An engaging, life-affirming celebration of the medical profession.
A doctor shares stories from his half-century in medicine.
“A physician’s experience goes far beyond the clinical,” writes author Hung, as “each interaction between a doctor and a patient is a story.” Following retirement from private practice as an ophthalmologist, he traveled the world performing surgeries, lecturing to physicians and nurses, and donating medical equipment. Hung opens the book by acknowledging career dissatisfaction among 21st-century physicians with regulations, insurance claims, and the need to advertise one’s practice; however, he emphasizes “one of the greatest satisfactions of being a physician is when you relieve your patient’s pain or improve their life.” To this end, the bulk of the book, which consists of 32 vignettes based on the author’s experiences, is a celebration of his profession and patients, many of whom were “petrified of losing their sight.” Having honed his bedside manner over the course of 50 years, in addition to having written multiple novels and travel memoirs, the author is a natural raconteur who approaches each anecdote (and patient) with empathy, professionalism, and an appropriate dash of humor. Readers meet a menagerie of characters, from fellow surgeons (including a “1970s hippie with a long, dark brown ponytail and a thick beard down to his sternum”) to patients from around the world met during his trips to Asia, Oceana, and Eastern Europe. Medical professionals may particularly be drawn to his detailed descriptions of surgeries and diagnoses. He offers, for instance, an in-depth analysis of his first cataract surgery and a description of how to perform a burr hole surgery, a serious medical procedure that dates back to the Neolithic era but is still used occasionally by neurosurgeons today. Written in an accessible, concise style, chapters are generally fewer than 10 pages each and are accompanied by a host of maps, medical diagrams, x-rays, and full-color photographs that complement the book’s absorbing style. The book does, however, end abruptly and could have used a conclusion that tied the stories together.
An engaging, life-affirming celebration of the medical profession.Pub Date: March 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781735355245
Page Count: 308
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2023
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
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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