An insightful, mystic exploration of spiritual and racial healing.
A formerly incarcerated person offers his story of spiritual and racial healing in this debut memoir.
When Shore arrived at the prison where he would serve for three years, he was a self-described “small little Brown thing, surrounded by large, angry, muscular White men.” Born in Calcutta, India, and adopted by white Christians, Shore had always called Oregon home, a mostly white state with its own sordid racial history that’s often masked behind a progressive facade. Long before prison, where he directly confronted overt racism, Shore struggled with his racial identity. “I wasn’t White,” he writes, “but I wasn’t really Indian either.” Raised by his well-meaning, but racially naïve, parents, he joked that he was “Brown on the outside but very White on the inside.” While he attended Catholic church in his youth, it wasn’t until prison that the author found spiritual enlightenment. He writes that his daily meditations, which he began as a way to escape the cacophony of racism and violence that surrounded him, “were also leading me to a kind of healing that I couldn’t find anywhere else.” Indeed, as a “spiritual memoir,” this book eschews the chronological, biographical focus of the genre; readers don’t learn the details of his Indian heritage, adoption, and upbringing until they’re 200 pages into the book, for example. The story opens with an out-of-body experience in prison as the white noise of radio static transforms into the sound of an ocean, and the author meets younger versions of himself. Now free from prison, Shore is a reiki practitioner and energy healer whose work focuses on helping incarcerated people heal from racial and spiritual trauma. This expertise in mystical spirituality is reflected throughout the book’s narrative, which effectively blends descriptions of spiritual experiences and practices with personal anecdotes. The author is also sensitive to the difficulties that formerly incarcerated people face upon their release. Despite having advanced college degrees, he struggled to find employment or even a place to live, since being “a felon is an automatic ‘no’ in the renting world.” The book provides ways to address and cope with these and other stressors of the outside.
An insightful, mystic exploration of spiritual and racial healing.Pub Date: March 1, 2024
ISBN: 9798989521906
Page Count: 263
Publisher: Northwest Wisdom Publications
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.
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.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668052273
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
IN THE NEWS
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
