21 Books for Your Summer Reading List

A taste: "They were like City Hall. One Bridge daughter said they were like the Supreme Court. Their decisions were treated as the letter of the law. They were mavens, advising on camps and colleges; they referred doctors and plumbers, mechanics and gynecologists. Where to get your rugs cleaned and dresses hemmed. What the golf course was to men, the Bridge table was to women, the de facto social networking of its time. You would sooner argue with Talmudic scholars than challenge their collective wisdom." —From The Bridge Ladies, Betsy Lerner's searching, funny, warm memoir about five Jewish octogenarians (including her mother) who've sat around a card table together for more than 50 years.