Tag Archives: New York Woman

We Could Be Beautiful by Swan Huntley

Let’s talk about what happens when you’re so rich you have a massage room in your apartment. Not only that, you’re also drop dead gorgeous with an amazing sense of style. But the problem is that you’re still single. Sadly, tragically, desperately single–and over 40. Then a handsome man starts wooing you, and you are cautious, but soon realize he wants you, not your money. However, you have read lots of books in your life so you know what happens next–LIES DECEPTION TRICKERY SECRETS and…

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Everybody Rise, Burn Baby Burn, Rereading Roald Dahl

Sometimes as a parent you get those moments when you feel like you must be doing something right, and having my 5-year-old ask me to reread her The BFG and The Witches was definitely one of those moments. We enjoyed them just as much the 2nd time through, and now she’s eager to have me read The BFG a third time so that her big sister can get why we think snozzcumbers are so funny. Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina hooked me right away…

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Something Blue by Ann Hood

Synopsis: When Katherine leaves her fiancé at the altar, she heads to New York City to crash with her ex-best friend, only to find a less-than-warm welcome from Lucy, who has man troubles of her own. Review: While the friendships in Something Blue were satisfyingly nuanced, I was left somewhat cold by the overall story. I loved visiting the New York City of the late 1980s/early 1990s, because some of the restaurants mentioned were places I went to when I moved to Manhattan in 1995.…

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Buying In by Laura Hemphill

Synopsis: When Sophie Landgraf takes a job as an analyst at an investment bank, she has no way of anticipating how the financial changes of 2007-2008 are going to change her life. Review: I am perpetually frustrated by storylines where someone is working very hard to succeed at their job, and nobody in their life seems to be supportive of them. I really hate watching fictional characters whine about how the main character is spending too much time at work and not enough time socializing.…

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Lie Still by Julia Heaberlin

Synopsis: When pregnant Emily and her lawman husband move from New York City to a small, wealthy Texas town, she finds herself enmeshed in mean girl culture and doesn’t take it seriously until the town’s queen bee goes missing–and a mysterious package hinting at her own dark past shows up on her doorstep. Review: Lie Still is your next read if you liked Gone Girl–and if you did, this is probably all I need to say. Lie Still hooked me from the very beginning with…

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Motherland by Amy Sohn

Synopsis: Interlocking tales of some tortured moms and dads living high on the hog in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Review: I do not know why I kept reading Motherland, I didn’t connect with any of the characters and I was seriously worried about the safety of all their children. I had enjoyed her previous novel, Prospect Park West, mostly because as a New York mom myself I am not immune to the pleasures of schadenfreude. But with this book, I couldn’t enjoy any of it because…

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Ten Girls to Watch by Charity Shumway

Synopsis: Struggling writer Dawn West is barely eking out a life in Manhattan, but when a chance encounter at a party leads to a job collecting data on Charm Magazine’s 50 year anniversary of their 10 Girls to Watch Feature, Dawn finds out that getting her foot in the door is only the first step to success. Review: I absolutely fell for Ten Girls to Watch–this is chick lit at its finest. Not only was it well-written, with humor and emotional precision, but it also…

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I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can by Barbara Gordon

Synopsis: The classic autobiography of a TV producer recovering from a Valium addiction. Review: I read I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can because it was only 99 cents for Kindle. It has not aged well at all but I couldn’t put it down. It’s so dated but I found her earnestness kind of refreshing. However, the therapy she got was pretty horrifying, especially all the doctors who justified and even defended the behavior of her abusive boyfriend. I never quite understood exactly what was…

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The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Synopsis: New York City in 1938 is all martinis and heartbreak for smart girl Katey Kontent and her impossibly sexy best friend Evie Ross, as they navigate the tricky waters of the uptown social scene. Review: I was utterly captivated by The Rules of Civility, from the tone to the characters to the plot to everything. It’s a pretty perfect book, as if Edith Wharton were resurrected to write a pre-Code Billy Wilder movie where the smart one got to be the lead. It makes…

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The Midwife by Gay Courter

Synopsis: The tale of a Russian midwife who emigrates to America during the pogroms of the early 1900s. Review: The Midwife was a completely satisfying reading experience, not just because the plot and characters were so engaging, but because I loved the author’s perspective on birth. It’s as if Ina May Gaskin were writing historical fiction–it’s so rare to see birth treated like a normal event, not an emergency. I am not a birth junkie but I did have both my kids at home and…

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