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
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
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
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