A comprehensive and unusual look at England’s most famous queen.
Fields (Shylock: His Own Story, 2015, etc.) tackles the knowns and unknowns of England’s Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) in this work of history.
Elizabeth I, aka “Gloriana” and “the Virgin Queen,” was a colorful figure at the center of an eventful period in English history who still manages to stimulate the popular imagination more than 400 years after her death. This wide-ranging biography’s first section is a breathless account that spans the entire Tudor dynasty from the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to the ascension of James I in 1603, with the requisite reiteration of Elizabeth’s rise to power, her completion of England’s break from the Catholic Church, the war with Spain, and her constantly evolving entourage of advisers, favorites, and paramours. The second section of the book, “Elizabethan Enigmas,” is organized by topic as Fields delves into the curios of Elizabeth’s life. Was she truly a virgin? Did she sanction the murder of the wife of nobleman Robert Dudley? What were her true thoughts on Catholicism? In other chapters, such as “Duplicity,” “Miserliness,” and “Piracy and Worse,” Fields introduces readers to aspects of the queen that they may not have heard before. The concision and comprehensiveness of the first section are impressive, and its brevity and quick pacing keep it from getting bogged down in minutiae the way that biographies of monarchs often do. Fields’ true interest seems to lie in the second section’s subject matter, though, and his enthusiasm is infectious. Without humoring outright conspiracy theories—he dismisses the idea that she wrote Shakespeare’s plays with the terse statement, “She did write well; but not that well”—Fields finds plenty of intrigues to challenge conventional notions of the queen. Twelve beautiful, full-color portraits from the National Portrait Gallery in London and a timeline of the queen’s life round out this volume. Its 450-plus pages belie what a quick read it actually is, making it a perfect primer for those interested in the “Good Queen Bess” but who may be intimidated by some of the longer tomes available.
A comprehensive and unusual look at England’s most famous queen.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 451
Publisher: Marmont Lane
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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