THE BOOK OF JOHN (NOT THE ONE IN THE BIBLE)

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THE BOOK OF JOHN (NOT THE ONE IN THE BIBLE)

Name: THE BOOK OF JOHN (NOT THE ONE IN THE BIBLE)
Author: John T. Long
ISBN: 978-1-5255-4994-6

by John T. Long ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 9, 2019

An often disquieting story of recovery.

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A lawyer and life coach recounts years of drug addiction and how he found sobriety.

In his debut memoir, Long describes his lifelong struggle to stay sober after decades of substance abuse, and how he embraced metaphysical beliefs. Raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Long’s obsessions started at a young age, he says: “I discover sex for the first time when I’m thirteen. After that, my motive is to find the dope, get the girl, get her drunk or high, and take advantage of the easy lay.” Due in part to drinking and drug use, he says, he struggled in college. He later married a woman he describes as “my sex machine,” with whom he had two sons. The deteriorating marriage ended in divorce, with substance abuse as a contributing factor. (The author married twice more and was widowed twice, losing his third wife to an overdose.) Long became a lawyer, but after he was caught with illicit drugs, he was told he had to go into rehab to keep his license. The author eventually ended up in Alcoholics Anonymous; he worked through the steps and realized that he “could use God.” This led him to immerse himself in developing his spirituality, rejecting common religions for deep meditation and magic, which he calls “real witchcraft.” Overall, the author relates a story that may inspire some readers to get the help that they need. At times, though, his spiritual search, as he recounts it here, led him into dangerous situations; at one point, he says that he allowed a “metaphysical healer” named “John of God” do an operation on his ailing eye with a butter knife. The book is also deeply unsettling in other ways; for example, he tells of smoking crack with his 15-year-old son, and comments that, when he was using, he had “No thought of the children.” These instances may be particularly upsetting for anyone who’s endured child endangerment. Other scenes also depict harmful domestic situations, as when Long tells of a fight with his third wife over drugs, during which he crashed their car, breaking her hip and fracturing vertebrae in her neck.

An often disquieting story of recovery.

Pub Date: May 9, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-5255-4994-6

Page Count: 192

Publisher: FriesenPress

Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2019

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.