More romance than the description alludes to, which is fine but the best parts of this book for me were the many realistic descriptions/situations/people that were true of the 1950's. Mad Men style! The Cold War, spies, McCarthism, conspiracies, sexism, journalism. So interesting. As a child of the 1950's I loved reading about it!

This is a good historical thriller stating out in the 1950’s at an upstart magazine. It’s fast paced and includes cameos of famous people during that time period. It has a strong female protagonist and is well written. I wasn’t as interested in the side story that was a novel being written by the female character. It was sci-fi romance which are two of my least favorite subjects. All in all this was a good read.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest opinion..

This is too much of a romance novel for me. I got through it by skimming heavily. It wasn’t really the “web of secrets, deceptions, and mysteries” that the blurb promised, more like a soap opera. 2.5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Louise is a writer. She has published several works under a male pseudonym for her boyfriend’s magazine. She is also writing a science fiction novel which is showing great promise. With her love life and her professional life going so well, it comes as a shock when she overhears a conversation. So, she starts to investigate and and ends up in dangerous territory.

Now, I am in the minority on this book. I read a few reviews and a lot of people loved this book. I, however, did not. This is a story which I enjoyed while I was reading it but, if I ever put it down, I didn’t want to pick it back up. I did not like either one of the main characters. Louise is wishy washy and Joe is just not a nice man. He does his best to cut Louise down to size on several occasions even going behind her back to make sure she didn’t achieve her goals and that just did not sit well with me.

I am also not a fan of the story within a story format. We get to read Louise’s novel throughout this novel. I will be honest…I skimmed a good bit of that part.

That being said…there was still something about this story which kept me reading. I did enjoy the name dropping and reading about Hemingway. I also enjoyed the time period and the mystery surrounding Joe.

Need a glamorous historical fiction novel…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today!

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

Once again I’m back with women in the 1950s in this okay novel inspired by the real life infiltration of the CIA into US arts and culture.

Aspiring writer Louise Leithauser hopes that her boyfriend, Joe, will publish some of her work in his new magazine Downtown. But he and co-publisher Harry are mixed up in something that Louise can’t quite put her finger on. Eventually they ask Louise to interview Ernest Hemingway for Downtown and she gets some exciting scopes about his views on Castro, spies, and Ivy League publishers (though “Papa” Hemingway comes over as a bit of a twit and I’m not sure if that’s deliberate.) However, her write up has all the good stuff edited out by Harry. Then Harry turns up dead.

Louise’s paranoia ramps up as more mysterious happenings roll around. Who is spying? Who is being spied on? What is the purpose of all this spying? Is there a genuine threat to Louise? It does resolve but I found myself not particularly interested in finding out any of the answers.

Woven into this is Louise’s novel, The Lunar Housewife, a science fiction tale about an American defector, Katherine, who is sent to live on the moon with a Soviet astronaut, Sergey. It is also, of course, a covert analogy to what’s happening in Louise’s life. It’s a cute idea to write scifi from a 1950s perspective but the writing itself is very potboiler-ish (though again that may be a deliberate choice).

There’s nothing really wrong with this novel, and I see other reviewers really loved it. The inspiration for the novel is indeed intriguing but the way it’s woven into Louise’s story didn’t pique my interest that much and I’ve recently read much more interesting books about women in the 1950s.

Thanks to Doubleday and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

In 1953 Manhattan, Louise is a file clerk moonlighting as a writer for her lover Joe’s magazine. It’s a vast improvement over her previous job as a server. But Louise begins to get suspicious of the activities of Joe and his partner, Harry, particularly when they heavily edit her interview with Ernest Hemingway. Unfortunately her suspicions coincide with her discovery of her pregnancy. Times are changin’ in 1953 but not fast enough to make the life of an unmarried mother an easy one.

Louise makes some major decisions, enabling her to finish her science fiction/romance novel that Joe derided (chapters of which are interspersed through the book).

Based on the CIA’s actual involvement in influencing art and letters in the 1950s, this novel is a fascinating glimpse into the “other” 1950s—the one not cheerfully portrayed in Happy Days and that ilk. Louise is a brave heroine, unafraid to challenge social mores. Along with Hemingway, other real-life figures have cameos in this book (James Baldwin and Truman Capote, to name a few). #TheLunarHousewife #NetGalley

Spies and Journalism in the Cold War Era

It’s 1953, Louise Leithauser is working to become a serious journalist and author. She has a job at her boyfriend Joe’s literary magazine, Downtown, where she’s been given the opportunity to shine. Her first article had to be published under a make pseudonym, but she thinks it’s worth it when she gets the opportunity to interview Ernest Hemingway. In addition, the novel she’s writing about a housewife to defects to the Soviet Union to become an astronaut is going well.

However, life is never perfect. When she overhears Joe and his partner talking about listening devices and death threats, she has to find out what is going on. Her foray in to murky world that may include espionage, the CIA, and censorship of writers changes her and the novel she’s writing.

I thought the author did an excellent job bringing the post WWII world to life. Louise’s problems in the workforce were experienced by many women looking for careers. Now that the war was over, women were supposed to go back to being wives and mothers no matter what their ambitions were.

The involvement of the CIA in trying to censor artists and writers is true to life and provides a realistic background for the story. I enjoyed all the vignettes of famous writers that appeared in the novel. What I didn’t enjoy was having to move from the story of Louise’s life to the novel she was writing. I found it intrusive and frankly, the novel wasn’t as interesting as what was happening to Louise.

I received this book from Doubleday for this review.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Doubleday for the gifted copy!

I loved this! I think the 1950s are such a fun area to explore especially when it's explored not through rose tinted glasses. I didn't love all the name dropping but I did enjoy seeing historically accurate characters from pop culture. Idk it's a weird mix of interesting but also throwing in random figures.... overall, I liked it!

It's so easy to romanticize the 1950s when men looked and dressed and drank like Don Draper in Mad Men. But then you remember the bad -- the McCarthy hearings, the bigotry, the sexism. It's an era that had it all. The Lunar Housewife author, Caroline Woods, does a fabulous job of bringing the era fully to life.

The protagonist is Louise Leithauser. She's a talented journalist, but as a product of the era, her articles only get published when she uses a male pseudonym. Still, Louise has a job she loves at a literary magazine called Downtown where she's in a relationship with Joe Martin, who is one of the editors. Life is exciting -- late nights of drinking and dancing and attending literary parties with the likes of Truman Capote. But Louise is getting suspicious of Joe and his business partner's hushed conversations about listening devices and Communism. Could they be involved with the newly formed CIA? Her suspicions are validated when Louise is given the opportunity to interview the great Ernest Hemingway, and Joe and his partner edit out all of the most interesting parts of Louise's article. Something is definitely up.

The majority of the novel focuses on Louise and Joe and the magazine, but there is a second storyline that takes the form of a book that Louise is writing in her own time. It's about an American woman who goes to space with a Russian cosmonaut and falls in love. Joe is apoplectic when he discovers and reads the manuscript. He tells Louise that the government will go crazy if Louise tries to publish a novel like that during the Cold War era and tries to destroy her only copy.

This is such an unusual historical fiction novel, and I loved it, particularly the passages about James Baldwin and Hemingway. The novel is beautifully written, and Louise is such a strong character. My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for providing me an eGalley in exchange for an honest review. I highly recommend The Lunar Housewife to lovers of historical fiction.

Women writers in the 1950s?! I'm all in! This book is hard for me to describe as it's multi-layered and even has multi-genres within it, but it worked seamlessly for me. A unique historical fiction book. It's a quick, Fun read!

This one wasn’t for me. I’m found the story within a story to not work for me - and I think this is a me issue, not the books issue. I also felt like it was a bit cheesy with the name dropping characters that didn’t come to life for me. I’ve seen lots of great praise, and I’ll mention it to those I think will enjoy it.

I was immediately drawn to the attractive 1950's black & pink photo on the cover -
The setting is NYC in 1953, a young female journalist wants to be taken seriously, so she writes under a male byline for an up & coming, modern urban literary magazine.
In her free time, Louise writes a science fiction romance based on the deception portrayed to the public by the CIA and the Soviet Union.
Truman Capote and James Baldwin appear briefly and Louise gets to interview Ernest Hemingway for the magazine her boyfriend owns.
It is interesting to see how Louise navigates her way in a male dominated industry and society who thinks women should still be home in the kitchen.
The suspense starts when she uncovers subtle propaganda within the magazine and no one is whom they seem.
The author deftly switches back & forth between Louise's life and the life of the woman in the book she is writing, until they are happening parallel to each other.

The author's note states that this book was inspired by actual events as the CIA used American arts & letters as propaganda during the cold War, funneling government money to writers and magazines, such as "The Paris Review" and trained people as spies to keep tabs on fellow writers.

2.5 stars, rounded down
I'm always on the lookout for an interesting historical fiction. What I can’t handle is historical fiction that’s more romance than history. While it’s not a romance, this still didn’t really work for me. I found it predictable, with the feeling of Girl Journalist beats the boys at their own game.
Louise is trying to become a serious journalist. She wrote one article under a fictitious male name for a new men’s magazine where her boyfriend is the editor. She’s then given the opportunity to interview Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway never came across as a real person. Woods has him speak in a weird, stilted style.
Wood does a good job getting the time and place right, the casual misogyny, the different attitudes between the Korean War and WWII, the communist scare and the HUAC.
What she truly doesn’t get right is the science fiction novel that Louise is writing. I hated that part. It was stupid and trite and felt like a take off on a Twilight Zone episode.
Described as “stylish and suspenseful”, it felt clunky and slow to me. Woods shows us Louise’s paranoia over and over, but it always felt contrived.
The best part of the book was the Author’s Note, detailing which parts of the book were based on fact. I found it odd that she didn’t bring out that Hemingway was in fact monitored by the FBI and there are now claims that their ongoing surveillance of him played into his committing suicide.
My thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday Books for an advance copy of this book.

I loved The Lunar Housewife. The story takes place in the 1950's. Louise is fantastic, she's an aspiring novelist who meets and falls in love with Joe, Downtown magazine's founder. Throughout the story they meet many famous people. I loved Ernest Hemingway. I loved the Novel Louise is writing "The Lunar Housewife" and how it coincides with her life. The story was great and is inspired by the true story of the CIA's use of American arts and letters as propaganda during the cold war. I enjoyed all the characters, full of life. I'm looking forward to reading more of this Authors work.
#TheLunarHousewife #NetGalley

I give The Lunar Housewife 5 stars for its intriguing read.
I would recommend this book to Historical Fiction fans.

An unusual novel, to be sure, which includes parts of the novel- the Lunar Housewife- written by the main character. Louise has pulled herself from Ossining to Manhattan and, in 1953, she's dating Joe and writing for Downtown Magazine, which he founded with his friend Harry. There's something odd about them, though, but she can't put her finger on it. It's the height of the Cold War and not everyone is who they seem. Louise wants to be a novelist and she's writing a romance between a woman who defected from the US to be an Soviet astronaut. There's oddities with Harry, there's oddities with Joe but Louise pushes on, especially after she interviews Hemingway, who treats her well. Much drama surrounding Hemingway (you might find yourself taking another look at his personal history for this period). A surprise pregnancy and betrayals by various characters adds to the drama. The espionage aspects are more than a little muddled but hold on for the twists in Louise's novel. She's a great character and this is an interesting snapshot of writers and others during the period. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

Stylishly written, The Lunar Housewife by Caroline Woods gives us a glimpse of the literary world of NYC in the early 1950s. It also takes the reader on a tense and suspenseful ride based on the true story of CIA involvement in pushing propaganda in American arts and letters during the Cold War. Louise Leithauser writes for a literary magazine run by her boyfriend, Joe. They run in fashionable circles, partying with the likes of Truman Capote, and Louise is about to land a career-making interview with Ernest Hemingway. Louise is perhaps the most brilliant journalist they have and certainly has a keen political mind, but she is up against the awful sexism of the time and must write a male pseudonym. One night, Louise overhears a troubling conversation between Joe and his business partner about death threats and listening devices. It appears as though Joe is involved with the CIA. Although keeping secrets of her own, Louise must figure out what is going on, how deep Joe is into it, and who, if anyone, she can trust.
Woods does an excellent job of making the reader a keen observer of the period details and Louise's feelings and suspicions. And there are plenty of twists and turns to feed both Louise's and the reader's uncertainties. I questioned everything!
Louise is also writing a sci-fi novel about an American woman and Russian man stationed together on the Moon. Through this novel within the novel, Louise's character channels her talents, frustrations, feelings, and more. The cameos by Capote, James Baldwin, and Hemingway especially were a lot of fun! This was a page-turner! Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the opportunity to review this ARC. I enjoyed it!

What I liked about the book was the sense of time and place showing the tenor of the times in the early 1950's with HUAC, Cold War and spies as well as the smaller details of life. What didn't work for me was the book within the book which was close to half of the pages. And while I enjoyed the representation of the literary/ publishing world. And even though the reality of what happened and portrayed in the book is undeniable, certain characters were almost stereotypes and not real seeming people.

This is a book that I thought I would really enjoy from the synopsis and cover but disappointed my expectations. Hemingway's story arc was well-written and novel, but the rest of the book left me feeling perturbed. The book is like living in a conspiracy theory, and even after finishing it I have many remaining questions (and not in a good way). The book is not dull but it is definitely not a thriller. The author is a talented writer but this story did not sit with me well, and I don't understand have its other reviews are so positive.

It is extremely rare that I do not finish I book. I made it through 41% and just could not push on. Flares went up at the beginning that this book would not be for me.

I was looking forward to reading "A stylish and suspenseful historical page-turner following an up-and-coming journalist who stumbles onto a web of secrets, deceptions, and mysteries at a popular new literary magazine--inspired by the true story of CIA intervention in Cold War American arts and letters." BUT...

Two stories. Louise Leithauser, New York City, 1953 and her struggles in the literary world [publishing using a male pseudonym in a new literary magazine] --and in life, her boyfriend, Joe, yadda yadda. Joe's best friend Harry, who screws around on his wife, Glenys, Louise's friend. Louise is writing science fiction romance novel on the side--The Lunar Housewife [hence the title]-- where a female US astronaut is in space with a male Soviet astronaut.

Much gender inequality in both stories.

The novel reads in part like a narrated black and white noir movie. [or so it seemed to me--at least at the start].

There were hints from the beginning that Joe was not who he seemed] --I never really found out as I abandoned].

Language such as:

"we kissed deeply"
"He had his sinewy arms crossed over his chest. For a moment, she felt distracted."
"She hesitated to think of it as desire, but it was something, something. "I know that." said Sergey, his words coming out in nearly a whisper."

signalled that I could not go on.

In the distinct minority of readers [so far].

"The Lunar Housewife" is about a female writer who finds herself unable to trust her boyfriend when she learns he may be involved in the CIA. She's secretly been writing a romance about an American woman and a Russian man stationed on the moon, but she doesn't know who to trust with such a daring story.

This novel is full of intrigue. I liked how Louise's fictional worth grew as events happened in her life, and I would read a full-length version of the story. The book is packed with great characters, and it's hard to know who to trust. The story has danger, romance, and tragedy, which makes it hard to put down.