740 PARK by Michael Gross

It's a bright, bright, sun-shiney day!






Some books I've read recently:

740 PARK by Michael Gross is the history of the world's richest apartment building built by the maternal grandfather of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. It is an address that has involved the elite in finance and society, thus the establishment of eastern society and international business. Quite a history of the rise and fall of many of the first millionaires in America also provides insight to the domestic lives of families such as the Rockerfellers, Mellons, Bouviers, and a cast of thousands!

A description that caught my attention illustrates the PC demands of today's world. When William Randolph Hearst was campaigning for New York mayor, he referred to opponents as "servile lickspitters, rats, cockroaches, and vulgar fatheads". Can you imagine that as normal fare in today's 24-hour news cycle?!

I was left with a sense of the emptiness of extreme wealth, the climb for power, and ostentatious living that led to divorces, family alienation, financial ruin, and unlawful behaviors.

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THEN SHE FOUND ME by Elinor Lipman provides intriguing character studies with fantastic writing about a mother locating her adult daughter who doesn't want to know her biological mother. Despite the heavy tone of that premise, this is an extraordinary book full of surprise twists and turns with a fair dose of humor. How these women come to terms with one another and the roles of peripheral characters help to make the story one to enjoy and remember.
***********************Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. ---Groucho Marx