An upbeat treatise on the strengths of U.S. schools that would have benefited from more specifics.
Tech entrepreneur Sahin makes a case for the benefits of the contemporary American K-12 and university systems.
The author immigrated from Turkey to the United States as a teenage foreign-exchange student and completed a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s School of Industrial Management; he went on to build companies in the tech sector and amass a large fortune. Drawing on his experiences, Sahin describes what he perceives as the many praiseworthy aspects of U.S. education. He asserts that it isn’t failing youth in the 21st century, as many believe, but uniquely capable of creating “well-rounded individuals,” and he credits the degree of decentralization and local control as a major reason for its robustness. Despite evident disparities in funding and outcomes in various American schools, he presents the nation’s primary and secondary educational systems as laboratories of innovation. Specifically, he sees competition between educational institutions—public, charter, and private—as a source of strength, and an extension of the market-based economics that shape American society. He also notes a spirit of volunteerism and initiative, suggesting that these cultivate leadership skills in students that other countries’ schools don’t teach. This element, he says, attracts students from around the world to the United States. Throughout this work, many readers may wish that the author had cited more statistics to support his positive assertions. That said, Sahin does concede that there is much room for improvement in U.S. schools; for example, he notes the ongoing crisis in special education funding, the declining enrollments that many schools face as a result of declining birth rates, and the increase in educational costs beyond the rate of inflation. Nevertheless, he argues that the American educational system has consistently demonstrated the ability to evolve in response to social changes, and he anticipates its continued resilience.
An upbeat treatise on the strengths of U.S. schools that would have benefited from more specifics.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9798887507323
Page Count: 176
Publisher: ForbesBooks
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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