An endlessly entertaining, death-defying source of inspiration.
Super-survivor Stavis presents a memoir about a life marked by cheating death.
Even if Stavis’ memoir restricted itself to the time when he received a triple heart/kidney/pancreas transplant and survived, his story would still be unique. But this autobiography is so much more than that incredible feat. Death stalked Stavis early on. Diagnosed with diabetes as a teen in the early 1970s, he didn’t think he’d reach the other side of 50. That reality, Stavis realized, would affect every aspect of his burgeoning young life: from the friends he kept, to opportunities he pursued, and to the woman he would ultimately marry. He started taking note of tombstones and the special meaning behind the dashes etched between the date of a person’s birth and death dates. (“In 1971, the dash denoting the stop and start of my life seemed likely to be several decades shorter than the norm, so I wanted to fill the dash with as much life, success, and happiness as I possible could manage,” he writes.) Funnily enough, that attitude led the author to several hair-raising experiences long before he faced the triple organ transplant. Those brushes with death included nearly drowning, succumbing to a fire, going down in a plane crash, and being caught in a field with six bulls running after him. The author’s uplifting narrative is jam-packed with joie de vivre.When he advises against victimhood, it seems to emanate from a place of power rather than pitilessness. And, being a child of the 1970s, he quotes the song “Spinning Wheel” from Blood, Sweat & Tears to reinforce his philosophy: “What goes up must come down / Spinnin’ wheel got to go ’round / Talkin’ ’bout your troubles is a cryin’ sin / Ride a painted pony, let the spinnin’ wheel spin.”Stavis explains that he took risks because “I was not going to be cheated out of the fullness or richness of life.” That infectious spirit is writ large across every page of this wonderfully engrossing life story and should appeal to anyone who’s experiencing dark days of their own.
An endlessly entertaining, death-defying source of inspiration.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781970608229
Page Count: 203
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
