Book Description
With its extravagant homes, sumptuous gardens, and iconic residents, Palm Beach radiates luxury and wealth. Tiffany's Palm Beach showcases roughly 70 of the area's wealthiest, most powerful, and, in some cases, most reclusive residents in and around their stylishly opulent homes and gardens. Highlighted are exquisite Tiffany objects and jewels, both antique and contemporary, wherever they appear. With unprecedented access into the jealously and heavily guarded retreats in this most exclusive of American resorts, this deluxe volume is a virtual who's who of Palm Beach society.
The text accompanying the book's lush photography provides historical context to the significance of these spectacular homes as well as the architects, interior designers, and garden designers that fashioned them. The ultimate luxury wish book, this collection is perfect for admirers of Tiffany style and of life at the top in America today. The publication of this book coincides with the reopening of the renovated Tiffany & Co. in Palm Beach, in November 2005.
Customer Reviews:
a bit shallow.......2006-12-23
There isn't much substance to this book......
Fun pictures, but nothing much more
PALM BEACH.......2006-09-24
To almost anyone, Tiffany and Co. and Palm Beach would go hand and hand, analagous like Lalique and Monte Carlo. The concept for this book is very interesting and the author fully realizes how to exploit the two to their most advantagious. The text is highly informative and the images are crisp and beautifully presented. I agree with one of the reviews that this is an expensive coffee table book, but frankly im sure those interested in this sort of thing, will not think twice about the price of admission. Really a wonderful book on a very interesting subject, well done indeed.
FANTASY LAND.......2006-03-17
This book shows that given enough money there is no limit to how young, thin and attractive your wife can be. And apparently there is no limit to the hubris of the rich--designer wine cellars on a hurricane prone barrier island.
Last I checked there were over 260 homes for sale on Palm Beach with an asking price of $2 million up.
A great coffee table book. And a pictorial guide to The Season by Ronald Kessler that is sitting on my book shelves awaiting a read.
Tiffany's Palm Beach Review.......2006-03-11
Loved this book. I purchased it merely for inspiration photos for my own construction, but found myself reading each page!! Very interesting read!
You could only dream :-().......2006-01-16
For most people, this kind of lifestyle is only a dream, but wow, what colourful and beautiful dreams. This book is choc full of stunning photos that reflect the wealth some people luckily or unluckily have. Their houses (or should I say shrines) are treasures in their own rights, but the possesions inside are also gems. The Tiffany theme is reflected in here all the way through and there is some stunning pieces. This is a pricey 'coffee table' book, but it's so beautiful, you'll be glad you treated yourself or someone else.
Average customer rating:
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Palm Beach: Then and Now
Maureen O'Sullivan , and
Dianna Shpritz
Manufacturer: Lickle Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
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Photo Essays
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Similar Items:
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Tiffany's Palm Beach
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Palm Beach Houses
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Palm Beach Splendor: The Architecture of Jeffery Smith
ASIN: 1890674184 |
Book Description
For decades, Palm Beach has been considered the ultimate winter resort, the philanthropic center of the country and among the most prestigious residential communities in the world. Epic wealth, fabled denizens and members of high society, legendary architecture, meticulous grooming and superb geographic coordinates endow Palm Beach with unparalled allure.
Palm Beach Then and Now provides a chronology in three sections of the island's development from an unchartered wilderness to a winter resort, to community and finally to the posh year-round residential destination it has become.
This sumptuous compilation of historic and contemporary photographs, along with personal memories shared by longtime residents merged with factual material, offers insight and an insider's view of what Palm Beach used to be like, how it has changed and what it is like today.
Book Description
Featuring over 1,000 reviews and ratings in a handy pocket trim size, Miami Restaurants covers every worthy restaurant in the greater Miami area and South Florida, from Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale to the Keys. The connoisseur is shown where to enjoy dishes influenced by Spanish, Cuban, Jamaican, and South American cooking traditions, from tamarind shrimp to fried bananas. Also included are international food markets, cafes, and good spots for traditional rum drinks and Cuban jazz.
Average customer rating:
- Covers more of Florida than competing guides
- great itineraries
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Miami & the Keys '99: The Complete Guide with Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and the Everglades (Fodor's South Florida)
Fodor's
Manufacturer: Fodor's
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Guidebooks
| Reference & Tips
| Travel
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South Atlantic
| South
| Regions
| United States
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General
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ASIN: 0679001492
Release Date: 1998-10-27 |
Book Description
The best guide to the area, updated every year
Tours of Miami Beach's Deco District and Coral Gables
Spectacular beaches, best bets for water sports and fishing
The hippest nightlife -- spots for salsa, jazz, reggae, blues
Great golfing, biking, canoeing, diving, and wildlife-watching
Where to stay and eat, no matter what your budget
Modern and Deco hotels, beach resorts, charming inns and B&Bs, rental condos, luxurious spas, convenient motels
Smart cafés, posh restaurants, local favorites, and ethnic eateries from Cuban to Floribbean -- plus lots of seafood
Fresh, thorough, practical -- off and on the beaten path
Costs, hours, descriptions, and tips by the thousands
All reviews based on visits by savvy writer-residents
17 pages of maps, 15 vacation itineraries, and more
Important contacts, smart travel tips
Fodor's Choice
What's Where
Pleasures & Pastimes, don't-miss activities
New & Noteworthy
Festivals
Complete index
Customer Reviews:
Covers more of Florida than competing guides.......2000-04-12
The most useful aspect of the Fodor's Guide for Miamai and the Keys when compared to other guidebooks is that this book covers the areas north of Miami, all the way up the Atlantic coast to Sebastian. My past few trips to Florida have been to Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Vero Beach as well as Miami and the Keys. It's nice to have the basic information in one place.
However, I always feel that Fodor's guidebooks tend to be a little superficial. The last five or six I've read haven't included the hotels I've stayed at (for example a Hyatt that has been open for at least ten years). I also don't care for the type of paper stock that Fodors uses. I like to take a highlighter to my guidebooks and you can't use them on this paper because it bleeds through the pages. I will continue my quest for the perfect guidebook!
great itineraries.......1999-06-05
Great places to stay in Key West. Never disappointed...however, it forgot to mention the great cuban coffee, cafe con leche, that Frommer's went into detail with and had mentioned as a must have. Great restaurant's, esp. the cuban ones.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Reference.......2003-06-05
Although not the most interesting "read", this is a great reference book for gardening in South Florida. Straight forward without too much fluff. The section on pest control is a little heavy on identifying pests and little light on how to control them but the rest of the book is very clear on the basics. Probably not the best book for an advanced gardener but I highly recommend it for the novice like me who wants the nitty gritty on how to get going in Florida but doesn't care about a fancy looking book.
Very good reference for selecting bedding plants in Florida.......2001-09-22
I thought this was an excellent reference for selecting Florida bedding plants. I wanted a book that had lots of pictures of various plants and told me when and where to plant them. This book does that. It is limited on pest control, but has a good basic section on digging and prepping your bedding areas. It would be a great reference to take with you to the nursery when you are trying to decide which plants to purchase for your beds. It has more color photos for identification of bedding plants than most of the Florida gardening books out there.
Poor.......2000-05-18
I was so dispappointed in the presentation made in this book that I sent it back. The cover and even title give the impression that the book will include photgraphic and descriptive information regarding landscaping. What actually comes across is a very boring, poorly presented reference type of book that simply seems like an elaborate dictionary on various landscape terminology. The photographic connections were especially done poorly; all pictures relating to topics were simply united together in a large section at the back of the book. When a reference is made by an author regarding a specific subject, it is certainly best understood and appreciated by the reader when both are on the same page. It was also misleading in their title reference to Florida plants, shrubs, etc., that there would be direct inclusion of information of those subjects, but all that comes across is very general information relating to the words themselves. I have been working on my own Florida yard area now for over 5 years, enjoying what I have been learning by simple hands-on techniqe and questions to my neighbors. None of my own 26 personal plants were even directly mentioned in the book. Again, possibly some of the topics regarding pests or plant diseases might have been appreciated if the information would have been on the same pages as the related photographs--needing to turn clear to the the back of the book every time was a frustrating way to try and understand the connections.
Book Description
Expert reporting from the editors of the Palm Beach Post capture these tragic events of nature, that happened during the worst hurricane season that Florida has ever seen.
Customer Reviews:
Palms of South Florida.......2000-04-19
While an excellent and detailed explanation of the confusing world of palm botany, I have two problems with this book. 1) It contains comprehensive, detailed drawings of the trees reviewed, but not a single photo! Of course it costs a publisher more to use the type of paper that color can print on, not to mention the ink itself, but a garden book with no photographs at all?? 2) It would be most helpful for us beginners if the pronunciation and the derivation of the botanic names was listed. It's hard to remember a plants proper name when you cannot even pronounce it!
Book Description
West Palm Beach was established in 1894, two decades after pioneers first arrived in the wilderness at Lake Worth. In 1893, Henry M. Flagler, Standard Oil magnate and Florida railroad mogul, finalized plans to extend his Florida East Coast Railroad south in order to turn Palm Beach into a winter playground for the rich. He designed West Palm Beach as the mainland commercial and residential support for his new resort. From its humble beginnings, it has become Palm Beach County's largest city and the seat of government. The city has suffered fires, hurricanes, boom times, and hard times, always emerging triumphantly. This installment of West Palm Beach's fascinating story shares its unique settlement and growth through the end of World War II.
Amazon.com
In books such as The FBI and Inside Congress, Ronald Kessler turned his journalist's eye, its focus honed during years at The Washington Post, to uncovering the scandals behind America's biggest institutions; his research even led to the deposition of a director of the FBI. So, what secrets has he uncovered that will change the lives of Palm Beach denizens? Not many, as it turns out. Mistresses, breast implants, and other high-living extravagances of the Palm Beach rich aren't secrets after all. Nor does Kessler have the literary gifts of John Berendt, who deftly explored small-town society intrigue in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The characters that populate The Season are straight out of Dynasty: "shapely" and "alluring," "raven-haired," or "spectacular blonds with impossibly tight behinds." If there's anything truly shocking about this book, it's witnessing Kessler's remarkable research skills put to such trivial use. As a frothy page-turner The Season earns its price, but as a cultural study it's as insubstantial as the lives it chronicles. --Maria Dolan
Book Description
Palm Beach is known around the world as the most wealthy, glamorous, opulent, decadent, self-indulgent, sinful spot on earth. With their beautiful 3.75 square-island constantly in the media glare, Palm Beachers protect their impossibly rich society from outside scrutiny with vigilant police, ubiquitous personal security staffs, and screens of tall hedges encircling every mansion.
To this bizarre suspicious, exclusive world, New York Times bestselling author Ronald Kessler brought his charm, insight, and award-winning investigative skills, and came to know Palm Beach, its celebrated and powerful residents, and its exotic social rituals as no outside writer ever has. In this colorful, entertaining, and compulsively readable book. Kessler reveals the inside story of Palm Beach society as it moves languidly through the summer months, quickens in the fall, and shifts into frenetic high speed as the season begins in December, peaks in January and February, and continues into April.
When unimaginable wealth combines with unlimited leisure time oil an island barely three times the size of New York's Central Park, human foibles and desires, lust and greed, passion and avarice, become magnified and intensified. Like laboratory rats fed growth hormones, the 9,800 Palm Beach residents--87 percent of whom are millionaires--exhibit the most outlandish extremes of their breed.
To tell the story, Kessler follows four Palm Beachers through the season. These four characters--the reigning queen of Palm Beach society, the night manager of Palm Beach's trendiest bar, a gay "walker" who escorts wealthy women to balls, and a thirty--six-year-old gorgeous blonde who says she "can't find a guy in Palm Beach"--know practically everyone on the island and tell what goes on behind the scenes.
Interweaving the yarns of these unfor-gettable figures with the lifestyle, history, scandals, lore, and rituals of a unique island of excess, The Season creates a powerful, seamless, juicy narrative that no novelist could dream up.
Customer Reviews:
LIKE READING SOMEONE'S DIARY.......2006-04-04
Basically a series of anecdotes. Like reading someone's diary.
The interesting anecdotes were that Marjorie Merriweather Post liked her gold bath room fixtures because gold is much easier to clean, that one of Bobby Kennedy's kids OD'd in room 107 of the Brazilian Court Hotel, and that the Kennedy estate was falling in and had no A/C when the family sold it. Of course, Donald Trump weighs in with his genius for self promotion. I guess one could have used it for a guide to the hot bars and restaurants in the late 90's when the book was written.
But the book is sadly lacking in insights and history of how Palm Beach became such a center for superficiality and messed up values. About the only insigths he offers is that super rich are often unhappy, and their children could care less when they die.
Don't bother!
I Hate Myself.......2005-07-25
I hate myself for having read this book right to the end. It was like reading aspecial double issue of Vanity Fair, packed full of scabrous gossip about a bunch of people I never heard of efore and never will again. The so-called "celebrities" who flicker through the pages of the book were just flying in, they don't live in Palm Beach, and who's left? Well, Donald Trump and a few others, all of them deadly dull.
Every page has some kind of cautionary tale about the straight men who rule the roost in Palm Beach and buy their love with money. This one "can't keep it in his pants." That one " has to get his affairs into order." It would be interesting if the reader cared about any of the people, or again, knew who they were. The author, Kessler, who wrote a fairy tale book about George Bush Jr's Presidential character, is obviously in great anxiety about his own social status, and he must feel that rubbing against these rich, spoiled people on vanity fair's bank account, is going to make him somehow less Jewish.
As many readers have commented, the book is filled with photos of Kessler and his wife ("Pam") meeting rich people, trying to look happy and relaxed. But their flop sweat is written all over them. Whoever the photo editor was for THE SEASON should have discreetly taken the Kesslers aside and told them how tacky their photos are, save them for the panelled den in their suburban home, or their cabin cruiser.
Kessler tries to imitate the highly worked novelistic shape of MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL by focussing on the dreary story of a male "walker," a single presentable man who is available to escort society women to parties--this character is called Kirby and he indulges in a passion for a so-called straight man named Bill, a loser ex-con who's always up to some drug-inspired mischief. Kirby would be pathetic, but at least he shows some emotion. Unlike the other people Kessler tries to impress us with.
As one woman says in THE SEASON, "There are a lot of floozies and fruits and nuts. There are also a lot of beautiful men and women here.. But the ones who are straight are taken. I live in a crazy town. People try to contaminate me with their bizarreness." Well, hey, I live in a crazy town too, but I never felt contaminated until I read this impossible, heartbreaking book about trying to mingle with your betters.
Interesting read but not earthshattering.......2004-04-04
I initially picked up this book because I thought that life in Palm Beach would make for an interesting story. I was wrong. Dead wrong. Instead I find tales of deceit and lies interwoven to form a web of snobbery, elitism, and low self-esteem. Yes, low self-esteem. For if one really reads betwen the lines and asses the information in Kessler's book, one will find that the people are lacking inmany ways that money cannot fix. Overll the book was interesting. However, I feel that Kessler indeed got bogged down with too much namedropping and with too many vague and uninteresting characters. The story could have flowed a bit better and perhaps would have been more interesting had he gone more indepth about the bigotry that currently inhabits Palm Beach. Still, this was not Kessler's best work.
Author's forum against anti-semitism???.......2003-12-30
The book was an easy read in that respect it was well written. It flowed well. However, I could not help but to think repeated throughout the book how the author harks on anti-semitism in Palm Beach by the upper class. For example, there is more than enough chapters about how the country clubs exclude Jews, over and over. I am not anti semitic, nor do I support anti semitic views and practices but I think the author mentions this way too much in his book. There is prejudice everywhere but what is so appealing in being a member of "members only" establishment is that it does exclude most.
There are more pics of author with the so-called "rich and famous" than the rich and famous themselves!
The book, I feel does give some insight into the lives of the inabitants of Palm Beach but not really into the lives of the original inhabitants, the "old guard". The people he interviews all seem to be poseurs trying to fit in and be a part of the "old guard" and even if theydo float on the "fringes" of "society" they don't really seem to be an insider or a real member. His sources are restaurant managers, real estate brokers, waitresses at hotel bars - how many of the old money-ed Palm Beachers would have these types of occupation? I just question how accurately these sources know the real workings of the truly wealthy, old money-ed Palm Beachers since they are not one themselves.
All in all, pleasant read but take the information with a grainof salt.
Interesting & Well-written.......2003-04-10
In THE SEASON, Ronald Kessler gives an interesting overview into life in Palm Beach. Palm Beach is very much America's Riviera, and Kessler offers his readers a bird's eye look into the resort's peculiar rhythms, and into its manners. In every situation, Palm Beach marches to the beat of its very own drummer, a drummer who is banging out his music with "D" color, Asscher-cut, flawless diamonds encrusted on platinum drumsticks.
My biggest complaint is a backward compliment: I wish that this book were longer, and that it could have covered more of PB's inhabitants and their fascinating escapades. Still, no question that author Kessler has done a thorough job of communicating what life is like in this gilded community. If the book is somewhat superficial, nattering on about Grand Dukes and Duchesses, famous charity balls that raise almost no funds for their charities, rare cars, exclusive jewelers, dressmakers and decorators, well, this also perfectly reflects the superficiality of the town itself.
I also found it disruptive to the flow of Kessler's text when he interjected personal comments about himself and his wife, such as the facts that he is Jewish while she is a member of the DAR. Really, this wasn't a family biography. Still, Kessler's own endnotes thank his editor for insisting on this literary device, so I guess that the inclusion of personal details was not his decision.
For those who are curious about America's own Cannes-off-Interstate 95, THE SEASON is the best book around!
Books:
- Tree Identification Book : A New Method for the Practical Identification and Recognition of Trees
- Vascular Plant Taxonomy
- Watching the Tree Limbs (Maranatha Series #1)
- What's Doin' the Bloomin'? Revised Edition:A Pictorial Guide to Wildflowers of the Upper Great Lakes Regions, Eastern Canada and Northeastern U. S. A.
- Wild Edible Plants of Western North America
- Wild Orchids of the Northeastern United States: A Field and Study Guide to the Orchids Growing Wild in New England, New York, and Adjacent Pennsylvania and New Jersey (Comstock Books)
- Wildflowers Of Tennessee, The Ohio Valley and the Southern Appalachians
- Wildflowers Of Tennessee, The Ohio Valley and the Southern Appalachians
- Wildflowers of the Santa Monica mountains
- Wildlife Wars: My Battle to Save Kenya's Elephants
Books Index
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