Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

Wishing all of my readers a very healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year.

Title:    The Horror of Love: Nancy Mitford and Gaston Palewski in Paris and London Author:   Lisa Hilton Publisher: Pegasus Publication date:   December 12, 2012 Pages : 336           How acquired:   Net Galley Overview:   "Oh, the horror of love!" Nancy Mitford once exclaimed to her sister Diana Mosley.   Elegant and intelligent, Nancy was a renowned wit and a popular author. Yet this bright, waspish woman, capable of unerring emotional analysis in her work gave her heart to a well-known philanderer who went on to marry another woman. Was Nancy that unremarkable thing—a deluded lover—or was she a remarkable woman engaged in a sophisticated love affair? Gaston Palewski was the Free French commander and one of the most influential politicians in post-war Europe. Their life together was spent amongst the most exciting, powerful, and controversial figures in the center of reawaken...

I was first introduced Hetty Green during the Bicentennial.   LIFE Magazine had put out a special issue on noted American women during the previous two hundred years of the nation’s existence and Hetty was one of the women.   Of course, they chose the least flattering picture they could find, Hetty during her later years when she was noted for her eccentricities.   She was nicknamed “The Witch on Wall Street,” which is interesting when you consider there were hardly any women on Wall Street or in business in the 19 th century.   All of which makes Hetty’s accomplishments all the more remarkable.   Unlike Victoria Woodhull and her sister Tennessee Claflin, Hetty didn’t get her stock tips from a railroad tycoon like Cornelius Vanderbilt.   She studied the markets closely, bought low and sold high (Warren Buffett would have been proud), and kept her expenses low by borrowing a desk in the offices of Chemical bank (which later merged with J.P. Morgan). ...

Title:   The Queen Mother - The Untold Story of Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, Who Became Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Author:   Lady Colin Campbell Publisher:   St. Martin’s Press Pub Date:    April 2012 How Acquired:   New York Public Library What it’s about:    (from the inside cover)   Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother has been called the "most successful queen since Cleopatra." Her personality was so captivating that even her arch-enemy Wallis Simpson wrote about "her legendary charm." Portrayed as a selfless partner to the King in the Oscar-winning movie The King's Speech , The Queen Mother is most often remembered from her later years as the smiling granny with the pastel hats. When she died in 2002, just short of her 102nd birthday, she was praised for a long life well lived.   But there was another side to her story. For the first time, Lady Colin Campbell shows us that the untold life of the Queen Mother is far more...

Title:   A Royal Affair Cast Mads Mikkelsen as Johann Friedrich Struensee A licia Vikander as Caroline Mathilde Mikkel Følsgaard as Christian VII David Dencik as Ove Høegh-Guldberg Søren Malling as Hartmann Trine Dyrholm as Juliane Marie William Jøhnk Nielsen as Frederik VI Cyron Bjørn Melville as Enevold Brandt Rosalinde Mynster as Natasha Laura Bro as Louise von Plessen Bent Mejding as J.H.E. Bernstorff Thomas W. Gabrielsson as Schack Carl Rantzau Søren Spanning as Münster John Martinus as Ditlev Reventlow Erika Guntherová as Hofdame Harriet Walter as Augusta, Princess of Wales Klaus Tange as Minister Director & Screenwriter – Nicolaj Arcel Distributed by:   Nordisk Film, Magnolia Pictures (US) Based on Princesse af blodet by Bodil Steensen-Leth What it’s about:   The story is set in the 18th century, at the court of the mentally ill King Christian VII of Denmark, and focuses on the romance between the queen and the royal physicia...