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Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke to Darryl Peck of 

Elizabeth Gilbert is most well known for her take-the-world-by-storm bestselling memoir, "Eat, Pray, Love." But her novels should not be missed.

In her latest, "City of Girls," she sends readers to New York City in the 1940s.

The book follows 19-year-old Vivian, who is kicked out of college for her less than stellar performance.

"Our hero gets a job working for her aunt in New York City," explained bookseller Darryl Peck. Vivian begins helping out at her aunt's off-Broadway theater, and she "becomes completely enmeshed in the theater community — which in those days, apparently, was very much the same as it was when I worked in the theater community many, many years later."

There's "lots of sex, lots of drinking, and it's kind of astonishing to read of what life could be like in the 40s, during the war and after the war," Peck said.

"The characters are magnificent. I confess I've never read any of [Gilbert's] books, but I thoroughly enjoyed her writing and the storytelling ... Great read, great writing, great style, a nice long page turner, and you kind of fall in love with the heroine, which is always a nice way to make it through a summer read."

Correction (June 21, 2019): An earlier version of this story incorrectly named Elizabeth Gilbert's novel.

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Tracy Mumford

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"You kind of fall in love with the heroine," said bookseller Darryl Peck. "Which is always a nice way to make it through a summer read."

Bookseller Darryl Peck recommends a new novel about life in the theater in 1940s New York City.

'Great writing, great style, a nice long page turner'

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