All this month we’re featuring a selection of fantastic summer reading selected by the experts at O: The Oprah Magazine. See more topics here.
Givenchy gowns. Penthouse apartments. Black Escalades. Private jets. The trappings of the 1 percent may seem as enticing as they are elusive, but is there something corrosive about überwealth? This mélange of titles (five novels and a memoir) look beneath the sheen of affluence to lay bare its not-so-appealing side–say, Park Avenue as prison, or a Dickensian alternate reality perfectly drawn for our status-obsessed era–and underscore the truth that in the end, mortality gets us all.
Smoke by Dan Vyleta (Doubleday)
If Bernie Sanders wrote a Victorian thriller, it might read something like this—a stunningly inventive social novel in which your economic class is revealed not by the car you drive or the school your kids attend, but by whether your body emits smoke when you think an impure thought. The poor are covered in soot, while the rich remain clean even when they think dirty—proof that the aristocracy has a divine right to rule. Or so it seems, until three teenagers risk their lives to expose the gritty truth. Start Reading Now on B&N Readouts.
Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty by Ramona Ausubel (Riverhead)
In 1976, amid the cloistered estates of Martha’s Vineyard, an idyllic vacation is cut short when a couple learns that the trust fund they’ve been living off of is kaput. Ausubel’s timely, sophisticated tale explores what happens when a charmed life loses its luster. Start Reading Now on B&N Readouts.
This is Not My Beautiful Life by Victoria Fedden (Picador)
The author was nine months’ pregnant when the feds raided her parents’ home and arrested her mother for fraud. A scandalously funny memoir about starting a new family while taking care of the felonious one you’ve already got. Start Reading Now on B&N Readouts.
We Could Be Beautiful by Swan Huntley (Doubleday)
A novel that is deeper than its heiress-meets-man-of-her-dreams setup. The reason: Huntley’s uncanny ability to detect the fault lines in Manhattan’s glitterati as if flaws in a precious diamond—and make us laugh about them. Start Reading Now on B&N Readouts.
Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam (Ecco)
Sarah, daughter of socialites, is rich. Career-driven Lauren is—you guessed it—pretty. Their sisterlike friendship is put to the test when one gets married and becomes a stay-at-home mom while the other remains in the fray. Can they find a new way of fitting together? Start Reading Now on B&N Readouts.
Before the Fall by Noah Hawley (Grand Central)
A struggling painter is inexorably drawn into the lives—and fiery deaths—of two moguls, one financial, the other media, in the suspenseful new novel by the showrunner for FX’s darkly humorous hit series Fargo. Start Reading Now on B&N Readouts.
Looking for more inspirations for your summer reading? Explore more of The Best Books of Summer from the editors of O: The Oprah Magazine, in the B&N Review or in the pages of this month’s issue of O: The Oprah Magazine.
The Barnes & Noble Review http://ift.tt/29k4651
Sig Nordal 