by Chelsea Manning ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 2022
Manning demonstrates her integrity in this meticulous account of a person constitutionally opposed to secrets and lies.
The trans Army analyst who served seven years in prison for disclosing documents tells her story.
"It is not possible to work in intelligence and not imagine disclosing the many secrets you bear,” writes Manning, who documents the pressures she was under during her service in Iraq, leading her to load thousands of documents and videos onto a hard drive and share them with WikiLeaks in 2010. Her disillusionment with the U.S. operation in Iraq was earned the hard way, by witnessing firsthand mistakes with bloody results, institutionalized xenophobia, and other infamously oxymoronic qualities of "military intelligence." Manning doesn't make that joke, or any other one, in this memoir. As the title suggests, she writes like a computer programmer, albeit a very smart and literate one, who read more than 1,000 books during her imprisonment. Manning's story as it has unfolded over the past decade has been difficult to parse, but what becomes clear is that she is not a political partisan: The principle she holds most dear is transparency. Whether she is describing her unhappy childhood in central Oklahoma or her time locked in a cage in Kuwait, her story is rich in detail but somewhat flat in affect. She grew up with gender dysphoria from an early age. As soon as the internet was invented, she became a troll and a hacker ("My chan buddies and I were baby edgelords"), and it was these computer skills that "got me noticed—in both good and bad ways" in the Army. Once she realized that her apparent gender was inconsistent with her true self, transparency required she claim her identity as a woman. Doing so from military prison put her at odds with the institution in a whole new way, which she faced with grim determination. A prefatory note clarifies that this manuscript passed through the Department of Defense approval process, with only a few paragraphs redacted.
Manning demonstrates her integrity in this meticulous account of a person constitutionally opposed to secrets and lies.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-374-27927-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
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by Stephanie Johnson & Brandon Stanton illustrated by Henry Sene Yee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 12, 2022
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
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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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by Melania Trump ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 8, 2024
A slick, vacuous glimpse into the former first lady’s White House years.
A carefully curated personal portrait.
First ladies’ roles have evolved significantly in recent decades. Their memoirs typically reflect a spectrum of ambition and interests, offering insights into their values and personal lives. Melania Trump, however, stands out as exceptionally private and elusive. Her ultra-lean account attempts to shed light on her public duties, initiatives, and causes as first lady, and it defends certain actions like her controversial “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” jacket. The statement was directed at the media, not the border situation, she claims. Yet the book provides scant detail about her personal orbit or day-to-day interactions. The memoir opens with her well-known Slovenian origin story, successful modeling career, and whirlwind romance with Donald Trump, culminating in their 2005 marriage, followed by a snapshot of Election Day 2016: “Each time we were together that day, I was impressed by his calm.…This man is remarkably confident under pressure.” Once in the White House, Melania Trump describes her functions and numerous public events at home and abroad, which she asserts were more accomplished than media representations suggested. However, she rarely shares any personal interactions beyond close family ties, notably her affection for her son, Barron, and her sister, Ines. And of course she lavishes praise on her husband. Minimal anecdotes about White House or cabinet staff are included, and she carefully defuses her rumored tensions with Trump’s adult children, blandly stating, “While we may share the same last name, each of us is distinct with our own aspirations and paths to follow.” Although Melania’s desire to support causes related to children’s and women’s welfare feels authentic, the overall tenor of her memoir seems aimed at painting a glimmering portrait of her husband and her role, likely with an eye toward the forthcoming election.
A slick, vacuous glimpse into the former first lady’s White House years.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9781510782693
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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