Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow

Recommended by JoAnn

FIC Doctorow

Based on the lives of the real Collyer brothers, famous recluses found dead in their Fifth Avenue , N.Y. brownstone in 1947, this imaginative story is brilliantly conceived and executed by Doctorow. Homer is blind, but we "see" everything through him: a house cluttered to capacity, an intuitive and loyal brother, interesting personalities coming and going in the house, and their struggle to survive and find meaning in their lives.

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"Our Crowd": The Great Jewish Families of New York by Stephen Birmingham

Recommended by JoAnn
301.452 BIR
A detailed history of New York's great Jewish banking families, including the Strauses, Seligman's, Goldman's, Guggenheims, Loebs and Schiffs. They formed their own "crowd", more often due to being excluded from the elite of their time, and married within that circle, carrying on a tradition of power, philanthropy and wealth.
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