Skip to main content

Features

Therese Anne Fowler, author of A Well-Behaved Woman: A Novel of the Vanderbilts

Alva Smith, her southern family destitute after the Civil War, married into one of America’s great Gilded Age dynasties: the newly wealthy but socially shunned Vanderbilts. Ignored by New York’s old-money circles and determined to win respect, she designed and built nine mansions, hosted grand balls and arranged for her daughter to marry a duke. But Alva also defied convention for women of her time, asserting power within her marriage and becoming a leader in the women's suffrage movement.

Week of September 30, 2019

Paperback releases for the week of September 30th include THE NEXT PERSON YOU MEET IN HEAVEN, the enchanting sequel to THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN, in which Mitch Albom tells the story of Eddie’s heavenly reunion with Annie, the little girl he saved on earth; THE LIBRARY BOOK, Susan Orlean's unique and utterly compelling book that chronicles the 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Public Library and its aftermath, showcasing the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; GONE SO LONG, Andre Dubus III's first novel in over a decade, a riveting family drama about an ex-con who did time for murder, the estranged daughter he hasn’t seen in 40 years, and the grandmother angry enough to kill him; THESE TRUTHS by Jill Lepore, a magisterial account of the origins and rise of a divided nation, an urgently needed reckoning with the beauty and tragedy of American history; and A WELL-BEHAVED WOMAN, Therese Anne Fowler’s intriguing novel of iron-willed Alva Vanderbilt and her illustrious family as they rule Gilded-Age New York.