A remembrance that’s full of delightful, nostalgic turns.
In this debut memoir, a retired English teacher recalls his adventurous (and misadventurous) childhood in a small New Jersey town.
Miller spent much of his youth in Delanco, New Jersey, and his free time next to the Delaware River. This book, which zeroes in on his middle school years in the 1960s, is split into 15 nonchronological chapters, each focusing on a single story. Regulars in his life, however, continually pop up, including his charming best friends: Big Rich Palm and Mark Bruno, whom Miller describes as the trio’s “brain.” “Quicksand” is the story of when the three checked the river to validate Big Rich’s claim of potentially lethal quicksand in the vicinity. That same year, they snuck into a local dump to peruse its treasure trove of junk, despite the fact that “Patch-Eye Joe,” who gives the story its name, was always watching the place with a shotgun slung over his shoulder. The author’s concise prose makes for quick reading throughout, while still providing details on Delanco’s sights and history, such as the pirates that once sailed Delaware Bay. Many readers will relate to Miller’s experiences, including encounters with school bullies, games of Little League Baseball, and time spent at summer camp and with the Cub Scouts; in addition, there are stories of how he endured painful, monthly orthodontist visits to have his braces cleaned, and how, one day, he came to the shocking realization that girls maybe don’t have cooties. Throughout, the author portrays his young self as enjoying a carefree childhood while also yearning for grown-up responsibilities. This is best exemplified in the wonderful “Collecting,” in which Miller proved himself by working summer jobs; after mowing lawns, picking beans on a farm, and delivering newspapers, he had to decide which activity had the perfect wage-to-workload ratio. McGettigan’s childlike illustrations offer snapshots of the action in each story, although the most indelible image is the colorful two-page map of Delanco.
A remembrance that’s full of delightful, nostalgic turns.Pub Date: June 27, 2024
ISBN: 9798822948051
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2024
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
SEEN & HEARD
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
© Copyright 2026 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.
