A book that offers insight as well as entertainment—a peek into the human condition from an unexpected angle.
An engaging book about heiresses, women who have always been in classes of their own.
Thompson, who has penned biographies of Agatha Christie and the Mitford sisters, knows how to construct fascinating narratives out of dry research. Working from historical records, newspaper articles, and personal correspondence, the author creates a series of sketches that highlight recurring themes but also offer great variety. In Georgian England, heiresses were family assets to be traded, with their own views worth very little. This was also the case in the U.S. in the 19th century, although it had more to do with the building of business empires. It was only at the start of the 20th century that heiresses were able to exert control over their lives. Thompson has a good time with tales of American heiresses going to Europe to marry men with impressive titles but small bank accounts. Leading the way was Jennie Jerome, who married Lord Randolph Churchill and gave birth to Winston. Several heiresses, like Peggy Guggenheim, became memorable patrons of the arts. Others gave themselves over to eccentricity, spending ridiculous sums on parties, social climbing, pets, or other hobbies. Alice Silverthorne, a Chicago socialite who was married to a timber tycoon, raised a lion club called Samson. Some heiresses reveled in their unearned wealth, and some were plagued by guilt over it. Quite a few drank themselves to death. Nancy Cunard, “a precursor of the Mitford sisters by a generation,” found another sort of addiction, becoming a hardcore socialist. Nearly all of the heiresses in the book had disastrous marriages or relationships. Barbara Woolworth Hutton made a tabloid career out of picking unsuitable men, marrying seven times. A gilded cage creates a streak of self-destruction, notes Thompson. Nevertheless, she reveals her subjects as real people with measures of tragedy, resilience, and vigor.
A book that offers insight as well as entertainment—a peek into the human condition from an unexpected angle.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-20273-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2021
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
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