Betsy Carter Books in Order

Magazine editor Betsy Carter recounts building a career in New York and founding New York Woman. Her memoir follows the accidents, illness, fire and divorce that disrupt her life, and her efforts to begin again.

In 1958, widowed Tessie Lockhart takes her daughter Dinah from Illinois to Florida for a fresh start. Dinah's friendship with wealthy Crystal Landy draws their families together, testing relationships between mothers and daughters over subsequent decades.

Seventeen-year-old Delores Walker leaves the Bronx for Florida, hoping to reinvent herself as a performing mermaid at Weeki Wachee Springs. Her pursuit of independence unfolds alongside family tensions and changes in the state's tourist attractions.

Flora and Simon immigrate to New York, fall in love and build a life around Simon's success making jigsaw puzzles. As danger grows in Europe before World War II, they struggle to bring their relatives to safety.

Jewish physician Egon Schneider flees Germany for New York in the 1930s, where he cannot continue practicing medicine. Finding work selling cheese, he forms ties with other immigrants as they seek security and a sense of belonging.

In 1960s New Rochelle, three generations of Wingo women struggle with strained relationships and competing desires. The arrival of charismatic Dillard Fox brings warmth to their lives, but his concealed past threatens their fragile connections.