Without question, Winston Churchill was one of the great statesmen of the 20thC, but as a parent, less great. This is somewhat understandable as his own parents set a lousy example. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a harsh man and often unkind to his son. Winston’s mother, the lovely Jennie ... [Continue Reading]
Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci
In this culinary memoir, Stanley Tucci’s life experiences, from his childhood in Westchester County, New York, to film sets around the world, are filtered through what was on the menu. Family members and friends (mostly famous) make cameo appearances, notable locales are described, and tragedies ... [Continue Reading]
A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell Reading histories of World War II, one could assume that the resistance movement in France was populated entirely by men. Not so, as two recent biographies of heroic women ... [Continue Reading]
First: Sandra Day O’Connor by Evan Thomas
When Justice O’Connor, the first female Supreme Court justice, arrived at the Supreme Court in 1981, one of the first things she did was establish an early morning aerobics class for her female clerks; attendance was mandatory. It was held in the basketball court above the courtroom and open to all ... [Continue Reading]
The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free by Paulina Bren
Although there had been residential hotels for bachelors and families for decades (see The Thin Man movies), until the early twentieth century there were no residential hotels for women because there was no need for such a thing. American women stayed home. But in 1903, recognizing a nascent ... [Continue Reading]
Finding Oz by Evan Schwartz
For those of you who are only familiar with the works of L. Frank Baum through the MGM movie, The Wizard of Oz, I must correct a terrible misconception. Dorothy didn’t dream Oz. Oz is real. 26 novels real. And The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on which the MGM extravaganza is based isn’t even the best ... [Continue Reading]
The Blind Sideby Michael Lewis
A year or so ago, I read an article by Michael Lewis in The New York Times entitled “The Ballad of Big Mike.” The article, which was adapted from Lewis’s book, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, concerns a poor, black teenager adopted by a white family in Memphis. The story, while interesting, ... [Continue Reading]
Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown
If you are a fan of The Crown and enjoy Royal gossip, I recommend Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret, which for lack of a better description, is an unconventional biography. Brown has assembled in no particular order ninety-nine vignettes of the controversial princess taken from ... [Continue Reading]
The Crown in Crisis, Countdown to the Abdication by Alexander Larman
I was disappointed in The Crown in Crisis, Countdown to the Abdication, a day-by-day account of the last month of King Edward VIII’s reign. The author claims to have unearthed unseen archival material and interviews about the crisis in which the king renounces the throne for the woman he loves, the ... [Continue Reading]
The Man Who Ate Too Much by John Birdsall
In 1938, thirty-five-year-old James Beard, college dropout and struggling actor, returned to New York City from his home in Oregon to give acting one last try. Residing with a wealthy roommate at 14 Washington Place, Beard’s theater career never got off the ground, but his side hustle catering ... [Continue Reading]