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Reviews

Reviews

by Christina Baker Kline - Fiction, Historical Fiction

To Christina Olson, the entire world was her family’s remote farm in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine. Born in the home her family had lived in for generations, and increasingly incapacitated by illness, Christina seemed destined for a small life. Instead, for more than 20 years, she was host and inspiration for the artist Andrew Wyeth, and became the subject of one of the best known American paintings of the 20th century.

by Brad Ricca - Biography, History, Nonfiction, True Crime

MRS. SHERLOCK HOLMES tells the true story of Grace Humiston, the lawyer, detective and first woman U.S. District Attorney who turned her back on New York society life to become one of the nation's greatest crime-fighters during an era when women were still not allowed to vote. After agreeing to take the sensational case of missing 18-year-old Ruth Cruger, Grace and her partner, the hard-boiled detective Julius J. Kron, navigated a dangerous web of secret boyfriends, two-faced cops, underground tunnels, rumors of white slavery, and a mysterious pale man, in a desperate race against time.

by Leslie Bennetts - Biography, Entertainment, Nonfiction, Performing Arts

Joan Rivers was an icon and a role model to millions, a fearless pioneer who left a legacy of expanded opportunity when she died in 2014. Her life was a dramatic roller-coaster of triumphant highs and devastating lows: the suicide of her husband, her feud with Johnny Carson, her estrangement from her daughter, her many plastic surgeries, her ferocious ambition and her massive insecurities. But Rivers' career was also hugely significant in American cultural history, breaking down barriers for her gender and pushing the boundaries of truth-telling for women in public life. LAST GIRL BEFORE FREEWAY delves into the inner workings of a woman who both reflected and redefined the world around her.

by Bryan Cranston - Memoir, Nonfiction

In A LIFE IN PARTS, Bryan Cranston traces the many roles he inhabited throughout his remarkable life, both on and off screen. For the first time he shares the story of his early years as an actor on the soap opera “Loving,” his recurring spots on “Seinfeld” and his time as bumbling father Hal on “Malcolm in the Middle,” to his tour-de-force, Tony-winning performance as Lyndon Baines Johnson in Broadway’s “All the Way,” to his most iconic role of all: Walter White of “Breaking Bad” fame.

by Susan Elizabeth Phillips - Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Women's Fiction

Piper Dove is determined to become the best detective in Chicago. Her first job is to trail former Chicago Stars quarterback Cooper Graham. But Graham has spotted her, and he’s not happy. Piper soon finds herself working for Graham himself, although not as the bodyguard he refuses to admit he so desperately needs. Instead, he’s hired her to keep an eye on the employees at his exclusive new nightclub. But Coop’s life might be in danger, and Piper is determined to protect him. If only she weren’t also dealing with a bevy of Middle Eastern princesses, a Pakistani servant girl yearning for freedom, a teenager who just wants to fit in, and an elderly neighbor demanding that Piper find her very dead husband.

by Amy Schumer - Essays, Humor, Nonfiction

In THE GIRL WITH THE LOWER BACK TATTOO, Emmy Award-winning comedian, actress and writer Amy Schumer mines her past for stories about her teenage years, her family, relationships and sex, and shares the experiences that have shaped who she is --- a woman with the courage to bare her soul to stand up for what she believes in, all while making us laugh. Ranging from the raucous to the romantic, the heartfelt to the harrowing, this highly entertaining and universally appealing collection is the literary equivalent of a night out with your best friend.

by Fiona Davis - Fiction

Fiona Davis' debut novel pulls readers into the lush world of New York City's glamorous Barbizon Hotel for Women, where in the 1950s a generation of aspiring models, secretaries and editors lived side-by-side while attempting to claw their way to fairy-tale success, and where a present-day journalist becomes consumed with uncovering a dark secret buried deep within the Barbizon's glitzy past.

by Jessie Burton - Fiction, Historical Fiction

England, 1967: Odelle Bastien --- a Caribbean émigré trying to make her way in London --- starts working at the prestigious Skelton Institute of Art and discovers a painting rumored to be the work of Isaac Robles, a young artist of immense talent whose mysterious death has confounded the art world for decades. Spain, 1936: Olive Schloss follows her parents to Arazuelo, a poor village on the southern coast. She grows close to Teresa, a housekeeper, and her half-brother, Isaac Robles. Insinuating themselves into the Schloss family’s lives, Teresa and Isaac help Olive conceal her artistic talents with devastating consequences that will echo into the decades to come.

by Jennifer Close - Fiction

A New York newlywed, Beth was supportive when her husband, Matt, decided to follow his political dreams all the way to Washington. Yet soon after they move to D.C., Beth realizes that she hates everything about it --- most of all, the lonely dinner parties where anyone who doesn’t work in politics is politely ignored. Things start to change when the couple meets a charismatic White House staffer named Jimmy and his wife, Ashleigh. The four become inseparable, coordinating brunches, birthdays and long weekends away. But as Jimmy’s star rises higher and higher, the couples’ friendship --- and Beth’s relationship with Matt --- is threatened by jealousy, competition and rumors.

by Kelly Killoren Bensimon - Fiction

Four sophisticated best friends who once took New York by storm are secretly falling apart at the seams. Lucy’s marriage to a renowned artist is slowly crumbling, with an explosive secret that threatens them both. Sarah, in the middle of auditioning for an auspicious new television show, realizes that her socialite standing is in jeopardy after countless disastrous events. Billy has finally left her former life behind to become a highbrow cuisine artist. And Lotta, a knockout downtown art dealer, spends her free time guzzling cocktails in both the grittiest and most expensive clubs around town --- but now, she’s taken it a little too far.