One evening a few months ago, 15 women arrived after-hours at the Phillips auction house on the stretch of Midtown Manhattan just below Central Park known as Billionaires’ Row. They were there for, of all things, a book club, and they had snagged their $70 tickets in the minutes before they sold out. The host, British influencer Lizzy Hadfield, greeted each of the guests and pointed them toward servers standing ready with orange wine. Many of the attendees resembled Hadfield—30-ish, dressed elegantly in all black, and carrying Rebecca Makkai’s novel The Great Believers.
After 20 minutes of mingling in the Phillips gallery, the group sat down at a big table filled with extravagant charcuterie boards, surrounded by artwork by Roy Lichtenstein and Ed Ruscha. Hadfield began the discussion before handing it over to the guests.
