Vigorous and smart, like its subject, and a special treat for Sooners fans.
An elegantly written, admiring portrait of a still-young but impressive college football coach.
Just 36 at the time of this book’s appearance, Lincoln Riley came to the University of Oklahoma in 2015 as an offensive coordinator. He soon took the head role after former coach Bob Stoops retired—a move that, by sportswriter Sneed’s account, afforded Stoops the chance to hand-pick his successor. Riley is modest about his achievements (and didn’t directly participate in the book, with the reasonable objection that he was too young for such a portrait). According to the author, Riley possesses a kind of iron-trap mind for football, “a unique ability bordering on genius” that enables him, in the words of a colleague, to see “concepts”—i.e., to formulate offensive and defensive formations and play them out in his mind. Football, writes Sneed, is “the art of using your concepts to explore and then exploit the weaknesses of your opponent.” The author’s knowledge of the game is evident throughout this well-paced account, which takes Riley from playing high school ball in a tiny town in West Texas to coaching positions at several schools before landing at Oklahoma. Riley’s deep understanding of the game and the psychology of play is clear, too, evidenced by his nurturing back-to-back Heisman Trophy winners and winning three successive Big 12 championships. Sneed closely analyzes some of Riley’s trademark tactics, including an approach to play that is lightning-quick and that took his players some time to get used to: “Pace had always been one of the most important elements of the Air Raid offense…but Oklahoma wasn’t quite getting there.” That would soon change. The author is especially good at describing some of the changes that technology has wrought on college ball, which now has a vast audience—and also enables fans to get inside players’ heads through instant messaging and social media.
Vigorous and smart, like its subject, and a special treat for Sooners fans.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-62215-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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
SEEN & HEARD
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
