A compelling collection that illustrates how quick, decisive actions can transform lives forever.
In this anthology of inspirational vignettes, a father and daughter in life-saving professions reflect on the split-second decisions that save lives.
“A small action or a simple moment of readiness can lead to consequences far more meaningful than we may ever know,” writes Kiera Newbury in the book’s preface. As trained EMTs, Kiera and her father, co-author Brad Newbury, have nearly a half-century of combined experience in emergency medicine. While life-or-death actions are part of the work of many in the medical profession, they rarely see the impact of their efforts in the months, years, and decades that follow. In this inspirational collection of real-life stories, the Newburys share 10 harrowing accounts in which courageous actions, often taken by strangers, have saved lives. Readers are introduced to 8-year-old Madeleine Jackman, whose dinner with her vacationing family at a restaurant turned into a nightmare when a piece of steak became lodged in her throat. It was only through the calm, skilled intervention of a nurse who happened to be eating at a table nearby that she was saved. Emphasizing how one act can not only save a life but also have ripple effects for decades to come, the authors describe Madeleine’s subsequent advocacy for making CPR training a high school graduation requirement. This story is emblematic of the book, which focuses both on the courageous actions of others and the ways in which those actions affect families and communities long afterward. While many of the stories are based on interviews conducted by the authors, some are drawn from their own experiences in the field. Brad, for example, shares the story of how he saved a man named Frank Nagle’s life in 1994 when Nagle was suffering a heart attack, and he poignantly details his later interactions with Nagle’s family, who were able to spend two more decades with their loved one. In addition to providing engaging anecdotes that effectively balance descriptions of traumatic medical emergencies with touching, deeply personal stories, the book makes an effective case for universal CPR training.
A compelling collection that illustrates how quick, decisive actions can transform lives forever.Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2026
ISBN: 9781637635926
Page Count: 240
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
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