Sincerely Reading is a reoccurring feature on the blog. When it’s not one of my book recommendations, it will be a friend’s. This week it’s from Mary Beth of MBZ Interiors, Inc. with a Closing Costs book review.
Title: Closing Costs by Seth Margolis
Summary: The white-hot Manhattan real estate market forms the backdrop for Margolis’s fifth novel, a pithy but slow-moving ensemble character study that weaves together the tales of several Manhattan couples trying to survive on the housing bubble’s uncertain edge. The novel opens with Lucinda Wells, a gorgeous, high-power real estate maven, orchestrating the buying and selling of upscale apartments. Her most intriguing clients are the Granthams, who have to sell their digs after the Feds arrest Barnett Grantham for allegedly embezzling millions from his employer. He soon flees the country, leaving his wife, Lily (and the G-men) to track him down. ….The well-drawn characters complement Margolis’s wry observations on Manhattan life and the ups and downs of marriage and career, and though the real estate angle may fail to pique those living west of the Hudson, it will certainly resonate with New Yorkers. (via Amazon.com)
On a scale of “Don’t Bother” to “Couldn’t Put Down”: I’d choose couldn’t put it down. The novel intertwines characters in the world of New York real estate and has twists and turns in the life of the very wealthy and their domestic help. One of the character’s mother is a riot, although obnoxious. The book’s surprise ending is the icing on the cake.
If someone likes ___________, they’d like this book: Blueprints by Barbara Delinsky.
The best time to read this book: I don’t have a lot of time to read for leisure, but in the summer every morning I pack up my work files, laptop and books and magazines and have them out on the patio table all day long. When I couldn’t be outside, I’d pick up the book between dinner preps (waiting for water to boil, etc.) or I’d read it in the car at the train station while waiting for my husband’s train to arrive.
Drop me a note if you’d like to review a book in an upcoming post. You can find more of my book recommendations on my Goodreads page. Follow along!