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
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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