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TAYLOR'S VERSION

THE POETIC AND MUSICAL GENIUS OF TAYLOR SWIFT

More than a fan’s notes: a smart, incisive look at the singer-songwriter who has captured the world’s imagination.

An exploration of what made Taylor Swift the phenomenon she is.

Poet and literary critic Burt taught a class about the songs of pop star Swift at Harvard University in 2024, with 200 students signing up to learn about the music and lyrics of the singer-songwriter. Burt’s book poses and explores a seemingly simple question: “Taylor Swift is a world phenomenon. How did she get that way?” She proposes some answers: She mostly wrote her own songs; she is “both aspirational and relatable”; and she has an indefatigable work ethic. Burt dedicates a chapter to each of Swift’s 11 studio albums, starting with her self-titled 2006 debut, which Burt says is part of the pastoral tradition in literature and treated country music as “a set of tropes.” Burt goes on to analyze Speak Now, which she considers a Künstlerroman; Lover, “a mess” with “aspirational moments”; and Swift’s most recent record, The Tortured Poets Department, her longest and “saddest” album. The book closes with a chapter on Swift’s record-shattering Eras tour, which Burt got to see in Edinburgh, Scotland. Burt’s book mixes close readings of Swift’s lyrics (she urges readers not to treat them as poems) with looks at Swift’s biography and accounts of Burt’s own travels in search of the country that made Swift. A self-proclaimed “Swiftie,” the author does an especially good job writing about the artist’s relatability: “If she’s a genius, that’s not because she stands apart from everyone else or pushes us away.” Burt isn’t afraid to criticize Swift (something of a rarity among her fans), and her refusal to treat the singer with kid gloves is welcome: She’s a fan, but a clear-eyed one. This is an outstanding look at one of the world’s most beloved entertainers.

More than a fan’s notes: a smart, incisive look at the singer-songwriter who has captured the world’s imagination.

Pub Date: yesterday

ISBN: 9781541606234

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Basic Books

Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025

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  • New York Times Bestseller

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107 DAYS

A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.

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  • New York Times Bestseller

An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.

Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”

A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.

Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025

ISBN: 9781668211656

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025

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POEMS & PRAYERS

It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.

A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”

McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.

It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.

Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025

ISBN: 9781984862105

Page Count: 208

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025

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