THE DOLLHOUSE BY FIONA DAVIS

Fiona Davis's stunning debut novel pulls readers into the lush world of New York City's glamorous Barbizon Hotel for Women, where in the 1950s a generation of aspiring models, secretaries, and editors lived side by side while attempting to claw their way to fairy-tale success, and where a present-day journalist becomes consumed with uncovering a dark secret buried deep within the Barbizon's glitzy past.

When she arrives at the famed Barbizon Hotel in 1952, secretarial school enrollment in hand, Darby McLaughlin is everything her modeling agency hall mates aren't: plain, self-conscious, homesick, and utterly convinced she doesn't belong—a notion the models do nothing to disabuse. Yet when Darby befriends Esme, a Barbizon maid, she's introduced to an entirely new side of New York City: seedy downtown jazz clubs where the music is as addictive as the heroin that's used there, the startling sounds of bebop, and even the possibility of romance.

Over half a century later, the Barbizon's gone condo and most of its long-ago guests are forgotten. But rumors of Darby's involvement in a deadly skirmish with a hotel maid back in 1952 haunt the halls of the building as surely as the melancholy music that floats from the elderly woman's rent-controlled apartment. It's a combination too intoxicating for journalist Rose Lewin, Darby's upstairs neighbor, to resist—not to mention the perfect distraction from her own imploding personal life. Yet as Rose's obsession deepens, the ethics of her investigation become increasingly murky, and neither woman will remain unchanged when the shocking truth is finally revealed. 

DAILY OM LEARNING TO LIVE BY MADISYN TAYLOR

Wouldn’t it be great if we were born with instruction manuals? Each one would be different based on what we needed to learn, but the basics would be the same: how to create healthy relationships, how to deal with sorrow and pain, how to reach our goals, and how to know what we want to do with our lives when we grow up. We would continue to receive our own unique life lessons, but we would have a manual to refer to when feeling overwhelmed or lost.

In this book, based on the popular Website DailyOM (www.dailyom.com), co-founder Madisyn Taylor seamlessly weaves together her award-winning inspirational thoughts with her achingly honest personal story, revealing the inspiration behind many of the DailyOM messages that touch millions of people every day. Learning to Live is the next best thing to a personal instruction manual: a guiding light to reassure us that we’re on the right path, and to help fix us when we feel broken.