An engaging, revealing look at the wild world of the Wu-Tang Clan and beyond.
A memoir from one of hip-hop’s most inventive stylists.
As a member of the Wu-Tang Clan and throughout his solo career, Dennis Coles (b. 1970), aka Ghostface Killah, has been one of the most creative rappers in the game. In this deeply personal text, the author narrates his life story through 15 of his songs. It’s a testament to the richness of his rhymes to see him communicate the same thoughts and feelings in a handful of couplets as he does in a full chapter of prose. Sure, Ghostface offers more context and details in each chapter, whether he’s writing about the struggles of his youth that inspired “All That I Got Is You” or his time selling drugs in “Poisonous Darts,” but that is also a little too straightforward for such a creative artist. Ghostface occasionally uses graphic-novel techniques to make some points, and he turns over the narrative to friends and colleagues to make others. There is no sanitizing of his history here. Ghostface is frank about his drug use, his arrests and time in jail, and his health issues—especially how his diabetes can affect his performances and creativity. He also takes time to educate people about the problems in the music industry, what Islam means to his life and his art, and the impact of slavery and racism on hip-hop and America. “My ancestors used to get whipped, and the rest of the slaves had to sit out there and watch them get whipped until they died,” he writes. “When I watched George Floyd die, it felt like that.” His expansive thoughts on any number of topics are fascinating whether you follow hip-hop or not. The book is vividly designed, featuring pull quotes, sidebars, and color photos.
An engaging, revealing look at the wild world of the Wu-Tang Clan and beyond.Pub Date: May 14, 2024
ISBN: 9781250274274
Page Count: 240
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
Maher calls out idiocy wherever he sees it, with a comedic delivery that veers between a stiletto and a sledgehammer.
The comedian argues that the arts of moderation and common sense must be reinvigorated.
Some people are born snarky, some become snarky, and some have snarkiness thrust upon them. Judging from this book, Maher—host of HBO’s Real Time program and author of The New New Rules and When You Ride Alone, You Ride With bin Laden—is all three. As a comedian, he has a great deal of leeway to make fun of people in politics, and he often delivers hilarious swipes with a deadpan face. The author describes himself as a traditional liberal, with a disdain for Republicans (especially the MAGA variety) and a belief in free speech and personal freedom. He claims that he has stayed much the same for more than 20 years, while the left, he argues, has marched toward intolerance. He sees an addiction to extremism on both sides of the aisle, which fosters the belief that anyone who disagrees with you must be an enemy to be destroyed. However, Maher has always displayed his own streaks of extremism, and his scorched-earth takedowns eventually become problematic. The author has something nasty to say about everyone, it seems, and the sarcastic tone starts after more than 300 pages. As has been the case throughout his career, Maher is best taken in small doses. The book is worth reading for the author’s often spot-on skewering of inept politicians and celebrities, but it might be advisable to occasionally dip into it rather than read the whole thing in one sitting. Some parts of the text are hilarious, but others are merely insulting. Maher is undeniably talented, but some restraint would have produced a better book.
Maher calls out idiocy wherever he sees it, with a comedic delivery that veers between a stiletto and a sledgehammer.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781668051351
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
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