“Love Story,” the Ryan Murphy series that chronicles the doomed love affair of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, has captured America’s imagination with its combination of explosive drama, Camelot mystique and 1990s cool. With the March 26 finale, this tragic romance came to a watery end. If you’re mourning not just the golden couple but also their fabulous pre-internet world of effervescent glamour, indoor smoking and robust print magazines, here are a few books to help you keep the party going.
Once Upon a Time
by Elizabeth Beller
The basis for the TV series, Beller’s biography — which “aims to make John F. Kennedy Jr.’s wife the princess she was meant to be,” as our reviewer said — is sympathetic, generous and full of the turtlenecks and headbands you crave. Read our review.
What Remains
by Carole Radziwill
A lot of people published memoirs after the death of John and Carolyn, from his assistant to Carolyn’s sometimes boyfriend to childhood friends. Although Radziwill doesn’t appear in “Love Story,” the former Real Housewife of New York arguably has a much better story to tell: She was married to John’s cousin Anthony, and writes extensively about the couples’ close friendship. Read our review.
Bergdorf Blondes
by Plum Sykes
If you can’t get enough of those “foiled cashmere” highlights, then pick up this deliciously frothy novel by Sykes, a former Vogue girl-about-town who brings insider knowledge to her barbed comedy of manners about Manhattan’s richest socialites. Read our review.
Sex and the City
by Candace Bushnell
Although Bushnell and Kennedy were never an item, he did briefly date Sarah Jessica Parker, who portrayed her fictional alter ego, Carrie Bradshaw. This iconic collection of Bushnell’s New York Observer columns captures the social world of ’90s New York in all its take-no-prisoners glory.
America’s Queen
by Sarah Bradford
If Naomi Watts’s performance left you wanting to know more about Kennedy’s mother, the enigmatic Jackie O., Bradford’s comprehensive biography will take you from her unstable childhood to her brilliant social debut and her high-profile marriages. Read our review.
Meant to Be
by Emily Giffin
While Giffin’s novel isn’t explicitly about Kennedy and Bessette, her engaging story of a model who becomes involved with a scion of “American royalty” takes obvious inspiration from their lives, and their world is vividly rendered.
Simplify Your Life
by Elaine St. James
This classic ’90s self-help book is an ode to minimalism in all things: décor, exercise, comportment, workplace interactions and, of course, clothing. It’s a one-stop shop to help you answer the eternal question W.W.C.D. (What would Carolyn do?).
Ask Not
by Maureen Callahan
Finally, if you want to see the Kennedy family in a less hagiographical light, pick up this searing indictment of the dynasty’s treatment of the women in its midst. In Callahan’s hands, almost no one makes it out unscathed. Read our review.
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