Editorial Content for The Lions of Fifth Avenue
Teaser
In nationally bestselling author Fiona Davis' latest historical novel, a series of book thefts roils the iconic New York Public Library, leaving two generations of strong-willed women to pick up the pieces.
Promo
In nationally bestselling author Fiona Davis' latest historical novel, a series of book thefts roils the iconic New York Public Library, leaving two generations of strong-willed women to pick up the pieces.
About the Book
In nationally bestselling author Fiona Davis' latest historical novel, a series of book thefts roils the iconic New York Public Library, leaving two generations of strong-willed women to pick up the pieces.
It's 1913, and on the surface, Laura Lyons couldn't ask for more out of life --- her husband is the superintendent of the New York Public Library, allowing their family to live in an apartment within the grand building, and they are blessed with two children. But headstrong, passionate Laura wants more, and when she takes a leap of faith and applies to the Columbia Journalism School, her world is cracked wide open. As her studies take her all over the city, she finds herself drawn to Greenwich Village's new bohemia, where she discovers the Heterodoxy Club --- a radical, all-female group in which women are encouraged to loudly share their opinions on suffrage, birth control and women's rights. Soon, Laura finds herself questioning her traditional role as wife and mother. But when valuable books are stolen back at the library, threatening the home and institution she loves, she's forced to confront her shifting priorities head on...and may just lose everything in the process.
Eighty years later, in 1993, Sadie Donovan struggles with the legacy of her grandmother, the famous essayist Laura Lyons, especially after she's wrangled her dream job as a curator at the New York Public Library. But the job quickly becomes a nightmare when rare manuscripts, notes and books for the exhibit Sadie is running begin disappearing from the library's famous Berg Collection. Determined to save both the exhibit and her career, the typically risk-averse Sadie teams up with a private security expert to uncover the culprit. However, things unexpectedly become personal when the investigation leads Sadie to some unwelcome truths about her own family heritage --- truths that shed new light on the biggest tragedy in the library's history.
July 17, 2020
We want to know what book groups are doing these days during the pandemic. One of my book clubs has not met at all. The second, which has a number of young moms in it, has met a few times on Zoom, just to catch up socially; they have not had a lot of time for pleasure reading. We are planning to try a socially distanced meeting outside next week to discuss BIG SUMMER by Jennifer Weiner. May the weather cooperate!
Special Request: This had us wondering what other book groups are doing. We see many are meeting virtually or via email. Others are hosting author chats. With this in mind, we put together a survey where we ask what your group is doing. Please take two minutes (seriously, that is all the time it is going to take) and answer it here!
Editorial Content for Friends and Strangers
Teaser
FRIENDS AND STRANGERS is an insightful, hilarious and compulsively readable novel about a complicated friendship between two women who are at two very different stages in life.
Promo
FRIENDS AND STRANGERS is an insightful, hilarious and compulsively readable novel about a complicated friendship between two women who are at two very different stages in life.
About the Book
An insightful, hilarious and compulsively readable novel about a complicated friendship between two women who are at two very different stages in life, from the bestselling author of MAINE and SAINTS FOR ALL OCCASIONS (named one of the Washington Post's 10 Best Books of the Year and a New York Times Critics' Pick).
Elisabeth, an accomplished journalist and new mother, is struggling to adjust to life in a small town after nearly 20 years in New York City. Alone in the house with her infant son all day (and awake with him much of the night), she feels uneasy, adrift. She neglects her work, losing untold hours to her Brooklyn moms' Facebook group, her "influencer" sister's Instagram feed and text messages with the best friend she never sees anymore.
Enter Sam, a senior at the local women's college, whom Elisabeth hires to babysit. Sam is struggling to decide between the path she's always planned on and a romantic entanglement that threatens her ambition. She's worried about student loan debt and what the future holds. In short order, they grow close. But when Sam finds an unlikely kindred spirit in Elisabeth's father-in-law, the true differences between the women's lives become starkly revealed and a betrayal has devastating consequences.
A masterful exploration of motherhood, power dynamics and privilege in its many forms, FRIENDS AND STRANGERS reveals how a single year can shape the course of a life.
Editorial Content for The Last Train to Key West
Teaser
In 1935, three women are forever changed when one of the most powerful hurricanes in history barrels toward the Florida Keys.
Promo
In 1935, three women are forever changed when one of the most powerful hurricanes in history barrels toward the Florida Keys.
About the Book
In 1935, three women are forever changed when one of the most powerful hurricanes in history barrels toward the Florida Keys.
For the tourists traveling on Henry Flagler’s legendary Overseas Railroad, Labor Day weekend is an opportunity to forget the economic depression gripping the nation. But one person’s paradise can be another’s prison, and Key West native Helen Berner yearns to escape.
After the Cuban Revolution of 1933 leaves Mirta Perez’s family in a precarious position, she agrees to an arranged marriage with a notorious American. Following her wedding in Havana, Mirta arrives in the Keys on her honeymoon. While she can’t deny the growing attraction to her new husband, his illicit business interests may threaten not only her relationship, but her life.
Elizabeth Preston's trip to Key West is a chance to save her once-wealthy family from their troubles after the Wall Street crash. Her quest takes her to the camps occupied by veterans of the Great War and pairs her with an unlikely ally on a treacherous hunt of his own.
Over the course of the holiday weekend, the women’s paths cross unexpectedly, and the danger swirling around them is matched only by the terrifying force of the deadly storm threatening the Keys.
Editorial Content for The Lost and Found Bookshop
Teaser
In this thought-provoking, wise and emotionally rich novel, New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs explores the meaning of happiness, trust and faith in oneself as she asks the question, "If you had to start over, what would you do and who would you be?"
Promo
In this thought-provoking, wise and emotionally rich novel, New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs explores the meaning of happiness, trust and faith in oneself as she asks the question, "If you had to start over, what would you do and who would you be?"
About the Book
In this thought-provoking, wise and emotionally rich novel, New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs explores the meaning of happiness, trust and faith in oneself as she asks the question, "If you had to start over, what would you do and who would you be?"
There is a book for everything...
Somewhere in the vast Library of the Universe, as Natalie thought of it, there was a book that embodied exactly the things she was worrying about.
In the wake of a shocking tragedy, Natalie Harper inherits her mother’s charming but financially strapped bookshop in San Francisco. She also becomes caretaker for her ailing grandfather Andrew, her only living relative --- not counting her scoundrel father.
But the gruff, deeply kind Andrew has begun displaying signs of decline. Natalie thinks it’s best to move him to an assisted living facility to ensure the care he needs. To pay for it, she plans to close the bookstore and sell the derelict but valuable building on historic Perdita Street, which is in need of constant fixing. There’s only one problem --- Grandpa Andrew owns the building and refuses to sell. Natalie adores her grandfather; she’ll do whatever it takes to make his final years happy. Besides, she loves the store, and its books provide welcome solace for her overwhelming grief.
After she moves into the small studio apartment above the shop, Natalie carries out her grandfather’s request and hires contractor Peach Gallagher to do the necessary and ongoing repairs. His young daughter, Dorothy, also becomes a regular at the store, and she and Natalie begin reading together while Peach works.
To Natalie’s surprise, her sorrow begins to dissipate as her life becomes an unexpected journey of new connections, discoveries and revelations --- from unearthing artifacts hidden in the bookshop’s walls, to discovering the truth about her family, her future and her own heart.
Editorial Content for The Nickel Boys
Book
Teaser
In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.
Promo
In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.
About the Book
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.
When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.
Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children, THE NICKEL BOYS is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers.
Editorial Content for The Second Home
Book
Teaser
Tender and compassionate, incisive and heartbreaking, Christina Clancy's THE SECOND HOME is the story of a family you'll quickly fall in love with and won't soon forget.
Promo
Tender and compassionate, incisive and heartbreaking, Christina Clancy's THE SECOND HOME is the story of a family you'll quickly fall in love with and won't soon forget.
About the Book
Tender and compassionate, incisive and heartbreaking, Christina Clancy's THE SECOND HOME is the story of a family you'll quickly fall in love with and won't soon forget.
After a disastrous summer spent at her family summer home on Cape Cod, 17-year-old Ann Gordon was left with a secret that changed her life forever, and created a rift between her sister, Poppy, and their adopted brother, Michael.
Now, 15 years later, her parents have died, leaving Ann and Poppy to decide the fate of the Wellfleet home that's been in the Gordon family for generations. For Ann, the once-beloved house is tainted with bad memories. Poppy loves the old saltbox, but after years spent chasing waves around the world, she isn't sure she knows how to stay in one place.
Just when the sisters decide to sell, Michael re-enters their lives with a legitimate claim to the house. But more than that, he wants to set the record straight about that long-ago summer. Reunited after years apart, these very different siblings must decide if they can continue to be a family --- and the house just might be the glue that holds them together.
Told through the shifting perspectives of Ann, Poppy and Michael, this assured and affecting debut captures the ache of nostalgia for summers past and the powerful draw of the places we return to again and again. It is about second homes, second families and second chances.
Editorial Content for Sex and Vanity
Book
Teaser
The iconic author of the bestselling phenomenon CRAZY RICH ASIANS returns with the glittering tale of a young woman who finds herself torn between two men: the WASPy fiancé of her family's dreams and George Zao, the man she is desperately trying to avoid falling in love with.
Promo
The iconic author of the bestselling phenomenon CRAZY RICH ASIANS returns with the glittering tale of a young woman who finds herself torn between two men: the WASPy fiancé of her family's dreams and George Zao, the man she is desperately trying to avoid falling in love with.
About the Book
The iconic author of the bestselling phenomenon CRAZY RICH ASIANS returns with the glittering tale of a young woman who finds herself torn between two men: the WASPy fiancé of her family's dreams and George Zao, the man she is desperately trying to avoid falling in love with.
On her very first morning on the jewel-like island of Capri, Lucie Churchill sets eyes on George Zao and instantly can't stand him. She can't stand it when he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so that she can have a view of the Tyrrhenian Sea, she can't stand that he knows more about Casa Malaparte than she does, and she really can't stand it when he kisses her in the darkness of the ancient ruins of a Roman villa and they are caught by her snobbish, disapproving cousin Charlotte. "Your mother is Chinese so it's no surprise you'd be attracted to someone like him," Charlotte teases.
The daughter of an American-born Chinese mother and a blue-blooded New York father, Lucie has always sublimated the Asian side of herself in favor of the white side, and she adamantly denies having feelings for George. But several years later, when George unexpectedly appears in East Hampton, where Lucie is weekending with her new fiancé, Lucie finds herself drawn to George again. Soon, Lucie is spinning a web of deceit that involves her family, her fiancé, the co-op board of her Fifth Avenue apartment building, and ultimately herself as she tries mightily to deny George entry into her world --- and her heart.
Moving between summer playgrounds of privilege, peppered with decadent food and extravagant fashion, SEX AND VANITY is a truly modern love story, a daring homage to A ROOM WITH A VIEW and a brilliantly funny comedy of manners set between two cultures.
Editorial Content for What's Left of Me Is Yours
Teaser
A gripping debut set in modern-day Tokyo and inspired by a true crime, for readers of EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU and THE PERFECT NANNY, WHAT'S LEFT OF ME IS YOURS charts a young woman's search for the truth about her mother's life --- and her murder.
Promo
A gripping debut set in modern-day Tokyo and inspired by a true crime, for readers of EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU and THE PERFECT NANNY, WHAT'S LEFT OF ME IS YOURS charts a young woman's search for the truth about her mother's life --- and her murder.
About the Book
A gripping debut set in modern-day Tokyo and inspired by a true crime, for readers of EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU and THE PERFECT NANNY, WHAT'S LEFT OF ME IS YOURS charts a young woman's search for the truth about her mother's life --- and her murder.
In Japan, a covert industry has grown up around the "wakaresaseya" (literally "breaker-upper"), a person hired by one spouse to seduce the other in order to gain the advantage in divorce proceedings. When Satō hires Kaitarō, a wakaresaseya agent, to have an affair with his wife, Rina, he assumes it will be an easy case. But Satō has never truly understood Rina or her desires, and Kaitarō's job is to do exactly that --- until he does it too well. While Rina remains ignorant of the circumstances that brought them together, she and Kaitarō fall in a desperate, singular love, setting in motion a series of violent acts that will forever haunt her daughter's life.
Told from alternating points of view and across the breathtaking landscapes of Japan, Stephanie Scott exquisitely renders the affair and its intricate repercussions. As Rina's daughter, Sumiko, fills in the gaps of her mother's story and her own memory, Scott probes the thorny psychological and moral grounds of the actions we take in the name of love, asking where we draw the line between passion and possession.


