‘Climbing in Heels’

Climbing in Heels is the perfect summer beach read. Super-agent/producer (she shepherded the careers of JLo and Julia Roberts to name just two) Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas debuts with a witty, sexy book about breaking through the boys’ club of ‘80s Hollywood in the fashion of former glamour queen Jackie Collins. And she does it with aplomb and grit. Super-agent Beanie is breaking up a trio of former secretaries at a hot talent agency climbing their way to the top in Hollywood with a liberal sprinkling of sex, drugs, and stilettos. Often overlooked, these women do what they gotta do to be seen and heard. It’s witty fun and delightfully juicy. I look forward to more from the uber smart Goldsmith-Thomas, a woman who broke many glass ceilings in Hollywood. 

‘Austen at Sea’

Austen at Sea by Natalie Jenner is a gem of an ode to the wildly popular Jane Austen, and the latest in Jenner’s series venerating the author. Set in 1865, two sets of siblings make rash decisions to sail from America to London to meet with the only surviving sibling of Jane Austen. It is not only a physical journey but one of the mind and spirit for the pair of Austen devotees. It is a captivating story of the power of literature, burgeoning feminism, and unexpected love for many of the cast members – the plot framed within the context of a rigid society that means to keep women and their ideas in place.

‘The Palace at the End of the Sea’

Local author and J.R.R. Tolkien’s grandson, Simon Tolkien’s Palace at the End of the Sea is the story of a young man’s journey beginning in the 1920s as fascism is on the rise in many parts of the world. With a Jewish American father and a Catholic Mexican mother, young Sterling is unsure of his own identity. From New York City to Spain and England, this novel of self-discovery plays on as the world spins out of control and close to war. 

‘The Busybody Book Club’

Freya Sampson is back with The Busybody Book Club with a cast of quirky characters set in a small Cornish village. Nova, a vintage-wearing girl from the city, is struggling to make the book club at the community center a success. With only five disparate oddball members, it is a disaster. Then a large sum of money is stolen from the office at the community center, and a member disappears, accused of murdering his mother. Following their favorite genre of books the remaining members set about solving the mystery of the vanished member, the death of his mother, and the missing money. Sampson never fails to deliver in another cozy mystery.

‘What is Wrong with Men’

“What is Wrong with Men” author Jessa Crispin asks. In her new book she claims all the answers can be found in the oeuvre of Michael Douglas films. She makes a compelling case that the patriarch and women’s movement is to blame. Crispin’s argument? As women gained their liberation, men lost theirs. She isn’t blaming men but rather explaining how, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, men and women’s roles were changing as the patriarchy abandoned men. Crispin doesn’t point the finger at Douglas, but instead writes that the times obliged him to perform masculine, male-optimizing roles, from Wall Street’s greedy Gordon Gekko, to unfaithful husband, to a man spiraling during a midlife crisis. Who knew we only needed to look to Douglas to explain men’s evolving crisis
in masculinity? 

‘The Backwater’

A new thriller from Vikki Wakefield, The Backwater is hard to put down. Sabine is on the run twelve years after escaping custody following a suspicious fire that killed nine people. She has been living on the river in Australia checking in with her sick grandpa whenever she can. One night she is spotted by a neighbor who happens to be a journalist looking for a story. What happens next reveals a powerful tale of corruption, class, and justice.