Summer is a great time to dive into older books and what I regard as the ultimate beach read is Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann. If you haven’t read it before, it is one of the biggest selling books of all time and caused a huge stir when it was published - steamy love scenes, drug fueled outbursts, Hollywood gossip. While the writing isn’t necessarily masterful, the plotting and story pulls you in and has you rooting for the characters almost instantly.

The story opens in 1945 and follows three young women, Anne, a beautiful WASP who leaves behind her small town in New England to move to New York, Neely, a plucky theater kid trying to make it in vaudeville theater and Jennifer, a beautiful young blonde bombshell, who meet in the city and become unlikely friends while finding fame and success. They each echo famous figures from the entertainment industry like Judy Garland and Ethel Merman, but have a fresh take on those stories. As the book progresses, you watch their careers unfold, their triumphs and mistakes, and how the use of “dolls” (what they call pills) eventually impact each of their lives.

The book provides a fascinating portrait of both New York and Hollywood during that time, going from famous nightclubs to play rehearsals and Hollywood homes. While the three women are the main focus, the secondary character is fame and how it impacts their choices, gives them power and controls their lives. If you watched Ryan Murphy’s Netflix show “Hollywood,” it’s very much that same era in the entertainment industry, of studio contracts and PR stories and hidden vices, but with more of a focus on what was going in New York.