Month: February 2017

The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis – Book

If you are of a certain age then you were just in your teens when Sylvia Plath committed suicide and you probably read The Bell Jar which young people, especially young women, still read today. Sylvia Plath was very interesting to English major types because she was young and she was already famous. She won a sort of internship at Mademoiselle Magazine and went off to live in New York City. Quite an accomplishment for someone just starting out in life and we will never know if, or how much, her early success contributed to her clinical depression. We know she was gone too quickly and we wondered what else she might have done if she had survived.

For a while the young Sylvia Plath lived at the Barbizon Hotel for Women which may have gained its fame from her short tenure there. I remember being fascinated to learn that there was a NYC residence that housed only women, with strict rules about guests of the male persuasion, much like the dorms I lived in at college where we were separated by gender and girls had serious rules, governing both curfews and male guests. It seemed so elegant and atavistic at the same time for a city as metropolitan as New York to have this type of restricted boarding house among its many idiosyncratic offerings.

In her book The Dollhouse, Fiona Davis, takes her readers into The Barbizon about 50 years after the days of Sylvia Plath, and at the same time, in flashbacks takes us back to the Barbizon in the 50’s. Her main character is a journalist of sorts for an online publication who happens to live at the Barbizon, now in transition with some units redone and sold as condos and some still rented to original tenants. After her married boyfriend, the owner of their shared condo, throws her out to go back to his wife she continues to try to interview some of these permanent residents who were there in the old days. One resident is especially interesting. She walks her dog everyday but no one has seen her face in many years. She wears a veil and there is a story that she has a terrible scar on her face and that someone fell from the lounge on the roof of the hotel to her death and that the mystery woman was with her when she fell.

Upon hearing this story our journalist friend is even more determined to hear the stories that the older residents have to tell. It’s almost like solving a mystery but one that was obviously resolved long ago as the veiled lady is not in prison. When circumstances conspire to allow Rose Lewin to install herself (without permission) in the mystery woman’s apartment the story begins to take shape. (There are repercussions.)

Although I did not get really attached to any of the characters in The Dollhouse, perhaps that was not the point of the novel. The author, through flashbacks does recreate the experience of living in the Barbizon which was very similar to living in a very classy dormitory. She also takes us into the jazz club scene and some of the diversity that is always encountered in this iconic city. And there is a bit of romance in the mix. However the content is a bit light and I was not successfully drawn into feeling emotionally involved in either the characters or the plot. (There was a spice book mentioned that I would love to see and smell). This is a good read, but not a great read.

February 2017 Book List

February 2017 Book List

New York Times Book Review

January 6, 2017

The Strays by Emily Bitto

Idaho by Emily Rushkovich

History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund

Latest and Best Crime Fiction

The Old Man by Thomas Perry

The Borrowed by Chan Ho-kee

The Beautiful Dead by Belinda Bauer

The Death of Kings by Rennie Airth

New Books Recommended This Week

The Correspondence by J. D. Daniels

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly

Mary Astor’s Purple Diary: The Great American Sex Scandal of 1936 by Edward Sorel

Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey Smith

The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel

The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the present by John Pomfret

Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion by Paul Bloom

The Moravian Night: A Story by Peter Handke

Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future by Joi Ito and Jeff Howe

Flying Couch: A Graphic Memoir by Amy Kurzwell

January 13, 2017

How America Lost its Secrets by Edward Jay Epstein

Human Acts by Han Kang

The Kaiser’s Last Kiss by Alan Judd

Books We Recommend this Week

Selection Day by Aravind Adiga

The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force by Eliot A. Cohen

The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes

War Against War: The American Fight for Peace 1914-1918 by Michael Kazin

The Strays by Emily Bitto

Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews 1933-1949 by David Cesarani

Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films by Molly Haskell

The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile Under the Tsars by Daniel Beer

History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund

Idaho by Emily Ruskovich

Difficult Women by Roxane Gay

New Paperbacks

The Lost Tudor Princess: The Life of Lady Margaret Douglas by Alison Weir

Arcadia by Iain Pears

The Invention of Science: A New History of Scientific Revolution by David Wootton

Predicting Trump – The NYT recommends a 1935 book – It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

That Other Clinton: A Brief Biography of Bill by Michael Tomasky

Audacity by Jonathan Chait

The Afterlife of Stars by Joseph Kertes

Huck Out West by Robert Coover

Enigma Variations by André Aciman

Class by Lucinda Rosenfeld

Best and Latest in Crime Fiction

The Girl Before by J. P. Delaney

Two Days Gone by Randall Silvis

Different Class by Joanne Harris

New Books We Recommend this Week

The Dry by Jane Harper

Nicotine by Gregor Hens

My Life, My Love, My Legacy by Coretta Scott King as told to Barbara Reynolds

Krazy: George Herriman, A Life in Black and White by Michael Tisserand

Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson

Human Acts by Han Kang

New Paperbacks

World’s Elsewhere: Journeys around Shakespeare’s Globe by Andrew Dickson

The Gold Eaters by Ronald Wright

Excellent Daughters: The Secret Lives of Young Women Who are Transforming the Arab World by Katherine Zoepf

Mothering Sunday: A Romance by Graham Swift

Kill ‘em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul by James McBride

Ways to Disappear by Idra Novey

Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency by David Greenberg

January 27, 2017

1st Outline, now Transit by Rachel Cusk

The Patriots by Sana Krashikov

The Signal Flame by Andrew Krivak

Selection Day by Aravind Adiga

The Crossing by Andrew Miller

Earning the Rockies by Robert D. Kaplan

The True Flag by Stephen Kinzer

Once We Were Sisters by Sheila Kohler

New Books We Recommend this Week

Transit by Rachel Cusk

The South: Henry Hampton and “Eyes on the Prize,” the Landmark Television Series that Reframed the Civil Rights Movement by Jon Else

Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy that Will Prevail by Jonathan Chait

The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston

Huck Out West by Robert Coover

The Book that Changed America: How Darwin’s Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation by Randall Fuller

The Afterlife of Stars by Joseph Kertes

The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State by Graeme Wood

Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh

Enigma Variations by André Aciman

Amazon

Best Books of January

The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston

History of Wolves: A Novel by Emily Fridlund

The Bear and the Nightingale: A Novel by Katherine Arden

The Dry: A Novel by Jane Harper

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk: A Novel by Kathleen Rooney

This is How It Always Is: A Novel by Laurin Frankel

Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekeran

Testosterone Rex: Myths of Sex, Science, and Society by Cordelia Fine

Human Acts: A Novel by Han Kang

Literature and Fiction

Huck Out West: A Novel by Robert Coover

Difficult Women by Roxane Gay

Indelible by Adelia Saunders

Idaho: A Novel by Emily Ruskovich

The Midnight Cool: A Novel by Lydia Peelle

Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

Idaho: A Novel by Emily Ruskovich

Fever Dream: A Novel by Samanta Schweblin, Megan McDowell

The Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian

The Dry: A Novel by Jane Harper

Human Acts: A Novel by Han Kang

Her Every Fear: A Novel by Peter Swanson

The Girl Before: A Novel by J. P. Delaney

The Final Day: A Novel by William R. Forstchen

The Girl in Green by Derek B. Miller

Nonfiction

Reality is Not What it Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity by Carlo Rovelle

Is It All In Your Head? True Stories of Imaginary Illness by Suzanne O’Sullivan

What Doesn’t Kill Us: How Freezing, Extreme Altitude and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Your Lost Evolutionary Strength by Scott Carney

Books for Living by Will Schwaibe

Bop Apocalypse: Jazz, Race, the Beats, and Drugs by Martin Torgoff

Testosterone Rex: Myths of Sex, Science, and Society by Cordelia Fine

The Unsettlers: In Search of the Good Life in Today’s America by Mark Sundeen

A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life by Ayelet Waldeman

Letters to a Young Muslim by Omar Saif Ghobash

Biography

How America Lost Its Secrets: Edward Snowden, the Man and the Theft by Edward Jay Epstein

Amazon: New for February

4321: A Novel by Paul Auster

The Impossible Fortress: A Novel by Jason Rekulak

Universal Harvester: A Novel by John Darnielle

The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley are Changing the World by Brad Stone

Home Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari

Insomniac City: New York, Oliver and Me by Bill Hayes

Lincoln in the Bardo: A Novel by George Saunders

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Literature and Fiction

Forever is the Worst Long Time: A Novel by Camille Pagán

4321: A Novel by Paul Auster

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Lincoln in the Bardo: A Novel by George Saunders

The Impossible Fortress: A Novel by Jason Rekulak

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaimen

The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller

A Separation: A Novel by Katie Kitamura

The Weight of Him: A Novel by Ethel Rohan

The Clairvoyants by Karen Brown

Mysteries and Thrillers

Six Four: A Novel by Hideo Yokoyama, Jonathan Lloyd-Davies

A Separation: A Novel by Katie Kitamura

Right Behind You by Lisa Gardner

I See You by Clare Mackintosh

Desperation Road by Michael Farris Smith

The Turn: The Hollows Begins with Death by Kim Harrison

Gunmetal Gray (Gray Man) by Mark Greaney

What You Break (A Gus Murphy Novel) by Reed Farrel Coleman

Racing the Devil by Charles Todd

Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller

Biographies and Memoirs

Nearly Normal: Surviving the Wilderness, My Family, and Myself by Cea Sunrise Person

Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast by Megan Marshall

The Perpetual Now: A Story of Amnesia, Memory, and Love by Michael Lemonick

Karakoram: Climbing Through the Kashmir Conflict by Steve Swenson

The Inkblots: Herman Rorschach: His Iconic Test and the Power of Being by Damion Searls

Truffle Boy: My Unexpected Journey Through the Exotic Food Underground by Ian Purkayastha with Kevin West

This Close to Happy: Reckoning with Depression by Daphne Merkin

Instrumental: A Memoir of Madness, Medication, and Music by James Rhodes

Insomniac City: New York, Oliver and Me by Bill Hayes

No Barriers: A Blind Man’s Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon by Erik Weinhenmayer, Buddy Levy with Forward by Bob Woodruff

Nonfiction

Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity by Derek Thompson

Black Edges: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street by Sheelah Kolhatkar

From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds by Daniel Dennett

Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Haran

The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley are Changing the World by Brad Stone

High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic by Glenn Frankel

The Art of Invisibility: The World’s Most Famous Hacker Teaches You How to Be Safe in the Age of Big Brother and Big Data by Kevin Mitnick and Mikko Hypponen

Science Fiction and Fantasy

Miranda and Caliban by Jacqueline Carey

Gilded Age (Dark Gifts) by Vic James

All Our Wrong Todays: A Novel by Elan Mastai

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley

The Book of Etta (The Road to Nowhere) by Meg Ellison