A solid resource for making points or resolving some arguments rather than a collection for casual reading.
This entry in the new Penguin Liberty series digs into a controversial issue that has always polarized the nation.
Brettschneider, a professor of constitutional law at Brown University who also serves as the series editor, offers historical context on presidential impeachment through a selection of documents on the impeachments of three presidents: Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. Perhaps the perspective on Donald Trump’s impeachment has been deemed too recent for a full analysis, but having three cases without the fourth seems incomplete, and the charges of political partisanship and polarization in the Trump case are certainly connected to the two previous ones. Each of the sections include some of the documentation preceding the impeachment, the Articles of Impeachment from the House of Representatives, and excerpts of the arguments presented before the Senate. In the prefatory material, Brettschneider intriguingly analyzes why the constitutional framers decided that impeachment trials should be conducted by the Senate rather than the Supreme Court. The context provides illumination on two issues that resurfaced during the Trump proceedings: whether the “high crimes and misdemeanors” referenced in the Constitution requires that the president be guilty of criminal activity and whether a sitting president can be prosecuted on criminal charges. The answer to the first would seem to be a resounding “no,” as the annotation shows that the language was particular to impeachment proceedings and not criminal proceedings, while the latter remains a point of contention. One gets the sense that Johnson’s white supremacist obstructionism justified his removal from office, though the specific grounds for his impeachment were much narrower. It’s also clear that Nixon would have lost his case in the Senate had he not resigned. That leaves Clinton and Trump, whose partisans and detractors aren’t likely to find much common ground here.
A solid resource for making points or resolving some arguments rather than a collection for casual reading.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-14-313510-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Penguin
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dauntless, moving account of a kidnapping and the horrors that followed.
Enduring the unthinkable.
This memoir—the first by an Israeli taken captive by Hamas on October 7, 2023—chronicles the 491 days the author was held in Gaza. Confined to tunnels beneath war-ravaged streets, Sharabi was beaten, humiliated, and underfed. When he was finally released in February, he learned that Hamas had murdered his wife and two daughters. In the face of scarcely imaginable loss, Sharabi has crafted a potent record of his will to survive. The author’s ordeal began when Hamas fighters dragged him from his home, in a kibbutz near Gaza. Alongside others, he was held for months at a time in filthy subterranean spaces. He catalogs sensory assaults with novelistic specificity. Iron shackles grip his ankles. Broken toilets produce an “unbearable stink,” and “tiny white worms” swarm his toothbrush. He gets one meal a day, his “belly caving inward.” Desperate for more food, he stages a fainting episode, using a shaving razor to “slice a deep gash into my eyebrow.” Captors share their sweets while celebrating an Iranian missile attack on Israel. He and other hostages sneak fleeting pleasures, finding and downing an orange soda before a guard can seize it. Several times, Sharabi—51 when he was kidnapped—gives bracing pep talks to younger compatriots. The captives learn to control what they can, trading family stories and “lift[ing] water bottles like dumbbells.” Remarkably, there’s some levity. He and fellow hostages nickname one Hamas guard “the Triangle” because he’s shaped like a SpongeBob SquarePants character. The book’s closing scenes, in which Sharabi tries to console other hostages’ families while learning the worst about his own, are heartbreaking. His captors “are still human beings,” writes Sharabi, bravely modeling the forbearance that our leaders often lack.
A dauntless, moving account of a kidnapping and the horrors that followed.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780063489790
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Harper Influence/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.
Portraits in a post-pandemic world.
After the Covid-19 lockdowns left New York City’s streets empty, many claimed that the city was “gone forever.” It was those words that inspired Stanton, whose previous collections include Humans of New York (2013), Humans of New York: Stories (2015), and Humans (2020), to return to the well once more for a new love letter to the city’s humanity and diversity. Beautifully laid out in hardcover with crisp, bright images, each portrait of a New Yorker is accompanied by sparse but potent quotes from Stanton’s interviews with his subjects. Early in the book, the author sequences three portraits—a couple laughing, then looking serious, then the woman with tears in her eyes—as they recount the arc of their relationship, transforming each emotional beat of their story into an affecting visual narrative. In another, an unhoused man sits on the street, his husky eating out of his hand. The caption: “I’m a late bloomer.” Though the pandemic isn’t mentioned often, Stanton focuses much of the book on optimistic stories of the post-pandemic era. Among the most notable profiles is Myles Smutney, founder of the Free Store Project, whose story of reclaiming boarded‑up buildings during the lockdowns speaks to the city’s resilience. In reusing the same formula from his previous books, the author confirms his thesis: New York isn’t going anywhere. As he writes in his lyrical prologue, “Just as one might dive among coral reefs to marvel at nature, one can come to New York City to marvel at humanity.” The book’s optimism paints New York as a city where diverse lives converge in moments of beauty, joy, and collective hope.
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781250277589
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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