Now Hear This — Summer Books We Wish We’d Read: Your Weekly Glimpse Inside The PaperCity Dallas Office Chatter

The PaperCity Dallas team has decided to share with you musings from the office. These might be inspired by conversations overheard at the water cooler or during a raucous Saturday afternoon tailgating at The Boulevard at SMU. (We have quite a few alumni on staff.)

Call it a tres chic think tank, where we tell you our deepest thoughts: what we’re thinking, wanting, doing, lusting over, and coveting. As you can tell, this weekly column can and will veer in multiple directions.

If you ever have something you want our team to address, shoot us your thoughts via social media or email (@papercitydallas on Instagram; facebook.com/papercitymagdallas on Facebook; or yours truly, billy@papercitymag.com). Or, better yet send a message to the office, handwritten on the Smythson stationery of your choice — and feel free to include a bottle of Veuve. Champagne really helps get the ideas flowing.

This week, as summer comes to an end, we pondered the books we didn’t get around to reading during our far-and-away vacations.

Rebecca Sherman, Home Design Editor

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Crack Up. I’m re-reading the classics. In this case, though, it’s a first time read. The book is a collection of Esquire essays and unpublished letters to him from Gertrude Stein, Thomas Wolfe, and John Dos Passos, among others, published after Fitzgerald’s death. It’s not on the reading list for most schools. So, many people, like me, have never gotten around to it. I love Fitzgerald, and this is supposed to be him at his most raw and real. I’d love to hear from anyone who has read it…

Billy Fong, Culture and Style Editor

I have two that didn’t make it poolside with me. First off, Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend. I’m a huge WASP-ophile and think this is likely the Holy Grail for that tribe. Second, Gordon Merrick’s The Lord Won’t Mind. Merrick was the first author who wrote fluff-romance novels — but with gay leading characters. In a time when gay bars were still being raided, that novel sat on the New York Times Best Seller list for 16 weeks in 1970.

Kaley Hanna, Events and Partnerships Manager

I’m a sucker for dark and twisty beach reads. As a working mom, I don’t get much time to indulge in campy reads, and Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney has been sitting in my Kindle queue for about four months. It’s looking like I will have to turn this beach read into a sitting by the fire with a glass of wine read.

Hillery Stack, Dallas Publisher

Crazy Rich Asians continues to sit quietly on my nightstand. From what I’ve heard, it’s quite the over-the-top fashion girl’s dream of boys and boutiques.

Christina Geyer, Dallas Editor in Chief

My must-read list grows every day — it’s not just a summer thing. (I am, at this point, out of shelf space.) Next up for me is Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown. All you need to know about the book — and what to expect — comes by way of The New York Times’ review of the book, which came out late last month. The review’s headline? “Mad, Bad and Difficult to Know: The Life of a Rebel Aristocrat.” The best snippet from the review? “Once upon a time, the queen’s younger sister delighted in telling lesser folk that her son’s first word was ‘chandelier.’ Imperious, clever, cruel and unhappy, Princess Margaret is described by Craig Brown as ‘the one who wasn’t,’ ‘the second-born, the also-ran.’” It sounds oh-so-juicy.

Lisa Collins Shaddock, Senior Editor

The book on my summer reading list I still haven’t gotten to is Tina Brown’s The Vanity Fair Diaries, which I ordered when CG highly recommended it earlier this year. I also was a bit overambitious and tried to join a book club that was reading Dark at the Crossing by Elliot Ackerman, which I missed but still feel like I need to read out of obligation. In my defense, after finishing Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone, my mood felt as dark as the Alaskan winter and I quickly had to read all three books from the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy to lift my spirits! Once I get through my list, I’m looking forward to picking up a copy of Madeline Miller’s Circe — my mom loved it.

Linda Kenney, Account Executive

The book I didn’t read this summer is one that has yet to be written. I want something new from Donna Tartt, whose bildungsroman novel The Goldfinch won the Pulitzer Prize in 2014. The bestseller is currently being made into a movie with a stellar cast including Ansel Elgort, Nicole Kidman, Geoffrey Wright, Sarah Paulson, and Luke Wilson. Perhaps I am expecting too much; in her 30-year writing career, Tartt has only written three books. Maybe next summer she will have something new for us.

Samantha Olguin, Senior Account Executive

You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero.

Look for the next installment of Now Hear This from Billy Fong next Thursday.