Some Books I Have Read Recently but Haven't Posted about Before

I have mentioned before that I don’t write here about all the books I read. As you know, I read a lot (and lately more than ever because of life circumstances), and I don’t necessarily want to write about each book. Sometimes the book just isn’t that interesting or that good, nor so surprisingly bad that its bad quality would make it notable enough to write about. Sometimes I read the book just for fun, in some cases a “guilty pleasure” (although I don’t actually feel guilty about anything I read!), such as books labeled as “beach reads,” and I don’t feel any need to write about it. Sometimes I really like the book, but don’t have a good “angle” from which to write about it. Sometimes, for whatever reason, I just don’t feel like writing about a particular book. Or I have just read so many books that the list backs up, and although more of them might be “blog-worthy,” I need to pick and choose. You get the idea. Today, just to illustrate the above, I am listing (without comment, and in no particular order) a few of the books that I have read in the last two months that I haven’t posted about here. “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,” by Taylor Jenkins Reid. “Assembly,” by Natasha Brown. “The Candid Life of Meena Dave,” by Namrata Patel. “Write My Name Across the Sky,” by Barbara O’Neal. “One Fine Day,” by Mollie Panter-Downes. “Write for Your Life,” by Anna Quindlen. “High Wages,” by Dorothy Whipple. “Meant to Be,” by Emily Giffen. “Yerba Buena,” by Nina La Cour. “Rainbow Rainbow,” by Lydia Conklin. “Manifesto: On Never Giving Up,” by Bernardine Evaristo. “The Wise Women,” by Gina Sorell. “The It Girl,” by Ruth Ware. “The Angel of Rome,” by Jess Walter. Note that this list includes literary novels and short story collections, memoir, writing advice, mystery, romance, and mixed-or-hard-to-label genres. Most are very recently published, but a few (e.g., “One Fine Day,” “High Wages”) were written many years ago. All were chosen with care, and enjoyed and/or admired and/or learned from, at least to some extent (otherwise I would probably have abandoned them without finishing them), and served a purpose or purposes for me.

"The Vanity Fair Diaries 1983-1992," by Tina Brown

I recently read and thoroughly enjoyed Tina Brown’s insightful (and juicy!) portrayal of the English royal family from the mid-20th century to now, titled “The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor – the Truth and the Turmoil” (Crown, 2022). I am not writing about that book here, except to say that it is entirely engrossing, especially for those of us (yes, I admit it) who are fascinated by the royal family (perhaps this is my Canadian heritage showing? My maternal grandmother used to keep a scrapbook about the royal family), despite some reservations about this ancient and quite possibly outdated institution. But reading that book reminded me of Tina Brown’s ability to draw readers in to her stories with all their delicious details. (She also wrote a book about Princess Diana which I have not read, only because I have already read so much about her). I then decided to read Brown’s 2017 book, “The Vanity Fair Diaries 1983-1992” (Henry Holt). What a treat! The English-bred and Oxford-educated Brown was chosen as the (very young) editor of the then-recently resuscitated glamorous magazine, Vanity Fair, and recorded her experiences during those years, not only with editing the magazine, but with all the attendant experiences as she moved from London to New York, became heavily involved in the intellectual and social life of that city (as well as of Los Angeles/Hollywood), started a family, became famous, knew seemingly everyone else famous, and – as briefly described at the end of the book – then became the editor of The New Yorker. I loved reading about the various authors and editors Brown worked with, the politics of publishing in the Conde Nast world, the intrigues, the glamor, the hard work, and so much more. Also of interest are Brown's comparisons of life and work in England and in the United States, and her comments on what it was like to be a woman in a high-level position in the publishing world. The book is chockful of delicious (but generally not mean-spirited) gossip, with wonderful details. I have been a longtime reader of Vanity Fair, and I admire the very purposeful journalistic mix that Brown created of politics, literature, art, popular culture, fashion, glamor, and much more. (She called it the “high-low” mix for short.) The magazine had (and still often has) stunning covers, and photos by, most prominently, Annie Leibovitz, and other esteemed photographers such as Herb Ritts. I was completely absorbed by the book, and hurtled through all 419 pages of it, never bored for an instant.

"Bloomsbury Girls," by Natalie Jenner

A very enjoyable novel about bookshops and about feminist struggle? I couldn’t resist that! “Bloomsbury Girls” (St. Martin’s, 2022), is by Natalie Jenner, the author of the wonderful “The Jane Austen Society,” which I wrote about here on 7/18/20. That novel was about a group of friends who were able to restore Jane Austen’s home in Chawton. (I still get chills when I think about Chawton, which I visited many years ago, and where I was overcome with awe and even became a bit tearful, knowing that I was standing where my idol had lived and written.) Some of the characters in the current novel were also in the earlier one, which took place a few years before, although readers of the current novel do not at all need to have read the earlier one. “Bloomsbury Girls” takes place in London in the post-World War II years, and focuses on the bookstore where most of the characters work, Bloomsbury Books. The three women who work there love books, and have many good ideas, but are frustrated by the sexism of the male managers and co-workers. So this is a feminist book, one of my favorite kinds! It is also full of intrigue, suspense, love, and secret relationships. Several famous women, including the author Daphne du Maurier, assist the women who work in the bookshop, and there is a palpable sense of women helping women to deal with the obstructions they all face, to one degree or another. There is, near the end of the book especially, a bit of delicious conspiracy among the women -- those inside and outside of the bookstore -- to bring about a triumphant major change in the situation at the bookshop. A truly satisfying and enjoyable novel!