#read99women: Michelle Gable

It may be the weekend, but #read99women is going strong seven days a week! Today’s guest is Michelle Gable, New York Times bestselling author of A PARIS APARTMENT, I'LL SEE YOU IN PARIS, THE BOOK OF SUMMER, and THE SUMMER I MET JACK.

Michelle grew up in San Diego and attended The College of William & Mary, where she majored in accounting, as most aspiring writers do. After a twenty-year career in finance, Michelle now writes full-time. She lives in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California, with her husband, two daughters, and what is quickly becoming a menagerie: one cat, one bunny, and a lab/jindo mix recently rescued from the dog meat trade in Thailand. 

Michelle can be reached at www.michellegable.com or on Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest at @MGableWriter.

Michelle Gable

Michelle’s recommendation is THE FIVE by Hallie Rubenhold, one of 2019’s most exciting nonfiction books — it’s the first full-length biography of Jack the Ripper’s five victims, painstakingly re-creating their stories from extensive research and shining a spotlight on the societal forces that drove these women to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Says Michelle, “The narrative has been that Jack the Ripper killed prostitutes, but this is an oversimplification, if not outright mistruth. His victims were those on the margins of society, women who it was simply easier to dismiss as ’prostitutes’ than look at them with any level of humanity.” Hallie Rubenhold tells their story “with great storytelling prowess and tremendous empathy.” 

Read Michelle’s full review on Goodreads here.

#read99women: Meg Waite Clayton

Today’s #read99women recommendation is a fun — and brief! — one. Some books, the less you know going in, the more you get to relish the surprise of getting blown away.

Our recommender is Meg Waite Clayton, a New York Times and USA Today bestseller and book club favorite and the author of seven novels. Her most recent, the international bestseller THE LAST TRAIN TO LONDON, is published or forthcoming in 19 languages. Her screenplay of the same story gained her recognition by the prestigious The Writers Lab, sponsored by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman to expand the diversity of narrative film.

Her prior books include the #1 Amazon fiction bestseller BEAUTIFUL EXILES; the Langum Prize honored THE RACE FOR PARIS; THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS, named one of Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time (on a list with The Three Musketeers!); and THE LANGUAGE OF LIGHT, a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. She has written for the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Runner’s World and public radio, often on the particular challenges women face. A member of the National Book Critics Circle, she has also written a monthly audiobook review for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Meg Waite Clayton

Meg’s recommendation is WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES by Karen Joy Fowler, and instead of providing a description, she says this: “Don't read anything about this amazing book before you read the book itself--not even the copy on the back of the book!”

Need a wee bit more? This novel was the first book by an American author ever shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and won the 2014 PEN/Faulkner. And Barbara Kingsolver called it "a novel so readably juicy and surreptitiously smart, it deserves all the attention it can get" -- praise Meg agrees with and so do I. (The audiobook is bonkers good.)

Find Meg’s recommendation on BookBub here or see more about her, her books, and other recommendations here.

#read99women: Melanie Benjamin

As most authors will tell you, inspiration can come from anywhere; the novel recommended by Melanie Benjamin for today’s #read99women was inspired by a photograph.

First, a little about Melanie, though if you’re a fan of historical fiction, she really needs no introduction:

Melanie Benjamin is the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling historical novels THE SWANS OF FIFTH AVENUE, about Truman Capote and his society swans, and THE AVIATOR’S WIFE, a novel about Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Her latest novel, MISTRESS OF THE RITZ, is a taut tale of suspense wrapped up in a love story for the ages, the inspiring story of a woman and a man who discover the best in each other amid the turbulence of war.

Her previous historical novels include the national bestseller ALICE I HAVE BEEN, about Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland; THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MRS. TOM THUMB, the story of 32-inch-tall Lavinia Warren Stratton, a star during the Gilded Age; and THE GIRLS IN THE PICTURE, about the friendship and creative partnership between two of Hollywood’s earliest female legends—screenwriter Frances Marion and superstar Mary Pickford. Her novels have been translated in over fifteen languages, featured in national magazines such as Good Housekeeping, People, and Entertainment Weekly, and optioned for film.

Melanie Benjamin; photo by Deborah Feingold

And now for Melanie’s #read99women recommendation: DELAYED RAYS OF A STAR by Amanda Lee Koe. Says Melanie, “This is a terrific historical novel that was inspired by a famous photograph of three iconic women, gathered together before any of them were truly famous: Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong and Leni Riefenstahl. The novel imagines this meeting at a party in Berlin in the 1930s, and then goes on to explore their fascinating lives after, and the ways they intersect again and again. It’s just a terrific book about women in the film industry – both in Hollywood and in Nazi Germany – and there are wonderful little character portraits of the less famous people whose lives are touched by these three. It’s bittersweet, moving, and insightful.”

(And see below: don’t these three look like they’ve got stories to tell?)

Click here for more on DELAYED RAYS OF A STAR, and here for more on Melanie and her books.  

Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

#read99women: Sonja Yoerg

In some of my (many, many) emails following up with fellow authors about their potential recommendations for #read99women, I joked that if I’d been thinking ahead, I would have titled my newest book differently. After all, this series is only #read99women because of the title WOMAN 99. If only I’d named it, say, WOMAN 33, I’d have so much less work to do!

(I have a spreadsheet for this project. A SPREADSHEET. Excel is a lot to ask of someone who spends the vast majority of her laptop time in Word.)

Anyway! The good news for you as readers is that the series will still be going strong through February… and March… and beyond.

And we’ve got SO many great authors lined up to recommend SO many great books.

Today’s guest is novelist Sonja Yoerg, who grew up in Stowe, Vermont, where she financed her college education by waitressing at the Trapp Family Lodge. She earned a Ph.D. in biological psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and wrote a nonfiction book about animal intelligence, CLEVER AS A FOX (Bloomsbury USA, 2001). Her novels include HOUSE BROKEN, MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE, ALL THE BEST PEOPLE, and TRUE PLACES. Her newest novel STORIES WE NEVER TOLD releases May 1. Sonja lives with her husband in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

Sonja Yoerg

Sonja recommends SUCH A FUN AGE by Kiley Reid. Sonja calls the story “fast-paced, warm-hearted, and touching.” Balancing a “breezy style” with “the story's serious themes of identity, race, privilege, and motherhood” is where this debut author shines. With praise from NPR, the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly and more, this novel’s getting a lot of attention, and it deserves yours, too.

Read the rest of Sonja’s recommendation on BookBub here.

And tune in tomorrow (and tomorrow, and tomorrow) for more #read99women recommendations!

#read99women: Karma Brown

Some writers get into a comfortable groove and follow it, writing a particular type of fiction they know their regular readers will be eager to read; some writers get seized by an idea outside of their usual genre and can’t help but follow it to see where it leads. Karma Brown is the latter. Her latest release, RECIPE FOR A PERFECT WIFE, is definitely a departure from her previous books, and it’s a slam-bang success of a detour, hitting Canadian bestseller lists and bringing home the gold medal of book reviews, a rave from the New York Times.

Karma has always loved the written word. As a kid she could usually be found with her face buried in a book, or writing stories about ice-skating elephants. Now that she’s (mostly) grown up, she’s the bestselling author of five novels, and her debut novel, COME AWAY WITH ME, was a Globe & Mail Best 100 Books of 2015.

A National Magazine Award winning journalist, Karma has been published in a variety of publications, including SELF, Redbook, Today’s Parent, Best Health, Canadian Living and Chatelaine. Karma lives just outside Toronto, Canada with her husband, daughter, and a labradoodle named Fred.

Karma Brown

And what book does Karma recommend for #read99women? “A story of motherhood, but not one of sweet lullabies... a book I read in one, breathless sitting.” THE NEED by Helen Phillips was one of the best-reviewed thrillers of 2019, making year-end lists at the New York Times, the Washington Post, O Magazine, NPR, and more. Read Karma’s full review here.

And tune in tomorrow for another #read99women recommendation!

#read99women: Julie Langsdorf

New York City, particularly Brooklyn, has an undeniable reputation as the best place for writers to live. But while Washington, DC may not have quite as many marquee names, I have to say, it’s got a wonderful writing community. The whole metro area is full of talented people writing across the full spectrum of genres—not to mention an insanely robust independent bookstore scene, the hives in which we writers act as busy bees. At places like One More Page, Kramerbooks, Solid State Books, Politics and Prose, and East City Books, I’ve been fortunate to get to know a wide variety of local writers. And that’s how I met Julie Langsdorf, whose sharp suburban satire WHITE ELEPHANT made a big splash last year in hardcover. The outpouring of critical praise included phrases like “smart, satiric fun” (Washington Post) and “entertainment at its best” (Shelf Awareness, starred review.) Now it’s out in paperback—today!

More about Julie: Julie Langsdorf’s short stories and essays have appeared in Poets & Writers, Lit Hub, and Electric Literature, among other publications. She has two children and lives in Washington, D.C.

Julie Langsdorf

For #read99women, Julie recommends SUITE FRANCAISE by Irene Nemerovsky, which she calls “a miracle of a book—two books, really, novellas about the Nazi invasion and occupation of France that were written at the time the events occurred. Nemirovsky herself was murdered in Auschwitz in 1942, the book published over sixty years later, when her daughter found it written in a leather notebook. It’s the only book I’ve ever read that puts the reader so immediately into France during wartime, puts you in the hearts and minds of those fleeing Paris, a sea of people desperate to survive. Her writing is luminous, the details photographic, as she shows humans at their best and their worst.”  

Read more about SUITE FRANCAISE on BookBub here.

For more on Julie and WHITE ELEPHANT, click here for julielangsdorf.com.

#read99women: Jess Montgomery

Life as an author has its ups and downs, but the benefits are undeniable. One of my favorite perks is getting to read awesome books long before they come out, often to evaluate whether we want to say nice things about the book that publishers can put on the cover as a blurb. That was how I got to read Jess Montgomery’s gorgeous historical mystery THE HOLLOWS several months ago, and the nice things I said included “genuinely mysterious and utterly satisfying.” You can see the blurb here on BookBub. And now you don’t need any special connections to read THE HOLLOWS — it’s available everywhere!

Jess Montgomery is the author of the Kinship Historical Mysteries, THE WIDOWS and THE HOLLOWS. Under her given name, she is a newspaper columnist, focusing on the literary life, authors and events of her native Dayton, Ohio for the Dayton Daily News. Her first novel in the Kinship Historical Mystery series garnered awards even before publication: Montgomery County (Ohio) Arts & Cultural District (MCAD) Artist Opportunity Grant (2018); Individual Excellence Award (2016) in Literary Arts from Ohio Arts Council; John E. Nance Writer in Residence at Thurber House (Columbus, Ohio) in 2014. 

Jess Montgomery

Jess’s recommendation for #read99women is PACHINKO by Min Jin Lee, which she’s been “recommending everywhere I go.” She recommends it for its strong emotional impact: “I found myself exclaiming out loud in reaction, and after one particular event (no spoilers here) I remained emotional about that event and the impact on the characters' lives for literal days.”

To read Jess’s complete review of Pachinko on BookBub, click here.

For more on Jess, her work, and other books she recommends, follow her on BookBub.

#read99women: Sally Koslow

One of the joys of putting together this #read99women series has been learning about books I hadn’t heard of before. And the reviews and recommendations make me eager to read every single one!

Today’s recommendation comes from Sally Koslow, author of the novels ANOTHER SIDE OF PARADISE, a historical novel about the shocking love affair of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sheilah Graham; the international bestseller THE LATE, LAMENTED MOLLY MARX; THE WIDOW WALTZ; WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE; and LITTLE PINK SLIPS. Her books have been published in a dozen countries.

Sally is the former editor-in-chief of McCall’s Magazine. She has taught at the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College and is on the faculty of the New York Writer’s Workshop. She has contributed essays and articles to The New York Times, O, Real Simple, and many other newspapers and magazines. She has lectured at Yale, Columbia, New York University, Wesleyan University, and University of Chicago, as well as many community and synagogue groups.

Sally Koslow

For #read99women, Sally recommends ON DIVISION by Goldie Goldbloom. She calls this novel “An edgy yet tender-hearted book… ON DIVISION illuminates the comforts and challenges of belonging to an ultra-Orthodox Chassidic sect, but in a larger way, this novel is a profound reflection on marriage and parenthood. Mazel tov, Goldie Goldbloom.”

Read her full review of ON DIVISION on Goodreads here.

For more about Sally and her books, visit sallykoslow.com.

#read99women: Kristy Woodson Harvey

Today’s #read99women rec comes from sweet Southerner Kristy Woodson Harvey, bestselling author with a genius eye for design.

Kristy Woodson Harvey is the bestselling author of DEAR CAROLINA, LIES AND OTHER ACTS OF LOVE, SLIGHTLY SOUTH OF SIMPLE, THE SECRET TO SOUTHERN CHARM, THE SOUTHERN SIDE OF PARADISE and the forthcoming FEELS LIKE FALLING. Kristy is the winner of the Lucy Bramlette Patterson Award for Excellence in Creative Writing, a finalist for the Southern Book Prize, her work has been optioned for film and her books have received numerous accolades including Southern Living’s Best Reads, Parade’s Most Anticipated Reads and Entertainment Weekly’s Reading Picks. She blogs with her mom Beth Woodson on her award-winning blog, Design Chic, about how creating a beautiful home can be the catalyst for creating a beautiful life. She lives with her husband and son in coastal North Carolina where she is working on her next novel.

Kristy Woodson Harvey

Kristy recommends the classic A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN in a great post on her blog where she reflects on how her relationship to the book has changed over time. “I think anyone who has read this book would agree that it’s Francie, Katie’s daughter’s, story,” she writes. “But, more and more, I am fascinated by Katie, by her steadfastness and steadiness, her inner strength, the way she knowingly chose to spend her life in hard work and strife and struggle to marry the love of her life.”

You can read Kristy’s full review of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn here.

And click here for more on Kristy and her books, including FEELS LIKE FALLING, coming April 28, 2020.

#read99women: Susan Meissner

Today’s guest for #read99women is one of my favorite people in historical fiction: Susan Meissner.

Susan Meissner is a USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction with more than half a million books in print [editor’s note: holy mackerel!] in fifteen languages. She is an author, speaker and writing workshop leader with a background in community journalism. Her novels include AS BRIGHT AS HEAVEN, starred review in Library Journal; SECRETS OF A CHARMED LIFE, a Goodreads finalist for Best Historical Fiction 2015; and A FALL OF MARIGOLDS, named to Booklist’s Top Ten Women’s Fiction titles for 2014. A California native, she attended Point Loma Nazarene University and is also a writing workshop volunteer for Words Alive, a San Diego non-profit dedicated to helping at-risk youth foster a love for reading and writing. Visit Susan at her website: http://susanlmeissner.com on Twitter at @SusanMeissner or at www.facebook.com/susan.meissner

Susan Meissner

Susan’s recommendation is a modern classic from a much-admired writer, LIFE AFTER LIFE by Kate Atkinson. As Susan puts it, “Any book that makes you stop and deeply ponder, ‘What if that could really happen, and what if happened to me?’ is a keeper.”

If that’s not quite enough to draw you in, here’s more: “Kate Atkinson’s brilliantly conceived LIFE AFTER LIFE, one of my all-time favorite books by a female writer, is the imagined life of Ursula Todd. She’s a girl who keeps having her life rebooted, almost as if she is being handed by Providence chance after chance after chance to alter the course of human history. Only the reader truly knows the full breadth of Ursula's multi-layered existence. And we’re not in control of anything either. We just know more than she does, and we cannot help her.”

(That last line just gave me chills. Chills!)

Read Susan’s full review of LIFE AFTER LIFE on BookBub here.

To read more of Susan’s recommendations and check out her wonderful books, including her most recent release THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR (coming to paperback in April 2020), click to see her author page on BookBub.