An occasionally engaging update to a nearly century-old clan history, but its appeal may be limited to few outside the fold.
Forbes presents an account of the historic Clan Forbes from the Scottish Highlands on behalf of its official society.
The author describes this book as an update to a 1937 account of the clan’s history, House of Forbes, written by siblings Alistair and Henrietta Tayler. In this revised account, Forbes traces the clan’s story from its origins as a Gaelic clan to its contemporary status as a “far‑flung kinship whose members now inhabit every corner of the globe.” The author provides a blow-by-blow of Clan Forbes’ history, dating back to the Middle Ages, and he focuses on various Gaelic warrior traditions from before recorded history, presenting them as precedents for the clan’s fighting and noble traditions. There’s plenty of intrigue in the text surrounding battles, marriages, and power struggles, both inside and outside the clan, and the author makes a strong case for the Forbeses’ significance to the history of Scotland, a subject whose popularity has grown among general audiences with the popularity of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels and their Starz TV series adaptation. Specifically, Forbes places his clan’s history firmly at the center of Scotland’s resistance to English rule and the enduring battle for Scottish independence. Members of the clan, Forbes writes, fought alongside such well-known figures as William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, and he explains the clan’s strong ties to Scottish nobility through a series of marriages, with special attention paid to the roles the clan played between the 13th and 17th centuries.
The book specifically addresses a lengthy feud between the noble Gordon family and Clan Forbes, and amid passages on such noble intrigue, the author delves into the extensive and honorable military history of the clan’s members through the centuries. He effectively clarifies how they took part in numerous engagements in the subsequent wars of religion fought between Protestant and Catholic factions in the British Isles during the 17th and 18th centuries; during the various Jacobite uprisings, members of the clan even found themselves at odds, fighting for opposing sects. Overall, members of Clan Forbes will no doubt find this an engrossing story, steeped in personal meaning. General readers, however, may have somewhat less interest, as the book’s subject, and members of Clan Forbes, are placed at the center of every event, to the exclusion of broader historical context. Much of the book is genealogical in focus, and the author often gets caught up in listing the titles of various figures within the clan in a manner that would interest few outside of its members and devotees of the organization. The text is also formatted in a way that makes its information unclear at times. The work also has the overall feel of an academic dissertation, with inconsistent referencing and a writing style that seems a bit rushed, often given to presenting lists rather than describing a particular subject in greater detail.
An occasionally engaging update to a nearly century-old clan history, but its appeal may be limited to few outside the fold.Pub Date: April 29, 2026
ISBN: 9781977291554
Page Count: 198
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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 Yorkerstaff 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
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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