by Wayne Johnston ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 7, 2023
A tender memoir.
An award-winning novelist recounts his sickly boyhood and other difficult early-life circumstances.
As a child, Johnston was beset by chronic illness: a persistent cough, insomnia, and a digestive problem so severe that he couldn’t keep food down—ailments that were exacerbated by his living conditions. He and his family moved 23 times by the time he was 7, running away when they couldn’t pay the rent. “We boys never knew when we were leaving or exactly where we were moving next,” he recalls, “just that we were always one car breakdown or appliance repair away from having an eviction notice slipped beneath our door in the middle of the night.” The author focuses on one precarious year when the family lived in an “old, small, rundown, drafty,” leaky house in the small town of Goulds, Newfoundland, where their mother had grown up and where her parents lived across the street. Although Johnston’s father was an inspector for the fisheries department, he frittered away his salary on drink. His mother, Jennie, felt mortified that her weak and skinny son seemed evidence of bad mothering. Too sick to go to school, he was cared for by his grandmother Lucy, a woman steeped in “ignorance and superstition, magic, black magic, ghosts and Holy Ghosts and archangels the size of galaxies, wart- and cancer-curing Holy Water, all mixed up with fairies and witches and sprites and goblins.” Still, Lucy offered her grandson love and reassurance: “You were put on earth for a reason, although it wouldn’t surprise me if God himself can’t remember what it is.” Jennie and Lucy believed in the power of prayer, not medicine: Only after the author collapsed with a life-threatening fever did Jennie, reluctantly, take him to a doctor. That visit set him on a path to one specialist after another, all of whom came up with diagnoses—a heart murmur, pleurisy—and prescribed pills that the family couldn’t afford. Johnston recounts his childhood with affection and humor. Happily, and somewhat miraculously, he grew up to be a healthy adult.
A tender memoir.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781586423629
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Steerforth
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2022
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by Stephanie Johnson & Brandon Stanton illustrated by Henry Sene Yee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 12, 2022
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
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New York Times Bestseller
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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by Brandon Stanton photographed by Brandon Stanton
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by Brandon Stanton ; photographed by Brandon Stanton
by Melania Trump ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 8, 2024
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
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