Hi, this is Libby Owens, and you're listening to the award-winning podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.

I'm also the host of Moms Don't Have Time to Lose Weight, and I'm the editor of the anthology,

which you should run out and buy called Moms Don't Have Time to, a quarantine anthology.

All proceeds of that book go to COVID-19 vaccine research.

And I'm the editor-in-chief of Moms Don't Have Time to Write a new publication on Medium,

and we're accepting submissions, so please send your personal essays there.

And if all that isn't enough, you can follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens,

and my website is Zibby Owens.com.

Okay, now back to this amazing podcast.

Renee Rosen is the author of The Social Graces. She's the best-selling author of Park Avenue Summer, Windy City Blues,

white-collar girl, what the lady wants, and dollface. She's also the author of Every Crooked Pot,

a YAA novel published in 2007. Renee lives in Chicago. Welcome, Renee. Thanks so much for coming on moms.

Don't Have Time to Read Books to discuss the Social Graces. Thanks for having me here.

Oh, it's my pleasure. So will you tell listeners what your book is about? And then I want to hear

what inspired you to write it. Okay, sort of the elevator pitch. Social Graces is based on the

true story of two very powerful women,

Alva Vanderbilt and Caroline Aster, who were vying for control of New York society during the Gilded Age.

So on the one hand, you have Caroline Aster, who was the Mrs. Aster.

She was the reigning queen of society and the gatekeeper. She determined who was in

and who was left out in the cold. And they went so far as to actually draw up a list of the 400.

And there were literally 400 names that they deemed were allowed into fashionable society.

And ironically, Alva Vanderbilt was not on that list.

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