Julie's Review: Another Side of Paradise

Author: Sally Koslow
Series: None
Publication Date: April 24, 2018
Publisher: Harper
Pages: 352
Obtained: publisher
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: A look into one of F Scott Fitzgerald's many loves
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: In 1937 Hollywood, gossip columnist Sheilah Graham’s star is on the rise, while literary wonder boy F. Scott Fitzgerald’s career is slowly drowning in booze. But the once-famous author, desperate to make money penning scripts for the silver screen, is charismatic enough to attract the gorgeous Miss Graham, a woman who exposes the secrets of others while carefully guarding her own. Like Fitzgerald’s hero Jay Gatsby, Graham has meticulously constructed a life far removed from the poverty of her childhood in London’s slums. And like Gatsby, the onetime guttersnipe learned early how to use her charms to become a hardworking success; she is feted and feared by both the movie studios and their luminaries. A notorious drunk famously married to the doomed Zelda, Fitzgerald fell hard for his “Shielah” (he never learned to spell her name), a shrewd yet softhearted woman—both a fool for love and nobody’s fool—who would stay with him and help revive his career until his tragic death three years later. Working from Sheilah’s memoirs, interviews, and letters, Sally Koslow revisits their scandalous love affair and Graham’s dramatic transformation in London, bringing Graham and Fitzgerald gloriously to life with the color, glitter, magic, and passion of 1930s Hollywood. ~amazon.com

Review:  While this novel is about the love affair between Sheilah and F. Scott, for me Sheilah's backstory is the most interesting part of the novel. At this time, F. Scott was a washed up writer trying to become a screenwriter in Hollywood but even that isn't going well for him. By the end of this book I took pity on F. Scott Fitzgerald because he really wasn't going to make a huge comeback.

As I said, this story was really about Ms. Graham. It was about how her past shaped her and how her relationship with Scott might have been the first time she was truly in love. He also taught her to believe in herself and with his guidance she educated herself by reading books she had never experienced previously.

I really enjoyed Sheilah and her story. She has reinvented herself for gain and because she had to get out of where she grew up. Ms. Koslow did right by Sheilah by telling her side of the story and giving her a voice.
 

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Julie's Reviews: The Widow Waltz

Summary: Georgia Waltz has things many people only dream of: a plush Manhattan apartment overlooking Central Park, a Hamptons beach house, valuable jewels and art, two bright daughters, and a husband she adores, even after decades of marriage. Its only when Ben suddenly drops dead from a massive coronary while training for the New York City Marathon that Georgia discovers her husband—a successful lawyer—has left them nearly penniless. Their wonderland was built on lies. As the family attorney scours emptied bank accounts, Georgia must not only look for a way to support her family, she needs to face the revelation that Ben was not the perfect husband he appeared to be, just as her daughters—now ensconced back at home with secrets of their own—have to accept that they may not be returning to their lives in Paris and at Stanford subsidized by the Bank of Mom and Dad. As she uncovers hidden resilience, Georgias sudden midlife shift forces her to consider who she is and what she truly values. That Georgia may also find new love in the land of Spanx and stretch marks surprises everyone—most of all, her.  Sally Koslows fourth novel is deftly told through the alternating viewpoints of her remarkable female protagonists as they plumb for the grit required to reinvent their lives. Inspiring, funny, and deeply satisfying, The Widow Waltz explores in a profound way the bonds between mothers and daughters, belligerent siblings, skittish lovers, and bitter rivals as they discover the power of forgiveness, and healing, all while asking, “What is family, really?” ~powells.com

Review: The Widow Waltz is a deftly written story about a women who loses her husband to a heart attack and begins to uncover things she didn't know about him. Along with trying to find out where all their money went, Georgia Waltz, needs to also try to help her adult daughters find themselves.

The Widow Waltz is a great examination of family, loss, love and rebirth. Do we really need things to make us happy? What if we suddenly couldn't have the same lifestyle; what would we change? Not only that but you are dealing with the emotions of losing your husband suddenly. Then you get the news that you only have $38,000 in your bank account when you were expecting much more. How would you handle that? Crawl in a corner and cry, get angry or resolve to figure it out. Georgia does the last.

At times, the story did waiver. I just wanted Georgia to figure it all out and get on with her life. She does slowly figure it out and gets on with her life. While I might have hoped for a bit of a different ending, I was pleased to know that all the Silver-Waltz girls end up happy in the end.

Ms. Koslow has a way of taking a situation and writing a great novel around it. It is always infused with humor, wit and heart. The Widow Waltz is no different. If you are looking for a quick weekend or summer read, then this book will fit the bill.
Final Take: 4/5

Thanks to the author who sent me a copy of the book for reading and reviewing.



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Julie's Review: With Friends Like These

Summary: Koslow (The Late, Lamented Molly Marx) lifts a potentially trite story of friendship to a knowing, sharp-edged chronicle of ambition and acceptance that's smart, raw, and achingly real. Chloe, married to a Wall Street striver, and Talia, hitched to a teacher with a trust fund, share a copy-writing job while raising preschool boys. Ambition drives them apart, and devotion to each other, to their kids, to their less-than-perfect husbands--brings them back. Quincy and Jules, the childless women in the quadrangle of friends, are the cool ones until New York real estate comes between them. These imperious women are a handful by themselves, but a solid cast of husbands and lovers hold their own: Arthur, the oddball middle-aged lothario who adores Jules; Tom, the trust-fund scion who prefers to remain safely ensconced in an educational ivory tower while letting Talia get down and dirty in the real world; Xander, the ruthless hedge fund hotshot married to beautiful but insecure Chloe; and Jake, the anchor of Quincy's stormy life. Koslow packs a trove of wit and wisdom into a slick pink package. ~amazon.com

Review: I always thought that female friendships would get easier as I got older but I've found that not necessarily to be the case. As women get married, have kids and life gets hectic, friendships fall through the cracks. With Friends Like These addresses these issues and more. Do female friendships always have to be so complicated? Sally Koslow explores this through Jules, Chloe, Talia and Quincy. For me any character who's name is Julie or Julia and prefers to be called "Jules" comes off a bit self-important. (It's one thing to have it as a nickname.)She was definitely my least favorite character and the story I didn't identify with at all. I will say that Ms. Koslow does a good job of making Jules grow over the course the novel. My favorite two friends were Talia and Quincy. I could identify with both of these ladies for different reasons. I liked Talia because she felt like she needed to be the breadwinner because of her husband's career and felt the pressure of "keeping up with the Jones'". In trying to do something for herself and her family, she ended up damaging her friendship with Chloe.

Quincy and Jules have their own issues. You see Quincy and her husband, Jake have been looking for the perfect condo/apartment in NYC for a while and they've finally found it. The problem is that Quincy trusted Jules and Jules swept the apartment out from underneath them.

These two rifts start to drive the foursome apart but as some friendships falter, others become closer. These women start to grow up and become secure in themselves, who they are and the choices they have made. Sometimes growing up means growing apart.

Women's friendships are complicated. I've always said that I think sometimes friends are in your life for a period of time to teach you something about life and yourself. Not all friendships are lifelong. I think this is hard for women to grasp since it is drilled in our head through books, movies and other media when we are younger that friendship are life long. Life is long and people change, sometimes friendships suffer from those changes.

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of With Friends Like These through Library Thing's Early Reviewers.


This book is on sale on August 10, 2010


Final Take: 4/5

Julie's Review: The Late, Lamented Molly Marx

Summary: Molly Divine Marx is dead. No one is quite sure how—murder, suicide, tragic accident?—and even Molly's own recollection doesn't explain much. Narrating this charming novel from an afterlife limbo known as the Duration, Molly follows the investigation of her death while keeping tabs on the living she left behind. Nearly everyone is a suspect: Barry, Molly's philandering plastic surgeon husband; Kitty, her controlling mother-in-law; Luke, Molly's lover; and the cabal of wifely hopefuls who line up for a shot at Barry before Molly's casket is safely in the ground. Longtime magazine editor Koslow (Little Pink Slips) knows her way around expertly tuned phrasing, and Molly is a delightful gem of a heroine. Equal parts self-deprecating, wry and sassy, Molly is honest about her faults and easily forgiving of the others' as she reviews her life with a hearty dose of honesty and humor. Though the anticipated delicious revelation doesn't quite live up to expectations, the narrative's heavy dose of hilarity and heartbreak will win readers over. -amazon.com

Review: I received this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers but it is something I probably would have picked up off the bookshelf and bought. The book was good not great but still entertaining. I liked Molly. In fact most of the characters in the book are likeable, even her smuck of a husband Barry. The problem with Molly is that she's dead and no one knows how or perhaps why. The Late, Lamented Molly Marx: A Novel is a chick lit book tied into a mystery and it works well. It actually comes off better than Jennifer Weiner's Goodnight Nobody: A Novel. We see Molly's loved ones and not so loved ones after her death as does Molly because she's in the Duration and can flit about in their lives and even hear their thoughts.

I think I identified with Molly for a few reasons 1) We are about the same age 2) Our daughters are the same age and 3) she hails from Chicago! I loved that part of the book and it's probably why it got bummed up in my rating. She's in a suburb that I used to work in and mentions a place that is so locally famous that I was shocked it was in the book. I wonder if Ms. Koslow is from this area?

There is no real resolution to what happened to Molly and I was disappointed in that part of the book. I felt that I took all this time to get to know her and was left with nothing but more questions. As for Molly, she seemed ok with this ending to her saga and maybe the point is that some things in life and in death are just not worth fretting about. The ending of the book did choke me up but didn't cause me to cry many tears.

Other than Molly, I adored Brie and I'm glad she really was a true-blue friend to Molly. You never know where authors are going to take you in books like these, like if she was a "wolf in sheeps clothing" or really a true friend. I also liked Detective Hicks. He seemed like a good person and a solid cop.

All in all, it's a good summer read. Something you can enjoy and then put away.

Final Take: 3.75/5