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SOMETHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING

A moving recollection of love for the wounded and its frustrations.

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In this debut memoir, Delory recounts her husband’s struggle with PTSD following his deployment to Afghanistan as well as her own troubled childhood.

When the author became engaged to Chris Barksdale at the age of 22, he hadn’t planned on joining the Army; the plan was that he would save up to attend nursing school while she attended grad school. But he decided that enlistment was a sensible path to financial stability, and she reluctantly agreed. He was deployed to Afghanistan, and the combat he experienced took a brutal emotional toll on him; his resulting PTSD and “crippling anxiety” were so severe he finally had little choice but to exit the military with a pension—a benefit that Delory calls, with livid clarity, the “going rate for a man’s soul.” Years later, even after counseling, Chris remained lost in a fog of trauma, and the author sadly discovered that her patience, and even her sympathy, had all but evaporated. She conveys her exasperation in these pages with simplicity and power: “I know whatever it is that’s eating away at him has hardened me. I used to be kinder than this.” Delory also details the turmoil of her early years; she tells of growing up in a dysfunctional home with troubled parents “from broken homes, one an alcoholic, both of them high school drop-outs.” She writes that she, like her father, had a tendency to drown sadness in alcohol—an intuitive reflex to suppress despair with oblivion. The author’s memoir is brief and stylistically unadorned. In straightforward language, she unflinchingly documents the ordeals she’s suffered, but for all her admirable candor, her remembrance never devolves into dour self-pity. In fact, the account offers moments of self-effacing humor, as when she discusses her drinking: “as I got tipsy, I’d remind everyone, ‘I’m not drunk; I’m a Delory,’ because it’s not sad if you’re proud of it.” She covers ground that will be familiar to those who’ve read memoirs by members of military families, but she does offer keen insights. Overall, this is an affecting and bravely confessional work.

A moving recollection of love for the wounded and its frustrations.

Pub Date: March 15, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-947041-76-9

Page Count: 142

Publisher: Running Wild Press

Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2021

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WAR

An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.

Documenting perilous times.

In his most recent behind-the-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”

An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.

Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024

ISBN: 9781668052273

Page Count: 448

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024

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  • New York Times Bestseller

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TANQUERAY

A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.

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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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