Here are a few books I read and loved recently! You can also read all my book recommendations here!
The Last to Let Go (c/o): Everything changes in an instant for Brooke Winters and her siblings when her mom stabs Brooke’s abusive father to death. Brooke’s mother is arrested but Brooke continues to hold onto the belief that her mother will be found not guilty and the family will live together again, albeit without the abusive father. She also experiences her first love, first heartbreak, and questions about her sexual orientation while she navigates a new school. The book explored harrowing topics like physical and emotional abuse, suicide, and depression as well as how they all affect family members generation after generation. I recommend it!
You may also like: The Way I Used to Be
The Dollhouse: Darby arrives at the Barbizon Hotel in 1952 to attend secretarial school. At the time, the Barbizon Hotel was an exclusive all-women hotel with famed former residents like Sylvia Plath. There is a curfew for the residents who included other secretarial school students and models from an elite agency. Darby becomes friends with Esme, a maid at the hotel, and starts singing and jazz clubs downtown, learning about Esme’s involvement in a drug scandal, and even falling in love with a young chef. More than fifty years later, the Barbizon is a condo that a young journalist Rose Lewin lives in with her older boyfriend. She pitches writing an article about Darby’s involvement in a fight with a hotel maid that culminated in the maid’s death and gets way too close to the source when her boyfriend kicks her out and she ends up dog-sitting Darby’s dog and living in her apartment…without her permission. It’s a well-written mystery about what really happened at the Barbizon so many years ago. Fiona Davis, the author, is a journalist so the book is incredibly well-researched. Even though Darby and Esme aren’t real, the Barbizon Hotel is and the author learned a great deal about the hotel and NYC in the early 50’s.
You may also like: The Masterpiece
The Address: After reading The Dollhouse, I immediately borrowed another book by Fiona Davis from the library. The Address is about a murder that takes place in the famous New York City apartment, The Dakota, in 1884. One of The Dakota’s architects, Theodore Camden, meets Sara Smythe when she saves his daughter at the London hotel where she was a senior housekeeper. Theo invites Sara to be the manager of The Dakota and she moves from London to New York City. As Sara and Theo start working together closely, they fall in love and have an affair even though he has a wife and children. Meanwhile, in 1985, Bailey Camden lives in The Dakota because she is helping Theodore Camden’s great-granddaughter renovate her Dakota apartment. Bailey has just left rehab and is broke. Even though her grandfather was a ward of Theodore Camden, she won’t get any of the money in the large trust because she isn’t a blood relative. Bailey finds old trunks that belonged to the Camden’s and Sara and starts to unravel the mystery of why Theodore got stabbed and learns about her identity in the process. If you like historical fiction and mysteries, this one is a great read.
You may also like: The Chaperone
Amanda Wakes Up: Amanda Gallo gets her big break when she becomes an anchor at the new TV network, “FAIR News,” a network that purportedly gives an unbiased take on the news and always shares news coverage from both sides. She starts covering the presidential election with the two main candidates being a female senator and former Hollywood actor Victor Fluke. Sounds familiar, right? Amanda has to decide whether she feels comfortable being unbiased and not fully challenging the “alternate truths” and misperceptions Victor shares on-air. And when she gets a big scoop about Victor that could change the course of the election, she has to decide if she is willing to share it even though the source doesn’t want to come forward. The book is written by Alisyn Camerota, an anchor at CNN, who spent 16 years at Fox News.
You may also like: Startup
Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History: After reading Amanda Wakes Up, I wanted to read another book about covering the election. But this one is non-fiction. The author, NBC News correspondent Katy Tur, was one of the first correspondents to cover the Trump campaign. (She has also been called “disgraceful,” “third-rate,” “liar,” “Little Katy” and “not nice” by Trump.) From the first day of the campaign to the five-hundredth, Katy documented what she witnessed on the campaign trail and all of Trump’s inconsistencies, “alternate truths,” and derogatory comments. It is a fascinating glimpse at the Trump campaign, his rallies and voters, and journalism. Oh and she was one of the few reporters who thought he would win.
You may also like: What Happened
