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REDEMPTION

Name: REDEMPTION
Author: Barbara McVeigh
ISBN: 978-0-692-81915-9

HOW RONALD REAGAN NEARLY RUINED MY LIFE

by Barbara McVeigh ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 11, 2016

The author’s sailing expeditions may be of more interest to readers than the wandering voyage of self-discovery.

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An environmentalist filmmaker recalls her long journey toward fulfilling her dream.

Author McVeigh was a middle school student when, on a field trip to a university, she saw “a blue sea star sitting all alone in a tank” at the oceanography department. “It looked so lonely and sad—it was as if I could feel what it was thinking and feeling,” she writes. “Professors talked about oceans around the world and all I could do was look at that lonely sea star and wish I could do something for it.” Years later, McVeigh did something for marine life by co-writing and producing Racing with Copepods, a documentary about middle school students who learn to sail while studying plankton. In McVeigh’s meandering memoir, she chronicles her arduous pursuit of her goals, which may have caused the demise of her marriage. “Dreams. When are they delusional, and when should we fight for them?” she asks. McVeigh’s father fought for his ideals when he joined his colleagues in the strike of the nation’s air traffic controllers in 1981. President Reagan fired all 11,500 of them, casting a shadow over McVeigh’s childhood. “When I see my parents, I only remember the pain of all those past years after dad was fired,” she says. Her own marriage was a struggle—she and her husband almost ruined themselves financially by working for a nonprofit sailing organization. McVeigh is in her element capturing the thrills of sailing: “you are negotiating only with nature, that higher spirit.” But much of the book reads like a diary dump with minimal editing or fact-checking. Mount St. Helens, for example, is misplaced in Oregon. And while the author narrates her own thought processes extensively, other characters aren’t fully realized.

The author’s sailing expeditions may be of more interest to readers than the wandering voyage of self-discovery.

Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-692-81915-9

Page Count: 344

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2017

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.