O'Brien's warm, witty voice will bring a wide audience to her world-class adventures.
A record-setting mountaineer chronicles her ascents, near misses, and challenges, not all on mountains.
In her debut, O'Brien deftly spins the story of how she lost her high-powered corporate job and decided to climb Mount Everest. Despite hair-raising obstacles and frozen body parts littering the trail, she succeeded and gradually moved into the highest ranks of mountaineering. Readers will be thrilled by her accounts of climbing the Seven Summits, the highest mountains on each continent, achieving the Explorers' Grand Slam after skiing to both the North and South poles. She was the first British and American woman (dual citizenship) to conquer K2, arguably the most dangerous mountain in the world, and in 2013, she became the first woman to complete the Grand Slam in less than one year. Throughout the book, the author provides well-fleshed characterizations of guides, fellow travelers (some of whom become dear friends, some total jerks), and one fine fellow she calls Spousey. O’Brien teaches us about the tedium involved in the process of acclimatizing to high altitudes, spending months in base camps hiking up and down, and she parcels out the painful details of her childhood at the hands of careless parents, crediting those experiences with bolstering her independence and inner strength. This backstory contains a black hole that she avoids fully explaining for much of the narrative, adding tension to the procession of summits, stories that become somewhat repetitive by the end of the book. Nonetheless, O'Brien pours her unflagging energy and hard-won life wisdom into every aspect of her book—even the epigraphs for each chapter are excellent—and her prose is commendably free of clichés and full of wit. All of these elements combine to make a vicariously engaging addition to the literature on mountaineering as well as a beacon of inspiration in these dark times.
O'Brien's warm, witty voice will bring a wide audience to her world-class adventures.Pub Date: March 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982123-78-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Emily Bestler/Atria
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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
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
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