Miles obviously has a great time recounting the history of the Riviera, making the book an enjoyable, absorbing read.
For a small slice of geography, the French Riviera has cast a long shadow, and it is one of wealth, style, and decadence.
Miles, the author of a string of well-received books, describes The Once Upon a Time World as “the second volume of an informal trilogy dedicated to phenomenal places created by strangers”; the first was St Petersburg: Three Centuries of Murderous Desire. The Riviera is a strip of land, including the microstate of Monaco, nestled between the azure waters of the Mediterranean and the stunning foothills of the Alps. It was Englishman Lord Brougham who started the show in 1835, with the idea of building a health resort for the well-to-do. The plan was successful, and over time the guest list extended to artists and writers, many of whom liked the sexual freedom available. Picasso, Coco Chanel, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, and Stravinsky spent considerable time there. Even Karl Marx, and later Harpo Marx, put in an appearance. The lush casinos attracted high rollers, and American money and celebrities poured in. The Riviera fared badly during World War II, but there was a resurgence in the 1950s and 1960s, with Hollywood stars leading the way. Grace Kelly married into Monaco royalty, sealing the bond. But the good times could not last. Eventually, overdevelopment turned much of the scenery into concrete, and the area became increasingly known for crime, corruption, and money laundering. Tourism is the main business of the area, but it runs mainly on nostalgia and pleasant weather. Miles suggests that a recovery is possible, but he sounds more hopeful than convincing. Looking back, the long heyday of the Riviera seems like a fantasy story, replete with colorful and unlikely characters. And it’s a story that, perhaps, starts with “once upon a time, there was a beautiful beach….”
Miles obviously has a great time recounting the history of the Riviera, making the book an enjoyable, absorbing read.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781639364954
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
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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