A sharp, relatable book about self-reinvention and a loving nod to anyone who has ever believed in the potential of another.
A Black astrophysicist delivers a memoir that demonstrates the unstoppable strength of intelligence and the human spirit.
Writing with Horwitz, Oluseyi chronicles his unique journey from hardscrabble early life to award-winning scientist. One of the author’s personas is James Plummer Jr., his given name, a sometimes-frightened and often misunderstood genius with a penchant for counting and dismantling things to feed his math- and science-hungry mind. Another is “Lil’ Jame,” the boy who faced numerous hardships, including a broken home and nomadic existence, dodging roaming gangs on the streets of East New Orleans, Houston’s Third Ward, and Watts in Los Angeles. While bouncing among places and families, Oluseyi constantly sought knowledge and devoured books, and he rejoiced when his mother bought the entire set of the Encyclopedia Britannica. The author instructs readers on how he artfully performed the delicate balancing act of blending his brainiac ways with his rough surroundings. As an adolescent in Mississippi, he learned how to hunt and worked cleaning and selling marijuana for a family bootleg business. He also learned to play the sousaphone and joined the marching band. His capabilities brought him notoriety in high school and at Tougaloo College, where he and a friend began dealing marijuana to their fellow students. Slipping into and out of heavy drug use cost Oluseyi both time and peace of mind, and he eventually moved on from marijuana to a dependent cycle of “crack binges.” His double life persisted while he fostered relationships, studied hard, and gained acceptance to the graduate physics program at Stanford. With support from his wife and a mentor, he eventually faced his demons, and he has found great success as an astrophysicist who has held posts at MIT and the University of California, among other institutions. Through all the twists and turns, and despite the dark side of humanity on display at times, Oluseyi keeps readers engaged as he creates a beautiful life for himself.
A sharp, relatable book about self-reinvention and a loving nod to anyone who has ever believed in the potential of another.Pub Date: June 15, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-984819-09-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
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
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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