A moving story of the humanity at the center of the often-breathless and uninformed immigration debate.
A second-generation immigrant’s story of holding her dreams, her parents’ expectations, and America’s demands in balance.
Born in Arizona to Mexican parents on tourist visas, Camarillo Gutierrez was told from an early age that she would need “to be the best.” This directive became her mantra as she moved through her childhood in Tucson, and both volatility and education were driving forces. In this debut memoir, the author, a product manager at a big tech company, leaves almost no facet of the immigrant experience unexplored: dire economic circumstances, arbitrary and opaque visa policies, the premium placed on achievement, organizing in the face of rising anti-immigrant sentiment. Camarillo Gutierrez’s life and interests have breathtaking scope. We follow her from scenes set at the gate between Mexico and the U.S. to the halls of the Ivy League and positions in finance and technology, and the author offers memorable thoughts about religion, the environment, and mental health. She displays the voice, insight, and personal connection to turn any one of these topics into its own volume. At a few points in the narrative, however, the scope is unmatched by the depth, leaving some threads without continuity, others without closure, and many with surface-level analysis. If this trait sometimes leaves readers unsure where to focus, it also reveals the enormity of the pressure immigrants in America, especially immigrant youth, must withstand—the compromises and sacrifices that must be made, the contradictions that elude reconciliation. Camarillo Gutierrez’s open and candid personal exposition hints not only at the tensions inherent in her own life, but also at those in American culture and policy. By bringing readers into the precarious and emotional positions that these tensions force individuals and families to endure, she invites deeper, more compassionate analysis and conversation.
A moving story of the humanity at the center of the often-breathless and uninformed immigration debate.Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9781250277954
Page Count: 272
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
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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