A true tale of adversity and a fervent (if redundant) call for readers to embrace religion.
Longstreet’s book of rhymes and meditations on faith also chronicles a painful childhood filled with abuse.
In this religious memoir, the author chronicles her journey overcoming loss, pain, and abuse while moving toward devout Christianity. When Longstreet was a child, her father abandoned the family, and her mother died in a plane crash. She and her brother were raised in foster care, where they worked on their uncaring guardians’ property and were regularly beaten. In this period, she relished the hour a week spent at the local church, where she could finally find some peace and a way to feel unconditional love. “I cannot tell you what God looks like, but His presence was a warmth you cannot see with your eyes,” she writes of the intense spiritual feelings she experienced. Her chaotic upbringing left her without a high school diploma, but she succeeded in passing the equivalency test and completing a secretarial course. Briefly married, she had a son and granted him what she never had: a stable childhood. Now a devoutly religious person, the author writes in both verse and prose about religion and how it helped her (and can help the reader) to overcome adversity and lead a fulfilling life. Longstreet’s story about her early years is certainly harrowing, and she vividly conveys the idea that she “suffered abuses that a child should not know.” It is compelling to read how she persevered through such difficult circumstances and how she ensured her son would never know the same. The epiphany she experienced as a child is an illuminating and potent center to the narrative. The structure of the book, alternating rhymes and prose, is appealing, and the religious message is convincing and heartfelt; however, though each line is thoughtful, the text can get too repetitive.
A true tale of adversity and a fervent (if redundant) call for readers to embrace religion.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9781039170445
Page Count: -
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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