On the eve of the Paris Book Festival, journalist and author Julie Mamou-Mani, known for her Instagram account @Mamouz, talks about her passion for books. She tells us about her recent favourites: philosophy, intimate texts, a biography and a historical book. All books written by women!

His hilarious Instagram account exploded during the first confinement with humorous posts gleaned from the Net. Since then, Julie Mamou-Mani has become the influencer Lol ". And if she prefers to say content producer », this journalist-author has enough humor (and modesty) to manage with this formula. His production company Mamouz makes tailor-made podcasts and documentaries for major cultural institutions such as the Shoah Memorial and the Maison de Châteaubriand.

On May 10, she will release her second book, Little praise of laughter. From birth to death the secrets of humor, at Éditions Leduc. Co-written with Jessica Cymerman and illustrated by Tiffany Cooper, this book turns out to be an investigation into the importance of humor. When she's not running from interview to interview, Julie reads " at a rate of one book per day, and in any case three per week! ". On the occasion of Paris Book Festival, which will be held from April 21 to 23 at Porte de Versailles, for which she is producing a podcast, she tells us her favorites of the moment. And just like his laughter, his reading tips are… communicative!

Women's Hour by Adèle Bréau

“I loved everything about this story of the life of Ménie Grégoire, voice of the radio and pioneer in the intimate life of women. The pen is held by his granddaughter, the journalist Adèle Bréau. I knew even before opening the book that I was going to be passionate about it. I love to learn, I am a great reader of biographies and novels that are part of history. I see Ménie Grégoire a bit like the ancestor of "Doc and Difool", the animators of Skyrock in the 90s! It is in any case the first radio host who will be interested in all the questions of women of the time, from abuse, to sexuality, to early pregnancies or even to couple problems... I have always heard that she had accompanied women's speech in the 60s and 70s.

We discover her as a mother, bourgeois, married to an enarque. And, then one day, the RTL team, which knows her and knows she is audacious, wishing to renew its program schedule, entrusts her with the antenna. From 1967 to 1981, every afternoon for half an hour, accompanied by a doctor, Ménie Grégoire will listen, advise listeners, mainly women. Adèle Bréau recounts admirably how her grandmother will seize this position as a mission, to answer all their questions. It is also a history of feminism. A very good book that reminds us that we always forget too quickly how recent women's rights are. »

women's hour, Adèle Bréau, Editions JC Lattes

The Partisans, Kessel and Druon, a family story, by Dominique Bona

“Dominique Bona is my favorite biographer. She has just published this exciting new book on the relationship between Maurice Druon and Joseph Kessel, co-author in 1943 of Chant des partisans which is also my favorite song! I have just started reading, a 500-page book, and it's already magnificent!

Maurice Druon was the nephew of Joseph Kessel, the son of his brother who committed suicide, his "almost son". The story takes place between 1930 and 1945. Once again it is the small story in the big one. That of an extraordinary complicity. We follow these two heroes in the writing of the words of this song that André Malraux will deliver later, in 1964, in his speech during the transfer of the ashes of Jean Moulin to the Pantheon. This book is also the story of their engagement in the war, that of anti-Semitism and Free France. »

The Partisans, Kessel and Druon, a family story, Dominique Bona, Editions Gallimard

Inconsolable, by Adele Van Reeth

“You have to be armed to open the latest book by the philosopher Adèle Van Reeth. I thought a lot about my father while reading it. This book is Adele in all her glory! It's surgical without ever falling into the emotional. She recounts the "before" so well, before the end, that is to say during the illness, then "the after", through the lack of daily life, by noting small details of sound, music, advice, phone calls...

There are no words when you lose a loved one. Everything seems illusory. We become a machine that must endure daily life. She deciphers this state with meticulousness and fine precision. It's a grace … and it's overwhelming. Like Adèle Bréau, Adèle Van Reeth, whom I know, is at first sight a rather reserved woman who knows perfectly well how to make us think by revealing herself in writing. And without taking yourself seriously! This book is an ode to filial love that reminds us how precious it is. »

inconsolable, Adele Van Reeth, Gallimard Editions

Hang in there ! Small treatise on ardor, by Blanche de Richemont

“I met the philosopher and writer Blanche de Richemont by pure chance. She told me that she took entrepreneurs and people who questioned themselves for walks in the desert. In this book, she interviews witnesses, a hermit, a surgeon, a soldier, a writer, a former member of the Raid, a firefighter who intervened during the Notre-Dame fire, a mother of an autistic child. These people, often known, sometimes anonymous, tell us what it is to have courage. Blanche thus poses the question to these people who embody bravery. She has an impeccable sense of formula. She says, for example, courage is not a call to arms, it is a call to souls "Or" the death of the ideal is the success of the slippers ". If we found a little ardor we would complain a little less, she tells us.

What I find attractive in this book is that it seizes courage as I took humor head on. Like a GPS that would lead us on the right path. This book is also a questioning of society: what discomfort do young people seek to drown in the screens? How to find the breath in this urbanized and very capitalist life? How do you keep the ardor in a monotonous life that can gnaw at the soul? And keep the faith when everything pushes us to stay in front of Netflix... Now my dream is to travel with her to the Sahara, for a crossing of the desert! »

Hang in there ! A little treatise on ardor, Blanche de Richemont, Editions Presses de la Cité

The Sex of Women: Fragments of a Bellicose Speech, by Anne Akrich

“I met Anne Akrich, an author of Polynesian and Tunisian origin who has a crazy sense of humor, while writing my next book on laughter. In this book, she questions herself about today's feminism. But if she is arch-feminist, Anne Akrich takes things on the wrong foot here, and it is this posture that I like. She asks questions with a lot of humor. She is even irreverent. We live in a deeply comic world, but we are incapable of joking about it, she tells us. The laughter has turned yellow, the smile, to a rictus. Anne continues to think that we can laugh at feminism.

In this book, written as a manifesto or even a pamphlet, where she speaks for the first time in her name, she drags us into her anger, she recounts terrible events such as the rape of her little sister, or other comic , talks about desire and the relationships between men and women with great freedom of tone. Just like Adèle Van Reeth, Adèle Bréau or even Blanche de Richemont, she is a brilliant person who does not take herself seriously. These women move the discourse forward, always keeping a touch of humor. And it's a posture that obviously speaks to me! »

The sex of women: Fragments of a warlike discourse, Anne Akrich, Editions Gallimard