Finished: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (Reid) I don't know why I waited so long to read this book! It was as good as everyone said. :-) Evelyn Hugo was a huge star in Hollywood, who made her way there in the 1950's from Hell's Kitchen, was the "it" girl in the 1960's and 70's, and then left show business in the 1980's. Along the way, some for love, and most for other reasons, Evelyn had seven husbands. Now, she's insisting that an unknown reporter for a magazine, Monique Grant, perform the only interview she's done in years. Monique's bosses are chomping at the bit...but why Monique? Evelyn says it's Monique or the deal is off. Monique meets with Evelyn and it comes to light that what Evelyn Hugo really wants is to narrate her biography and for Monique to write it. What ensues is Evelyn's story about how she made it to Hollywood and IN Hollywood; her competitors and her friends; her movie successes and her failures; how the studios were all about making money and would drop you in a dime; and, of course, about her seven husbands! The number one question that Monique wants answered is: Who was the love of your life? I won't spoil the book, but the answer is revealed in Evelyn Hugo's good time. Also, the answer as to why Evelyn wanted Monique and only Monique to write the book is answered at the end of the book. I love Taylor Jenkins Reid's writing, and this book was certainly another fun one! My favorite passage is below, but it does spoil the book, so don't read it yet if you want to be surprised. 

Spoiler below:

    "I would imagine, back then, it wasn't a conclusion you'd come to easily--being in love with someone of the same sex."

    "Of course not! Maybe if I'd spent my whole life fighting off feelings for women, then I might have had a template for it. But I didn't. I was taught to like men, and I had found--albeit temporarily--love and lust with a man. The fact that I wanted to be around Celia all the time, the fact that I cared about her enough that I valued her happiness over my own, the fact that I liked to think about that moment when she stood in front of me without her shirt on--now, you put those pieces together, and you say, one plus one equals I'm in love with a woman. but back then, at least for me, I didn't have that equation. And if you don't even realize that there's a formula to be working with, how the hell are you supposed to find the answer?"

 

 Finished: The Foundling (Leary) A pretty good book that I started reading at the beginning of vacation, and then finished after it was over. Based on a true story, it was horrific that women were treated this way and put in asylums so easily, for instance, if their husbands just wanted to be rid of them to be with a new woman. I'm just going to put the Amazon write up here, because I'm still exhausted. :-) 

It’s 1927 and eighteen-year-old Mary Engle is hired to work as a secretary at a remote but scenic institution for mentally disabled women called the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. She’s immediately in awe of her employer—brilliant, genteel Dr. Agnes Vogel.

Dr. Vogel had been the only woman in her class in medical school. As a young psychiatrist she was an outspoken crusader for women’s suffrage. Now, at age forty, Dr. Vogel runs one of the largest and most self-sufficient public asylums for women in the country. Mary deeply admires how dedicated the doctor is to the poor and vulnerable women under her care.

Soon after she’s hired, Mary learns that a girl from her childhood orphanage is one of the inmates. Mary remembers Lillian as a beautiful free spirit with a sometimes-tempestuous side. Could she be mentally disabled? When Lillian begs Mary to help her escape, alleging the asylum is not what it seems, Mary is faced with a terrible choice. Should she trust her troubled friend with whom she shares a dark childhood secret? Mary’s decision triggers a hair-raising sequence of events with life-altering consequences for all.

Inspired by a true story about the author’s grandmother, The Foundling offers a rare look at a shocking chapter of American history. This gripping page-turner will have readers on the edge of their seats right up to the stunning last page…asking themselves, “Did this really happen here?”

 Finished: Trust (Diaz) I picked up Trust to read after I saw that Kate Winslet has signed to do the upcoming series. It is a book about capitalism in America in the 1920's with all the financial ups and downs, so I wasn't sure I'd really be that interested, but what a good book! It begins with a book inside a book. The book, written by Harold Vanner in 1937, is called Bonds and is the story of American finance tycoon Benjamin Rask and his equally brilliant wife, Helen. Both very antisocial, they appear to be a perfect match and live the wealthy life in New York as the genius Benjamin, able to constantly predict exactly what the market is going to do, proceeds to multiply his already vast family fortune. Meanwhile, Helen is enthralled with music and philanthropy and spends her time having world renowned musicians of all types to their mansion for private concerts for a very small group of people, and donating to vast charities that interest her. Right before the stock market crash of 1929, Benjamin suspects that the historical increase in the Dow Jones numbers in the past few years can't go on forever, and he begins liquidating most of his own stocks. This, many claim, actually starts the downward spiral of the stock market crash, but Benjamin doesn't see it that way. Soon, the reclusive couple is shunned by the few people in their inner circle and Helen falls into some sort of mental illness. Benjamin takes her to the best sanatorium in Switzerland, where she declines into delirium and develops debilitating eczema. Her renowned doctor convinces Benjamin that Helen can be cured with a new therapy that will eventually come to be known as shock therapy. After her third treatment, Helen's heart gives out and she dies. Benjamin is bereft. He goes back to New York, where he has actually let his business suffer, and people who once respected his financial prowess begin to think of him as getting old and losing his touch. 

So, just when you are getting into the story of the Rasks, part one is over! The book within in a book, which I forgot I was reading, was done. Part two of Trust is all about real financier, Andrew Bevel and his wife Mildred. Andrew, whose wife Mildred was lost to him years before, is livid when Bonds comes out and the author has let it be known that it is based on the Rasks. He doesn't like the way he is portrayed and he most definitely doesn't like the fact that Mildred, who died a painful death from cancer, is portrayed as having lost her mind and died from psychiatric experiments. He begins to write his own memoir, and you can tell that much of what he says does coincide with the Bonds book, but he paints himself in a much better light, insisting that he lives by his father's favorite saying which was, "The best kind of financial profit is the profit that also helps the community as a whole." He also paints Mildred as fascinated by music, for certain, but also meeker and less influential to Andrew than she actually was. Part two ends abruptly with Andrew deciding he'll need a ghostwriter. 

Part three picks up with the story of Ida Partenza, daughter of a widowed Italian immigrant who is a printer and barely makes ends meet. Ida has written fascinating stories since she was a young girl. Realizing she needs to earn more money than her jobs in the bakery and the supermarket afford her, she answers the ad for a secretarial position. The hiring process is several interviews worth, but the end result is that Ida is hired to be Andrew Bevel's ghostwriter. He insists that she find "his voice", which means, make something up that is nicer and more exciting than his true boring, reserved voice. He also insists that this story is to redeem his wife's "reputation", yet he can give Ida no details in particular regarding any kind of intimate stories with his wife. Even though Mildred famously wrote everything down in diaries, there are no diaries made available to Ida and Andrew tells her to just make up some nice stories. There's a push and pull between Ida and Andrew and she manages to stand up to him at times. When he is finally satisfied that the book is almost done and to his liking, and that both he and Mildred have been portrayed exactly as he wanted....he dies!! Ida isn't even officially notified, and there are no instructions given in his vast will about the memoir she'd been working on, so it goes unfinished. Ida puts all her notes and manuscripts aside, makes enough money being Andrew Bevel's former secretary to put herself through school, and does eventually become a journalist and an author. Decades later when she is 70 years old, years after the Bevel mansion has been made into a museum, Ida sees a notice that the personal papers and letters of Mildred Bevel are going to be put on display for the first time. Ida, always feeling like she'd never found the true Mildred in all of Andrew's edits, makes her way over to the mansion for the first time since Andrew's death. She's on the last of four boxes, searching and beginning to question whether Mildred ever even had a diary, when she comes upon it slipped inside an old ledger. She quickly slips it inside her own papers (yes, she steals it lol), because as it turns out, no one else has ever really been interested in finding out who the "real" Mildred was. 

Then, we get to Part four. This is all comprised of Mildred's diary. The notations begin when she is already at the sanatorium, but she is not mentally ill. She IS wracked with cancer and doesn't have very long to live. I'm not going into any more detail, because we finally hear in Mildred's words exactly  how the Bevel finances and household and social life and relationship truly were. In the midst of her every day entries of how she's feeling and what her treatments are for the day, we hear the anecdotes we've wanted to hear all along, and they are eye opening. :-) I really can't wait to see Kate Winslet portray who I'm sure will be both Helen and Mildred! 

Finished: The Latecomer (Korelitz) A very good book, that grew on me as I read it, because at the beginning, frankly, none of the characters were likable at all. I will never understand how brothers and sisters aren't close like I always have been with my own. This made three of the major characters very unappealing to me. However, by the end, and by the time the siblings grew the heck up, I'd say this was definitely a book that has enriched me and I'm so glad I read it. I don't have the wherewithal to give a good summary right now, so this will be one of those times that I totally cheat and use the Amazon summary. But, it's a really good summary. :-) 

"The Latecomer follows the story of the wealthy, New York City-based Oppenheimer family, from the first meeting of parents Salo and Johanna, under tragic circumstances, to their triplets born during the early days of IVF. As children, the three siblings – Harrison, Lewyn, and Sally – feel no strong familial bond and cannot wait to go their separate ways, even as their father becomes more distanced and their mother more desperate. When the triplets leave for college, Johanna, faced with being truly alone, makes the decision to have a fourth child. What role will the “latecomer” play in this fractured family?

A complex novel that builds slowly and deliberately, The Latecomer touches on the topics of grief and guilt, generational trauma, privilege and race, traditions and religion, and family dynamics. It is a profound and witty family story from an accomplished author, known for the depth of her character studies, expertly woven storylines, and plot twists."