The Debutante

The Debutante

Author: Kathleen Tessaro

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2010-10-05

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 0062014315

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A brilliant, unforgettable novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Perfume Collector. Can the secrets of one woman's past change another woman's future? Cate Albion is a gifted young artist at a crossroads in her life. Looking to escape New York for the summer, she takes a job in her aunt's London auction house and is soon sent on assignment to the English countryside to value the contents of Endsleigh House, the once gracious but now crumbling estate of a former Jazz Age socialite. There, hidden in the back of a dusty bookshelf, Cate discovers an old shoebox, and inside, a peculiar assortment of objects, including an exquisite pair of 1930s dancing shoes; a faded photograph of a handsome young sailor, and a rare Tiffany pearl and emerald bracelet. Intrigued, Cate sets out to learn more about the box and its contents, and becomes immersed in the mystery of its owner, Diana “Baby” Blythe, the younger of the infamous, glamorous Blythe sisters. Bright, beautiful, and reckless, Baby was the most famous debutante of her generation . . . until she suddenly disappeared entirely from view. As a shocking tale of love and betrayal begins to unravel, Cate finds herself being drawn deeper into Baby's tragic life story—one that will force Cate to confront some dark truths about her own choices.


Dancing out of Line

Dancing out of Line

Author: Molly Engelhardt

Publisher: Ohio University Press

Published: 2009-08-09

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0821443127

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Dancing out of Line transports readers back to the 1840s, when the craze for social and stage dancing forced Victorians into a complex relationship with the moving body in its most voluble, volatile form. By partnering cultural discourses with representations of the dance and the dancer in novels such as Jane Eyre, Bleak House, and Daniel Deronda, Molly Engelhardt makes explicit many of the ironies underlying Victorian practices that up to this time have gone unnoticed in critical circles. She analyzes the role of the illustrious dance master, who created and disseminated the manners and moves expected of fashionable society, despite his position as a social outsider of nebulous origins. She describes how the daughters of the social elite were expected to “come out” to society in the ballroom, the most potent space in the cultural imagination for licentious behavior and temptation. These incongruities generated new, progressive ideas about the body, subjectivity, sexuality, and health. Engelhardt challenges our assumptions about Victorian sensibilities and attitudes toward the sexual/social roles of men and women by bringing together historical voices from various fields to demonstrate the versatility of the dance, not only as a social practice but also as a forum for Victorians to engage in debate about the body and its pleasures and pathologies.


Exuberance

Exuberance

Author: Kay Redfield Jamison

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2005-09-13

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 0375701486

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A national bestselling author examines one of the mind's most exalted states—one that is crucially important to learning, risk-taking, social cohesiveness, and survival itself. “[Jamison is] that rare writer who can offer a kind of unified field theory of science and art.” —The Washington Post Book World With the same grace and breadth of learning she brought to her studies of the mind’s pathologies, Kay Redfield Jamison examines one of its most exalted states: exuberance. This “abounding, ebullient, effervescent emotion” manifests itself everywhere from child’s play to scientific breakthrough. Exuberance: The Passion for Life introduces us to such notably irrepressible types as Teddy Roosevelt, John Muir, and Richard Feynman, as well as Peter Pan, dancing porcupines, and Charles Schulz’s Snoopy. It explores whether exuberance can be inherited, parses its neurochemical grammar, and documents the methods people have used to stimulate it. The resulting book is an irresistible fusion of science and soul.


A Kiss at Midnight

A Kiss at Midnight

Author: Eloisa James

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2010-07-27

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 0062005367

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“Eloisa James writes with a captivating blend of charm, style, and grace that never fails to leave the reader sighing and smiling and falling in love.” —New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn “Romance writing does not get much better than this.” —People The Cinderella story moves to Regency England—with more than a few twists and turns along the way! With A Kiss at Midnight, the remarkable Eloisa James spins a delicious tale involving a carriage, a godmother, a pair of rats…and a beauty with no interest whatsoever in getting married—and certainly not to a prince! Read A Kiss at Midnight and see why New York Times bestselling author Lisa Kleypas says, “Eloisa James is extraordinary.”


The Circle

The Circle

Author: Dave Eggers

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2013-10-08

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 0385351402

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INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A bestselling dystopian novel that tackles surveillance, privacy and the frightening intrusions of technology in our lives—a “compulsively readable parable for the 21st century” (Vanity Fair). When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.


This Side of Paradise

This Side of Paradise

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Publisher: The Floating Press

Published: 2009-04-01

Total Pages: 503

ISBN-13: 1775414833

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This Side of Paradise is a novel about post-World War I youth and their morality. Amory Blaine is a young Princeton University student with an attractive face and an interest in literature. His greed and desire for social status warp the theme of love weaving through the story.


The Governess Heiress

The Governess Heiress

Author: Elizabeth Beacon

Publisher: Harlequin

Published: 2017-08-01

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 1488021627

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When an undercover Lord meets an heiress in hiding, their forbidden affair might just make a perfect match in this sexy Regency romance. Hiding from society, heiress Eleanor Hancourt must live as ordinary governess Nell Court to escape her family’s scandals. But when the new estate manager arrives, her quiet existence is disrupted. He may be unspeakably arrogant, but he’s also irresistible! Fergus is really the Earl of Barberry, undercover to investigate his own estate. Instead, he discovers the new governess is an illicit temptation, a match that can never be! Yet when Nell’s secret inheritance puts her in peril, Fergus will do whatever it takes to save her . . .


The Social Climber's Bible

The Social Climber's Bible

Author: Dirk Wittenborn

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0143125206

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"Welcome fledging Social Climbers! Allow us to show you the way. Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it, so what's the big deal? You shouldn't be punished for wanting to improve your lot in life! This is America, after all. In the grand tradition of True Prep and The Hipster Handbook, The Social Climber's Bible will teach you everything you need to know to become a pro Mountaineer: The Art of Social Climbing at gallery openings, cocktail parties, and funerals Social Climbing as a family How to handle sex, dating, marriage, and love Your social climbing IQ and how to improve it How to spot a Big Fish, Whale, Turtle or Unicorn, and what they can do for you Johnson & Johnson heiress Jazz Johnson is a lifelong insider in that rarefied world that fans of both Downton Abbey and Gossip Girl dream about. Raconteur Dirk Wittenborn is old enough to remember when sex was safe and cocaine wasn't addictive. In short, Jazz belongs to some of the most exclusive clubs in the world, whereas Dirk has been kicked out of them. Who better to guide you? "--