An often engaging remembrance of past pains and present realizations.
A dancer and choreographer navigates her body’s physical limits, her emotional turmoil, and her quest to keep a dream alive in this debut memoir.
Tatelbaum writes that she started ballet lessons in 1986, when she was 8 years old. She was never able to accomplish smooth landings after her pliés, however, because of her short Achilles tendons. This brought her additional heartbreak when her teacher, referred to only as Miss Lorraine, noted that she didn’t have the body to be a dancer. Still, the author remained determined to become the best performer she could be. Luckily for her, Lorraine hired Clea, a modern-dance teacher who exposed the 11-year-old girl to a new world of motion. When Tatelbaum turned 14, she expanded her knowledge further by taking classes at the Alvin Ailey school. Eventually, she graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, started a dance company, and became a successful choreographer. Things went well for her until she stopped getting callbacks, and she realized that she was stuck in a rut; she also felt unfulfilled in her career as a Pilates instructor. The memoir is split into three parts: The first describes the state that she found herself in when she was ready to give up, the second focuses on her background, and the third describes her later healing. Throughout, readers will easily sympathize with the exhaustion and constant pains that the author felt in her bones (“Ever since senior year at Tisch, my left hip had been snapping when I kicked my leg above ninety degrees”) and how she was still willing to go through it all to pursue her aspirations. The reader also gets a vivid glimpse into her emotional exhaustion when she describes her clients as ATMs, explicitly details her anger and resentment, and shows her despair when she asks her therapist, “How do I get out of here? Help me.” Tatelbaum never shies away from painful moments on her journey, and this adds a depth to her narrative that will keep readers invested.
An often engaging remembrance of past pains and present realizations.Pub Date: April 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-945060-46-5
Page Count: -
Publisher: Motina Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
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