The Bolter --
She was irresistible. She inspired fiction, fantasy, legend, and art.
Some say she was “the Bolter” of Nancy Mitford’s novel The Pursuit of Love. She “played” Iris Storm in Michael Arlen’s celebrated novel about fashionable London’s lost generation, The Green Hat, and Greta Garbo played her in A Woman of Affairs, the movie made from Arlen’s book. She was painted by Orpen; photographed by Beaton; she was the model for Molyneaux’s slinky wraparound dresses that became the look fo the age—the Jazz Age.
Though not conventionally beautiful (she had a “shot-away chin”), Idina Sackville dazzled men and women alike, and made a habit of marrying whenever she fell in love—five husbands in all and lovers without number.
Hers was the age of bolters, and Idina was the most celebrated of them all.
Her father was the eighth Earl De La Warr. In a society that valued the antiquity of families and their money, hers was as old as a British family could be (eight hundred years earlier they had followed William the Conqueror from Normandy and been given enough land to live on forever . . . another ancestor, Lord De La Warr, rescued the starving Jamestown colonists in 1610, became governor of Virginia, and gave his name to the state of Delaware). Her mother’s money came from “trade”; Idina’s maternal grandfather had employed more men (85,000) than the British army and built one third of the world’s railroads.
Idina’s first husband was a dazzling cavalry officer, one of the youngest, richest, and best-looking of the available bachelors, with “two million in cash.” They had a seven-story pied-à-terre on Connaught Place overlooking Marble Arch and Hyde Park, as well as three estates in Scotland. Idina had everything in place for a magnificent life, until the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand caused the newlyweds’ world—the world they’d assumed would last forever—to collapse in less than a year.
Like Mitford’s Bolter, young Idina Sackville left her husband and children. But in truth it was her husband who wrecked their marriage, making Idina more a boltee than a bolter. Soon she found a lover of her own—the first of many—and plunged into a Jazz Age haze of morphine. She became a full-blown flapper, driving about London in her Hispano-Suiza, and pusing the boundaries of behavior to the breaking point. British society amy have adored eccentrics whose differences celebrated the values they cherished, but it did not embrace those who upset the order of things. And in 1918, just after the Armistice was signed, Idina Sackville bolted from her life in England and, setting out with her second husband, headed for Mombasa, in search of new adventure.
Frances Osborne deftly tells the tale of her great-grandmother using Idina’s never-before-seen letters; the diaries of Idina’s first husband, Euan Wallace; and stories from family members. Osborne follows Idina from the champagne breakfasts and thé dansants of lost-generation England to the foothills of Kenya’s Aberdare moutnains and the wild abandon of her role in Kenya’s disintegration postwar upper-class life. A parade of lovers, a murdered husband, chaos everywhere—as her madcap world of excess darkened and crumbled around her.
Wiggens Learns His Manners at the Four Seasons Restaurant
-- Wiggens is a Chocolate Labrador puppy who just can’t seem to mind his manners. His parents don’t know what to do, until they discover a place that teaches puppies all about refinement and how to behave — the famous Four Seasons Restaurant! Wiggens is nervous at first, but with the help of a Saint Bernard, he and the other puppies soon learn ten important lessons (and sample delicious food as well). Leslie McGuirk’s playful art and language enliven tips from Four Seasons owner Alex von Bidder in a truly fetching tale about mastering your manners.
-- Against the backdrop of the leadup to the French Revolution, Delors's mostly successful debut follows the life of Gabrielle de Montserrat, a feisty young woman forced by her meddling brother to forsake her commoner true love and marry the Baron de Peyre, a wealthy, older man. The baron is abusive and cruel, but the short-lived marriage produces a daughter before the baron dies. A widowed Gabrielle travels to Paris and enters the heady world of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, where, with a sparse inheritance and the responsibility of a young daughter, Gabrielle becomes the mistress of Count de Villers. Delors shines in her portrayal of the late 18th-century French women's world (she has a rougher time with the men), though the amount of political-historical detail covered overshadows the tragic love story that develops once Gabrielle reunites with her first love, Pierre-André Coffinhal, who is now a lawyer. The appearance of historical figures sometimes comes off awkwardly (as when Gabrielle meets Thomas Jefferson or has a private audience with Robespierre), and the ending is marred by a too-convenient and seemingly tossed-off twist. Nevertheless, the author ably captures the vagaries of French politics during turbulent times and creates a world inhabited by nicely developed and sympathetic characters.
-- Johnson's bittersweet and often humorous hen-lit debut portrays the lives of five very different Southern women: compassionate Lorraine, bossy Margaret, grief-stricken Bernice, ambitious April and brusque Rhonda. At the center of this character-driven novel is Lorraine, a nurse at the nursing home where Margaret and Bernice live. As the three women drift into friendship, hairdresser Rhonda arrives to take a part-time job, and the older women begin to change her life. Lorraine's daughter, April, meanwhile, is also gradually drawn into the circle. The story unfolds slowly over decades and life milestones, giving the characters plenty of time to reveal themselves. The underlying message of the power of love and friendship resonates, as does its depiction of the way in which people leading unremarkable lives can have a tremendous impact on those around them. 
-- Denham’s novel, written entirely in e-mails, began as a serialized Web site, www.hollysinbox.com. The story revolves around Holly Denham, the new receptionist at a London bank, and through her correspondence, readers get to know her daily life. She befriends Trish, the other receptionist, and begins a relationship with James, a charming higher-up. Between organizing meetings at the bank, she trades hilarious, risqué e-mails with her friends Jason and Aisha, assures her parents she’s getting along well, helps her grandmother decipher the Internet, and offers her siblings much-needed advice. Her e-mails even reveal a life-altering event from her past. While the premise can be tiresome—who doesn’t have to slog through enough e-mails of their own?—the story becomes more engrossing as fresh details come to light. The author, a placement-agency owner writing under a pen name, explores a new format with compelling results. A second novel is planned, and Holly’s adventures continue online.
-- A reunion of four friends becomes a cathartic journey into the past in Cathy Holton’s luminous new novel.
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-- Twenty-seven years ago, an infant turned up on the Academy's doorstep, with a note tacked to her blanket by an elegant golden brooch -- Please take care of my baby. I want her to grow up to be a proper lady. Loved by Lady Frances Phillimore and her kindhearted staff, Betsy grew up aspiring to be an Academy girl. But when Franny and her husband, Lord Phillimore, advise Betsy to instead hone her considerable math skills at college, she brokenheartedly leaves behind the only family she's known.
-- One boy's quest for a greener world... one garden at a time.
--Introducing feminist chick lit in the form of first-time novelist Sullivan’s diverting parody of life at Smith College. When Sally, Bree, April, and Celia meet during first-year orientation, they quickly bond as they navigate the tricky rules of their new home: no “girl-on-girl” showers before 10 a.m.; no meat in the dining hall unless it has a vegan sidekick; no (well, some) clothes during the opening convocation ceremony. As best friends, all their glories and foibles come to light, including Sally’s lurid affair with an aging professor and Bree’s switch from straight to gay despite her family’s frowning disapproval. All postcollege transitions are also captured, from one-night stands to grad schools, first jobs and first homes, a wedding and a baby. When April, the radical in the group, begins to work with her idol, a “divisive” feminist known for extreme tactics, a secondary plot about human trafficking emerges, switching the mood from nostalgia to suspense. Sullivan’s debut crackles with intelligent observations about the inner sanctum of the all-women’s elite (yet scholarship-laden) college life. 
-- After years of wandering from whim to whim, thirty-year-old Charlotte Wheelwright seems to have at last found her niche. The free spirit enjoys running an organic gardening business on the island of Nantucket, thanks in large part to her spry grandmother Nona, who donated a portion of land on the family’s seaside compound to get Charlotte started. Though Charlotte’s skill with plants is bringing her success, cultivating something deeper with people—particularly her handsome neighbor Coop—might be more of a challenge.
-- This satirical look at the entertainment industry follows an anxious actor and his put-upon wife during pilot season. Mitch Gold’s show, Molar Opposites, gets canceled, throwing him back into the large pool of actors seeking work for the new television season. Mitch doesn’t possess the matinee-idol looks that help an actor land lead roles, so he is forced to compete for supporting parts and finds himself up against his nemesis, Willie Dermot, who always seems to be just a slightly better fit for the roles Mitch wants. Meanwhile, Mitch’s wife, June, a poetry professor at UCLA hoping to get tenure, is under pressure to keep up with the fashionable, judgmental ubermoms at their daughter’s preschool. When a handsome, charming producer named Rich pursues June, she falls into a passionate affair and starts to wonder if life with Rich might make her happier. Anyone longing for a real look at the day-to-day business of Hollywood—from auditions to set—will find it in Steinhauer and Hendra’s piercing, funny send-up of Tinseltown.
-- Kayla, Antoinette, and Val are a trio whose unlikely friendship was formed 20 years ago when they each rented a room in the same house. Val and Kayla were fast friends, but, despite Kayla's persistence, Antoinette kept her distance--until one night when her desire for a midnight swim inaugurated an annual ritual and cemented their bond. On a remote point on the island of Nantucket, the three women spend one night each Labor Day weekend drinking champagne, eating lobster, skinny-dipping, and baring their souls. One of the secrets revealed during their twentieth get-together launches a chain of events that changes them all forever. Antoinette swims out to sea and never returns, and as they search for her, wondering if she is alive, a complex web of deceptions (both intentional and unintended) begins to unravel. Though the characters' thoughts and actions seem at times a bit unrealistic, the novel is fast paced and suspenseful enough to keep readers interested. 
-- A Canadian in 1987 goes to Texas and gets crushingly corrupted in Martin's sexy, funny and devastating debut. Bobby Clark is 16 when he leaves a dead-end setup with his single mother and grass-is-greener girlfriend, Wendy, and heads to Fort Worth to get into the fine jewelry business under the stewardship of his salesman brother, Jim. In no time, Bobby and Jim are snorting lines, Bobby's moving in on (and smoking crank with) Jim's mistress, Lisa, and getting a crash course in amazingly crooked business. Scams, bait-and-switch deals, bogus jewelry and startling treachery are day-to-day at the jewelry store, until the store's gregarious owner gets into trouble at the same time Bobby tries to save Lisa from a massive flame-out. Years later, Bobby's back in Fort Worth, married to Wendy (and with a child) and still in the jewelry business with Jim when Lisa reappears, engaged in an equally questionable if older profession. Bobby's helplessly honest narration is a sublime counterpoint to the crooked doings he's complicit in. Reading this is like watching one man's American dream turn into a soul-sucking nightmare. 
-- When the latest victim of the "Beltway Basher" is found in the woods of Montrose Park, Reven Lynch's favorite jogging spot, her crime-loving antenna goes up. The murder makes Reven and her best friend, Violet Bolton, reconsider their running route—but that's not the only change in Reven's routine. Her chic Georgetown neighborhood isn't accustomed to brutal slayings, and when the smooth, enigmatic Detective Gunner shows up in her antique shop, asking pointed questions, Reven's left wondering how close to home the killings are.
is another fun and fearless adventure that will take Green’s many fans from laughter to tears and back again. The novel is set in the beach community of a tony Connecticut town. Our heroine is a single mom who works for a famous—and famously reclusive—novelist. When she stumbles on a secret that the great man has kept hidden for years, she knows that there are plenty of women in town who would love to get their hands on it—including some who fancy the writer for themselves. Dune Road is the story of life in an exclusive beach town after the tourists have left for the summer and the eccentric (and moneyed) community sticks around. 
-- Whether a lilac damask sheath trimmed in marabou, vintage Dior New Look with a nipped waist, a mini constructed of silver metallic plastic discs À la Paco Rabanne, or a streamlined black wool bouclÉ number, the cocktail dress is an item of fancy, personal expression, the life of the party—and has been ever since its emergence in the 1920s.
-- After her boss in a high-powered Washington public relations firm is caught in a political scandal, fledgling lobbyist Dempsey Jo Killebrew is left almost broke, unemployed, and homeless. Out of options, she reluctantly accepts her father's offer to help refurbish Birdsong, the old family place he recently inherited in Guthrie, Georgia. All it will take, he tells her, is a little paint and some TLC to turn the fading Victorian mansion into a real-estate cash cow.
--- Authors Tennenbaum and Zapata (
) leave no stone unturned in their gorgeous, comprehensive history of botanical motifs in jewelry from the Victorian period to the present. The relatively narrow focus of the book allows the authors room to treat their topic in depth, spotlighting every aspect of the oeuvre in a manner rarely seen in books for laypersons. Chapters cover different time periods and movements (naturalism, exoticism, Art Deco), relying on a conventional structure: a few paragraphs of background information give way to detailed descriptions of the pieces. The text complements the jewelry in precision, if not in whimsy or beauty. Aimed at cognoscenti of the gem and jewelry world, the text slows down only slightly when introducing more rarified vocabulary: "Enameling ... not only added color to a piece of jewelry but, with the further development of plique-à-jour, its see-through appearance replaced large sections of metal, creating a gossamer look." With photographs this captivating, readers will not be disappointed.
-- My shoes are not fashion, they are gestures. So says Blahnik in a book that lays out his designs as brightly colored whimsies, sketches deftly convey the essences of his creations. Drawings show shoes alone or with a hint of foot and leg, and yet there is so much energy and color in the 134 illustrations (125 in color) that they seem to wink and pirouette off the page. As designs, the shoes are salacious cartoons of themselves, curvy and heeled, bejeweled and shimmery. Celeb quotes, interspersed throughout, heighten the spiraling sense of posturing and play. Madonna says, they are as good as sex... and they last longer. You just put on your Manolos and you automatically find yourself saying 'Hi sailor' to every man that walks by, says Joan Rivers. Naomi Campbell calls the man the godfather of sole. Paloma Picasso, Isaac Mizrahi, Bianca Jagger also check in, and there are introductory essays by Vogue titans Anna Wintour, AndrE Leon Talley and Anna Piaggi, as well as by Michael Roberts of the New Yorker. The tasteful layout defers to Blahnik's work, with minimalist gray text alongside the circusy colors, and Blahnik's fabulous cursive descriptions. Divided by decade, from the 1970s to the 2000s, the collection is diverse and fun, and as documentary as a museum catalogue. It should appeal to any fashionista or design aficionado anyone with a sense of shoes as art. 
-- The title of the fifth book from Lebovitz, celebrated pastry chef and Chez Panisse alum, is a bit of a misnomer: this feisty memoir-with-recipes is just as tart as it is sweet. Writing with the same cheeky tone that has made his blog one of the most popular food sites on the Internet, Lebovitz presents an eclectic collection of vignettes illustrating his experiences living as an expatriate in Paris. After reading accounts of perpetually out-of-service public toilets and hospitals that require patients to BYOB (bring your own bandages), one begins to question what, exactly, Lebovitz finds so intoxicating about the City of Lights. It certainly isn't something in the water, but it just might be in le chocolat chaud. With this book, for the first time Lebovitz expands beyond his standard repertoire of desserts and includes a smattering of savory recipes. These range from such classic French dishes as a warm goat cheese salad to nostalgic American favorites like oven-roasted pork ribs with ketchup marinade. This is not to say Lebovitz's legions of sweet-toothed fans will be disappointed—many of the 50 recipes are made with plenty of butter and sugar; a flawless rendition of dulce de leche brownies is sure to become the home baker's equivalent of that très chic little black dress, returned to again and again.
--- From the publisher: A vibrant story of female friendship and midlife sexual awakening from the acclaimed author of 
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