A new month means a new Read By Patty J at Barrington Books pick…

The November selection is the brand new memoir by legendary singer/songwriter Carly Simon, Touched By The Sun, which explores her surprising friendship with former First Lady and eternal style icon, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

I was especially intrigued by this story because it focuses on Jackie during her “Third Act” - after her marriages to JFK and Ari (If you’re curious about Ari’s relationship with opera singer Maria Callas, oft referred to as “the love of his life,” the recent-ish documentary Maria by Callas: In Her Own Words is a real must watch.) , when she was living in NYC and working as a book editor first at Viking and later, at Doubleday.

Sure, there was the luxe apartment on 5th Avenue and tres chic designer wardrobe of shirt dresses, trenches, head scarves, and bags. But I’ve always felt that because of her incredible wealth and international fame, Jackie was out to prove to both the public and herself that she could do the daily commute thing (Full disclosure, at least some of the time, a car and driver were part of that equation.), sit behind a desk (According to a 2017 article in Town And Country mag, Jackie’s office at Viking was small and…had only one window!), eat boring snacks (Word is that carrot sticks were her afternoon nosh of choice in those days.), and sign marquee names to book deals (She did in fact try to convince Carly to write an autobiography after they’d met.) with the best of ‘em.

Now, TBTS has apparently been the source of some controversy with certain people taking Carly to task for revealing personal details about Jackie, who to this day continues to be well known for wanting to keep any and all details about her private life just that. The thing is, though, Carly reveals an awful lot in this book about her own life, including among other things, details about her ill-fated 2nd marriage to insurance guy turned writer Jim Hart - who btw tossed his hat in the tell-all arena two years ago with his own memoir about life with Carly.

So, if you’re a fan of Jackie’s and at all curious about Carly, you’ll want to read along.

There’s also a special savings for friends of Patty J: Get 20% Off Your Copy At Both Barrington Books Locations When You Mention “Read By Patty J.”

Follow us on IG (@BarringtonBooks @PattyJDotCom) and share your thoughts about this month’s featured title. I’ll be sharing your posts about Touched By The Sun to the Patty J Instagram Stories all month long.