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
PERSPECTIVES
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
A slick, vacuous glimpse into the former first lady’s White House years.
A carefully curated personal portrait.
First ladies’ roles have evolved significantly in recent decades. Their memoirs typically reflect a spectrum of ambition and interests, offering insights into their values and personal lives. Melania Trump, however, stands out as exceptionally private and elusive. Her ultra-lean account attempts to shed light on her public duties, initiatives, and causes as first lady, and it defends certain actions like her controversial “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” jacket. The statement was directed at the media, not the border situation, she claims. Yet the book provides scant detail about her personal orbit or day-to-day interactions. The memoir opens with her well-known Slovenian origin story, successful modeling career, and whirlwind romance with Donald Trump, culminating in their 2005 marriage, followed by a snapshot of Election Day 2016: “Each time we were together that day, I was impressed by his calm.…This man is remarkably confident under pressure.” Once in the White House, Melania Trump describes her functions and numerous public events at home and abroad, which she asserts were more accomplished than media representations suggested. However, she rarely shares any personal interactions beyond close family ties, notably her affection for her son, Barron, and her sister, Ines. And of course she lavishes praise on her husband. Minimal anecdotes about White House or cabinet staff are included, and she carefully defuses her rumored tensions with Trump’s adult children, blandly stating, “While we may share the same last name, each of us is distinct with our own aspirations and paths to follow.” Although Melania’s desire to support causes related to children’s and women’s welfare feels authentic, the overall tenor of her memoir seems aimed at painting a glimmering portrait of her husband and her role, likely with an eye toward the forthcoming election.
A slick, vacuous glimpse into the former first lady’s White House years.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9781510782693
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
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