Book Description from Amazon.com
Amanda Rosenbloom, proprietor of Astor Place
Vintage, thinks
she’s on just another call to appraise and possibly purchase
clothing from a wealthy, elderly woman. But after discovering a journal sewn
into a fur muff, Amanda gets much more than she anticipated. The pages of the
journal reveal the life of Olive Westcott, a young woman who had moved to
Manhattan in 1907. Olive was set on pursuing a career as a department store
buyer in an era when Victorian ideas, limiting a woman’s
sphere to marriage and motherhood, were only beginning to give way to modern
ways of thinking. As Amanda reads the journal, her life begins to unravel until
she can no longer ignore this voice from the past. Despite being separated by
one hundred years, Amanda finds she’s connected to Olive in ways neither
could ever have imagined.
she’s on just another call to appraise and possibly purchase
clothing from a wealthy, elderly woman. But after discovering a journal sewn
into a fur muff, Amanda gets much more than she anticipated. The pages of the
journal reveal the life of Olive Westcott, a young woman who had moved to
Manhattan in 1907. Olive was set on pursuing a career as a department store
buyer in an era when Victorian ideas, limiting a woman’s
sphere to marriage and motherhood, were only beginning to give way to modern
ways of thinking. As Amanda reads the journal, her life begins to unravel until
she can no longer ignore this voice from the past. Despite being separated by
one hundred years, Amanda finds she’s connected to Olive in ways neither
could ever have imagined.
Leona's Review:
Astor Place Vintage by Stephanie Lehmann
This book takes us from June 12, 2007 back to 1907. The chapters change
between Amanda and Olive with the characters telling the story.
Amanda Rosenbloom owns Astor Place Vintage in New York City. She has gone
to the home of an elderly woman, Mrs. Kelly, to purchase some old clothes.
Inside a muff she finds a journal written by Olive Westcott. Amanda keeps the
journal to read with plans to return it.
The book really goes into the personal lives of both women. Taking us back
in to time we learn how a young woman tries to make it on her own.
Keeping us in the time of 2007, we find a woman who is struggling in her
business and possible loss of her lease.
I think I liked the strength of Olive more than Amanda. It is after so much
time, he is not going to marry you so get out of the relationship. Amanda should
have known better and Olive was learning.
Both of the women had close friends. As a reader, I began to think of the
characters as real people and not a book of fiction.
There is some very personal descriptions of a woman's time of the month but
I though well done. Another description of sex but not erotic. I have never read
this in any book so I was surprised. Think medical on some scenes. One book
Olive reads is The Four Epochs of Women by Dr. Anna M Galbraith (the book is
available at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4986).
Pictures of the 1900 time period adds so much to the book and put the
reader into the theme of the time. Stephanie Lehmann did her research on the
1900s and I was impressed. Some tragedies such as garment fire. Research on the
food, customs of the era, cost of living and even streetcars. Siegel-Cooper
Store ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegel-Cooper_Company)
on page 231, Coney Island and the Hippodrome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Hippodrome)
page 273 are only some places mentioned.
This book held my attention and I am sure because there was the history in
the book. At the back of the book there are Acknowledgements, Photo Credits,
TOUCHSTONE READING GROUP GUIDE for discussion, A CONVERSATION WITH STEPAHANIE
LEHMANN and ENHANCE YOUR BOOK CLUB which can be used for discussions.
I received a complimentary signed copy from the author. The opinions are my
own. I am giving it a 5 star because of the research and the book kept me
turning the pages. I am not usually into contemporary romance novels and if it
had not been for Olive, I would have not cared for the book as much.
Leona Olson
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