A candid and often harrowing remembrance of one man’s search for love and acceptance.
Psychologist Caraballo offers a memoir of his cancer battle and struggles with addiction.
The author writes that he grew up in a family of conservative Puerto Rican Jehovah’s Witnesses in New York City, in which he felt bound by the old-fashioned values of his religion. He was frequently ill as a child (“I’m pretty sure I could have given just about any ailing Victorian child a run for their money,” he writes); one year, he contracted whooping cough. After his family moved to Florida when he was a teenager, he found himself struggling with his same-sex desires. In 1995, he decided to attend college to study animation art in a place “where people came together and lived as themselves”: New York City. Armed with a fake ID, he entered the city’s world of nightlife and casual sex, dreaming of love but not finding it. He dulled a nagging pain in his chest with drugs and alcohol, until it became so unbearable he finally sought help. Doctors found a football-sized tumor, and he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma; he returned to his parents’ home and underwent two years of brutal treatment. Afterward, he worked to rebuild his life, and he earned a master’s degree in film production; however, the trauma of the cancer-treatment experience led to more substance abuse and a stint in jail. His remarkable recovery didn’t dampen his desire for career success, and he eventually began work on a doctorate in business psychology. Caraballo’s memoir offers a lot more than a familiar coming-of-age tale; some of the recollections here are shocking, including his account of 16 months in prison. They’re the kinds of stories that can only be told well by someone who’s lived through them, as his awe-inspiring tale of his cancer battle shows. He writes his story with notable passion and a strong sense of forward momentum. At times, the author leans too hard into a philosophical tone, but overall, his story is both absorbing and entertaining.
A candid and often harrowing remembrance of one man’s search for love and acceptance.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9798990365605
Page Count: 262
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2024
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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