Scruples
Judith Krantz, 1978
★ 3.83 from 15.9k ratings on Goodreads
Romance Mystery, thriller & crime
A Beverly Hills luxury empire, a film producer's Oscar campaign, and a woman with two hundred million dollars and no patience for the help. A glossy, dramatic ride through money, sex, and ambition, told with wit and a curious, gossipy pull.
Feels like passion, curiosity and nostalgia. About society, ambition and memory.
Who it’s for
You may enjoy this if you like glamorous settings, sharp talk, and stories about people with too much money and appetite. Be warned that many readers find it dated and bloated, with sexist stereotypes and stretches that drag.
Why read it
It offers a knowing look at late-1970s Beverly Hills excess and the appetites that drive people, with enough wit and drama to keep the pages turning.
A page from the book
No photograph has ever caught the version of you that walks into a room.
Since her twenty-first birthday Billy had been photographed many hundreds of times, but newspaper pictures had never quite caught her challenging reality. Her long, dark hair, the deep brown of the best mink, so brown that it looked like black licked by moonlight, was thrust behind her ears, in which she always wore her signature jewels, the great eleven-karat diamonds known as the Kimberley Twins, which had been her wedding present from her first husband, Ellis Ikehorn. What readers say
Readers often recall this as a formative, illicit thrill—trashy, sexy, glamorous, and nostalgic—while others find it dated, bloated, and uncomfortable, citing sexism, stereotypes, and boredom.
Judith Krantz.Judith Krantz was fifty when Scruples was published, her first novel, after decades of writing for women's magazines.
Books that feel like this
More by Judith Krantz
Princess Daisy
Judith Krantz, 1980
A Brooklyn Dodgers jacket, a princess’s blood, and a talent for turning charm into a deal—Daisy Valensky takes on the glamour business.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Scruples for me?
- You may enjoy this if you like glamorous settings, sharp talk, and stories about people with too much money and appetite. Be warned that many readers find it dated and bloated, with sexist stereotypes and stretches that drag.
- What is Scruples like?
- A glossy, dramatic ride through money, sex, and ambition, told with wit and a curious, gossipy pull. Feels like passion, curiosity and nostalgia. About society, ambition and memory.
- What should I read after Scruples?
- If you liked Scruples, try Chesapeake (James Michener), The Devil Wears Prada (Lauren Weisberger) and The Parsifal Mosaic (Robert Ludlum).
A taste of the feed
What it costs to leave before they name your punishment.
It took him only a few moments to reach that decision. The council would not act hastily; it never did. There would have to be long speeches, condemning him, but if this child’s father had actually used the word punish, a much more serious penalty than outlawing might be in store. His enemies had grown so outspoken that some might even demand death; if they convinced themselves that he was indeed a spy for the northern tribes, this would be logical.
Chesapeake · James Michener
Fear arrives as memory before it arrives as danger.
There was no break, no hesitation. She was carrying it off . . . carrying it out! They had done it! Suddenly he felt a jolt of pain in his chest; he knew what it was. Fear. Pure, raw, sickening fear. He was remembering—memories within memories. As he watched her his mind went back to a city in rubble, to the terrible sounds of mass execution. Lidice. And a child—one of many children—scurrying through the billowing gray smoke of burning debris, carrying messages and pockets full of plastic explosives. One break, one hesitation, then . . . history.
The Parsifal Mosaic · Robert Ludlum
What a city gains by refusing to let the world in.
For me, Savannah’s resistance to change was its saving grace. The city looked inward, sealed off from the noises and distractions of the world at large. It grew inward, too, and in such a way that its people flourished like hothouse plants tended by an indulgent gardener. The ordinary became extraordinary. Eccentrics thrived. Every nuance and quirk of personality achieved greater brilliance in that lush enclosure than would have been possible anywhere else in the world.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil · John Berendt
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