A frank and necessary look at being a Black journalist in mainstream media.
Exposing racism in society, in the newsroom, and on the printed page.
In this slim volume, Younge tackles an enormous question: How does a Black journalist navigate the white-dominated world of British media? Younge speaks from long experience. At the Guardian for almost three decades, he covered stories as far-ranging as police brutality, Nelson Mandela’s presidency, and Hurricane Katrina. Though less than half of his pieces were about race, he was dubbed by one columnist as “the Guardian’s black journalist who writes ‘black stories.’” Ironically, his first column for the paper, about Bosnia, was spiked because the editor wanted him to add an “ethnic sensibility.” Born in Hertfordshire to Barbadian parents, Younge knew very few Black people. “When I entered a pub in most Scottish cities or any rural area in Britain, there was always this fragment of silence as I single-handedly integrated the space.” Starting out in journalism, he says, felt like going into one of those pubs. Two decades later, Black journalists made up only 0.2% of staffers at British outlets. Younge is highly critical of mainstream media that have few Black decision-makers but put Black journalists in front of cameras, mistaking photo opportunities for equal opportunities. Invoking wisdom from James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, and Shonda Rhimes, he acknowledges that while he aims to speak to the Black community in a relevant voice, “I hope I am never deluded enough to think I can speak for it.” He insists that though he may not represent Black people, “it’s important that I don’t misrepresent them. For it would also be reckless to contribute to an atmosphere in which relatively vulnerable people were made more vulnerable by my work.” After all, being Black in Britain means one is more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, incarcerated, unemployed, underpaid, or homeless. By honestly reflecting on the complex challenges of his career, Younge hopes “to broaden the space for what we all might write.”
A frank and necessary look at being a Black journalist in mainstream media.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780571396610
Page Count: 45
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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 short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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