An excellent biography of the 35th president.
The man behind the icon.
A Kennedy specialist, Taraborrelli has written six books on the family, yet this is the first on JFK. Americans have idolized subsequent presidents for their political views, but Kennedy and his circle’s glamour captivated the world. The author states bluntly that Kennedy was assigned the goal of being president by his father, a wealthy, fiercely ambitious Democrat with eyes on the 1940 election who ruined his career when, as ambassador to Britain, early in the war he repeatedly warned FDR not to support a decrepit nation sure to lose to the Nazis. He transferred his ambition to John, who, after well-publicized heroism in the South Pacific, was elected to the House in 1947, Senate in 1953, and presidency in 1960. Taraborrelli is not the first to disparage his political acumen. Kennedy shared the average voter’s fierce anti-communism, kept silent on McCarthyism, and paid little attention to the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement until forced to deal with it as president. Taraborrelli gives priority to his personal life, a disturbing experience for most readers, although his sexual appetite is old news. Plagued throughout life by crippling back pain, he often required crutches, underwent several unsuccessful spinal operations, and patronized dubious personal physicians who kept him going with injections of amphetamines and painkillers. A serial adulterer, JFK’s father had no objection to the son’s behavior but insisted that anyone he married be suitable for a presidential candidate; Jacqueline met his approval, although neither she nor Jack were in love. Most readers will be shocked at how badly he treated her after their 1953 marriage; she seriously considered divorce, although by his years as president they had achieved a deep affection. Other biographers, led by Robert Dallek, delve more deeply into politics, but Taraborrelli nonetheless has written a commendable history.
An excellent biography of the 35th president.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781250346384
Page Count: 592
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
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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