A fitting tribute to a great, memorable pitcher.
A vivid portrait of one of modern baseball’s legendary players.
Tom Seaver (1944-2020) was small as a boy but made up for it with both athleticism and steely determination, drawing attention early. As veteran sportswriter Madden relates, a great training tool was that Seaver and a boyhood friend were each forbidden to leave their yards, so they had to throw straight to each other lest the game end. As a result, Seaver was already working on strikeouts at the age of 6. Modest and intellectually inclined—he and his teammates played bridge in the locker room to sharpen their minds—Seaver once said, “the thing I most appreciate about the game is that it is one of the few places left where a person like myself can show his individuality.” He certainly did that, and though team managers didn’t always treat him well or use him to best advantage, he raised the average for every one of his teams. Madden’s account centers on Seaver’s chase to accumulate 300 wins, which put him in the highest stratosphere of pitchers. On the infrequent occasions when he had a bad game or, more rarely, a bad season, he was fully willing to shoulder blame. As he said of a performance-related pay cut by his beloved New York Mets in 1974, “they paid me a good amount of money last year, and I didn’t pitch up that amount.” The year may not have been much, but look at 1971 and 1975, Madden suggests, and all can be forgiven. Seaver’s decline to Lyme disease–related dementia resulted in an embarrassing episode or two and, eventually, a tragic inability to recognize his fellow Hall of Famers, but the 12-time All-Star and three-time Cy Young Award winner made a brave effort. The author’s cutting conclusion is perfect: Tom Brady tried to patent the phrase but was roundly rejected, for “there was, and always will be, only one Tom Terrific.”
A fitting tribute to a great, memorable pitcher.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982136-18-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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