Livre It to the Expert 

THE FORMER Paris bureau chief for the New Jork Times and a longtime resident of the city, Elaine Sciolino was well-positioned to write Adventures in the Louvre (Norton, Apr.). Her experience as a war correspondent also proved useful in navignt. ing the fortress turned palace turned museum. “The first time you go to the Louvre you've got to be geared for battle”, she says. "It’s like being at Kennedy Airport the day before Thanksgiving You've got to really plan it out. You’ve got to go to a café. You’ve got to fill your stomach. You've got to go to the toilet. And then you go to the Louvre.” Visitors may find they need similar fortitude to venture out into a city that Sciolino call "way overcrowded” adding. "Since the end of Covid, you've had swarms of people coming to Paris.” And with good reason, she says: "It's easy enough to get to, and it's safe, and enchanting.”

Mixing history and memoir. Sciolino leads readers through the landmark's many galleries, shares favorite artworks both famed and lesser-known, and gets to know the staff responsible for the museum and its treasures — the curators and restorers, the firefighters who protect the property and its people, the window washers who clean the I.M. Pei-designed pyramid.

Publisher’s Weekly