bookshelf

WHITE HOT LIGHT

Name: WHITE HOT LIGHT
Author: Frank Huyler
ISBN: 978-0-06-293733-9

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS IN EMERGENCY MEDICINE

by Frank Huyler ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 25, 2020

The title aptly describes the illumination Huyler brings to patient care—and to writing about it.

bookshelf

Tales from the emergency room, told with no-nonsense brevity, clarity, and compassion. In this long-awaited follow-up to The Blood of Strangers (1999), Huyler returns with more interesting, largely stand-alone stories from his work in an ER in Albuquerque. The author is a much-traveled chronicler who has also published two novels as well as poetry in the Atlantic and elsewhere, and at this stage of life, he displays a certain weariness and melancholy. However, this does not deter from the urgency to do the right thing. So Huyler recounts his lecture to the heroin addict he brought back to life and the process of suturing with painstaking care the facial slash that a man inflicted on his girlfriend with a broken beer bottle. Many of the emergencies the author encounters are truly life or death, and he marvels at a variety of medical advances—e.g., the CPR machine that revived a heart attack victim or the defibrillator that shocked the heart of a man just in time for him to be rushed to surgery. He also expounds on the remarkable nature of the human body. “In the deepest sense our lives are electrical currents,” he writes. “Charged elements—sodium and potassium and countless others—flow back and forth across membranes with impossible complexity.” Huyler enriches the text with sketches of his colleagues and of some of the patients who are ER regulars as well as anecdotes from a life growing up in foreign cities with his teacher parents. Throughout, the author pleasingly describes the various settings. “The winter sun in New Mexico is breathtaking,” he writes. “Driving as it rises is dangerous here. If you let it, it will fill your windshield with white hot light, and blind you in the mirror with its power.” The title aptly describes the illumination Huyler brings to patient care—and to writing about it.

Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-06-293733-9

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Perennial/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020

Categories:

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HEALTH & FITNESS | SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

- BOOK REVIEW
RIGHT OF THIRST
by Frank Huyler

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LAWS OF INVISIBLE THINGS
by Frank Huyler

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BLOOD OF STRANGERS
by Frank Huyler

bookshelf

Awards & Accolades

Likes

89

Our Verdict

GET IT

New York Times Bestseller

TANQUERAY

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.

bookshelf

Awards & Accolades

Likes

89

Our Verdict

GET IT

New York Times Bestseller

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

Categories:

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS & CELEBRITY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

- BOOK REVIEW
HUMANS
by Brandon Stanton

- BOOK REVIEW
HUMANS OF NEW YORK
by Brandon Stanton photographed by Brandon Stanton

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE HUMANS
by Brandon Stanton ; photographed by Brandon Stanton

bookshelf

WAR

by Bob Woodward ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 2024

An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.

bookshelf

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.