A promising debut, marked by insightful observations and moments of astonishing candor and critique.
An essay collection that navigates complexities of modern life and identity with intellectual rigor and personal reflection.
Walker, a freelance journalist, brings a sharp cultural lens to her subjects, such as a multitude of her experiences as a transgender woman, social media’s impact on self-image, and shifting perceptions and roles of feminism. Walker’s recollections as a trans woman inform each of the essays, offering personal views on as well as indictments of societal ignorance, pressures, and pop culture. The first half of the chapter “What’s New and Different?” centers on the author’s views of the movie The Devil Wears Prada. Of the female protagonist, Andy, a magazine editor’s assistant, Walker writers, “Her resentment [for her job]…is one that is rooted in class and a perceived upending of her rightful position therein.” The author theorizes that Andy’s tyrannical boss, Miranda, became that way due to misogynistic treatment, behavior the author deems “so common, so quotidian, so…relatable.” The essays combine incisive first-person tales with cultural commentary, although at times the pieces occur as non sequiturs, reading more like a string of polemical observations rather than a clear, sustained inquiry. The author’s tone ranges from formal to colloquial. Of random people mistaking Walker for a man, she writes, “You know who hates being seen as a man? Somebody who isn’t one. A woman, for example. Maybe even some of the ‘men’ reading this.” Her reflections on varying facets of self-transformation encapsulate the tension that runs through the collection, but while Walker’s prose is sharp and often witty, the book struggles to build a cohesive narrative. The essays occasionally veer into repetition, with some ideas revisited without offering new depth. Still, the collection is compelling in its ambition, and Walker’s sharp eye for cultural critique shines through, even when the essays don’t always cohere.
A promising debut, marked by insightful observations and moments of astonishing candor and critique.Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780593450048
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
A football star’s bracing account of his battle for racial equality—and how powerful forces arrayed against him.
A principled athlete strives for social justice.
Kaepernick forthrightly details the activism that earned him global renown but cost him his NFL career. In 2016, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback “was filled with disgust” after police shootings of fellow Black men in several American cities. Before a preseason game, he made a spontaneous decision: “It hit me in that moment that I should find a seat” during the national anthem. He did the same at two more games before reporters noticed. Kaepernick will forever be associated with “taking a knee” during the anthem, but he credits Eric Reid—a teammate who agreed with Kaepernick’s message—for suggesting that they kneel together during subsequent anthems. The protest changed everything for Kaepernick. President Trump vilified him. Kaepernick and his wife received death threats. And though he’d taken the 49ers to a Super Bowl, no teams would sign him. He will likely make news for his take on Jay-Z, whose lucrative partnership with the NFL was criticized as an attempt to launder the league’s reputation. Visiting Africa, where Kaepernick learns about “African leaders who willingly sold their own people to the enslavers,” he “couldn’t help but to think about Jay-Z and the NFL.” In opening chapters, Kaepernick recalls suffering traumatic racial abuse as a child. Being in “white spaces”—he was adopted by white parents—placed him “under a microscope every minute of every day.” He isn’t always nuanced, depicting some people he disagrees with as cartoonishly clueless. But his writing about how college and pro teams “lied” to him about injuries underlines his “feeling of being a disposable commodity.” A decade has passed since Kaepernick played in the NFL, but he stays fit in case “a team needing a QB” calls.
A football star’s bracing account of his battle for racial equality—and how powerful forces arrayed against him.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781538777879
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Legacy Lit/Hachette
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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