Best Books of 2025 – Chapter 4

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed Renee Rosen’s book Let’s Call Her Barbie, I gave Park Avenue Summer, another of her books, a closer look when it came up on my BookBub feed.  Reading the brief blurb, it told a story I had never heard of and since I love historical fiction, I thought I would give it a try.  Obviously, I did like it very much as it made my “Best of” list.

This book tells the factual story of Helen Gurley Brown who took over the editorship of Cosmopolitan magazine in 1965 when its owner, the Hearst organization, was considering killing the magazine.  I had never heard her name before and maybe you haven’t either.   But prior to this new role, she had published, for its time, a highly scandalous book, Sex and the Single Girl.  Today we would not even think twice about that title.

Set in New York City, the story of those early months of Helen struggling against Hearst management to transform the magazine from an almost Good Housekeeping-like periodical into what we know it as today is told through the eyes of a female protagonist.  Alice is a young aspiring photographer from a small town in Ohio who lands the unlikely job as Helen’s secretary at a time when many staff are leaving because Helen has been made head of the magazine.  Although Alice is a fictional character, the events that take place during that summer are factual and it gives us, the reader, an almost fly-on-the-wall inside perspective of these private and often closed-door events.  Over that summer, Alice quickly becomes a key supporter of Helen, but at the same time tries to pursue her dream of getting into photography with a little romantic twist thrown in.

While I had not known of this author prior to reading the Barbie book, now that I had read two of hers, I will definitely explore other books she has written as I like how she tells the story.

I think I am a sucker for Titanic stories, both fiction and non-fiction.  I don’t know what it is that intrigues so many about the Titanic, but I too I have a fascination for lore of the Titanic.  So, when this book by Frances Quinn came up on my BookBub feed, I immediately purchased it.

Our heroine Elinor comes from money but ends up marrying above her station to an English aristocrat. Only it’s not the marriage she anticipated.  After providing an heir to the 600-year-old estate, her life becomes even more miserable as she rarely gets to see her son while he is being groomed to become the next head of the estate.

Then her wealthy father presents her with tickets for her small family on the maiden voyage of the Titanic which she realizes will give her a nearly three-week reprieve from the agony and unlimited time with her young son.  Of course, things don’t turn out like planned.  After being rescued, Elinor realizes she can take the identity of a fellow passenger lost to the sea and start a new life in America.

With all the business savvy and courage she learned from her father, she starts that new life in spite of being totally unqualified for her work and all seems well for a couple of years until an unexpected event threatens to derail her future plans.

I found myself cheering Elinor on as I read and once, I came to the conclusion of the book, I was most glad I had purchased it adding one more very enjoyable read to my list of Titanic stories.

Ever since my very first visit to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, I have been enamored with Vincent’s modern art paintings.  Housing the world’s largest single collection of his paintings, my many trips there have brought me an extreme familiarity with his art.  In 2016, I read an almost 1,000-page biography of him that gave me very helpful insights into many of his famous paintings and an even greater appreciation for them.  So, I was delighted to discover this new historical fiction novel not of him, nor his brother Theo, but of Theo’s wife, Jo.

Saving Vincent: The Story of Jo Van Gogh by Joan Fernandez tells the amazing and little-known story of the critical role she played in bringing awareness of his artwork.

Today, no one would question the immense beauty and priceless value of his work but at the time of his death, impressionist art was quite controversial and not widely accepted.  Vincent’s brother Theo, an art dealer, worked diligently but with little success to sell Vincent’s work and with Theo dying just six months after Vincent, could not in his lifetime bring the fame to Vincent he so well deserved, and we know so well today.  So, how did it occur?

At a time when art dealers were exclusively male, and women rarely operated in the business world, Jo broke the mold in her attempts at showing and selling his paintings.  While successfully managing a boarding house and taking care of her young son, she worked tirelessly to bring Vincent the fame and credit he deserved.  Refusing to lower her prices even though Vincent was an unknown artist and with dogged determination, she brought awareness to the world of the art of her deceased brother-in-law.  Had she not played this crucial role, his art likely would have languished in attics for years maybe never to see the light of day.  We owe a huge debt of deep gratitude to Jo for getting his artwork out into the world and this book tells it in a most interesting way.

I have been a fan of Harlan Coben for many years and have read and thoroughly enjoyed just about every one of his novels.  So, when this book came up on my daily BookBub feed, I had to check to make sure I had not read it before.  I was surprised to find I had not and so purchased it.  Turns out, this was his very first book published back in 1990.

It is a story of love and death involving an NBA basketball player and his wife’s family.  In fact, the book opens on a college campus with the first death in 1960 and then jumps to the current timeline in 1989.  As the story proceeds along multiple paths, the plot becomes more complex and deadly.

I found that I could not put this book down having to force myself to stop reading multiple times.  It had many plot twists for which Coben is so well known.  As the story progresses, the reader is exposed to multiple clues that even the characters are unaware of.  And then at the climax of the story, well to say more would be a spoiler.  Trust me, if you have enjoyed my Coben recommendations before, you will not want to miss this one as well.

     To be continued…