An articulate, unflinchingly honest, and touching account brimming with joy, heartbreak, and love.
In this memoir, an ad agency powerhouse recounts turning a family tragedy into an opportunity for youngsters who learn differently, gaining an understanding about himself in the process.
Had Pesky chosen to write a book simply detailing his life and many accomplishments, it likely would have been intriguing. But what he has produced is deeper and more emotionally riveting, as the author peels back and examines the layers of his often difficult relationship with his eldest son, Lee. While filled with wonderful tales of personal and professional fulfillment, the narrative is propelled by a singular, excruciating loss. In November 1995, 30-year-old Lee died from the ravages of a voracious brain tumor. The memoir opens with the painful account of Lee’s illness and death, then toggles to the author’s impressive journey up the ladder of success. Born in 1933 in New York City, he grew up in the Bronx and Queens. After college and a stint in the military, he attended Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. An amusing, self-deprecating vignette depicts how a major snowstorm contributed to his Dartmouth admission. Fast-forward to May 1967. Pesky, an ad agency account executive, and his four partners took a leap of faith and opened their own agency—Scali, McCabe, Sloves. The gamble paid off handsomely, both financially and in industry accolades, and there are many delightful tales and now-classic commercial taglines from the author’s high-flying years in advertising. But back at home, the bright and mischievous Lee was struggling, hampered by his learning disabilities, motor-skill difficulty, and a father who wanted to help but couldn’t yet appreciate his son’s unique talents. Since Lee’s death, Pesky has channeled his grief and self-recriminations into what he considers his most important project—the creation of the Lee Pesky Learning Center, which has received national acclaim for its groundbreaking work. Much of the author’s candid and moving memoir—written with Aulum and featuring a collection of family photographs—focuses on the center’s crucial work. Although this intermittently slows down the narrative, the pages contain a wealth of valuable information for the family, friends, and teachers of Lee’s fellow travelers.
An articulate, unflinchingly honest, and touching account brimming with joy, heartbreak, and love.Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5107-6635-8
Page Count: 232
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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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