November 1, 2022
The Guardian's Ireland correspondent, Carroll chronicles the IRA's attempt to assassinate Margaret Thatcher in October 1984 in There Will Be Fire. Published on Israel's 75th anniversary, two-time National Jewish Book Award winner Gordis's Impossible Takes Longer considers whether Israel's founders achieved their goal of creating a national homeland that would transform Jewish life (60,000-copy first printing). In 1742, a ship landed on Brazil's coast with 30 starving men feted as survivors of the wrecked British warship the Wager--until three months later, when three stragglers on another ship landing in Chile claimed the Wager's men were mutineers; from the No. 1 New York Times best-selling Grann (Killers of the Flower Moon). Chair of medieval history at King's College, London, Heather offers new reasons why Christendom grew from a tiny sect persecuted within foundering fourth-century CE Rome to the religion dominating Europe 1,000 years later. Celebrated Czech novelist Kundera, who has lived in France since 1975, argues that the "small nations" of Europe--e.g., Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Ukraine--are culturally rooted in Europe and under Soviet rule constituted A Kidnapped West (40,000-copy first printing). Following the LJ-starred The Crown in Crisis, which chronicled the Abdication Crisis of 1936, British historian Larman's The Windsors at War moves on to King George VI and the conflict within the Windsor family during World War II as the Duke of Windsor cozied up to Hitler (40,000-copy first printing). From leading South African political commentator Malala, The Plot To Save South Africa covers the 1993 assassination of Nelson Mandela's prot�g� Chris Hani by a white supremacist hoping to ignite a war, even as Mandela had begun power-sharing discussions with President FW de Klerk. Good-bye, Eastern Europe broadly documents the region briefly called Eastern Europe, moving from pre-Christian times through the great empires (Ottoman, Hapsburg, and Russian), the rise of communism and fascism, and the post-Soviet era to Russia's invasion of Ukraine; A Polish-born contributor to the Atlantic, has a PhD in Eastern European history from Berkeley (25,000-copy first printing). Granted special access by Queen Elizabeth II to her parents' letters and diaries and to the papers of close friends and family, Smith, the New York Times best-selling author of Elizabeth the Queen, aims to show how a loving marriage helped George VI and Elizabeth lead a nation through war (50,000-copy first printing). From Simon, a former senior director for Middle Eastern and North African Affairs on the National Security Council, Grand Delusion tracks the four decades of oil-driven U.S. involvement in the Middle East, begun by the Reagan administration and moving through Desert Storm (which he challenges) to the Obama administration's step back. The acclaimed Winchester leaps nimbly from cuneiform writings through Gutenberg to Google and Wikipedia as he examines Knowing What We Know--that is, how we acquire, retain, and pass on information--and how technology's current capability to do those things for us might be threatening our ability to think (100,000-copy first printing).
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February 6, 2023
Biographer Smith (Prince Charles) spotlights the partnership between Queen Elizabeth II’s parents in this exhaustive yet intimate chronicle. In addition to his “lifelong struggle” with a stutter, Prince Albert, called Bertie by his family, endured an abusive father, a sadistic governess, and his “pampered and careless” older brother, Edward. The romance between Bertie and Elizabeth Bowes Lyon began at the 1920 Royal Air Force ball, when the 24-year-old prince asked the 19-year-old Scottish debutante to dance. (Bertie was smitten; Elizabeth initially treated his interest “as a lark.”) The couple married in 1923 and had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, before the family’s “cosseted life” came to an end in 1936 when Edward abdicated and Bertie became King George VI. Smith sheds light on how Elizabeth’s support and advice helped Bertie cope with his fear of public speaking and forge an “enduring partnership” with Winston Churchill, and she sprinkles the narrative with choice quotes: “I’m glad we’ve been bombed,” Elizabeth said after Buckingham Palace was hit during the Blitz. “It makes me feel I can look the East End in the Face.” It adds up to a stirring portrait of grace under pressure. Photos. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM Partners.
Starred review from April 1, 2023
Veteran royal biographer Smith (Prince Charles, 2017) focuses on the marriage of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, calling their union absolutely central to the survival of the British monarchy. The second-youngest son of George V and Queen Mary, Bertie, as he was affectionately known, was a sickly child with a pronounced stutter. Growing up in the shadow of his elder brother, Edward, he pursued a career in the British navy despite chronic seasickness. Edward meanwhile charmed all, until his careless disregard of royal duties and his pro-Nazi sympathies shocked many. His proposed marriage to Wallis Simpson forced abdication in favor of his ill-prepared younger brother. But George VI grew into his role, due in no small part to his felicitous choice of spouse in Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. Barely had he assumed the throne when WWII broke out, and the royal couple had to endure the Blitz and several bombings of Buckingham Palace. George and Elizabeth's diplomacy helped bring America to Britain's aid. They assiduously cultivated their relationships with the British and Commonwealth people, passing on their devotion to duty to their daughter, the future queen. Smith writes in great detail, notably sharing revealing intimacies of the couple's letters to one another.
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Starred review from March 15, 2023
The touching love story of the parents of Elizabeth II. In her latest investigation of the royal family, former Vanity Fair contributing editor Smith, the bestselling author of Elizabeth the Queen and Prince Charles, leaves no jewel unturned as she recounts the lives of an improbable couple who would do so much to steer their country through the turbulent period of the abdication crisis and World War II. The author, who was granted "the privilege of working in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle," is mostly sympathetic to her flawed but lovable subjects: Bertie, the emotionally diffident second son of George V; and the winsome, exuberant young Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. Though neither demonstrated a keen intellect, they rose to the occasion to become serious British monarchs, which was vital after the shameless irresponsibility of Edward VIII. After their marriage in 1923--after Elizabeth, reluctant to leave her free-wheeling social life and in love with another man, refused Bertie twice--the author alternates nuanced accounts of their respective lives within the same aristocratic social set. Elizabeth was the youngest of a large, wealthy, well-connected family, while Bertie toiled in the shadow of his charming older brother and only came into his own after the 1936 abdication, supported by his loyal wife and the speech therapist who helped him gain confidence (as depicted in the 2010 film The King's Speech). As king and queen, they endeared themselves to their public by simply showing up, suffering through the Blitz together, and sharing their authentically warm family life with the British people. As one insider declared, "What a piece of luck that the Abdication happened. We have got precisely the monarchs who are needed at this moment in the Empire and the world." Smith gracefully brings us into her subjects' inner world, a journey aided by a generous selection of photos. An exhaustive, sweetly reassuring narrative that will appeal to any royal watcher.
COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.