This book follows a woman who moved to NYC in the late 1950s and secures a job which introduces her to a set of women who will change her life. One an ambitious woman, another a former prostitute who ends up being hired at the Port Authority with our main character.

There are a lot of threads at play with this book; too many in my opinion and the shift in perspectives didn't really add much to the story, other than to bring in yet another skein of yarn. Some of the elements of this tapestry are a young girl in big city tropes, young girl led into prostitution due to poverty, strong woman boss who takes young women under her wing, then there are environmental malfeasance issues, native/indigenous rights, land rights in NYC, the building of the World Trade Center, a young girl with special needs, blackmail, infidelity, alcoholism, and murder. There is a lot and I don't feel that all these elements were balanced well in the story. having so many diluted the core storyline.

I wanted to like this book but would have probably not finished it had it not been for receiving an arc from NetGalley. The book is fine, but from the moment all characters were introduced, I know exactly where the story was going. And from there it's a long journey to validate your hypothesis.

I liked this book. Joanna Scott does not disappoint in her portrayal of women and men in the workplace. Prescient in light of the #me too movement.

My review can be seen at RT Book Reviews

This book was not for me. Although I was drawn to the interesting premise and time period, as well as the gorgeous cover art, I found the narration irritating. I don't mind multiple narrators but on occasion I wasn't sure who was talking. The atmosphere of the Port Authority in the 1950s was clearly written and engaging. I simply didn't like the characters very much or the narration. Others may get on better with it

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free digital ARC of this book. This book is true to its title description. The reader won't be disappointed when reading this book.

The premise of the book caught my attention right away: women struggling to build careers in 1950s New York City. The cover was also quite intriguing to me and caught attention. Once I started it, however, I simply was not able to get into the story. It's narrated from several different points of view, but this switched so frequently as to be highly irritating. I wasn't drawn to any of the women, least of all the infamous Mrs. J. The format gave a very disjointed feel to the story as well.

I was very excited to receive the ARC of this book. I looked forward to reading it. But, I had a hard time reading it. The writing seemed to jump around quite a bit and at times was hard to keep up with. It also dragged in some areas. It just was not as good as I thought it would be. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of the book in return for my honest review.

As a fan of Mad Men and the 1950s era, Careers for Women was a book that I was instantly drawn to. Focusing on women in New York set in the 1950s working at the Port Authority, with the cover styled in retro advertising art, this was an intriguing premise that I wanted to dive into. The narrative was a bit odd, and took some getting used to--I'm not fond of multiple POVs--but the way the stories are woven seamlessly together and a variety of characters crafted this world that I enjoyed reading.

A challenging read with a mid-century Mad Men vibe. Interesting characters with a hint of mystery told in a non linear style makes for a good look at women., their friendships and ambitions.

Great writing set in the Man Men era about the intersecting lives of four women who all settle for less than they wanted in their lives.

This is a story that stays with you long after you finish, partly because the characters have such depth, and partly because I'm not sure I understand it completely. The setting of New York City in the 50's and 60's evokes the era of Mad Men with some of the same rigid conventions, but the strongest character in the story is a woman who runs the communications department for The Port Authority of NY and NJ and who, if the story is to be believed, almost singlehandedly shepherded the Twin Towers to completion. The other women of the story include the very conventional narrator, Maggie, and the thoroughly unconventional Pauline. The author weaves the stories of these three and their hopes and dreams into a world just beginning to hold industry accountable for the destruction of chemical pollution.. The writing is sharp and witty as the narrator often addresses her wry comments directly to the reader.. The action extends from New York City to the isolation of Upstate New York and covers many decades as the story winds down. No doubt it is a remarkable book. I'm just not sure I have figured it out.

This is an amazing and wonderful book which brings to life the trials and tribulations of women living in the mid twentieth century, before the years of womens liberation and equal opportunity. The women in this book are all strong, resourceful characters, especially Mrs. J. who believed in helping women to succeed at a time when few others did so. It is women like her who helped blaze the path that we are following in today.

It was the cover of Joanna Scott’s Careers for Women that drew me to this book. The retro advertising art suggested a light bit of humor and sophistication that I expected to enjoy immensely. It began exactly as I expected, with a group of women mentored by their supervisor, the famed Lee Jaffe of the Port Authority, a story of the subtle wit of women navigating professional life in the oppressive working world of the Fifties and Sixties.

However, there is much more to the story than that. We have the careers for women at the Port Authority with Maggie Gleason, Lee Jaffe, and Pauline Moreau. We also have the story of Kay and Bob Whittaker. Kay’s career is the full-time housewife and mother, supporting her husband who truly does not deserve her support. There is the Robert Whittaker III and Brigid love story. There is also the story of Maggie and Sonia, Pauline’s daughter. There is the story of building the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, Lee Jaffe’s great dream. Then there is the story of perfidy and pollution poisoning the air in upstate New York near the Alumacore plant and all in just three hundred pages.



I will credit Joanna Scott with immense ambition. She packed a lot of stories into her book. She tackles important themes, corruption, environmental devastation and corporate malfeasance, anti-semitism, the challenges of developmental disabilities, sexual politics, infidelity, and misogyny. For me, though, it does not come together despite her considerable skill as a writer.

It’s strange. This is not a long book and it packs in a lot of stories and ideas, yet it still manages to overflow with unnecessary discursive interstices, overheard conversation, the chorus of construction workers, or the Emergency Action Plan, a ploy that bored me and made the book seem endless at times. It reminded me a bit of Shakespeare, who would add a conversation among a few people who show up for that conversation and are never seen again. They deliver some bit of information or an idea and go away. Shakespeare, though, has the sense to limit it to once or twice in a play. Scott throws this flotsam in all over the place. It became intrusive, irritating and I wanted to skip over them.

Scott is a skilled writer. I was drawn to her prose at times and sometimes it was magical. Her Maggie storyline was interesting and the first quarter of the book was fantastic. However, the “mystery” was not enough of a mystery and there was little suspense at all. The environmental storyline was overly dogmatic, its preachy lack of subtlety robbing it of emotional effect. People are contrary and when an author insists on telling us instead of showing us, we resist. Scott showed none of her narrative skill with that story, it was heavy-handed and obvious.

This was such a mixed bag of a novel. There were the parts I liked, the Maggie Gleason and Lee Jaffe story, even the Pauline story. The rest of it, meh.

I received a copy of Careers for Women from the publisher through NetGalley.

★★★

Again an interesting portrayal of an era from 1958 to the fall of the twin towers. However, the dichotomy between the housewife and the career woman was striking. The plot was somewhat convoluted, but the pollution issue described was spot-on.

I read about 10% of this and then lost interest. I just didn't care about the characters enough to continue.

I started Careers For Women by Joanna Scott last night and am really into it. I didn’t get very far but far enough to know it’s going to be a good book! I absolutely love novels that take place in New York City during previous decades and this one is set in

Here’s what you need to know:

In the Public Relations Department of the New York Port Authority in 1958, Maggie Gleason is one of several extraordinary young women learning from the legendary Lee Jaffe. A renowned publicist in a man’s world, Lee tries to show her charges that despite the obstacles in their way, they can lead fulfilling, successful lives. But when she takes Pauline Moreau and her daughter Sonia under her wing, no one can foresee the deadly consequences of a secret from the past that Pauline can’t escape no matter how hard she tries. What Maggie discovers in the wake of Pauline’s mysterious disappearance upends everything she thought she knew about work, love, family, and ambition.

I’d been in a bit of a reading slump so I was so happy when I was pulled into this book from page one!