Bellamy’s tale of success is inspirational but slightly sanitized.
The comedian and actor’s life story.
Bellamy’s narrative isn’t quite a fairy tale, but it could definitely be a Lifetime movie. For much of the book, the author engagingly details the early milestones of his life: growing up poor in New Jersey, ditching his computer science studies at Rutgers (“It was boring as hell and required having a solitary focus”), and finding himself on the fast track in a good-paying marketing job at a tobacco company before giving it up to pursue comedy. “Anytime I could bring a laugh or levity to a situation, I’d do it gladly,” he writes. “Making people feel good was my calling and I was damn good at it, if I do say so myself.” It’s a fair self-assessment but not quite the anything-goes material that made him a must-see music and acting personality in the 1990s. Bellamy offers a few behind-the-scenes revelations—e.g., when he hung up on Janet Jackson because he thought it was a prank call, or how Michael Jackson’s handlers rejected most of his questions for an interview. Many readers may feel that Bellamy is holding something back, especially when discussing his love life. “A real man will never kiss and tell, but I will confirm that my life certainly played out like a movie,” he writes. “As you’re ascending into the stratosphere of fame, women are like stars in a clear night sky because they suddenly appear everywhere.” The reason for the caginess comes toward the end, as he discusses slowing down his career to stay home with his kids. “I want to produce content that reflects the positive side of the Black experience,” he writes of his eponymous production company. It’s an admirable quest to maintain your values as a role model, which Bellamy certainly does, especially when discussing racial issues, but it cramps his style as a storyteller.
Bellamy’s tale of success is inspirational but slightly sanitized.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9780063237629
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
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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