by Meryl Gordon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 7, 2025
A lively, well-researched account of a powerful woman.
Portrait of a celebrated hostess.
Journalist and biographer Gordon recounts the eventful life of feminist, ardent Equal Rights Amendment supporter, and legendary party giver Perle Mesta (1882-1975), who served as the U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg from 1949 to 1953. The Michigan-born Pearl Skirvin gave her first party when she was 11, serving her friends sandwiches of nasturtium flowers and mayonnaise. In her early 20s, she chaperoned her sister, who was beginning her stage career, until, in 1915, Pearl moved to Manhattan on her own. There, she met George Mesta, a wealthy industrialist, 20 years older. They married in 1917 and soon moved to Washington, where Mesta served as a wartime advisor. “With an anthropologist’s intensity,” Gordon writes, “Pearl studied the rhythms of Washington social life.” After George Mesta’s sudden death in 1924, the fabulously wealthy widow became “a style setter.” Although as a Christian Scientist she did not drink, her sumptuous extravaganzas overflowed with champagne, even during the Depression. Dressed in Paris couture, surrounded by A-list guests in Washington, New York, Newport, and London, Perle (she opted for a more sophisticated spelling) became the darling of society columnists. “Every time someone asked Perle to lend her name to a charity or host an event,” Gordon observes, “it was a validation of her place in the universe.” Party giving, though, was not her only interest: calling herself “a politician first,” she was a tireless fundraiser and became close friends with the Trumans, the Eisenhowers, and LBJ. Spoofed in the musical Call Me Madam, with Ethel Merman playing the lead, Perle was more than a flighty socialite: As Gordon portrays her, she proved to be an able goodwill ambassador and savvy political operator.
A lively, well-researched account of a powerful woman.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781538751244
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
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by Stephanie Johnson & Brandon Stanton illustrated by Henry Sene Yee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 12, 2022
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
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New York Times Bestseller
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
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by Pamela Anderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 31, 2023
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
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The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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