Books about Socialite from Amazon.com

"Kiernan's sharp-eyed biography brings back a woman who, far into her 90s, relished the dance of life."—O Magazine

The fabulous life of Brooke Astor, a pioneer of philanthropy and for decades a luminary of New York society. Hers is a story out of Edith Wharton. After a disastrous early marriage, Brooke Astor wedded the notoriously ill-tempered Vincent Astor, who died in 1959. In a highly publicized courtroom battle, Brooke fought off an attempt to break Vincent's will, which left some $67 million to the Vincent Astor Foundation. As the foundation's president, Brooke would use this legacy to benefit New York, where the Astor fortune had been made.

Brooke would personally visit each grant applicant and charm anyone she met. At her one-hundredth birthday, princes and presidents honored her, but in 2006 a grandson petitioned the courts to have his father removed as Brooke's guardian. Once again an Astor court battle became the stuff of headlines. This biography—based on firsthand knowledge and interviews with Brooke's friends and the heads of New York's great cultural institutions—gives us back the woman so loved and admired, whose hands-on approach would inspire future philanthropists. 24 pages of photographs..
Price: $8.91 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Peterson delivers adventure, romance, and inspiring characters in this latestwork in the Ladies of Liberty series..
Price: $7.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Journey through the splendor and the excesses of the Gilded Age

"Every aspect of life in the Gilded Age took on deeper, transcendent meaning intended to prove the greatness of America: residences beautified their surroundings; works of art uplifted and were shared with the public; clothing exhibited evidence of breeding; jewelry testified to cultured taste and wealth; dinners demonstrated sophisticated palates; and balls rivaled those of European courts in their refinement. The message was unmistakable: the United States had arrived culturally, and Caroline Astor and her circle were intent on leading the nation to unimagined heights of glory."
—From A Season of Splendor

Take a dazzling journey through the Gilded Age, the period from roughly the 1870s to 1914, when bluebloods from older, established families met the nouveau riche headlong—railway barons, steel magnates, and Wall Street speculators—and forged an uneasy and glittering new society in New York City. The best of the best were Caroline Astor's 400 families, and she shaped and ruled this high society with steel.

A Season of Splendor is a panoramic sweep across this sumptuous landscape, presenting the families, the wealth, the balls, the clothing, and the mansions in vivid detail—as well as the shocking end of the era with the sinking of the Titanic..
Price: $16.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The new Blackbird Sisters mystery from the bestselling author of A Crazy Little Thing Called Death.

Down-to-earth debutante Nora Blackbird is having a meltdown-and it isn't because of Philadelphia's heat wave, or an overdose at the city's Chocolate Festival. A noted Philly philanthropist has taken a swan dive from an office balcony-and Nora's friend Lexie stands accused of the murder. Then Nora's scheming parents reappear, sending all three Blackbird sisters into a panic. Now Nora must uncover the scandalous hijinks her parents are plotting-before she winds up taking all the heat and strangling her father with his own ascot..
Price: $5.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Impoverished Philadelphia heiress Nora Blackbird has agreed to wed Mick Abruzzo, son of New Jersey's most notorious mobster, leaving the city's bluebloods in shock. Then Nora and her sisters get some ominous news-Sweet Penny Devine, ex-Hollywood starlet and daughter of the Philadelphia Devines, has mysteriously disappeared. Even stranger, her family wants her declared dead pronto. Could someone have plotted her final act? Now it's up to the Blackbird sisters to snoop among the snooty-until they uncover the truth..
Price: $3.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Paris Hilton has a lifestyle most girls dream about. Her name is on everyone's lips -- but can she help it if she was born rich and privileged? Now, with a sly sense of humor and a big wink at her media image, Paris lets you in for a sneak peek at the life of a real, live heiress/model/actress/singer/it-girl and tells you how anyone can live a fairy-tale life like hers.

"If you follow your own plans and dreams and you don't let anyone talk you out of them, then you'll start to get the hang of being an heiress ...All you need after that is a good handbag, a great pose, and very high heels, and you're on your way. (Long blond hair doesn't hurt, either.)"

In her fabulous and very tongue-in-cheek -- and chic -- guide, you'll discover Paris's twenty-three rules for How to Be an Heiress (Never have only one cell phone when you can have many), Paris's list of Twelve Things an Heiress Would Never Do (Go out the night after the Oscars), and Three Things Most People Think Heiresses Shouldn't Do, But I Think They Should (Go out with broke guys). Paris also shares private information such as her memories of growing up with her sister, Nicky, and family photos; her favorite designers and her unique beauty secrets; what a night out with Paris is like; her personal gallery of fashion don'ts; and behind-the-scenes stories from both installments of her hit television series, The Simple Life. Of course no book by Paris would be complete without her pet teacup Chihuahua, Tinkerbell, and in these pages, the best-dressed dog in the world shares pages from her own secret diary.

Featuring more than three hundred fabulous color photos of Paris, Confessions of an Heiress is a look at life from the unique perspective of a young woman who has the whole world at her stiletto-clad feet..
Price: $4.10 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The next adventure of the Darcy family from the author of Mr. Darcy's Daughters -- the story of a reluctant heiress who has been left a widow by Darcy's cousin Christopher

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a husband. So say the friends and family of impoverished widow Octavia Darcy when she unexpectedly inherits a fortune, but she has a different view and looks forward to a new life of independence.

Escaping from the efforts of her half brothers and sisters to marry her off, Octavia goes to Yorkshire to find out more about the family she never knew, and while she is there she meets and crosses swords with landowner and politician Sholto Rutherford.

When she returns to London to share a house with the dashing Lady Susan, Octavia, now secure in her new life, becomes caught up in the romantic problems of her niece. Then, the shadow of George Warren, the old nemesis of the Darcy family, falls over her, and she is threatened with the loss of both inheritance and reputation..
Price: $4.19 [Notify me when price goes down.]