VSN Reading Nook

Let’s get lost together in a story! The VSN offers many fun and enriching social club options. Peer leader, Sarah Washburn, describes her passion for reading. Sarah: I love to read and enjoy what I read even more when I am able to discuss the book with a friend. This month I have chosen the book: The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis.

Book Summary:

Eight months since losing her mother in the Spanish flu outbreak of 1919, twenty-one-year-old Lillian Carter’s life has completely fallen apart. For the past six years, under the moniker Angelica, Lillian was one of the most sought-after artists’ models in New York City, with statues based on her figure gracing landmarks from the Plaza Hotel to the Brooklyn Bridge. But with her mother gone, a grieving Lillian is rudderless and desperate—the work has dried up and a looming scandal has left her entirely without a safe haven. So when she stumbles upon an employment opportunity at the Frick mansion—a building that, ironically, bears her own visage—Lillian jumps at the chance. But the longer she works as a private secretary to the imperious and demanding Helen Frick, the daughter and heiress of industrialist and art patron Henry Clay Frick, the more deeply her life gets intertwined with that of the family—pulling her into a tangled web of romantic trysts, stolen jewels, and family drama that runs so deep, the stakes just may be life or death.

Nearly fifty years later, mod English model Veronica Weber has her own chance to make her career—and with it, earn the money she needs to support her family back home—within the walls of the former Frick residence, now converted into one of New York City’s most impressive museums. But when she—along with a charming intern/budding art curator named Joshua—is dismissed from the Vogue shoot taking place at the Frick Collection, she chances upon a series of hidden messages in the museum: messages that will lead her and Joshua on a hunt that could not only solve Veronica’s financial woes, but could finally reveal the truth behind a decades-old murder in the infamous Frick family.

You can order The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis here: https://a.co/d/aGGLGxR

This event is online and scheduled for one hour via zoom. To be eligible for this chat you must be affiliated with the military: the spouse, partner, caregiver, or family member of an active duty service member or post-service veteran, the family member or individual widowed or divorced from an SM or Veteran.

Eligibility for our Social Clubs varies by session, so please check our Eventbrite page to see other social clubs that may interest you.