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Ms. Murphy's Makeover
Charlotte Murphy—trusting wife, loving mother, and dedicated teacher—comes to suspect that her wealthy, arrogant husband of eighteen years has been cheating on her and that the principal of the inner-city vocational high school where she teaches English has been changing answers on state-mandated standardized tests. Seeing their teacher's unhappiness, her students convince her to let them give her a movie star makeover. When they're done, Charlotte doesn't recognize herself and vows to change her life. Charlotte's new life is further complicated by the unwelcome attention of Theo Lagakis, the school's dean, who has a hidden agenda. Whom can she trust?
Charlotte's story is enhanced by the poetry she loves to teach, as well as with first-person commentary from her student and close observer, Valerie Martin. Valerie, a serious student, faces not being able to graduate from high school due to the allegedly forged scores.
Charlotte's story is enhanced by the poetry she loves to teach, as well as with first-person commentary from her student and close observer, Valerie Martin. Valerie, a serious student, faces not being able to graduate from high school due to the allegedly forged scores.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 2, 2016
5 people are currently reading
10 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 11, 2016
Ms. Murphy's Makeover: An Authentic Story About Teaching and Love
Jacqueline Goldstein's debut novel will delight you with dry wit and subtle humor, as well as entertain you with an intelligent and compelling love story. She has written a unique plot about an inner city teacher that will haunt you long after you have finished reading it. Charlotte Murphy, who teaches English at a Bronx vocational high school for cosmetology, believes her students need to be exposed to Shakespeare and poetry, and they, in turn, believe she needs a beauty makeover.
Goldstein contrasts Charlotte's chaotic life at school with her very comfortable Connecticut life raising twin teenage daughters while being married to a snobbish, controlling husband. Her quiet suburban life is suddenly threatened when she discovers her husband is having an affair. In addition, the new dean of students, Theo Lagakis, has become annoyingly attentive to her. Charlotte's first impressions of Lagakis are as wrong as Elizabeth Bennett's first impressions of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. However, Goldstein's captivating love story unfolds against a backdrop littered with used condoms and graffiti, rather than the bucolic grounds of a great mansion.
When Jacqueline Goldstein writes about Bronx students, she knows what's she's talking about, having taught thousands of students like Valerie and Rohan and China. Each character is lovingly drawn as Goldstein captures both the difficulties of teaching in an urban high school and the hilarious situations that sometimes arise. She has a special talent for imitating their voices and revealing their inner thoughts. In fact, we see Charlotte from a different perspective when we read the first person journal entries of one of her students, Valerie Martin.
Besides being a provocative and authentic story about teaching, Ms. Murphy's Makeover is a stirring love story that will remain with you long after you've turned the last page. I loved it from beginning to end.
Jacqueline Goldstein's debut novel will delight you with dry wit and subtle humor, as well as entertain you with an intelligent and compelling love story. She has written a unique plot about an inner city teacher that will haunt you long after you have finished reading it. Charlotte Murphy, who teaches English at a Bronx vocational high school for cosmetology, believes her students need to be exposed to Shakespeare and poetry, and they, in turn, believe she needs a beauty makeover.
Goldstein contrasts Charlotte's chaotic life at school with her very comfortable Connecticut life raising twin teenage daughters while being married to a snobbish, controlling husband. Her quiet suburban life is suddenly threatened when she discovers her husband is having an affair. In addition, the new dean of students, Theo Lagakis, has become annoyingly attentive to her. Charlotte's first impressions of Lagakis are as wrong as Elizabeth Bennett's first impressions of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. However, Goldstein's captivating love story unfolds against a backdrop littered with used condoms and graffiti, rather than the bucolic grounds of a great mansion.
When Jacqueline Goldstein writes about Bronx students, she knows what's she's talking about, having taught thousands of students like Valerie and Rohan and China. Each character is lovingly drawn as Goldstein captures both the difficulties of teaching in an urban high school and the hilarious situations that sometimes arise. She has a special talent for imitating their voices and revealing their inner thoughts. In fact, we see Charlotte from a different perspective when we read the first person journal entries of one of her students, Valerie Martin.
Besides being a provocative and authentic story about teaching, Ms. Murphy's Makeover is a stirring love story that will remain with you long after you've turned the last page. I loved it from beginning to end.
June 16, 2016
I love this book! The two interwoven story lines (high school teacher Charlotte Murphy, and her student Valerie) are completely absorbing. I lost time when inhaling this novel -- looking up only to discover I was already late, and then wondering if I had time for "just one more" page, chapter, etc. before I put it down. A wonderful book club selection, it raises plenty of questions for discussion, from love and trust, through parenthood, and into the trenches and politics of educating teenagers in the Bronx. I strongly recommend this book -- I hope you give Ms. Murphy and her students a chance to leap off the page and into your heart, as they have into mine.
January 1, 2017
Love this book. A modern twist on a Jane Austen tale.
December 8, 2022
A wonderful book with memorable characters. Loved the Jane Austen-like romance witticism and compassionate teacher-student story woven together in a compelling novel. Would love to read a sequel!
September 12, 2016
What a great book! Perhaps because I knew the book had a romance, I expected something frothy and light. Instead, the author has created an engaging protagonist and surrounded her with fully developed characters in a unique setting. As an English teacher in a Bronx high school where students study cosmetology, Charlotte Murphy struggles to bring the joys of literature to inner city teenagers. While doing the best at her job, Charlotte is embroiled in problems at home and at work. She discovers the infidelity of her cold and aloof husband and is pressured by her principal, a supposedly good friend, not to reveal the principal’s role in a test score scandal. The author, like Charlotte, clearly knows her literature as can be seen in her clever use of the epistolary technique to tell a story through the eyes of a student named Valerie. By using entries in a journal Valerie keeps for class, the author does a terrific job in capturing the student’s voice through which we learn the funny and often heartbreaking story of Valerie’s life and hear her perspective on Charlotte. The romance I mentioned is a fine one and who doesn’t enjoy reading about a second chance at love. (Think Dorothea of Middlemarch.) Don’t let my emphasis on English literature discourage anyone because this book is a funny, witty and enjoyable read. Highly recommend.
Want to Read
July 11, 2016Charlotte Murphy has several crises going on in her life, yet she manages to deal with them with aplomb and caring. As a high school English teacher in a poor school in the Bronx, she deals with many problems: students being abused, dealing drugs, trying to stay away from drugs, being pregnant, trying not to be pregnant… Some of these students are taught by “people who should never be allowed near children,” as a friend of mine says. Dealing with all this leaves little time for Charlotte’s marriage and teen-age daughters, leading to other crises. Yet somehow she perseveres and makes us care not only about her but about all the other characters. This is a truly engrossing and engaging novel!
June 25, 2016
I fell in love with Ms. Murphy's Makeover from the moment Charlotte Murphy slips on a condom as she approaches the school gate and sees the "smirking face of Ted Lagakis, Dean of Discipline." I fell in love with Valerie, the student who dresses in purple and tells us what is really going on behind the scenes. I liked the villains, like Natalie, school Principal who may have rigged the standardized tests. And Charlotte herself, English teacher at the vocational school in the Bronx who fights to the teeth for her students. This book is more than a wonderful story, the characters are vivid and fully dimensional, the writing, superb.
July 28, 2016
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! So much to sink your teeth into -- a compelling plot, a wonderful love story, and a powerful, authentic and heartbreaking look at inner-city education. The main character is a committed teacher, a devoted mother, a struggling wife, and an utterly sympathetic and relatable woman trying hard to do her best in a chaotic world. Looking forward to this author's next book!
July 10, 2016
Engaging, entertaining and fast paced, MS. MURPHY'S MAKEOVER is a must read. This is the tale of a thirty something wife, mother, teacher, who commutes from her suburban home to a job she loves --teaching writing at an inner-city vocational school --when a sudden discovery turns her life on end.
A page turner that is hard to put down, the reader may rush through it once, and then read it again.
to enjoy the outstanding prose and the compelling story.
A page turner that is hard to put down, the reader may rush through it once, and then read it again.
to enjoy the outstanding prose and the compelling story.
June 25, 2016
A beautifully written, gripping story about a woman's personal journey from insecurity to love and fulfillment. Ms. Murphy's Makeover will make you laugh and cry with its roller-coaster ride of ups and downs--gangs and scholars, truth and treachery, love and lust, death and rebirth. A must read for anyone who loves a great book that you can't put down!
December 27, 2016
Theo Lagakis is not your typical hero. In truth, he a Neanderthal, but he grows on the reader. I found this book near perfect.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews