An absorbing account of ambition, reinvention, and the people behind an extraordinary Napa success story.
A physician-turned-vintner recounts the improbable creation of one of Napa Valley’s most acclaimed mountain vineyards.
After more than two decades as a successful physician, Krupp became increasingly drawn toward winemaking in Napa Valley. His unlikely path was modeled by his parents’ and grandparents’ hard work, curiosity, and self-reliance, while childhood summers on his uncle’s farm introduced him to agriculture and the satisfaction of growing things. Krupp’s evolution from doctor to vintner was gradual, shaped by a series of encounters that steadily deepened his fascination with wine. During his medical internship, he discovered fine Bordeaux; while serving with the Indian Health Service in Phoenix, he formed a monthly wine-and-food group and befriended a local merchant who introduced him to some of France’s great wines. At Stanford, an attending physician and amateur winemaker taught Krupp and fellow resident Keith Marton to make their own wine in Marton’s garage. By then, Krupp was hooked. He later welcomed cardiologist Clifford Schultz, whose technique (mainly to do with extra-cleanliness) helped improve their efforts, resulting in several prizewinning wines at county fairs. Krupp absorbed these early lessons and employed them when he built Stagecoach Vineyard from the ground up with his brother Bart. The undertaking required a herculean effort to find investors, secure easements, and locate an elusive water supply. Vineyard manager Esteban Llamas serendipitously entered Krupp’s life when he stopped by the fledgling vineyard to point out what Krupp was doing wrong; his unsolicited advice developed into a working relationship that would last decades. Krupp himself is an exceptionally engaging guide to this education; he’s candid about his mistakes and setbacks and explains viticulture, winemaking, and vineyard economics in a way that’s comprehensible to the layperson. Yet the memoir’s greatest pleasure is watching Stagecoach take shape. The family history, professional relationships, personal triumphs and losses, and eventual decision to sell the vineyard deepen rather than distract from that story. Written with the momentum and narrative drive of a novel, Krupp’s account offers both an illuminating look behind the curtain of Napa’s wine industry and a moving portrait of a life’s work coming full circle.
An absorbing account of ambition, reinvention, and the people behind an extraordinary Napa success story.Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781953865779
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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