Books like Chelsea by Nancy Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece examines the glittering yet hollow glamour of the Roaring Twenties as the enigmatic Jay Gatsby pursues love, wealth, and identity across the social divide.

The Goldfinch chronicles the life of thirteen‑year‑old Theo Decker, who survives a museum attack that kills his mother and carries an art piece that becomes a lifelong obsession, exploring loss, identity, and art in contemporary America.

In post‑war New York, Newland Archer faces a dilemma when his fiancée’s cousin, the rebellious Ellen Olenska, challenges his elite society’s expectations and his own loyalty.

In Edith Wharton’s classic, Lily Bart, a beautiful and intelligent young woman devoted to luxury, struggles to navigate New York’s strict social hierarchy and moral expectations, ultimately confronting the limits of her independence.

Astronauts and researchers dive into the Marianas Trench, desperate to find a cure for the plague that has taken over the world.

The Signature of All Things traces a family from modest English beginnings to wealth in the South American quinine trade, through the life of brilliant botanist Alma Whittaker as she explores evolution, love, and the clash of science and art across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Thrilling art heist story featuring Ken Follett's trademark espionage and action elements.

In Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth, an uninvited encounter between Bert Cousins and Franny Keating’s family in Southern California sparks a chain reaction that ties two households together, revealing hidden family secrets and the enduring bonds of siblings across five decades.

Edith Wharton's satiric anatomy of American society in the first decade of the twentieth century appeared in 1913; it both appalled and fascinated its first reviewers, and established her as a major novelist. It follows the career of Undine Spragg, recently arrived in New York from the Midwest and determined to conquer high society. Glamorous, selfish, mercenary, and manipulative, her principal assets are her striking beauty, her tenacity, and her father's money. With her sights set on an advantageous marriage, Undine pursues her schemes in a world of shifting values, where triumph is swiftly followed by disillusion. Wharton was re-creating an environment she knew intimately, and Undine's education for social success is chronicled in meticulous detail. The novel superbly captures the world of post-Civil War Ameria, as ruthless in its social ambitions as in its business and politics. - Back cover.

Girls of 622 Harbor View

Eileen Myles’ autobiographical novel recounts her 1960s Catholic upbringing, alcoholic father, rebellious adolescence, lesbian identity, and bohemian life as a poet in 1970s New York.

Set against the production of the historic Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, this novel traces the intertwined lives of patrons, artists, and craftsmen in 15th‑century France and Belgium, exploring the art, mystery, and human desire that shaped the famed works.

Laura Taylor, a small‑town artist turned celebrity, builds a luxurious resort on a Spanish mission site, while facing jealous rivals, loss, and her own fierce determination to honor those who helped her.

After a heartbreak, Lily Dane returns to Seaview, Rhode Island, for a carefree summer. When her old best friend and former fiancé, Nick Greenwald, arrives with his new wife Budgie, long‑hidden feelings and secrets resurface, threatening the quiet town’s harmony.

At Star of the Sea Academy, artist Honor Sullivan rebuilds her life while her daughters navigate love and family secrets, and a long‑abandoned husband returns to mend a fractured legacy of faith, art, and forgiveness.

A determined art student must complete Louis Tiffany’s stained‑glass chapel amid a glassworker strike, proving herself as a "New Woman" and discovering the true meaning of art, love, and independence.