An intimate look at America's child beauty pagaents. The vibrant portraits of these young contestants twist notions of sexuality and identity, exposing a new perspective on a uniquely American subculture. High Glitz is a subgenre of pagaents characterised by couture costumes,glamour make-up, elaborate hair styles and even dental veneers. The girls are spray-tanned, made-up and groomed to glossy perfection. Anderson captures the results of this time-consuming and often unnerving endeavour in exquisite detail.
The author of the bestselling The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family brings her trademark brio and relish to the charming and fascinating world of the Château de l'Horizon on the French Riviera. The Riviera Set reveals the story of the group of people who lived, partied, bed-hopped and politicked at the Château de l'Horizon near Cannes, over the course of forty years from the time when Coco Chanel made southern French tans fashionable in the twenties to the death of the playboy Prince Aly Khan in 1960. At the heart of dynamic group was the amazing Maxine Elliott, the daughter of a fisherman from Connecticut, who built the beautiful art deco Château and brought together the likes of Noel Coward, the Aga Khan, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and two very saucy courtesans, Doris Castlerosse and Daisy Fellowes, who set out to be dangerous distractions to Winston Churchill as he worked on his journalism and biographies during his 'wilderness years' in the thirties. After the War the story continued as the Château changed hands and Prince Aly Khan used it to entertain the Hollywood set, as well as launch his seduction of and eventual marriage to Rita Hayworth Bringing a bygone era back to life, Mary Lovell cements her spot as one of our top social historians in this captivating and evocative new book.
“Intense….A higher caliber of entertainment.” —New York Times Elmore Leonard’s Glitz is a killer…in the best possible way. “The King Daddy of crime writers” (Seattle Times) electrifies with this unputdownable noir tale of a mama’s boy psycho killer with a vendetta against a Miami cop. A cat-and-mouse tale with claws, Glitz is thrilling, frightening, explosive, surprising, everything a great thriller is supposed to be—superior crime fiction the genre’s late greats, John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, et al, would have been proud to call their own. Elmore Leonard, the creator of magnificent mayhem and truly unforgettable characters—like U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens of the hit TV series Justified—is at his nail-biting, page-turning best with Glitz which Stephen King in the New York Times Book Review calls, “Smashing and satisfying.”
"From class struggle to crass struggle; that is the defining feature of the times. And the genius of today's political economy has been to convert what used to be a potential life-and-death conflict between haves and have-nots into a minor disagreement between have-lots and wanna-have-mores." Why do those who are extremely well off spend their money in socially and environmentally damaging ways? How do crooks, con artists, and counterfeiters function in the hypercharged markets catering To The whims and fancies of the very rich? and why do so many of the less fortunate insist on slavishly emulating the über rich, spending way beyond what their limited means allow? A critique of the lifestyles of today's ultra rich bolstered by old-fashioned muckraking,Crass Struggleprovides a sharp, original, and often humorous commentary on "the bad side of the good life, The underbelly of the potbelly." Taking the reader inside today's luxury trades, R.T. Naylor visits gold mines spewing arsenic and diamond fields spreading human misery, knocks on the doors of purveyors of luxury seafood as the oceans empty, samples wares of merchants offering top-vintage wines (or at least top-vintage labels), calls on companies running trophy-hunting expeditions and dealers in exotic pets high on endangered lists, and much more. What stands out is that so many high-priced items glitter on the outside, but have more than a spot of rot at the core. Through a series of outrageous but all too true stories,Crass Strugglereveals the appalling consequences of consumerism run amok and its links to repetitive financial swindles And The alarming degradation of the biophysical environment.
In the bleak, forbidding house of her great-aunts, neglected twelve-year-old orphan Maggie hears ghostly voices and finds magic that awakens in her the capacity to love and be loved.
All bets are off as #1 New York Times bestselling author Iris Johansen introduces gambler Logan Tanner, a man with a secret past that’s about to come back to haunt him. Logan Tanner lives the exhilarating life of a professional gambler, taking risks with nerves of steel. From casinos in Macau to Monte Carlo to Milan, he’s racked up a fortune and become a living legend. But all the glitz and glamor hide a dark and violent past as an extractor—a world that comes rushing back to him when the beautiful and innocent Lara Balkon enters his life. Soon Logan is drawn into the conflict between two Russian mafia bosses over Lara, whose life now hangs in the balance. Logan has been offered something more valuable to him than money—information he desperately needs—in exchange for getting Lara out of Russia and to safety. Once together, Tanner discovers that Lara is a force to be reckoned with in her own right. Tanner’s search for the truth leads them to the bright lights of Las Vegas. Where the person who was hunting Lara now lies in wait for them. With the stakes climbing with each deadly confrontation, Logan and Lara are soon catapulted into a game against pure evil. The odds are stacked against them, but it’s a game they know they must play…even if it may cost them their lives.
A fresh exploration of American feminist history told through the lens of the beauty pageant world. Many predicted that pageants would disappear by the 21st century. Yet they are thriving. America’s most enduring contest, Miss America, celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2020. Why do they persist? In Here She Is, Hilary Levey Friedman reveals the surprising ways pageants have been an empowering feminist tradition. She traces the role of pageants in many of the feminist movement’s signature achievements, including bringing women into the public sphere, helping them become leaders in business and politics, providing increased educational opportunities, and giving them a voice in the age of #MeToo. Using her unique perspective as a NOW state president, daughter to Miss America 1970, sometimes pageant judge, and scholar, Friedman explores how pageants became so deeply embedded in American life from their origins as a P.T. Barnum spectacle at the birth of the suffrage movement, through Miss Universe’s bathing beauties to the talent- and achievement-based competitions of today. She looks at how pageantry has morphed into culture everywhere from The Bachelor and RuPaul’s Drag Race to cheer and specialized contests like those for children, Indigenous women, and contestants with disabilities. Friedman also acknowledges the damaging and unrealistic expectations pageants place on women in society and discusses the controversies, including Miss America’s ableist and racist history, Trump’s ownership of the Miss Universe Organization, and the death of child pageant-winner JonBenét Ramsey. Presenting a more complex narrative than what’s been previously portrayed, Here She Is shows that as American women continue to evolve, so too will beauty pageants.
New information from We Have Your Daughter has been revealed. Here is some of it. The Family As a top reporter in Denver, Paula Woodward was one of the few who had access to the Ramsey attorneys and thus the family. One of the prevailing questions in most of the television specials is about the bowl of pineapple on the kitchen table with Burke and Patsy’s fingerprints on the bowl. That pineapple has been linked to JonBenét’s death on some television broadcasts because of a reference in the autopsy to JonBenét having “fragments like pineapple” in her stomach. For more than a year after the murder, the pineapple theory behind her death was talked about. But when Boulder police finally had the material in her stomach tested at the University of Colorado in Boulder in October of 1997, they found out two months later in December, that the material was pineapple, plus grapes, grape skins, and cherries. That is food similar to that found in a fruit cocktail. What does that mean? This is the type of exclusive and factual information you will find in We Have Your Daughter that allows you to challenge preconceived theories. In 2010, Woodward interviewed Burke Ramsey specifically for her book. • Burke discussed his family and the chaos surrounding the case. Woodward has obtained a Boulder Social Services Evaluation of the Child about Burke Ramsey that states “From the interview it is clear that Burke was not a witness to JonBenét’s death.” That raises more doubts about those who believe Burke was involved in his sister’s death and again reinforces the information Woodward has researched and uncovered. • In an interview with Burke Ramsey from 2010, he talks about his mom and how she taught him he could be optimistic or pessimistic about all the tragedies in their family. She chose positive for herself and so did he both believing it was important to find joy in each day. • After Patsy Ramsey was diagnosed again with cancer in 2002, she began sharing private conversations with Paula in 2004 and 2005. This information was to be used after she died. • John Ramsey gave Paula access to his personal journal as well as access to JonBenét’s personal drawings and photos The Handwriting Test Results Handwriting is another key controversial part of this investigation and story. Paula has information and findings that show issues with how Boulder Police handled this aspect of the investigation. She discusses the results of the handwriting. Exclusive Reports & Documents Investigative Reporter Paula Woodward reviewed portions of thousands of police reports and documents for her book. Here are some highlights of her findings which she includes in the book, all of which affected the investigation and the public’s view of the family. Exclusive: The police report from the Boulder Police Officer who was FIRST to arrive on scene the morning of December 26, 1996 – before JonBenét’s body was found and why he didn’t find it. Exclusive: In the police report from the BPD Detective who stayed on scene until JonBenét’s body was found – Paula lists some discrepancies in that report. Exclusive: Paula discovered what she calls a “deliberate campaign of disinformation” by law enforcement, based on information she received from her sources. She also cites issues with the media coverage, with outlets reporting information without verifying it. Woodward says much of the information and “anonymous leaks” reported were untrue and has all had an effect on the investigation. She cites several examples. Exclusive: Paula found found that Boulder police withheld the results of the DNA tests that excluded the Ramsey family from both the Boulder district attorney and the public. The evidence that was submitted as DNA excluded the Ramseys. In We Have Your Daughter: The Unsolved Murder of JonBenét Ramsey Twenty Years Later, Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist Paula Woodward offers an unprecedented, definitive, insider perspective on the twentieth anniversary of one of the most heinous, sensationalized, unsolved crimes in American history. Here for the first time, Woodward examines conversations and information from all sides of those involved in the case. She shares information compiled during the twenty years she reported on the murder, including private conversations with law enforcement individuals directly involved in the case, their thoughts and dissections of what went wrong and right, and who they now believe is the killer. Woodward has included drawings by JonBenét, letters from her teachers, and photographs that show a normal, happy six-year-old whose life was cut short in such a horrible manner. She shares portions of John Ramsey’s private journal, where he wrote of his torment and grief in the aftermath of the murder. And she recounts personal conversations with JonBenét’s mother prior to her death from cancer in 2006. JonBenét’s brother Burke talks publicly about his sister’s death and how it affected the family and his life. We have Your Daughter is an extraordinary work of journalism, twenty years in the making. It depicts a family under siege with their guilt or innocence still openly questioned. This book allows readers to decide in this heartbreaking story - was it Ramsey or an unknown intruder?
There are still a few things money can’t buy. Love is one, cool is another. But while love can be left to fate, cool doesn’t need to be. Though it may seem like something you’re born with, cool is actually a code, and you’re holding the key to the code in your hands. It’s all a matter of getting the right facts straight: Why is Jackson Pollock important? What handbag will get you upgraded at the airport? Who is Jacques Derrida and why does he matter? Covering everything from fashion and design to art and philosophy—all in entertaining, fact-filled bites—Nancy MacDonell has assembled the ultimate cheat sheet. In the Know is nothing less than a one-volume guide to navigating life with style and flair.
