A thorough, glowing biography that sheds light on the achievements of an extraordinary scientist.
Valente details the life, struggles, and revolutionary research of Nobel Prize–winning Italian scientist Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909-2012).
Born in Turin to a prominent Jewish family, Levi-Montalcini began life as a painfully shy child in a stringently patriarchal society. She studied medicine at the University of Turin against her father’s wishes, under the tutelage of histologist Giuseppe Levi (no relation).She showed determination and skill as a neurobiology researcher, but her life was upended, like those of so many other Italian Jews, by the rise of fascism and World War II. As antisemitic laws banned Jewish people from nearly all aspects of public life and the Nazis occupied Northern Italy, Levi-Montalcini carried out her research precariously and in secret. Conducting experiments in a bedroom lab on chicken eggs, she began her study of a neuropeptide that would eventually be called nerve growth factor—the co-discovery of which won her a 1986 Nobel Prize. After the war, she accepted a research position at Washington University of St. Louis, eventually joining forces with biochemist Stanley Cohen. Together, they broke new ground regarding nerve growth factor, proving to the scientific community that the nervous system could be influenced by external factors. This discovery facilitated breakthroughs in developmental neurobiology and disease and wound treatments. Levi-Montalcini was also a lifelong advocate for women’s equality, education, human rights, and the use of science as a force for good. Over the course of this book, Valente’s prose can feel dry or clinical at times, particularly when it’s discussing scientific research: “Their main objective was to understand the role of the intrinsic, genetic factors vis-à-vis the extrinsic or environmental ones in the differentiation of the nervous centers.” However, the book’s style is otherwise straightforward, which makes it a good fit for young readers, and Levi-Montalcini’s remarkable life is nothing short of inspiring. Valente’s attention to detail and immense admiration for her subject shine through on every page of this work, which also includes such backmatter as Levi-Montalcini’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech and an excerpt from her memoir.
A thorough, glowing biography that sheds light on the achievements of an extraordinary scientist.Pub Date: May 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-947431-36-2
Page Count: 278
Publisher: Barbera Foundation
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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