Energetic and keen revelations of the life beyond the spotlight of a significant contemporary musician.
The acclaimed singer and songwriter shares her story.
In this passionate and honest autobiography, Keys, who describes herself as “a piano prodigy in cornrows, mixing classical music with hip-hop beats and bass lines alongside a dash of gospel,” opens with a few memories from her childhood, when she was raised by her mother with little involvement from her biological father. She describes how she developed her persona and image and maintained her independence beginning with debut album, Songs in A Minor, which would eventually sell more than 16 million copies. Throughout her career, she has successfully avoided being manipulated by record label executives, many of whom didn’t know how to classify her as an artist. “A record label is a marketing machine,” she notes. “Behind its doors, fledgling artists are crafted into whatever image the label’s execs think they can sell.” Regardless, the reactions by the public quickly pushed Keys to the top of the charts. She chronicles her music-making process and nods to her many collaborators, and she opens a window into her personal life that sheds light on her triumphs, doubts, fears, and the exhausting nature of being thrust into stardom at an early age. She also shares intimate moments with her husband, record producer Swizz Beatz—e.g., the extravagant birthday parties they’ve thrown for each other, the births of her two sons, and the blended family they created with Swizz’s other children—and explains the passions that have led her to start nonprofit organizations and tackle social injustices. In a conversational tone, Keys unveils the woman behind the microphone, giving readers an accessible view of what makes her tick. Since many aspects of her life are apparent in her music, readers may want to listen to an album or two after reading certain sections of the book. One of Kirkus and Rolling Stone’s Best Music Books of 2020.
Energetic and keen revelations of the life beyond the spotlight of a significant contemporary musician.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-15329-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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