An evocative hiking account that offers some powerful lessons.
A debut memoir chronicles one woman’s feats of endurance and self-discovery on the John Muir Trail in California.
Teglo was “about to have surgery for two parathyroid tumors, fit but overweight, and sort of a scaredy-cat,” when a co-worker casually mentioned the John Muir Trail. Although she’d never backpacked before, the author became obsessed with the idea of conquering the formidable trail on her own. She soon discovered “the hardest part of the JMT is getting a permit.” After faxing endless applications, she was finally granted one and spent the next few months testing camping gear and hiking trails near her Los Angeles home. On Aug. 31, 2016, she began her hike at Happy Isles, the official start of the trail. Teglo quickly learned that “everything on the JMT is work,” from filtering her water to going to the bathroom to protecting her food in a bear canister. She also struggled to overcome her lack of self-confidence as a hiker, using her competitiveness with other trekkers as motivation. While hiking near crystalline lakes and up rocky peaks, she contemplated her disintegrating marriage and wondered whether she should divorce her husband. Along the way, she met fellow hikers from all over the world. The lessons the author learned from her three-week hike completely changed the trajectory of her life. Reminiscent of Cheryl Strayed’s book Wild—the film of which inspired Teglo—this memoir paints a cleareyed portrait of the challenges and joys involved in hiking the John Muir Trail. The author’s hilarious descriptions of her encounters with a thieving chipmunk and a stubborn marmot underscore how far she traveled out of her comfort zone. The momentum of Teglo’s tale is slowed somewhat by an abundance of exclamation points and occasional mistakes in tense, including when she observes: “California was currently in the worst drought it has ever experienced.” In addition, the author’s laundry list of the preparatory steps she took before her hike could have been more organically woven into the narrative. Nevertheless, Teglo’s depictions of the natural wonders she viewed on the trail and her campfire conversations with fellow adventurers will motivate even the most devoted couch potato to think about lacing up a pair of hiking boots.
An evocative hiking account that offers some powerful lessons.Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73759-000-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Perspective Through Adventure Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
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
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