Straight-up assignment fodder, staid but steady, stronger on reportage than analysis.
A matter-of-fact account of the impeachment’s proximate causes, course, and outcome.
Making a try for evenhanded language, Allen describes how an “alleged quid pro quo” in a July 2019 phone conversation between Donald Trump, “one of the most polarizing presidents ever,” and Ukraine’s newly elected leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, sparked a whistleblower complaint that, along with the White House’s subsequent stonewalling, led to a congressional scrimmage and, after much sound and fury, a 2020 Senate trial with a “foregone conclusion.” Arguing that said conclusion was based not on principle but party, the author notes and quotes many more logical and impassioned arguments for the impeachment than against it, so leaving the “anti” side relatively silent. Nor, beyond a few passing references, does he give readers willing to make their own judgments about the merits of the case much legal or historical background to work with. Still, by diligently wrestling an array of published documents and news reports into a coherent narrative and closing with several pages of resources, he does give report-driven students a leg up in their research. Color photos add interest, and text boxes provide additional context and quotes from experts and key individuals.
Straight-up assignment fodder, staid but steady, stronger on reportage than analysis. (source notes, key figures, further reading, index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68282-901-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: ReferencePoint Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fans of all things martial will echo his “HOOYAH!”—but the troubled aftermath comes in for some attention too.
Abridged but not toned down, this young-readers version of an ex-SEAL sniper’s account (SEAL Team Six, 2011) of his training and combat experiences in Operation Desert Storm and the first Battle of Mogadishu makes colorful, often compelling reading.
“My experiences weren’t always enjoyable,” Wasdin writes, “but they were always adrenaline-filled!” Not to mention testosterone-fueled. He goes on to ascribe much of his innate toughness to being regularly beaten by his stepfather as a child and punctuates his passage through the notoriously hellacious SEAL training with frequent references to other trainees who fail or drop out. He tears into the Clinton administration (whose “support for our troops had sagged like a sack of turds”), indecisive commanders and corrupt Italian “allies” for making such a hash of the entire Somalian mission. In later chapters he retraces his long, difficult physical and emotional recovery from serious wounds received during the “Black Hawk Down” operation, his increasing focus on faith and family after divorce and remarriage and his second career as a chiropractor.
Fans of all things martial will echo his “HOOYAH!”—but the troubled aftermath comes in for some attention too. (acronym/ordinance glossary, adult level reading list) (Memoir. 12-14)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-250-01643-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Even rabid fans of Lennon or the 1960s will find new information and angles in this searching study.
On the verge of her 80th birthday (Feb. 18, 2013), Ono steps out of her iconic late husband’s shadow for a sympathetic profile.
The authors present her as a groundbreaking creative artist whose work has been misunderstood, not to say derided, for decades and who was unjustly vilified as the woman who broke up the Beatles. They describe a comfortable upbringing in Japan and the United States, childhood experiences in World War II and artistic development as part of New York’s avant-garde scene in the 1950s and early ’60s. The book goes on to chronicle her relationships with various husbands, including “soul mate” John Lennon, and her two children, life as a peace-activist celebrity in the ’70s, and (in much less detail) her activities, honors and exhibitions after Lennon’s death. The account is occasionally trite (“Yoko and John were stressed to the max”) or platitudinous, and it’s unlikely to persuade younger (or any) readers to appreciate Yoko’s creations—which run to works like an 80-minute film of naked rumps walking by and sets of chess pieces that are all the same color—as great art. Nevertheless, it does impart a good sense of conceptual and performance art’s purposes and expressions along with a detailed portrait of a complex woman who for several reasons has a significant place in our cultural history.
Even rabid fans of Lennon or the 1960s will find new information and angles in this searching study. (photos, timeline to 2009, resource lists) (Biography. 12-15)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0444-4
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2012
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