A contemplative consideration of incorporating astrology into daily life.
Blando, a medical doctor, discusses her relationship with astrology and embracing the uncertain in this debut memoir.
The author is a Gemini with Virgo rising. In her own words, “Geminis are curious and have the ability to make connections and talk with everyone. However, the Virgo part of me discriminates with whom I wish to make connections.” Born in the Philippines but raised in the United States, Blando had a western mindset instilled early: work hard, find a steady job, and succeed. Medicine seemed a natural conduit to that end, suited to both her Gemini and Virgo sides. But soon after graduation, she realized that western medicine, and its ideology rooted in facts and data, couldn’t answer all of her questions, assuage her fear of failure, or fulfill her desire for purpose in life. Her first job out of medical school in 1991was in the Bronx as HIV decimated communities throughout New York City, and she realized that there were layers to her understanding of the world that science did not account for: “Science gained knowledge through observation of that which could be perceived and measured in the physical, material world, but what could be understood through direct perception was limited…what wasn’t grasped by the senses was both immense and immeasurable.” After moving to Miami, she took an astrology class with Iris, who would serve as Blando’s guide to reading the stars and planets, restructuring her approach to medicine and her personal life. Through astrology, the author was able to gain “another perspective to view myself beyond society’s standards.”
In the epilogue, Blando admits that her mentor, Iris, was going to be the subject of her book, but she dissuaded the author from this course and encouraged a more personal approach (however, Iris remains the most prominent character in Blando’s narrative). It’s unclear how the author’s deepening relationship with astrology impacted her relationships with her family and friends, though she does use astrological insights to come to terms with the ways she navigated situations and decisions growing up. At the heart of the book is the way the author braids the three pillars of her worldview—Catholicism, western medicine, and astrology—together over time. Each system appears to have informed her life in healthy and productive ways, as her faith gave her moral lessons and rituals, science gave her the means to investigate questions, and astrology helped her to honor her internal self and desires. This convergence is in evidence in one of the book’s strongest passages, in which Blando participates in an ayahuasca retreat in Peru. By contrast, other aspects of the narrative feel underexplored. While the author’s ruminations on harmonizing these ideologies are compelling, her prose doesn’t always rise to the challenge of persuading readers that no single school of thought has all the answers. As astrology continues to engage the mainstream imagination, Blando’s more restrained take will appeal to skeptics inclined to disparage the subject as too “woo woo”; astrology, as Iris notes, “is the map of your potential,” not an answer key.
A contemplative consideration of incorporating astrology into daily life.Pub Date: June 27, 2023
ISBN: 9781647424701
Page Count: 232
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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