This compact volume offers an aesthetically robust and spiritually poignant reflection on Jewish visitation stones.
In this nonfiction work, Leo, Mendelsohn, and Allen explore traditions of Jewish remembrance in photographs and prose.
You would be forgiven if, looking at Leo’s photographs in this volume, you mistook them for an abstract exercise in geometric form. Printed in black and white with rich contrast, the stones that are their subject have a tendency to morph: The smooth, mottled white of one rock emerges from darkness like an egg; another pebble, reflected in the granite on which it is sitting, smudges and blurs as if seen through water. With a close, insistent gaze trained upon knobbed surfaces, the camera turns crevices and bits of grit into mysterious landscapes, small rocks opening into expansive worlds. The framing essays remind us that these stones are elements in a human narrative. Placed on gravestones, the rocks participate in a long-standing Jewish tradition, marking an act of remembrance and serving as a point of connection to the memories of deceased loved ones. Offering biblical context and philosophical ruminations, the closing essay by Allen suggests that these stones are symbols of permanence, operating as “a material response to that which is no longer a tangible relationship, imprinting the memory of a loved one within us.” But, as Mendelsohn’s opening essay points out, stones can decay as well: “Our desire that the memory of who we once were should endure beyond the natural span of our lives,” the author writes, “is made more poignant by the fact that stone, as hard as it is, can stop ‘signifying’ in the way we had intended.” In this sense, the photographs are themselves an act of commemoration, not only of the human relationships that they represent, but also of these bits of matter at a single moment, not yet changed by wind and rain and time itself.
This compact volume offers an aesthetically robust and spiritually poignant reflection on Jewish visitation stones.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781735762982
Page Count: 80
Publisher: MW Publications
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
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 virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2025 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.
