A poignant, engaging, often humorous account about a Pacific Coast journey to the Mexican border.
A retired entrepreneur recounts his multiweek bicycle tour of the West Coast in this memoir.
In the summer of 2023, while his wife was on a trip to Norway, Mortensen decided to embark on an impromptu journey of his own: bike the West Coast from the Canadian to Mexican borders. “For me, this ride represents how I choose to spend my fifty-third summer,” he reflects, adding that the trip is “more than just an adventure; it is a fight against time, a rebellion against the physical process of aging.” Mortensen is no stranger to globe-trotting adventurism—his previous books, including The Buddha and the Bee (2020) and Embracing Bewilderment (2024), have taken readers on his backroad excursions throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia. This memoir focuses on his 27-day bike ride from Peace Arch Park in Canada to the American-Mexican border just outside of Tijuana. Each chapter covers a single day of the trip, and combines travelogue, autobiographical vignettes, historical commentary on destinations encountered, and philosophical reflections on life. Blending pensive observations with humor, the book offers thoughtful commentary on American history and modern society with healthy dashes of lightheartedness along the way. Mortensen, for instance, discusses his discomfort with a historical marker in Cape San Sebastian, Oregon, that erases Indigenous history by claiming that “Spanish explorers were the first to explore the North American Pacific Coast,” and juxtaposes the West Coast’s rugged beauty with the fast food and strip malls that fill American cities. Sprinkled between poignant reflections are self-deprecating anecdotes, such as unwelcome bouts of stomach illness and his “Three Rules for Staying Young” (which include avoiding mirrors and convincing yourself that “all your friends are older than you”).
While the author reveled in Americana, from hole-in-the-wall diners to the majestic splendor of coastal mountains, the journey itself was rather unremarkable given the potential for disaster (Mortensen didn’t even have to endure a single flat tire). The book stands out for the author’s sheer joie de vivre that seeps through nearly every chapter. The memoir features a host of characters he encountered, from old friends to a homeless man Mortensen rescued from jumping off a bridge. Sprinkled throughout are not only in-depth, passion-fueled observations on biking, including a discussion of his Garmin cycling computer, but also flashbacks of his college days and early life as a “workaholic” who built a multimillion-dollar company prior to selling it to travel the world. Perhaps most moving is the book’s conclusion, as the author arrived at the Mexican border without fanfare (“Funny how these sorts of blips on your personal accomplishment radar mean so little in the grand scheme of things”). Though not overtly spiritual, the volume picks up where The Buddha and the Bee left off in its convincing emphasis that life is best lived through experiences rather than possessions. The engrossing, thought-provoking narrative is accompanied by full-color photographs by the author, stock images, and road maps. While adamant that this is not to be taken as a technical guide for others interested in a similar bike ride, the memoir makes the case that the life of an “unapologetic wanderer” comes not only with adventure, but with fulfillment, serenity, and gratitude as well.
A poignant, engaging, often humorous account about a Pacific Coast journey to the Mexican border.Pub Date: June 5, 2025
ISBN: 9781735498140
Page Count: 284
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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