Trauma survivors reveal how to live fantastic lives in this useful, if quote-heavy, guide.
This self-help book invites readers to transform their lives by embracing qualities like vulnerability, tenacity, and enthusiasm.
After his wife noticed him walking with a foot drop while vacationing with his family, Lycka, a cosmetic dermatologist, was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease and given six months to live. Unwilling to accept this diagnosis, he sought other opinions, only to find out it was actually chronic Lyme disease causing the foot problem. Similarly, former Vogue model Tinka survived her own trauma when she was brutally attacked by a former friend whom she had a restraining order against. Lycka and Tinka have come together to share 13 “golden pearls,” a metaphor for the lessons they learned through adversity. They remind readers that a pearl is created when a foreign body enters and irritates an oyster. Each chapter, named after one of these pearls, begins with a story related to that principle. For example, the chapter on inspiration begins with Lycka’s daughter learning to tie her shoelaces, followed by an explanation of the moral of the tale. The nonnegotiables chapter begins with a parable of a young man learning the secret of happiness from a wise man.
The guide consists of a dialogue between Lycka and Tinka, with playful banter. For instance, at one point, Lycka says: “Seeds are often best planted in the morning for the fruit that will grow later in the day.” Tinka calls the observation “a great vision.” Lycka replies: “Of course, I said it.” There is an appealing conversational tone throughout the volume. At one point, Lycka starts talking about his favorite movies, and in the chapter on laughter, he tells a joke. The way this work is written as a transcribed conversation between two trauma survivors certainly makes it unusual, but this format may not appeal to all readers. Still, the authors share some valuable advice here when they recommend that readers embrace vulnerability, exercise forgiveness, and keep a gratitude journal. But the authors’ approach to using epigraphs and quotes in the text becomes extremely heavy-handed. In the second chapter, there are six quotes in just five pages. An appendix compiles all of the quotes used in the text from people like Reese Witherspoon and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as well as additional ones that the authors couldn’t fit in the dialogue. In some passages, Lycka and Tinka even quote themselves, which seems unnecessary in a work showcasing their own words. The volume would have benefitted from the authors being more judicious in their use of the quotes to support their themes. In addition, there are many intriguing books mentioned throughout the dialogue; it would have been helpful to include a further reading section at the end of the manual.
Trauma survivors reveal how to live fantastic lives in this useful, if quote-heavy, guide.Pub Date: May 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-989849-00-2
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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