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Franny and Zooey

Franny and Zooey
  • Author(s): J D Salinger
  • Location(s): New York City (NYC)
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): 1950s

The short story, Franny, takes place in an unnamed college town and tells the tale of an undergraduate who is becoming disenchanted with the selfishness and inauthenticity she perceives all around her. The novella, Zooey, is named for Zooey...

French Exit

French Exit
  • Author(s): Patrick deWitt
  • Location(s): Paris, New York City (NYC)
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): Modern

Frances Price – tart widow, possessive mother and Upper East Side force of nature – is in dire straits, beset by scandal. Her adult son Malcolm is no help, mired in a permanent state of arrested development. And then...

FROM HERE TO FOURTEENTH STREET

FROM HERE TO FOURTEENTH STREET
  • Author(s): Diana Rubino
  • Location(s): Manhattan
  • Genre(s): Historical, Mystery, Romance
  • Era(s): Victorian Era

It’s 1894 on New York’s Lower East Side. Irish cop Tom McGlory and Italian immigrant Vita Caputo fall in love despite their different upbringings. Vita goes from sweatshop laborer to respected bank clerk to reformer, helping elect a mayor...

From Potter’s Field

From Potter’s Field
  • Author(s): Patricia Cornwell
  • Location(s): New York City (NYC), Virginia
  • Genre(s): Crime, Fiction
  • Era(s): early 2000s

Christmas has never been a particularly good time for Dr Kay Scarpetta. Although a holiday for most, the festivities always seem to heighten the alienation felt by society’s violent fringe; and that usually means more work for Scarpetta, Virginia’s...

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
  • Author(s): E L Konigsburg
  • Location(s): Manhattan
  • Genre(s): Children, Fiction
  • Era(s): early 21st century

When suburban Claudia Kincaid decides to run away, she knows she doesn’t just want to run from somewhere, she wants to run to somewhere — to a place that is comfortable, beautiful, and, preferably, elegant. She chooses the Metropolitan...

Garlic and Sapphires

Garlic and Sapphires
  • Author(s): Ruth Reichl
  • Location(s): New York City (NYC)
  • Genre(s): Autobiography/Memoirs, Food and Drink
  • Era(s): Modern

Garlic and Sapphires is Ruth Reichl’s riotous account of the many disguises she employs to dine undetected when she takes on the much coveted and highly prestigious job of New York Times restaurant critic. Reichl knows that to be...

Generation Friends

Generation Friends
  • Author(s): Saul Austerlitz
  • Location(s): Manhattan
  • Genre(s): Nonfiction
  • Era(s): Turn of 21st Century

A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at Friends, published for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the show’s premiere. Howyoudoin’? In September 1994, six friends sat down in their favorite coffee shop and began bantering about sex, relationships, jobs, and just about everything...

Ghost-Eye

Ghost-Eye
  • Author(s): Amitav Ghosh
  • Location(s): Kolkata (Calcutta), Brooklyn
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): late 60s and present day

Varsha Gupta wants fish for her lunch. Her family can’t understand it; the three-year-old has never tasted fish in her life. The Guptas are strict vegetarians and don’t allow it inside their Calcutta mansion. But Varsha claims she can...

Girls in Trucks

Girls in Trucks
  • Author(s): Katie Crouch
  • Location(s): New York City (NYC), Charleston
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): 2nd half 20th century

Meet Sarah Walters, a Camellia Society debutante with a weakness for bad ideas. Sarah’s mother lectures her on etiquette but tends to get loose after a few gins. Still, Sarah tries to follow the debutante code – after all,...

Go Gentle

Go Gentle
  • Author(s): Maria Semple
  • Location(s): Manhattan, Upper West Side
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): Contemporary

Adora Hazzard has it all figured out. A Stoic philosopher and contented divorcée, she relishes her teenage daughter, her job as a moral tutor for an old-money family, and the bliss of finally being solo. She’s also quietly assembling...

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