Tag Archives: New York Woman

Motherland by Amy Sohn

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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 everyone was just so utterly miserable and it was easy to see how it was all their own damn faults.

I do have to credit Amy Sohn with her talent for astute cultural commentary, and despite my feelings about this book I’m sure I’ll read her next one.

Ten Girls to Watch by Charity Shumway

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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 spun the romances in a different way than I’m used to seeing.

What really impressed me was that author Charity Shumway came up with dozens of profiles of the 10 Girls to Watch spanning the years from 1957-2007. While I usually feel like made-up media jobs lack authenticity, this feature felt like something you’d actually see in a magazine, and the historical evolution and diversity represented were so intelligently and realistically done that I just couldn’t believe that it was fiction. And then even beyond that, Dawn is a genuinely funny, warm, kind person and her struggles aren’t rooted in contrivances like being clumsy or hating her (perfectly normal) body or things like that. The portrayal of her family dynamics had depth and pathos and originality and it just really, really worked.

And finally, the book reminded me of when I was 22 and just starting out in my first internship in NYC, at Premiere Magazine (back when it was a serious movie magazine), at once elated by the possibilities for my life and terrified of failure. I loved being young in NYC (and now I love being a mom here) and this book brought me back and made me a little wistful and thankful.

Many thanks to Washington Square Press for the review copy.

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

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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 happening to her until the end when it was explained that she had a psychotic break. So maybe her boyfriend didn’t really abuse her? It didn’t quite make sense.

The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

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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 me want to go back and re-read The Best of Everything and then treat myself to a double feature of The Apartment and Cabaret.

Speaking of all that awesome sauce, when is “Mad Men” coming back? I’m f@#$ing dying over here…

The Midwife by Gay Courter

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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 loved my midwives so much, and it was great to read a book that portrayed the special heroism of midwives who believe that birth can happen at home.

The story itself is gripping. Hannah is training in Moscow when restrictions against Jews begin to tighten, so she travels on a harrowing train ride back to her home in St. Petersburg, where the violence becomes personal. She and her family decide to flee, at great personal and financial cost, and settle on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. NYC at the turn of the 20th Century is one of my favorite fictional settings, and I just ate up the perspective on Jewish culture and society, from least to greatest. There’s a romance element that really worked for me because it felt grounded in emotional truth. Loved it!

Healing Paradise by Gay Courter

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Synopsis:
As WWII encroaches, Rozy braves judgment and trials, both personal and professional, to be one of only 4 women in her class at Cornell Medical School, finding passion for her work and a love that may not survive the rigors of her life as a doctor.

Review:
In Healing Paradise, Gay Courter has done a great job developing a most fascinating world, that of medical school in the late 1930s/early 1940s. I loved seeing the inner workings of medical school, and the ways in which Rozy and her friends fought against the institutionalized sexism they encountered. I also loved watching her romance with fellow med student Alexander develop, with the requisite challenging family dynamics being especially stressful.

What I appreciated about this book was how straightforward it was. Courter is aiming to tell a good story and gets out of the way admirably. And those are the books I enjoy the most, where I can just get lost in the story and not be distracted by clever wordplay or overblown literary ambitions.

Rozy decides to pursue pediatrics, and I found this particularly fascinating as a volunteer breastfeeding counselor. I’ve done some training in NICU protocol and so I really enjoyed seeing a glimpse into the way premature babies were cared for in the past. I shuddered when one doctor says he doesn’t feed preemies for a few days because they can’t handle it, and then cheered Rozy for refusing to agree with this bit of idiocy. I’m so used to reading books and watching TV shows that portray a medicalized view of pregnancy, birth, and the newborn phase as normal that it was refreshing to meet a character who was ahead of her time and following common sense about what babies need.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

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Synopsis:
A coming of age story about a girl growing up in Williamsburg in the first half of the 20th Century.

Review:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of the most wonderful books of all time. It’s almost too perfect in its humor, poignancy, and wisdom. I’ve read it countless times since I was a bookish kid like Francie Nolan, wishing I could buy penny candy and sleep in the front room on a cool fall night. My heart broke for her all over again watching Johnny’s descent, and this time I found myself admiring Katie’s strength and dignity. Plus now that I know Williamsburg better it’s fun to know that my kids have played in the same park that Francie once did.

This time around I listened to the audio version, narrated by Kate Burton, who gave Francie the most wonderful Brooklyn accent I’ve ever heard. Top notch production.

Enchanted, Inc by Shanna Swendson (Katie Chandler, Book 1)

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Synopsis:
An ordinary New York City girl gets recruited by a magical agency precisely because she is immune to magic.

Review:
Cute, light, and fun, Enchanted, Inc. was exactly the palate cleanser I needed after gorging on A Dance With Dragons. I especially loved that Shanna Swendson didn’t feel the need to make Katie klutzy or ditsy. She wasn’t afraid to have Katie be outspoken and assertive. She was my kind of girl and I really enjoyed spending time in her head.

The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

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Synopsis:
Upper East Side bond trader mows down Bronx “honor student” and New York City freaks out.

Review:
Oh, how I love Bonfire of the Vanities! I have read it several times, most memorably rereading it in the first month after I moved to New York City, way back in 1995. I don’t know that I could ever tire of reading it, because I’m always astonished by how deep Wolfe takes you into every single little nuance of the story. And it’s funny how the small details are what always stick with me most: brown lipstick, packing peanuts, Bruckner Boulevard, the little tap and the boy goes down.

This time around I enjoyed, might I say heartily so, the audiobook version. And what struck me this time is how often Wolfe turns his characters into tour guides, in order to show off how much he knows about abso-freaking-everything. Sherman has inner monologues about the greatness of Wall Street. Killian tells Sherman all about how the courts work. Abe Weiss explains Bronx politics to Larry Kramer. The narrator explains women’s fashion. I could go on but then I’d just be rewriting the book for you. And it’s all so fascinating, even the stuff that is outdated.

The narrator of the audiobook, Joe Barrett, is quite possibly the greatest actor of all time, giving voice to scores of characters and making them all original and distinct. And he does a better job with Maria Ruskin than Melanie Griffith in the atrocious movie version.

I have read everything Tom Wolfe has ever written and nothing can ever compare to this book, which is one of my all-time favorites. I can’t wait to read it again!

Prospect Park West by Amy Sohn

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Synopsis:
MILFs in Brooklyn!

Review:
Amy Sohn is a writer who’s been on my radar since I first moved to New York City in 1995, and it’s like she’s lived the public, more successful version of my life. Her single girl escapades got published in the New York Press; I was an escapading single girl who read the Press every week. She wrote a novel loosely based on her own life that got turned into a movie; I do movie adaptations of books whose writers get all the attention. And now, she’s a freelance writer and mom living in tony Park Slope, Brooklyn, the #1 most livable neighborhood in New York City. I am a freelance writer and mom living in Long Island City, Queens, which ranks an embarrassing #16 (though I do grocery shop and playground hop in Sunnyside, which was the dark horse #3).

Now, having read Prospect Park West, I can finally liberate myself from at least one-half of the Amy Sohn-envy that has tinged my professional life. Success I want, sure–but at least now I have definitive evidence that momming in Queens trumps momming in Brooklyn any day.

My mom friends in Park Slope have confirmed that a lot of Sohn’s scathing mommy wars satire hits it right on the mark. We don’t get near the amount of drama and hilarity on Sunnymoms as they do on Park Slope Parents. We don’t have a sanctimonious food coop (though on is in the planning stages). With only 3 playgrounds, one dominated by weightlifters and drunks, and a smaller total area, it’s a lot easier to make friends in my neighborhood than it is in theirs. Bonus–no celebrities!

The book does go over-the-top. Like any good roman à clef, it’s got enough real life to make it authentic, and then goes completely nuts with sex and booze and drama galore. I loved it!