ON OUR BOOKSHELF
THE PAGES WE’VE DEVOURED THIS MONTH... AND YOU SHOULD TOO.
WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LULULEMONS Sure, Andy had the good cheekbones, but we’ve always been Team Emily. (We’ll take an Hermès-wrapped cynic over an apple-pie optimist any day.) Now Miranda Priestly’s former number one is getting her own starring role in this newest novel from The Devil Wears Prada author Lauren Weisberger. Emily has long since left Runway mag to become a Hollywood image consultant for delinquent celebs. But at the ancient age of (gasp!) 36, she’s experiencing a career downturn. She may get her second chance... in the suburbs of Connecticut of all places.
THE FAVORITE SISTER Reality TV can get pretty ugly— post-rose-ceremony mascara tears, anyone? But in the latest thriller from Jessica Knoll, author of Luckiest Girl Alive, it’s downright twisted. Brett and Kelly are Type A sisters competing to be the next top entrepreneur on a show called Goal Diggers— until Brett, the fan fave, turns up dead. This is a delicious nail-biter but also a serious commentary on pop culture’s annoying penchant for playing women against one another.
THE MARS ROOM If you’re addicted to Orange Is the New Black, prepare to be riveted by this gritty story. Single mom Romy Hall is serving two consecutive life sentences for killing her stalker, and she takes the reader back and forth between her past—a neglected childhood followed by drug use and sex work—and the present. Rachel Kushner’s depiction of prison life ranges from harrowing to humorous, and you’ll find yourself feeling empathy for the inmates and rooting for Romy to be given a second chance.
STILL WATER A shady little town, a mysterious disappearance and corrupt police: Amy Stuart’s follow-up to her bestselling debut, Still Mine, has all the ingredients of a gripping whodunit. Sally Proulx and her young son are missing, and Clare has been hired to find them. But when she starts asking questions, she realizes that nobody really wants to answer them—at least not truthfully. Things go from iffy to threatening when she is forced to face a secret from her own past.
THE DEATH OF MRS. WESTAWAY One day, Hal receives a letter bequeathing her a large inheritance from a grandmother she didn’t know existed. THE dream, right? Well, there’s a snag: The letter wasn’t meant for her. But being a tarot reader on a pier in an English seaside city doesn’t go far toward paying off the dodgy loan sharks she owes, so Hal tries to get the inheritance anyway and ends up knee-deep in the family secrets of the Westaways. Cue drama and intrigue, complete with a creepy mansion, eccentric relatives and a menacing housekeeper.