Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune: When Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark the daughter of self-made copper industrialist W. A. Clark, nearly as rich as Rockefeller, she was a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room. Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money?
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America: Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City". The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims.
Float Plan: Since the loss of her fiancé, Anna has been shipwrecked by grief—until a reminder goes off about a trip they were supposed to take together. Impulsively, Anna goes to sea in their sailboat alone, intending to complete the voyage. But after a treacherous night’s sail, she realizes she can’t do it by herself and hires Keane, a professional sailor, to help. Much like Anna, Keane is struggling with a very different future than the one he had planned. As romance rises with the tide, they discover that it’s never too late to chart a new course
The Imperfects: The Millers are far from perfect. Estranged siblings Beck, Ashley and Jake find themselves under one roof for the first time in years, forced to confront old resentments and betrayals, when their mysterious, eccentric grandmother, Helen, passes away. But their lives are about to change when they find a secret inheritance hidden among her possessions—the Florentine Diamond, a 137-carat yellow gemstone that went missing from the Austrian Empire a century ago.
We Were Liars: Eighteen-year-old Cady has spent nearly every summer of her life on the private island of Beechwood, near Martha’s Vineyard, along with her family - playing with her cousins, Johnny and Mirren. Everything changes when aunt Carrie brings her boyfriend Ed and his nephew Gat. Gat Cady, Johnny, and Mirren become fast friends, calling themselves “the Liars”. Cady and Gat also fall in love. The summer that Cady is fifteen, she’s involved in an accident that results in a serious head injury. Cady is intensely focused on finding out what happened on the night of her accident - she asks everyone in her family, but they have all been advised not to tell her, and to let her recover the memories on her own. Frustrated but determined, Cady maps out all of the clues to that night and like a detective figures it out. It’s a riveting story filled with love, longing and sadness.
That Summer: Daisy Shoemaker can’t sleep. With a thriving cooking business, full schedule of volunteer work, and a beautiful home in the Philadelphia suburbs, she should be content. But her teenage daughter can be a handful; her husband can be distant, her work can feel trivial, and she has lots of acquaintances, but no real friends. Still, Daisy knows she’s got it good. So why is she up all night? While Daisy tries to identify the root of her dissatisfaction, she’s also receiving misdirected emails meant for a woman named Diana Starling, whose email address is just one punctuation mark away from her own. While Daisy’s driving carpools, Diana is chairing meetings. While Daisy’s making dinner, Diana’s making plans to reorganize corporations. Diana’s glamorous, sophisticated, single-lady life is miles away from Daisy’s simpler existence. When an apology leads to an invitation, the two women meet and become friends. But, as they get closer, we learn that their connection was not completely accidental. Who IS this other woman, and what does she want with Daisy?
Talk Bookish To Me: Kara Sullivan’s life is full of love—albeit fictional. As a bestselling romance novelist she’s fine with getting her happily-ever-after between the covers of her books. With Kara’s best friends wedding date fast approaching - what are the odds the groom is friends with her infuriating first love Ryan - and when he appears for the event the sparks fly!
The Particular Charms of Miss Jane Austen: When a time traveling Jane Austen gets stuck in modern-day Bath it's up to avid Janeite Rose Wallace to save her… because she's the only one who knows that Jane exists!
Tiny Little Thing: BC book. In the summer of 1966, Christina Hardcastle—“Tiny” to her illustrious family—stands on the brink of a breathtaking future. Of the three Schuyler sisters, she’s the one raised to marry a man destined for leadership, and with her elegance and impeccable style. At the family estate on Cape Cod, unwelcome visitors appear in Tiny’s perfect life: her volatile sister Pepper, an envelope containing an incriminating photograph and her husband’s cousin and war hero Caspian.
Northern Spy: BC book. A producer at the Belfast bureau of the BBC, Tessa is at work one day when the news of another raid comes on the air. The IRA may have gone underground after the Good Friday agreement, but they never really went away, and lately, bomb threats, arms drops, and helicopters floating ominously over the city have become features of everyday life. As the anchor requests the public's help in locating those responsible for this latest raid - a robbery at a gas station - Tessa's sister appears on the screen. Tessa watches in shock as Marian pulls a black mask over her face.
The Midnight Library: Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets? Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; Nora must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place One of my top picks!
In Five Years: Where do you see yourself in five years? When Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Kohan is asked this question at the most important interview of her career, she has an answer ready. Later, after nailing her interview and accepting her boyfriend's marriage proposal, Dannie goes to sleep knowing she is right on track to achieve her five-year plan. But when she wakes up, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. The television news is on in the background, and she can just make out the scrolling date. It’s the same night—December 15—but 2025, five years in the future.
The Secret Life of Violet Grant: Manhattan, 1964. Vivian Schuyler sister to Christina Hardcastle and newly graduated from Bryn Mawr College, has recently defied the privilege of her storied old Fifth Avenue family to do the unthinkable break into the Mad Men world of razor-stylish Metropolitan magazine. But when she receives a bulky overseas parcel in the mail, the unexpected contents draw her inexorably back into her family’s past, and the hushed-over crime of an aunt she never knew, whose existence has been wiped from the record of history. Currently listening, the book goes between two time periods and while the 1914 feels authentic the 1964 feels more like 1940’s it sounds off to me but, I’m enjoying the story.
The Summer Wives: In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on elite, secretive Winthrop Island as a schoolgirl from the margins of high society, still reeling from the loss of her father in the Second World War. When her beautiful mother marries Hugh Fisher, whose summer house on Winthrop overlooks the famous lighthouse, Miranda’s catapulted into a heady new world of pedigrees and cocktails, status and swimming pools. Isobel Fisher, Miranda’s new stepsister—all long legs and world-weary bravado, engaged to a wealthy Island scion—is eager to draw Miranda into the arcane customs of Winthrop society. Currently listening to and so far liking.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: BC book. Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. She chooses Monique Grant to write her biography but, Monique is far from the obvious choice as an unknown writer - Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her; Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jump-start her career. Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way. Currently reading and really like!
