One for the fans.
She got famous. She got rich. She got cancelled. She's sorry…sort of.
"I guess you could say that delusions of grandeur are my superpower," writes Oshry, a 26-year-old Instagram influencer whose feed, @girlwithnojob, has 3 million followers, apparently enough to put this silly memoir on the New York Times bestseller list. The author begins with her Long Island childhood as the third of three sisters, one of whom, Jackie, has been a partner in her social media endeavors, especially their podcast and YouTube show, The Morning Toast. “There’s never a question as to whether one of my sisters will betray my trust or not look out for my best interest,” she writes. “Caroline Manzo said it best, ‘blood is thicker than water,’ and my relationship with my sisters is a testament to that. Our bond is tighter and more secure than Kim Zolciak’s wig, though that’s not saying much.” (If you don’t recognize either of those names, this book isn’t for you.) Oshry discusses her experiences at “fat camp,” her father's tragic, sudden death at age 52 ("BAM! My dad decided to drop dead. Very, very uncool of him"), the institution and monetization of her social media presence while an undergrad at NYU, her whirlwind marriage at age 23, and her "FUPA" (Fat Upper Pubic Area). The author waits until the end of the book to address her “cancellation” in 2018—but if you don't already know what happened, you will only find out here that it has something to do with her mother (president of the group Stop Islamization of America) and regrettable tweets from years ago. Instead of details or reflection, Oshry delivers countless platitudes: "We're all deserving of the opportunity to grow and the grace of second chances”; “Never forget that you can forge your own path and use your own voice in whatever way you want.”
One for the fans.Pub Date: Jan. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982142-86-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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