Recent Reads (summer 2023)
/Now that we’re past Memorial Day I thought this week was the perfect time to share some great titles to add to your Summer Reading List!
The Marriage Portrait: Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf. Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now enter an unfamiliar court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appeared to be before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble? This brilliantly crafted story is drawn on real historical events.
Metropolitan Stories: Hidden behind the Picassos and Vermeers, the Temple of Dendur and the American Wing, exists another world. Christine Coulson shares a love letter to the private side of the museum, with a series of vignettes focusing on the Art and People who inhabit the Met. Coulson had a 25 yr career there including time in the Director’s Office. It’s sweet, thought provoking and sometimes fanciful. The Met is my second favorite place on earth - I loved this!
The Reading List: Working at the local library, Aleisha reads every book on a secret list she finds—an experience which transports her from the painful realities she's facing at home—then decides to pass on the list to a lonely widower desperate to connect with his bookworm granddaughter. As a reader, fan of libraries and a sharer of enjoyable reads - these interwoven stories grabbed me.
All The Beauty In The World: Millions of people climb the grand marble staircase to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art every year. But only a select few have unrestricted access to every nook and cranny. They’re the guards who roam unobtrusively in dark blue suits, keeping a watchful eye on the two million square foot treasure house. Caught up in his glamorous fledgling career at The New Yorker, Patrick Bringley never thought he’d be one of them. Then his older brother was diagnosed with fatal cancer and he found himself needing to escape the mundane clamor of daily life. So he quit The New Yorker and sought solace in the most beautiful place he knew. This temporary refuge became his home away from home for a decade as he wore out nine pairs of company shoes, and marveled at the beautiful works in his care. It was a delight to see a glimpse of this quiet world which I personally am enthralled by.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s: In this seductive, wistful masterpiece, Capote created a woman whose name has entered the American idiom and whose style is a part of the literary landscape. It's New York in the 1940s and nice girls don't, except, of course, Holly Golightly. Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up nose, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a traveler, a tease. I thought I knew this story having viewed the film countless times but, the original writing is powerfully melancholy.
The Lost Book of the Grail: Arthur Prescott is happiest when surrounded by the ancient books and manuscripts of the Barchester Cathedral library. Increasingly, he feels like a fish out of water among the concrete buildings of the University of Barchester, where he works as an English professor. His one respite is his time spent nestled in the library, nurturing his secret obsession with the Holy Grail and researching his perennially unfinished guidebook to the medieval cathedral. But when a beautiful young American named Bethany Davis arrives in Barchester charged with the task of digitizing the library's manuscripts, Arthur's tranquility is broken. Bethany soon joins Arthur in a quest to find the lost Book of Ewolda, the ancient manuscript telling the story of the cathedral's founder. I enjoyed being immersed in this purely fictional world peppered with a known legend.
Pineapple Street: Darley, the eldest daughter in the well-connected, old money Stockton family, followed her heart, trading her job and her inheritance for motherhood but giving up much in the process; Sasha, a middle-class New England girl, is the outsider who married Cord. His life revolves around the Stockton family working with his father Chip and never questioning his mother Tilda. They live in the family home at Pineapple Street at Brooklyn Heights, where any effort by Sasha to clear the house of its clutter or make any changes is stymied. Sasha finds it impossible to enter the inner family sanctum, she is shut out, and Georgiana, the baby of the family, who fell in love with someone she can’t have and must decide what kind of person she wants to be. This is a modern escapists fun a novel filled with flawed people and sharp observations.
Romantic Comedy: Sally Milz is a sketch writer for "The Night Owls," the late-night live comedy show that airs each Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she’s long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life. But when Sally’s friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actor who guest-hosted the show, he joins the not-so-exclusive group of talented but average-looking and even dorky men at the show—and in society at large—who’ve gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch called the "Danny Horst Rule," poking fun at this phenomenon while underscoring how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a woman. Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week’s show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder whether there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn’t a romantic comedy; it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her...right? What’s not to enjoy in this fun girl meets boy, girl wonders about boy tale.
Carrie Soto Is Back: By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach. But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan. At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked the 'Battle-Axe' anyway. Even if her body doesn't move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man, she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever. Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. I’m a fan of Taylor Jenkins Reid and this novel is another great one in a long line of titles by this writer. Very entertaining!
Nothing I like more than a fresh stack of books! I hope you’ve added a few - if not all the books listed here to your To Read list or your Libby Shelf! Check out this article I update regularly: Get Your Read On!
Til next time be well and I’ll see you over on Instagram.
