Books Set in North America; United StatesNew York, New York;

Park Avenue Summer (2019), by Renée Rosen, is a fictional account of how Helen Gurley Brown got Cosmopolitan magazine up and running in the summer of 1965. The magazine had been a traditional woman's magazine with recipes and housekeeping tips. Brown, who had no prior magazine experience, was given the job of revitalizing it. The Hearst company, however, expected her to fail. The magazine had been failing when she was given the job. She was expected to continue running the magazine as status quo.

Did she have other ideas! This was the time when the women's movement was becoming more mainstream. Brown wanted her magazine to deal with women's sexuality. She got a lot of push-back from the publishers. Her husband, David Brown, had a lot of influence and backed Helen's decisions.

The novel is told from the perspective of her young secretary. It's a fun read.

4 Stars. 

Read: February 4, 2022

Books Set in North America; United States; Chicago, Illinois

White Collar Girl, by Renée Rosen (2015)

 

White Collar Girl is set in the late 1950s and focuses on budding journalist Jordan Walsh.  Jordan comes from a journalistic family – both her father and brother were journalists.  After graduating from college with a degree in journalism, Jordan lands a job with the Chicago Tribune.  She has dreams of landing an investigative position on the city desk, but women journalists were assigned to writing puff pieces.  She is assigned to cover society weddings, cooking and other light “women’s interest” pieces.

 

Jordan’s brother had been killed in what was ostensibly a hit-and-run accident and the driver was never caught.  His death plunges Jorden’s parents into a downward spiral.  Jordan thinks there might be something to her brother’s death.  She learns that he was investigating a horsemeat scandal when he was killed.  Was his death related to a coverup?

 

As a young, new reporter, Jordan realized that she must pursue stories.  She didn’t just settle for writing up the stories she was assigned but sought out stories.  She befriends a source in government who passes on leads. Initially, the stories she writes are credited to her male co-workers.

 

The author attempts to put as many of Chicago’s scandals into this novel with Jordan being the investigative reporter.  The stories that Jordan pursues are based on actual events that occurred in Chicago, but the time frames are not necessarily within the scope of this novel.  The author did accurately portray the trials that a young female reporter would have encountered in the 1950s (some of which are probably still encountered today).  Jordan being the reporter so single-minded just didn’t ring true.

 

In the 1960 Presidential election, President Kennedy narrowly won the election, and largely due to the results from Chicago.  This novel discussed how the election was rigged and that Nixon probably did have the election stolen from him.  Interestingly, White Collar Girl was published in 2015, before there was talk of the 2020 election being stolen.

 

I read Renée Rosen’s book The Social Graces and totally loved it, so wanted to read something else by this author.  While White Collar Girl was good, it wasn’t as good as the first book I read by Rosen.

 

Read:  January 17, 2022

 

3 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States: New York, New York

The Social Graces, by Renée Rosen (2021)

 

Set in the 1870s, The Social Graces focuses on two of the wealthiest families in New York ~ the Astors and the Vanderbilts.  The Astors were “old money” and the Vanderbilts were the nouveau riche, having earned their money through the railroads.  Old money looked down on the new money.

 

When the novel opens, women are basically chattel of their husbands.  Society marriages are arranged as business transaction not as love matches.  The wives must ignore their husbands’ affairs.  What the women do have is Society with a capital “S” and their children.  Caroline Astor, the Mrs. Astor, is the Queen of New York Society.  She is one of the most powerful women in New York Society.  She holds the cards for who is who in New York Society.

 

Alva Vanderbilt is the young bride of William K. Vanderbilt.  When she was young, her father lost the family fortune, so Alva had grown up in Alabama in relative poverty.  After her marriage to a Vanderbilt, she is suddenly thrust into tremendous wealth, but her husband’s money won’t buy her a place in Society.

 

Alva tried to enter into the Astor circle only to be snubbed time and time again.  A chance encounter with Emily Astor seemed to be the key to the Astors.  Alas, it wasn’t to be.  Still, Alva was determined to enter into the coveted Society Circle.  With the Vanderbilt money, Alva has certain powers that allow her to make her mark in New York.

 

This novel, based on facts of the Astors and Vanderbilts, is a delightful read and a page-turner.  I couldn’t put it down.  It reminded me of the novel The Swans of Fifth Avenue, by Melanie Benjamin, which was about New York Society in the 1950s.

 

Read: December 24, 2021

 

5 Stars