A well-researched challenge to the status quo of America’s prison system.
An activist blends memoir and social commentary in this debut nonfiction work.
The son of a doctor, DeWeaver dropped out of junior high school in Oakland, California, and by the age of 18 he had been found guilty of murder. In this book, he recounts his experiences in prison and subsequent personal transformation while offering astute commentary on white supremacy and criminal justice reform. White supremacy, per the author, transcends individual prejudice; he sees it as a three-tiered system, “a power structure built on top of a culture built on top of an ideology.” As a cultural and ideological force, DeWeaver asserts, white supremacy incentivizes taking power from marginalized groups—from Black Americans to trans people—to further concentrate the power of white men; it’s a system built not only on racism but also on cis-patriarchy and other forms of discrimination. In making the case for prison abolition and the systemic reform of the criminal justice system, DeWeaver displays a familiarity with the relevant academic literature, citing theorists like Antonio Gramsci among others in the book’s ample endnotes. While this book’s scholarly underpinnings are strong, what makes it stand out is the author’s engaging narrative, which incorporates his own personal history throughout. DeWeaver asserts, “I wrote my way out of prison”; he co-founded the first Society of Professional Journalists chapter in a prison and became a leader in San Quentin State Prison’s rehabilitation community. In doing so, he writes, he had to “become a white supremacist to get out of prison,” as he performed narratives of humility that he knew parole boards expected. Unafraid to pull his punches, the author’s blunt writing style may rattle readers unfamiliar with the modern abolitionist movement (DeWeaver writes that an accurate understanding of white supremacy reveals “the true identity of police forces as state-sanctioned terrorist organizations”). This is nevertheless an erudite commentary built on solid research and undergirded by the author’s intimate knowledge of the abuses built into America’s systems of criminal justice and incarceration.
A well-researched challenge to the status quo of America’s prison system.Pub Date: May 13, 2025
ISBN: 9781620977880
Page Count: 240
Publisher: The New Press
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 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
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