What is Kitty Zeldis reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Kitty Zeldis, author of One of Them: A Novel.

Her entry begins:

I’ve just finished with When Women Ruled Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion by Julie Satow. It’s a portrait of three major department stores in New York City—Bonwit Teller, Lord & Taylor and Bendel’s—and the women responsible for their respective successes. The glory days of the American department store are, alas, over, but this book makes them live again. I enjoyed it so much that...[read on]

About One of Them, from the publisher:

The beloved author of Not Our Kind and The Dressmakers of Prospect Heights returns with a story of secrets, friendship, and betrayal about two young women at Vassar in the years after World War II, a powerful and moving tale of prejudice and pride that echoes the cultural and social issues of today.

Anne Bishop seems like a typical Vassar sophomore—one of a popular group of privileged WASP friends. None of the girls in her circle has any idea that she’s Jewish, or that her real name is or that her real first name is Miriam. Pretending to be a Gentile has made life easier—as Anne, she no longer suffers the snubs, snide remarks, and daily restrictions Jews face. She enjoys her college life of teas, late-night conversations, and mixers. She turns a blind eye to the casual anti-Semitism that flourishes among her friends and classmates—after all, it's no longer directed at her.

But her secret life is threatened when she becomes fascinated by a girl not in her crowd. Delia Goldhush is sophisticated, stylish, brilliant, and unashamedly Jewish—and seems not to care that she’s an outcast among the other students. Knowing that her growing closeness with Delia would be social suicide if it were discovered, Anne keeps their friendship quiet. Delia seems to understand—until a cruelty on Anne’s part drives them apart and sends them scattering to other corners of the world, alone and together.

Visit Kitty Zeldis's website

My Book, The Movie: Not Our Kind.

Writers Read: Kitty Zeldis (December 2018).

Coffee with a Canine: Kitty Zeldis & Dottie.

The Page 69 Test: Not Our Kind.

The Page 69 Test: The Dressmakers of Prospect Heights.

My Book, The Movie: One of Them.

Q&A with Kitty Zeldis.

Writers Read: Kitty Zeldis.

--Marshal Zeringue