Readers eager to learn more about Grace Kelly would be better served by reading Donald Spoto's High Society (2009) or Wendy...
A heavy-handed, tedious “self-help” book offering precious little in the way of advice—unless listing New York restaurants once patronized by Grace Kelly counts as advice.
Purportedly written as a “modern-day guide to the classic beauty and timeless style of the Hollywood starlet and real-life princess, Grace Kelly,” the narrative is just an amalgamation of the juicy bits of the books McKinnon (1001 Ridiculous Sexual Misadventures, 2009, etc.) has read about Kelly in the last year. Did you know Grace had a difficult relationship with her father? Have you heard she had affairs with her co-stars? Or that her marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco was “no fairytale”? Do you know the difference between being fashionable and possessing “true style”? If not, you will learn all that and more from this mediocre book. The advice about how to “channel Grace” in one's everyday life ranges from the obvious and unspecific (“Exude confidence,” “Make friends from all walks of life,” “Remember birthdays,” “Keep in touch”) to the insultingly out of reach (“Stay at the Savoy when in London”). The author's attempts at humor are often strained: “now it's time to put your life in the dock and subpoena your inner Grace. As a witness in the vagaries of life, we can't think of anyone more expert than she”; “Keep with tradition and don’t show your husband your dress…or what’s underneath it until your wedding day.”
Readers eager to learn more about Grace Kelly would be better served by reading Donald Spoto's High Society (2009) or Wendy Leigh's True Grace (2007), both of which are quoted at length here. Readers who wish to be more like Kelly would be better off watching her films.Pub Date: April 11, 2013
ISBN: 978-1592408283
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Gotham Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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