An important book from a true patriot whose oath to the Constitution could not allow him to look away.
The former National Security Council officer and Army lieutenant colonel recounts the grave political and professional fallout from calling out Donald Trump on his impeachable “quid pro quo” regarding Ukraine.
In February 2020, Vindman became an unlikely celebrity for revealing Trump’s outrageous strong-arming of President Volodymyr Zelensky, by which the former president offered him necessary aid only if he promised to publicly declare an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden. Trump’s call to Zelensky on July 25, 2019, shocked Vindman, who was then the point man at the NSC for all things Ukraine and Russia and a duty-bound, much-decorated military officer who hailed from a family of Ukrainian Jewish refugees who fled to America in 1979. The call prompted Vindman to reveal his alarm about withholding the approved $400 million aid to Ukraine at a critical moment in its struggles with Russia; the move clearly demonstrated Trump’s “wholly improper effort to subvert U.S. foreign policy in order to game an election.” The complaint to his superiors leaked to a Pentagon whistleblower, who made the ordeal public, resulting in a Congressional investigation and the eventual impeachment of the president as well as the administration’s vilification of Vindman and his essentially forced retirement from the military. This work is a spirited and heartfelt defense of his actions, which were guided in part by lessons he learned from his family’s early repudiation of the corrupt and sinister Soviet system. The author alternates his nightmarish experience at the NSC—witnessed along with his twin, Eugene, a high-placed lawyer there—with memoir: growing up in a hardworking immigrant family in Brooklyn, rigorous military training, awakening to the rigors of political maneuvering. In the end, despite the bullying and retaliation, “Good actors did their duty, obeyed their oaths, and defended the Constitution.” The author is clearly a deeply ethical American who risked everything to stand up to significant malfeasance in the White House.
An important book from a true patriot whose oath to the Constitution could not allow him to look away.Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-307942-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2021
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.
Documenting perilous times.
In his most recent behind-the-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668052273
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
IN THE NEWS
PERSPECTIVES
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
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