CBS New York Book Club with Mary Calvi’s first choices revealed; Vote now!

Find out more about the books below.

CBS New York Book Club, it’s time to vote!

The CBS New York Book Club team has selected three fiction books. These “FicPicks” have plots and/or authors connected to New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut.  

Now, it is your turn to choose which book #ClubCalvi will read for the next month! 

Below you will find information on our “FicPicks,” including excerpts. One book is available to buy now. Two books are available for pre-order and will be released when we announce your selection on March 14. These books may contain adult themes. 

Vote here! Voting closes Sunday, March 12.

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“What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez” by Claire Jimenez

From the publisher: The Ramirez women of Staten Island orbit around absence. When thirteen-year-old middle child Ruthy disappeared after track practice without a trace, it left the family scarred and scrambling. One night, twelve years later, oldest sister Jessica spots a woman on her TV screen in Catfight, a raunchy reality show. She rushes to tell her younger sister, Nina: This woman’s hair is dyed red, and she calls herself Ruby, but the beauty mark under her left eye is instantly recognizable. Could it be Ruthy, after all this time?

Claire Jiménez grew up in Brooklyn and Staten Island. 

“What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez” by Claire Jimenez (hardcover), $23

“What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez” by Claire Jimenez (Kindle), $14

“A Likely Story” by Leigh McMullan Abramson

From the publisher: Growing up in the nineties in New York City as the only child of famous parents was both a blessing and a curse for Isabelle Manning. The only child of an iconic American novelist, she discovers a shocking tangle of family secrets that upends everything she thought she knew about her parents, her gilded childhood, and her own stalled writing career.

Leigh McMullan Abramson lives in New York City.

Note: Simon & Schuster is owned by CBS2’s parent company Paramount. 

“A Likely Story” by Leigh McMullan Abramson (hardcover), $23

“A Likely Story” by Leigh McMullan Abramson (Kindle), $15

“Take What You Need” by Idra Novey

From the publisher: Set in the Allegheny Mountains of Appalachia, Take What You Need traces the parallel lives of Jean and her beloved but estranged stepdaughter, Leah, who’s sought a clean break from her rural childhood. In Leah’s urban life with her young family, she’s revealed little about Jean, how much she misses her stepmother’s hard-won insights and joyful lack of inhibition. But with Jean’s death, Leah must return to sort through what’s been left behind.

Idra Novey teaches at Princeton University and in the MFA Program at New York University. 

“Take What You Need” by Idra Novey (hardcover), $28

“Take What You Need” by Idra Novey (Kindle), $15