This 2016 publication by New York Times columnist and novel writer, Anna Quindlen, demonstrates the timeliness of her topics. As the story opens, Bridget Fitzmaurice, younger sister to Megan Fitzmaurice, the early morning host of “Rise and Shine,” a “hit” TV show similar to the “Today Show” or “Goodmorning America,” with the difference being that Megan anchors her show singlehandedly.  Bridget hears second-hand that her sister has uttered the unthinkable, a horrific cursing, name-calling diatribe to the celebrity person she is interviewing. Since the show is live, “once the bell rings, you can’t unring it,” as my friend says. Unable to reach her sister, and fearful that her nephew, twenty-year-old college student, Theo, will see the repeated, bleeped-out performance on the TV news, Bridget is bombarded by people, including Megan’s husband, wanting to know how to reach Megan.

With such an opening, Quindlen deals with “the ways the Fitzmaurice women adapt, survive, and manage to bring the whole teeming world of New York to heel…” There is and has always been a “strong connection” between the elder sister, a prominent TV personality and her younger, social-worker, single sister.

Secondary characters–the women’s aunt, who helped them when their mother died; Theo; Irving, Bridget’s sometime-lover, a retired cop are also very well drawn. My interest and emotions were captured with the enormity of the on-the-air bloop and its consequences on everyone involved. It not only kept me turning pages as I rooted for the “good guys,” the story stayed with me when I had to lay the book down and go about my daily activities.

I would assign this novel a 10 out of 10 and recommend it as a “darned good read.”