Clara and Mr. Tiffany / Susan Vreeland / 405 pages

I am such a sucker for historical fiction and this book fills the bill. Vreeland does a magnificent job of re-creating turn of the century New York. You read about the horrible living conditions of the tenements, the over the top display of wealth, the working conditions for women, and the engaging life in a boarding house pre TV and radio! You will love the story of the real life Clara Driscoll, the unrecognized artist who conceived the idea for the famed Tiffany lamps, and her relationship both with Mr. Tiffany and her life as a working woman and leader of the "Tiffany girls." You will enjoy reading about the city of New York itself as it adds the first skyscraper (the Flatiron Building) and the first subway line. You will gain insight into the struggle of the artist who creates for the sake of beauty vs the commercial minds of the managers who are always looking at the bottom line. If you are curious about what it was like to be a woman and live in New York at the end of the Gilded Age, this book is for you.