and complex circumstances, often against a backdrop of historical significance. A multi-award-winning author, her books have earned starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. More than a million of her books are in the hands of readers worldwide.
[Coffee with a Canine: Susan Meissner & Bella; My Book, The Movie: Stars Over Sunset Boulevard; My Book, The Movie: A Bridge Across the Ocean; The Page 69 Test: A Bridge Across the Ocean; The Page 69 Test: The Last Year of the War; The Page 69 Test: Only the Beautiful]
Meissner's new novel, A Map to Paradise, is set in 1956 Malibu during the last days of the Hollywood Red Scare and the era of the blacklist.
At CrimeReads Meissner tagged six favorite novels set in Golden Age Hollywood, including:
The Girls in the Picture by Melanie BenjaminRead about another novel on the list.
Melanie Benjamin has given us a superb, novelization of the friendship of early Hollywood legends Mary Pickford and Frances Marion in The Girls in the Picture. Melanie’s characters are always so richly drawn—no exception here—and she is a master at the deep research dive essential to pulling off a fictionalized look at the lives of two real-life people. The novel begins in the era of the silent film, when Mary Pickford was a beloved figure in Hollywood and Frances Marion was working as a screenwriter in a highly male-dominated industry. They develop a close friendship that deepens over time, and as the story progresses we see how both women are shaped by the ever-evolving film industry. They endure much as they both deal with heartbreak, loss, and the difficulties of growing older in an industry that esteems youth and beauty above all. Benjamin’s book is a salute to resilience, determination, and the power of friendship; which makes it a fitting novel with which to end this list: on a hopeful note. Yes, Hollywood can be an unforgiving place that is hard on dreams but the people you meet there, who become your allies and friends, they can ease the pain and help you dream again.
The Girls in the Picture is among Logan Steiner's eight books about the lives of women writers.
The Page 69 Test: The Girls in the Picture.
--Marshal Zeringue
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