An insightful, important, and well-researched study on authentic gender expression.
A psychiatrist specializing in the mental health of transgender youth offers support, encouragement, and education.
When he was 14, Turban, founding director of the gender psychiatry program at the University of California, San Francisco, witnessed his gun-toting father’s vehement homophobia. As a gay youth, he dressed and behaved in a way that wouldn’t expose his true nature. He has carried that experience with him throughout a career working with gender-diverse youth who don’t “fit into the gender boxes people expected.” The author discusses his visits to clinics designed to help transgender youth, speaking with unhoused young people rejected by their families, and how he integrated support models and protocol from Amsterdam into American clinics. Among many moving personal stories, Turban writes about a New England family and their child, whom they initially perceived was a “cisgender boy with feminine interests” but whose identity evolved into something more complex with the aid of puberty blockers and engaged, compassionate parenting. In other sections, the author pragmatically explores the terminology and real-world language of gender expression, radical enhancements in modern gender science, surgical interventions, and the push by some to identify a “transgender gene.” Turban diligently follows an array of transgender youth whose personal journeys with gender-affirming counseling and medical interventions reflect the real-life struggles and challenges they continue to face in the U.S. Turban insists that societal stigma and divisive gender politics can be quelled with open-minded encouragement and, most importantly, consistent education. Due to his work at UCSF, the author views his subject through both clinical and compassionate lenses. His informative text provides essential encouragement and a proactive, supportive resource for transgender youth, their questioning peers, and anyone in marginalized populations who finds themself lacking support, uplifting stories, and peaceful interconnection.
An insightful, important, and well-researched study on authentic gender expression.Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9781668017043
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.
Portraits in a post-pandemic world.
After the Covid-19 lockdowns left New York City’s streets empty, many claimed that the city was “gone forever.” It was those words that inspired Stanton, whose previous collections include Humans of New York (2013), Humans of New York: Stories (2015), and Humans (2020), to return to the well once more for a new love letter to the city’s humanity and diversity. Beautifully laid out in hardcover with crisp, bright images, each portrait of a New Yorker is accompanied by sparse but potent quotes from Stanton’s interviews with his subjects. Early in the book, the author sequences three portraits—a couple laughing, then looking serious, then the woman with tears in her eyes—as they recount the arc of their relationship, transforming each emotional beat of their story into an affecting visual narrative. In another, an unhoused man sits on the street, his husky eating out of his hand. The caption: “I’m a late bloomer.” Though the pandemic isn’t mentioned often, Stanton focuses much of the book on optimistic stories of the post-pandemic era. Among the most notable profiles is Myles Smutney, founder of the Free Store Project, whose story of reclaiming boarded‑up buildings during the lockdowns speaks to the city’s resilience. In reusing the same formula from his previous books, the author confirms his thesis: New York isn’t going anywhere. As he writes in his lyrical prologue, “Just as one might dive among coral reefs to marvel at nature, one can come to New York City to marvel at humanity.” The book’s optimism paints New York as a city where diverse lives converge in moments of beauty, joy, and collective hope.
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781250277589
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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