women who will be introduced to you in this awesome book! Women who declare their freedom to live their live like/ and with whom they wanted to.

Here are some of the other ladies you're going to meet in this book:

(Mina Loy)

(Bessie Smith)

(A'lelia Walker)

Like Bessie Smith once sung:

“If I should get the feeling
To dance upon the ceiling
T’aint nobody’s business if I do."

A magnificent book, which I like to recommend to everyone interested in the life of some fascinating ladies of the early 20th century. To the blues fans: there are two chapters about Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters! (*Yay!* for that!!)

The German title is CRAZY NEW YORK. ...Well, how do I have to translate that into English.. uhm.. ;")

Don't you just love the German cover??

This book fits in two of the challenges I am participating in:

Read me baby, 1 more time – I did not read this book for the first time – and surely not for the last time. ;”)

LGBT Book Challenge 2011– here you can read a lot about women who fought for free love and lived in lesbian relationships.

Julia Blackburn: With Billie

WITH BILLIE by Julia Blackburn (2005) is an arrangement of interviews which Linda Kuehl did in the early 1970ies – shortly before she committed suicide. These interviews are from several persons who knew Billie Holiday, the fantastic jazz singer also known as Lady Day who died at the age of 44. These interviews were used several times since then when anyone started to work on anything about Lady – as her friends called her.

I believe that you can’t know a person thoroughly – and I do believe that there is nothing existing like "the one and only truth" when it comes to people and their life. It is like looking trough a kaleidoscope: Everyone has another angle on looking on another one. No one sees exactly the same thing another does.

So this book is partly contradictory. It is like an arrangement of mini biographies about this people with anecdotes of Billie in it – but it is a great read about the jazz scene and of course Billie Holiday!

When I am reading (auto-) biographies I am immediately becoming the friend of the person, who is the certain character. This makes my circle of friends very glamorous. ;”)

Back to the book: I would not recommend this book to you if you are a complete Billie Holiday beginner: Because of these several persons who are all telling their story, it is not always in chronological order. So in the end, you could have trouble to remember how often Billie Holiday was arrested and when she was where. This is really a confusing book if you do not know anything about Billie Holiday or the "jazz people" from that era.

Another thing that is not like I hoped for: There is only one picture of Lady in it. (At least in the German edition -which has the same cover as seen here - with the chihuahua in it. - She had several - and a boxer named Mister.) and with this entire people in the book I think that some pictures would have helped to get the dramatis personae clear. Besides that: I love pictures.. :")

Even if you have never heard before of Billie Holiday or simply dislike her and her music and intend to stay uninterested: You should know this song – so please: Spare a little time with this amazing piece of music and social criticism:

• Living literally: Wear a white gardenia, red nail polish and use Maybelline cosmetics if you like to. And of course: Listen to one of the greatest voices of Jazz: Billie Holiday!!

I am a huge fan of Billie Holiday and I am going to read several other books about her - so, if you are interested: Please visited this blog now and then.. To everyone who can’t stand her: There will be some time between the Billie posts.. ;”)

WITH BILLIE fits in one of my challenges: The LGBT challenge – because there are several indications of Billie’s lesbian affaires.