Blistering portraits of a territory plagued by violence.
Striking photographs from a place “where on any night you could be awoken by a bomb exploding in your neighbor’s house."
In 2016, al-Saftawi, a documentary journalist, photographer, and social justice advocate, was seeking asylum from Gaza after escaping to New York at age 25. He was given the opportunity to share his experience as a Palestinian youth through published photographs: a rarity afforded to few refugees arriving in America. In the candid autobiographical introduction, the author describes a cruel, restrictive childhood as “the son of a jihadist who killed and contributed to the killing of innocent Israelis. I condemn these actions.” That kind of violence, he notes, was revered as heroic by the Muslim Brotherhood, who heavily influenced his father (he was recently released from an 18-year prison sentence). Though al-Saftawi acknowledges that working as a journalist in overpopulated Gaza was “like walking barefoot in a field of thorns,” he vividly demonstrates his passion for his homeland throughout this moving pictorial tribute of “memories and dreams.” The book is unfiltered in its depiction of the realities of contemporary Gaza as a dusty city awash in exploding bullets, grief-stricken citizens, and crumbling infrastructure. Through al-Saftawi’s uncompromising lens, readers witness Gazans carrying war-wounded through the streets, the author’s wife framed by a night sky of exploding flares; a bleak view from the rooftop of his childhood neighborhood; and heartbreaking portraits of children shredded by the shrapnel of a drone attack and a close-up of a 7-year-old who witnessed the massacre of his family during Israel’s three-week assault on Gaza in 2008 and 2009. Atmospheric, visually moving, and dedicated to “all those who are trapped in the hardships of this life, surviving in the hopes of a better tomorrow,” this book shows a hellish landscape with bits of humanity and resilience beaming through. The author includes a contextual timeline and glossary.
Blistering portraits of a territory plagued by violence.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-944211-97-4
Page Count: 120
Publisher: McSweeney’s
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
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
SEEN & HEARD
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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