When Jen asked, “What are you reading this summer, Mom?”  I hesitated before saying, “Well, I just read Janice Hadlow’s THE OTHER BENNET SISTER.”  She picked right up on that hesitation—“Didn’t you like it?”  Actually I did like it, but did I like it because I’ve read SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, EMMA and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE so many times?  Hadlow has some of Austen’s sensibility—and her treatment of Mary Bennet is quite good.  She develops Mary from the embarrassed piano player we see in P and P to … [Read more...] about The Other Bennet Sister (Plus more of Madge’s Picks)

I am so taken with this book that I just ordered one copy for each person in my immediate and extended family and am inviting them to a book discussion. The author Maria Konnikova had never even played poker when she decided to enlist the help of one of the world’s premiere poker players, Erik Seidel, to teach her the art of the game. A Harvard PhD in psychology, Maria had a stretch of personal bad luck, and her reflections on the role of chance in life had led to her interest in poker—in … [Read more...] about The Biggest Bluff

After seeing Hamilton in New York, I poured over the making of the musical in this gorgeous book detailing the play’s creation, from its inception to blockbuster, from Lin-Manuel Miranda lounging on a pool floaty thing while reading Ron Chernow’s tome entitled Hamilton on vacation one summer to creating a once-in-a-lifetime Broadway musical of now mythical proportions. I mean, I’m trying to wrap my head around reading Chernow’s 700 page book and going, “Oh, yeah, I’m going to turn Hamilton … [Read more...] about Hamilton the Revolution

What if Hillary hadn’t married Bill? How would her life have been different? Would she ever have been elected president? That’s what this re-imagining of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s life explores in Curtis Sittenfeld’s clever and entertaining novel about a Hillary that falls in love with  charismatic, brilliant (philandering), handsome Bill Clinton but doesn’t marry him. Imagine that! … [Read more...] about Rodham