Susannah’s Spring, Summer Reading List…2023

  It’s no secret I love to read, becoming as vital as air and water.

  And I’ve gotten very brazen in my various genres after claiming to only read non-fiction.

  Who was I kidding along with cheating being that close-minded and smug?

   I’ve learned, being educated while entertained is like winning the Derby of Literature, so allow me to start with a book I couldn’t put down.

The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor….Tina Brown (2022) Why are we so fascinated by the Royals? They do read like a soap opera, the scandals laced through all that stiff propriety; from a King who chose his mistress over the throne, while his great-nephew, the newly crowned King Charles, kept a mistress while married, who’s now his Queen. Toss in his little brother canoodling with the infamous Jeffrey Epstein and you’ll have yourself a page-turner; Tina Brown leaving little out honing the skill of turning smut into acceptable prose.

 Think the National Enquirer written by Virginia Woolf.

The Diana Chronicles…Tina Brown (2007) I needed more, like a crack addict, following up with the sacrificial lamb of the British Monarchy, Diana Spencer, better known as Diana, Princess of Wales who never disappoints. Despite Tina’s candor over Diana’s many alleged crimes, you still can’t help cheering for her.

SPARE…Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex (2023) Of Diana’s two sons most like his mom, but unlike her, managing to escape a life that he too wasn’t suited for. Harry tells you what it’s like losing a mother he so dearly loved and perhaps the only one who never felt he was second best in anything; honest as she was, especially when it comes to his step-mother making SPARE, an explosive read.

The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams…Stacy Schiff (2022) An unsung hero of the American Revolution, this man turning out to be much more than the beer that bears his name. Though not one of the main stars in 1776 like his cousin John, he was just as important if not more so, urging us to fight for our ultimate independence.

Ms Schiff, a passionate writer becoming one with her subject, like Benjamin Franklin, another biography… A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth and the Birth of America (2005), also comes highly recommended. She was featured in the great Ken Burns’s film about Ben on PBS.

The Gatekeeper: Missy Lehand, FDR and the Untold Story of the Partnership That Defined Presidency…Kathryn Smith (2016) Franklin Delano Roosevelt, considered one of our greatest presidents, had a side to him not widely known. Despite being in a wheelchair, he had a ravenous appetite for female company. Missy, who today would be his Chief of Staff, was more than just that…his constant companion, confidant and stand-in First Lady with the approval of Eleanor Roosevelt, allowing her to live a more independent life. She died young (47), leaving a hole in a legendary presidency that couldn’t be filled.

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and the Defiance During the Blitz…Erik Larson (2020) The title comes from Sir Thomas Coleville’s diaries secretly kept when he was the Assistant Private Secretary to Sir Winston Churchill during the Second World War. In a passage he writes…it was all so splendid and vile, which says it all; one minute dining grandly in evening clothes at the Savoy, the next dodging bombs on the way home not sure you’ll ever get there, or that it would still be standing if you did. An eye-opener for all readers, Larson one helluva writer.

Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America…Maggie Haberman (2022) Every time I think I’ve read all Trumpian lore, it seems I haven’t. Mr. Trump is a force unto himself, and not such a healthy one for the country he seems to still hold considerable sway over. Though compelling, it’s wordy, delivered like a 500 page plus news article. To quote the late David McCullough, Confidence Man has many notes but not enough music, yet if you can hang in there still worth the read.

Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit and Glamour of an Icon…Kate Anderson Brower (2022) Daughter of writer, Christopher Anderson, author of The Day That John Died (2000), the apple not falling far from the tree. Like her Dad, prose clean and spare written so well, you’ll forget you’re prying into the personal archive of a very controversial film star, the most beautiful and greatest of her day.

Mark Twain: Man in White: The Great Adventures of his Final Years…Michael Sheldon (2010) A peek into a life that after losing a wife and two daughters he so deeply loved, makes up his mind to still have a memorable last act. There was no one like Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain, and alas, never will be again. A most enjoyable, poignant read.

Beloved…Toni Morrison (1987) Fiction that came to me by accident, held hostage from the first page. Ms Morrison’s tale is so riveting though disturbing in parts, you can see why it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. I warn you though, it also kept me up at night, it was that surreal.

Carnegie’s Maid…Marie Benedict (2018) Did I love this, historical fiction at its very best. Time 1863, when a scruffy, fiery Irish girl named Clara Kelly fresh off the boat, after a case of mistaken identity, lands a job working as a ladies maid for Andrew Carnegie’s shrew of a mother. Our author’s words entice like a sumptuous buffet when a young Andrew becomes besotted with Clara who’s not who he thinks she is. I promise you’ll be sold from page one, Ms Benedict quite the storyteller.

The Quiet American…Graham Green (1955) A favorite of the late Anthony Bourdain’s…a little jewel narrated by a journalist with a Pete Hamill flair. We learn how France lost her hold on Vietnam paving the way for our sad, future involvement. Beautifully written and more than a little prescient.

A Cook’s Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal…Anthony Bourdain (2001) Speaking of our late bad boy chef, delighted to find one of his books I had yet to read..like winning a contest conducted from the great beyond. You’re there in every country at every meal, Tony as your charming, wry, irreverent host who I still so miss.

Happy Go Lucky…David Sedaris (2022) Eighteen semi-biographical essays that come to find out, are not so happy-go-lucky after all. Our author has grown quite serious as the years have gone by, revealing almost too much to his faithful readers. It seems lots happened before and since, during one Christmas he was an elf called Crumpet at Macy’s Department Store. Santaland Diaries… Holidays In Ice (1997) Despite the unexpected gravitas, you still can’t help but to love him.

Dirtbag Massachusetts…Isaac Fitzgerald (2022) This was a sleeper, as they say when a film unexpectedly does well. After reading about it in the New York Times Book Review, wasn’t sorry picking it up. Fitzgerald’s honesty for such a young man (39) beginning with growing up in a Boston homeless shelter, to being a bartender trying to find himself; tattooed, heroic, smuggling medical supplies into Burma… prose, though humbling, at times will make you squirm. When writing memoir you better be willing to spill your guts, and our author certainly has.

Dilettante…Dana Brown (2023) Dana, a handsome fellow with a name like a pretty girl, recounts landing a job, wet behind the ears at 21, lasting over two decades working for Graydon Carter, the legendary editor of Vanity Fair…history of the era most compelling. Like Isaac, he too opens a vein about what it’s like having little faith in yourself until it suddenly appears, shocking no one more than yourself. Dilettante moves like an express train; couldn’t put it down.

The Uncommon Reader…Alan Bennett (2007) I’ll end the way I started, with the Royals, who even fictionally never disappoint. Imagine the late Queen Elizabeth II of England suddenly becoming a serial reader to the upset of all of Buckingham Palace.

 A swift 120 pages all readers will applaud and appreciate, the talented Mr. Bennett deserving a royal bow.

 Happy reading everyone!

 And always remember, to read is a privilege. 

 Susannah