An energetic memoir that blends adventure, science, and self-reinvention.
Aden’s propulsive memoir traces one woman’s unlikely path to conducting anthropological fieldwork in Melanesia.
In this candid and often disarming memoir, anthropologist turned medical researcher Aden recounts her accidental journey from a mediocre Berkeley academic career to fieldwork in the remote islands of Melanesia, where she would contribute research on the transmission of one of the world’s most consequential infectious diseases. The book opens with the author’s 1973 arrival at Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, where she congratulated her host’s wife on being pregnant (she wasn’t) before promptly ignoring every health warning she was given and eating a salad. Her account of island life on Malo (also in Vanuatu) is vivid and anthropologically rich; she describes circle-tusk pigs bred as symbols of wealth, women who lived their entire reproductive lives without ever menstruating due to continuous pregnancy and breastfeeding, and candid conversations with Anji, the island’s centenarian, who cheerfully confirmed having practiced cannibalism (“Yeah—and they taste gooooood!”). Upon her return home, Aden shifted her focus from cultural anthropology to epidemiology after taking a course led by Nobel Prize–winning scientist Baruch Blumberg and agreed to research hepatitis B. Aden writes with self-deprecating humor and a sharp eye for cultural contrast. Her “Safari Barbie” persona—complete with a “dry-clean only” Abercrombie & Fitch khaki ensemble her physician mother selected for jungle fieldwork, accessorized by a shoulder bag full of tetracycline—sets the tone for a narrative that’s less about scientific triumph than about a young woman learning to adapt, observe, and survive. The photographs throughout serve to illustrate faces and places that may feel too remote to imagine. One structural choice worth noting: Nearly every chapter concludes with a tidy “Lessons Learned” section that summarizes key points and provides pithy takeaways such as “You make poor decisions while drinking wine.” For some readers, these sections will feel like a welcome anchor; for others, they may seem fussy in a story that’s most powerful in its messiness and ambiguity. Either way, they reflect Aden’s instinct to synthesize experience into wisdom—the instinct that, in the end, also made her a scientist.
An energetic memoir that blends adventure, science, and self-reinvention.Pub Date: April 21, 2026
ISBN: 9798896360384
Page Count: 352
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2026
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
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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