Engaging, multilayered history of the best kind, grounded in telling detail and marvelous personalities.
A singular take on the history of the Yalta Conference, viewed through the eyes of the three notable daughters who supported their famous fathers, the “Big Three,” and contributed in heretofore undocumented ways.
In a substantive debut work of first-rate scholarship, Katz—a Cambridge- and Harvard-educated historian now pursuing a degree at Harvard Law School—delves into the behind-the-scenes soft diplomacy of the “Little Three”: Kathleen Harriman, the “glamorous” daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union; Anna Roosevelt, a mother of three and former newspaper editor; and Sarah Churchill, an aerial reconnaissance intelligence analyst in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. Each has a fascinating backstory involving the relationship with her respective father, and each played an important role during what promised to be an arduous meeting to figure out the endgame of World War II and postwar reorganization of Europe. Through letters home and dispatches written by the three young women, Katz efficiently relays this fly-on-the-wall account of how the three sprawling delegations managed to get any business accomplished. FDR was housed in the czar’s former summer palace of Livadia, on the Black Sea, which had been occupied and trashed by the Nazi invaders; Churchill and the British billeted at nearby Vorontsov Palace; and Stalin and his people at the Koriez Villa and Yusupov Palace, situated between the American and British residences. The main topics of discussion were Polish nationality, the methods by which to deal with a defeated Germany, and how to draw the Soviets into the Pacific theater to aid the Americans. Hanging over the meetings and social gatherings was the specter of FDR’s grave health—only Anna knew the truth of his heart disease—and the Russian intentions to expand into Eastern Europe. Katz effectively shows how these three often overlooked women proved to be indispensable in a variety of ways.
Engaging, multilayered history of the best kind, grounded in telling detail and marvelous personalities.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-358-11785-8
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
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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