I am back with an updated list before we head into the fifth and final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. It is hard to believe that in six weeks, Midge’s story will be finished for us. We have just finished the fourth (and second last) season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, one of my favourite shows. I thought I would be disappointed it didn’t air in December, but it is the perfect winter pick-me-up! With two episodes airing a week, we had a full month of Maisel to bask in. However, in between airings, I’ve been finding myself wanting more of Midge’s world. And of course I turn to books, like I always do. These are the best books if you love The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and want to get lost in a strong female story!
If you are watching the fourth season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, you can find my current review here with new episode reviews! (Spoiler alert: don’t read if you don’t want to know what happens)
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The Best Books if You Love The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford
Few aristocratic English families of the twentieth century enjoyed the glamorous notoriety of the infamous Mitford sisters. Nancy Mitford’s most famous novel, The Pursuit of Love satirizes British aristocracy in the twenties and thirties through the amorous adventures of the Radletts, an exuberantly unconventional family closely modelled on Mitford’s own.
The Radletts of Alconleigh occupy the heights of genteel eccentricity, from terrifying Lord Alconleigh (who, like Mitford’s father, used to hunt his children with bloodhounds when foxes were not available), to his gentle wife, Sadie, their wayward daughter Linda, and the other six lively Radlett children. Mitford’s wickedly funny prose follows these characters through misguided marriages and dramatic love affairs, as the shadow of World War II begins to close in on their rapidly vanishing world.
Why You Should Read This…
While this is very much a wild card choice, I always think of The Pursuit of Love when I think of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel! (And not because they both air on Prime here in Canada…) Much like getting to know the Maisels and their Upper West Side life, you settle into life with the eclectic Radletts at Aconleigh fairly quickly. Linda is somewhat of the opposite of Midge as a protagonist and character, but they both are strong female characters who go for what they want. And I think that both Pursuit and Maisel are strongest in their supporting characters- both have fascinating friends and family members that deserve their own stories, too!
A Woman of Intelligence, Karin Tanabe
A Fifth Avenue address, parties at the Plaza, two healthy sons, and the ideal husband: what looks like a perfect life for Katharina Edgeworth is anything but. It’s 1954, and the post-war American dream has become a nightmare.
A born and bred New Yorker, Katharina is the daughter of immigrants, Ivy-League-educated, and speaks four languages. As a single girl in 1940s Manhattan, she is a translator at the newly formed United Nations, devoting her days to her work and the promise of world peace—and her nights to cocktails and the promise of a good time.
Now the wife of a beloved pediatric surgeon and heir to a shipping fortune, Katharina is trapped in a gilded cage, desperate to escape the constraints of domesticity. So when she is approached by the FBI and asked to join their ranks as an informant, Katharina seizes the opportunity. A man from her past has become a high-level Soviet spy, but no one has been able to infiltrate his circle. Enter Katharina, the perfect woman for the job.
Navigating the demands of the FBI and the secrets of the KGB, she becomes a courier, carrying stolen government documents from D.C. to Manhattan. But as those closest to her lose their covers, and their lives, Katharina’s secret soon threatens to ruin her.
Why You Should Read This…
If there was a serious version of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, I have to believe that this would be the plot. Katharina is highly intelligent, just like Midge, and is constrained by her marriage and social position. And I believe that if either character was living in the twenty-first century, they wouldn’t have had children- they both had children because they were expected to. While I don’t think that every woman or even the majority of women in the 1950s were living double lives, both TMMM and A Woman of Intelligence make me wonder about how many women at least imagined it. In any case, I couldn’t put AWOI down, and it was one of the best books I read in 2021!
Last Summer at the Golden Hotel, Elyssa Friedland
In its heyday, The Golden Hotel was the crown jewel of the hotter-than-hot Catskills vacation scene. For more than sixty years, the Goldman and Weingold families – best friends and business partners – have presided over this glamorous resort which served as a second home for well-heeled guests and celebrities. But the Catskills are not what they used to be – and neither is the relationship between the Goldmans and the Weingolds. As the facilities and management begin to fall apart, a tempting offer to sell forces the two families together again to make a heart-wrenching decision. Can they save their beloved Golden or is it too late?
Long-buried secrets emerge, new dramas and financial scandal erupt, and everyone from the traditional grandparents to the millennial grandchildren wants a say in the hotel’s future. Business and pleasure clash in this fast-paced, hilarious, nostalgia-filled story, where the hotel owners rediscover the magic of a bygone era of nonstop fun even as they grapple with what may be their last resort.
Why You Should Read This…
This book takes place in the twenty-first century but still has a great Maisel connection. If you are like me and loved the second season episodes set in the Catskills, you will love Last Summer at the Golden Hotel. Much like the Steiner resort of Maisel, the Golden Hotel is a resort in the Catskills that had its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s and is barely hanging on by a thread now. Three generations of both the Goldman and the Weingold families come together to save the resort, but also make their way through decades of complicated lives. And despite it sounding incredibly heavy, it is hilarious and heartfelt (much like TMMM)!
The Chelsea Girls, Fiona Davis
From the dramatic redbrick facade to the sweeping staircase dripping with art, the Chelsea Hotel has long been New York City’s creative oasis for the many artists, writers, musicians, actors, filmmakers, and poets who have called it home—a scene playwright Hazel Riley and actress Maxine Mead are determined to use to their advantage. Yet they soon discover that the greatest obstacle to putting up a show on Broadway has nothing to do with their art, and everything to do with politics. A Red scare is sweeping across America, and Senator Joseph McCarthy has started a witch hunt for Communists, with those in the entertainment industry in the crosshairs. As the pressure builds to name names, it is more than Hazel and Maxine’s Broadway dreams that may suffer as they grapple with the terrible consequences, but also their livelihood, their friendship, and even their freedom.
Spanning from the 1940s to the 1960s, The Chelsea Girls deftly pulls back the curtain on the desperate political pressures of McCarthyism, the complicated bonds of female friendship, and the siren call of the uninhibited Chelsea Hotel.
Why You Should Read This…
We got a bit of a peak at Broadway in the third season of Maisel when Susie managed to get Sophie onto Broadway, albeit for a disastrous showing. (And there is more Broadway in the fourth season, but I will let you discover that for yourself…) Much like A Woman of Intelligence, The Chelsea Girls takes a far more serious look at Broadway and the entertainment business in the mid-century. I found that the relationships and connections between the women in the entertainment industry fascinating, and Davis is such a talented author- I felt like I was there with them. (And if you remember the first season of Maisel, Midge’s lawyer was defending people like Hazel and Maxine.)
Park Avenue Summer, Renée Rosen
Mad Men meets The Devil Wears Prada as Renée Rosen draws readers into the glamour of 1965 New York City and Cosmopolitan Magazine, where a brazen new Editor-in-Chief–Helen Gurley Brown–shocks America by daring to talk to women about all things off limits…
New York City is filled with opportunities for single girls like Alice Weiss who leaves her small Midwestern town to chase her big city dreams and unexpectedly lands the job of a lifetime working for Helen Gurley Brown, the first female Editor-in-Chief of a then failing Cosmopolitan Magazine.
Nothing could have prepared Alice for the world she enters as editors and writers resign on the spot, refusing to work for the woman who wrote the scandalous bestseller, Sex and the Single Girl. While confidential memos, article ideas, and cover designs keep finding their way into the wrong hands, someone tries to pull Alice into this scheme to sabotage her boss. But Alice remains loyal and becomes all the more determined to help Helen succeed. As pressure mounts at the magazine and Alice struggles to make her way in New York, she quickly learns that in Helen Gurley Brown’s world, a woman can demand to have it all.
Why You Should Read This…
While Park Avenue Summer is set slightly after Maisel, it still gives me the same entertaining and badass vibes that I get from Midge. I read this book earlier in January, and it made me very excited to see the new season. Midge is breaking a male-dominated field where a woman has to not only match her male counterparts but completely put herself out there, very much like Helen. It is interesting to see how women’s views of themselves changed throughout the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in regards to their careers. Overall, I loved this book and I wish I had read it earlier!
Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club, Roselle Lim
Newly minted professional matchmaker Sophie Go has returned to Toronto, her hometown, after spending three years in Shanghai. Her job is made quite difficult, however, when she is revealed as a fraud—she never actually graduated from matchmaking school. In a competitive market like Toronto, no one wants to take a chance on an inexperienced and unaccredited matchmaker, and soon Sophie becomes an outcast.
In dire search of clients, Sophie stumbles upon a secret club within her condo complex: the Old Ducks, seven septuagenarian Chinese bachelors who never found love. Somehow, she convinces them to hire her, but her matchmaking skills are put to the test as she learns the depths of loneliness, heartbreak, and love by attempting to make the hardest matches of her life.
Why You Should Read This…
I only discovered Roselle Lim at the beginning of 2023, but she has quickly become one of my favourite authors. Her protagonists are strong women who have close but sometimes difficult families and grapple with the complexities that come with that while they forge their own paths. There is occasionally a hint of magic/fantasy in her books, but nothing over the top. And Sophie Go also gives some serious-Rose vibes as we learn more about matchmaking in different cultures!
The Fair Botanists, Sara Sheridan
It’s the summer of 1822 and Edinburgh is abuzz with rumours of King George IV’s impending visit. In botanical circles, however, a different kind of excitement has gripped the city. In the newly-installed Botanic Garden, the Agave Americana plant looks set to flower – an event which only occurs once in several decades.
When newly widowed Elizabeth arrives in Edinburgh to live with her late husband’s aunt Clementina, she’s determined to put her unhappy past in London behind her. As she settles into her new home, she becomes fascinated by the beautiful Botanic Garden which border the grand house and offers her services as an artist to record the rare plant’s impending bloom. In this pursuit, she meets Belle Brodie, a vivacious young woman with a passion for botany and the lucrative, dark art of perfume creation. Belle is determined to keep both her real identity and the reason for her interest the Garden secret from her new friend. But as Elizabeth and Belle are about to discover, secrets don’t last long in this Enlightenment city. And when they are revealed, they can carry the greatest of consequences . . .
Why You Should Read This…
Obviously, this book is set 130 years prior to Maisel, and thousands of miles across the ocean. In spite of those differences though, I quickly became attached to Elizabeth and Belle as we did Midge and Susie. We can all understand and appreciate how difficult it can be to establish ourselves in a new chapter of life when we have faced major changes. No matter or when these stories take place, we see these women persevering to make their own way in the world.
The Comeback, Lily Chu
Ariadne Hui thrives on routine. So what if everything in her life is planned down to the minute: That’s the way she likes it. If she’s going to make partner in Toronto’s most prestigious law firm, she needs to stay focused at all times.
But when she comes home after yet another soul-sucking day to find an unfamiliar, gorgeous man camped out in her living room, focus is the last thing on her mind. Especially when her roommate explains this is Choi Jihoon, her cousin freshly arrived from Seoul to mend a broken heart. He just needs a few weeks to rest and heal; Ari will barely even know he’s there. (Yeah, right.)
Jihoon is kindness and chaos personified, and it isn’t long before she’s falling, hard. But when one wrong step leads to a world-shaking truth, Ari finds herself thrust onto the world stage: not as the competent, steely lawyer she’s fought so hard to become, but as the mystery woman on the arm of a man the entire world claims to know. Now with her heart, her future, and her sense of self on the line, Ari will have to cut through all the pretty lies to find the truth of her relationship…and discover the Ariadne Hui she’s finally ready to be.
Why You Should Read This…
Although Ariadne is not the person involved in show business in this potential couple, I still found a lot of similarities between her and Midge. Hiding parts of who you are and who you want to be make everything difficult, but it often feels like we don’t have a choice. Still in spite of a somewhat serious message, this book has so much of the humour and lighter tone that we often get in Maisel. (And the audiobook is read by Phillipa Soo, the original Eliza in Hamilton!)
What would you include on your list of the best books if you love The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel?
Cheers,
The Historian
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