Jenna's Staff Picks


Showing 1 - 20 of 20  There are a total of 115 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Architects of an American landscape"
Star rating for Architects of an American landscape
Description:
"As the nation recovered from a cataclysmic war, two titans of design profoundly influenced how Americans came to interact with the built and natural world around them through their pioneering work in architecture and landscape design. Frederick Law Olmsted is widely revered as America's first and finest parkmaker and environmentalist, the force behind Manhattan's Central Park, Brooklyn's Prospect Park, Biltmore's parkland in Asheville, dozens of...
Book cover for "Astor"
Star rating for Astor
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
"From 1783, when German immigrant John Jacob Astor first arrived in the United States, until 2009, when Brooke Astor's son, Anthony Marshall, was convicted of defrauding his elderly mother, the Astor name occupied a unique place in American society. The family fortune, first made by a beaver trapping business that grew into an empire, was then amplified by holdings in Manhattan real estate. Over the ensuing generations, Astors ruled Gilded Age New...
Book cover for "Bringing down the duke"
Star rating for Bringing down the duke
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
England, 1879. Annabelle Archer, the brilliant but destitute daughter of a country vicar, has earned herself a place among the first cohort of female students at the renowned University of Oxford. In return for her scholarship, she must support the rising women's suffrage movement. Her charge: recruit men of influence to champion their cause. Her target: Sebastian Devereux, the cold and calculating Duke of Montgomery who steers Britain's politics...
Book cover for "Cinema speculation"
Star rating for Cinema speculation
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with Cinema Speculation, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans--and all movie lovers--could have hoped for. Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he...
Book cover for "Dead wake"
Star rating for Dead wake
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author and master of narrative nonfiction comes the enthralling story of the sinking of the Lusitania
“Both terrifying and enthralling.”—Entertainment Weekly
Thrilling, dramatic and powerful.—NPR
Thoroughly engrossing.—George R.R. Martin

On May 1, 1915, with...
Book cover for "The devil in the white city"
Star rating for The devil in the white city
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
An account of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 relates the stories of two men who shaped the history of the event--architect Daniel H. Burnham, who coordinated its construction, and serial killer Herman Mudgett.
Book cover for "The devil's playground"
Star rating for The devil's playground
Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
"A riveting 1920s Hollywood thriller about the making of the most terrifying silent film ever made, and a deadly search for the single copy rumored still to exist. This is the breakout from Craig Russell, author of The Devil Aspect. 1927: Mary Rourke-a Hollywood studio fixer-is called urgently to the palatial home of Norma Carlton, one of the most recognizable stars in American silent film. Norma has been working on the secret film everyone is openly...

8. Hester

Book cover for "Hester"
Star rating for Hester
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Isobel Gamble is a young seamstress carrying generations of secrets when she sets sail from Scotland in the early 1800s with her husband Edward. ... But only days after they've arrived in Salem, Edward abruptly joins a departing ship as a medic--leaving Isobel penniless and alone in a strange country, forced to make her way by any means possible. When she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, the two are instantly drawn to each other: he is a man haunted...
Book cover for "The indifferent stars above"
Star rating for The indifferent stars above
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Book cover for "Isaac's storm"
Star rating for Isaac's storm
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The riveting true story of the Galveston hurricane of 1900, still the deadliest natural disaster in American history—from the acclaimed author of The Devil in the White City
“A gripping account ... fascinating to its core, and all the more compelling for being true.” —The New York Times Book Review

September 8, 1900, began innocently in...
Book cover for "Lady Clementine"
Star rating for Lady Clementine
Average Rating:
3.2 stars
Description:

From Marie Benedict, the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Woman in the Room! An incredible novel that focuses on one of the people with the most influence during World War I and World War II: Clementine Churchill.

In 1909, Clementine steps off a train with her new husband, Winston. An angry woman emerges from the crowd to attack, shoving him in the direction of an oncoming train. Just before he stumbles, Clementine

...
Book cover for "The last castle"
Star rating for The last castle
Average Rating:
3.6 stars
Description:
"The ... true story behind the ... Gilded Age mansion Biltmore--the largest, grandest residence ever built in the United States"--Amazon.com.
Book cover for "The nineties"
Star rating for The nineties
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
"Essays about 1990s popular culture, politics, sports, literature, music"--
Book cover for "The personal librarian"
Star rating for The personal librarian
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
"The remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan's personal librarian-who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true, from New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray. In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. Pierpont Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books,...
Book cover for "The poison squad"
Star rating for The poison squad
Average Rating:
3.3 stars
Description:
Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley set out to ensure food safety. He selected food tasters to test various food additives and preservatives, letting them know that the substances could be harmful or deadly. The tasters were recognized for their courage, and became known as the poison squad.
Book cover for "The poisoner's handbook"
Star rating for The poisoner's handbook
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
Chronicles the story of New York City's first forensic scientists to describe Jazz Age poisoning cases, including a family's inexplicable balding, Barnum and Bailey's Blue Man, and the crumbling bones of factory workers. The untold story of how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City. A pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime....
Book cover for "Shrines of gaiety"
Star rating for Shrines of gaiety
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time. The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven, whose character has been...
Book cover for "The splendid and the vile"
Star rating for The splendid and the vile
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
In this "portrait of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz, ... Larson shows ... how Churchill taught the British people 'the art of being fearless.' It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it's also an intimate domestic drama set against the backdrop of Churchill's prime-ministerial country home Chequers; his wartime retreat Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course...
Book cover for "Talking to strangers"
Star rating for Talking to strangers
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
The popular podcast host and author explores how people interact with strangers and why these exchanges often go wrong, offering strategic tips for more accurate and productive interactions.
Book cover for "The woman they could not silence"
Star rating for The woman they could not silence
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six, is facing her own battle. The enemy sits across the table and sleeps in the next room. Threatened by Elizabeth's intellect, independence, and outspokenness, her husband of twenty-one years is plotting against her and makes a plan to put her back in her place. One summer morning, he has her committed to an insane asylum. The horrific conditions...