Thursday, July 05, 2012

What is Claire McMillan reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Claire McMillan, author of Gilded Age.

Her entry begins:
I just finished reading The Last Nude by Ellis Avery, a novel based on the love affair between Tamara de Lempicka and her muse Rafaela. It’s super glamorous, erotic, and set in 1920’s Paris – all things I’m a total sucker for. The plot is solid - laced with twists and betrayals and changes in POV that keep you right with her and...[read on]
About Gilded Age, from the publisher:
Intelligent, witty, and poignant, Gilded Age presents a modern Edith Wharton heroine—dramatically beautiful, socially prominent, and just a bit unconventional—whose return to the hothouse of Cleveland society revives rivalries, raises eyebrows, and reveals the tender vulnerabilities of a woman struggling to reconcile her desire for independence and her need for love.

ELEANOR HART had made a brilliant marriage in New York, but it ended in a scandalous divorce and thirty days in Sierra Tucson rehab. Now she finds that, despite feminist lip service, she will still need a husband to be socially complete. A woman’s sexual reputation matters, and so does her family name. Ellie must navigate the treacherous social terrain where old money meets new: charitable benefits and tequila body shots, inherited diamonds and viper-bite lip piercings, country house weekends and sexting. She finds that her beauty is a powerful tool in this world, but it has its limitations, even liabilities. Through one misstep after another, Ellie mishandles her second act. Her options narrow, her future prospects contract, until she faces a desperate choice.

With a keen eye for the perfect detail and a heart big enough to embrace those she observes, Claire McMillan has written an assured and revelatory debut novel about class, gender, and the timeless conundrum of femininity.
Learn more about the book and author at Claire McMillan's website.

Writers Read: Claire McMillan.

--Marshal Zeringue