Bold and sassy, Pierpont and Thapp’s “little” collection of secular “saints” stands tall: required reading for any seeking...
From novelist Pierpont (Among the Ten Thousand Things, 2015) and British illustrator Thapp, an enticing collection of biographical portraits of extraordinary women.
The author models her richly varied collection of 100 “feminist saints” on the “Catholic saint-of-the-day book,” offering one-page inspirational snapshots that aim to capture the spirit of her path-breaking subjects versus history’s fuller remembrance of them. Pierpont’s pithy write-ups are accompanied by Thapp’s funky, wonderfully expressive color illustrations, making for an engaging picture-book experience for adults. From Sappho to Malala to Pussy Riot, Pierpont tracks well over two millennia of women’s achievements ranging from the likes of artists, politicians, and scientists to athletes, screen stars, and comics. Though loosely organized around the calendar year, the portraits may be read consecutively or piecemeal; each offers a glimpse of one of Pierpont’s “matron saints” in her respective element. Thus, March 26 contains a spirited anecdote from Sandra Day O’Connor, “Matron Saint of Justice,” who, in October 1983, wrote to admonish the New York Times, noting that “for over two years now SCOTUS has not consisted of nine men. If you have any contradictory information, I would be grateful if you would forward it as I’m sure the POTUS, the SCOTUS and the undersigned (the FWOTSC) [first woman of the Supreme Court] would be most interested in seeing it.” April 1 is for Wangari Maathai, “Matron Saint of Sustainability,” who started the Green Belt Movement in her native Kenya, planting 50 million trees and training “thirty thousand women in forestry and food processing, allowing them to make their own incomes.” Matthai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. July 15 features signature quips from powerhouse mother-and-daughter duo Ann and Cecile Richards; says Ann: “I get a lot of cracks about my hair, mostly from men who don’t have any.” Other trailblazers include Virginia Woolf, Billie Jean King, and Ada Lovelace.
Bold and sassy, Pierpont and Thapp’s “little” collection of secular “saints” stands tall: required reading for any seeking to broaden their historical knowledge.Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-399-59274-4
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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