A strong voice propels these springy personal anecdotes.
Comic misadventures take center stage in Alpert’s essays about wandering off course.
The collection opens with a paean to failure—or rather, to the opportunities that arise from misses. The essay “Czech-ing Out of Prague,” ostensibly about an awkward Teaching English as a Foreign Language course in Prague, tracks the author’s life from a childhood pursuing auditions to an adulthood chasing the spotlight, all in vain. Alpert’s unsuccessful attempts at launching a movie career (or singing career, or any other showbiz venture) ultimately become the launchpads of misadventures and brushes with the famous and fabulous in these pieces. The opening essay points to the author’s adventurous streak; “Revenge Travel” establishes her as a globe-trotter (including a nod to her stint as a Pilates instructor…in Dubai). “Celebrity Adjacent” captures what it’s like to be a friend of someone with a connection to a bona fide big deal (Chaz Bono, child of Cher). In Alpert’s words, she was “Cher adjacent”; the essay ultimately crescendos with a phone call from the iconic star herself. The core of the work, however, explores what it’s like to be independent and strong-willed, and how that affects relationships over time. In the center of the collection sits an essay titled “How Much for an Iron Lung?” about the Covid-19 pandemic, Alpert’s parents, and their memorabilia stashed in a cluttered attic—the piece captures the author’s fixation on her own individuality, and how that individuality fits within a family dynamic in which her parents are increasingly less parental (“I always wanted clear boundaries and structure. And because my parents were largely ineffectual in this department, I’d often have to be the one to set them”). This essay is the collection’s standout; other pieces don’t always reach such emotionally satisfying peaks. All of the essays are graced with Alpert’s characteristic humor and crackling prose, but some pieces may meander a bit for some tastes or don’t quite stick the landing. Still, for readers who can relate to Alpert’s independence (or who are tickled by Christopher Meloni), these essays are treats worth indulging in.
A strong voice propels these springy personal anecdotes.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9781966629191
Page Count: 208
Publisher: River Grove Books
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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.
