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The Case of the Reluctant Model by Erle Stanley Gardner is one of the author’s enormously popular Perry Mason novels, published in 1961. 

“The painting was a modern masterpiece. But was it authentic? Three experts staked their reputations on the fact that it was. But Collin M. Durant called it a rank imitation. The witness to his remark gave Perry Mason a signed affidavit, and millionaire Otto Olney, owner of the painting sued for slander. THEN the witness- a beautiful blonde art student and model- disappeared, leaving Perry Mason headed for the courtroom and a spectatcular trial. A trial, not as originally planned, for slander, but one for murder in the first degree…” !!!

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A Portion for Foxes by Jane McIlvaine McClary is the closest thing to an American Jilly Cooper book we’ve ever been able to find. Set in the 1960s “lush, green Virginia hunt country, with its stately mansions, its elegant gentlemen riders (some of whose fortunes were made in not such elegant ways), its ferocious hell-for-leather hunting matrons, its poor whites and even poorer blacks, A Portion for Foxes is a brillantly readable mixture of precise (and often biting) social observation and sweeping, romantic storytelling in the grand manner.”

Horses, romance, and civil rights beats Gossip Girl any day, go buy it on Amazon now. 

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Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson was recently turned into a film starring Frances McDormand and Amy Adams. We loved the film and then picked up the book which is easily one of our favorite reads ever. There is also a charming backstory of how this novel made its way back in to print via the publishing company Persephone. 

*NOTE this is not a beach book! A serious read that requires a second flip through. According to Dylan Thomas (the writer who forms a love triangle in the recently released Sienna Miller-Kiera Knightly film The Edge of Love) this is “one of the three great prose books ever written by a woman”. Keep reading for more, plus style tie in.

Continue reading What We’re Reading: Nightwood by Djuna Barnes

If you are looking for something fun to read on the beach but don’t want anything too trashy we recommend picking up some Nancy Mitford. Don’t Tell Alfred is a follow up to The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, featuring our favorite old characters such as narrator Fanny, Uncle Matthew, and of course Alfred. In this book Fanny and Alfred move to Paris as Alfred has been appointed Ambassador to France. Fanny is swept up in a glamorous whirlwind of fantastic fashion and acquaintances all while trying to keep her children and family life on track. As the Mitford’s are famous for this is a truly charming read. 

Originally published in 1949 this sequel to Pride and Prejudice by Dorothy Bonavia-Hunt is not only a collectible but also a delectable read. 

Get lost in Paris with The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy

http://www.amazon.com/Avocado-York-Review-Books-Classics/dp/1590172329

This fantastic book is the fourth installment of Vidal’s ‘Narratives of Empire’. It tells the story of heiress Caroline Stanford as she fights with her half-brother Blaise for her father’s estate. Fearful that Blaise has poorly invested her inheritance in William Hearst’s newspapers she buys her own. 

The Calypso Chronicles are about Calypso Kelly, an American teenager who attends a posh English boarding school. She ends up dating the teenage Prince of England in this cute Princess Diaries-like comedy. Written by Tyne O’Connell.