A fascinating look at a life in science, full of “eureka” moments and convoluted power plays.
Smith looks back on his efforts to elucidate the immune system before his rivals beat him to it in this candid memoir.
The author recaps his career, from medical school through a two-decade stint as a medical professor at Dartmouth in the 1970s and 1980s, in which he made pioneering contributions to immunology. The book dives deep into his research on T cells—immune cells that destroy pathogens and provide long-term immunity—and the role of interleukin-2, a protein that promotes T-cell growth. Smith’s narrative features scenes of exhilarating discovery in which experiments worked beautifully and he gradually conceived a vision of interleukins as a set of hormones meticulously regulating the immune system. He twines these with an intimate portrait of cut-throat scientific competition: He recounts how he battled a hidebound immunological establishment, chewed out a journal editor for rejecting a paper, finessed the National Institutes of Health when it dragged its feet renewing his grant, and was backstabbed by a graduate student who stole a cell line his lab developed and sold it for $5,000 to a Japanese company that used it to publish an important finding just before he did (“In science, the only way to maintain one’s sanity and to stay in the game is to always look forward,” he concludes). Smith’s exposition is thorough and comprehensive, and readers see his work develop chronologically, from rudimentary hypotheses and experimentation on mysterious substances to a detailed understanding of molecules and mechanisms. The writing is sophisticated enough for scientists but sufficiently clear and straightforward for interested laypeople to follow, and the author describes lab work in down-to-earth prose that’s full of vivid detail: “I would walk over to the hospital…don my scrubs, and go into the operating room, where the surgeon would drop a tonsil into my cup of saline. Back in the lab…we would slice up the tonsil with a scalpel and forceps, releasing the individual lymphocytes.” The result is a gripping saga of science as a fraught and very human pursuit.
A fascinating look at a life in science, full of “eureka” moments and convoluted power plays.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A charming and often poignant valediction from rock ’n’ roll’s Prince of Darkness.
The late heavy metal legend considers his mortality in this posthumous memoir.
“I ain’t ready to go anywhere,” writes Osbourne in the opening pages of his new memoir. “It’s good being alive. I like it. I want to be here with my family.” Given the context—Osbourne died on July 22, 2025, two weeks after the publisher announced the news of this book—it’s undeniably sad. But the rest of the text sees the Black Sabbath singer confronting the health struggles of his last years with dark humor and something approaching grace. The memoir begins in 2018; he wrote an earlier one, I Am Ozzy, in 2010. He tells of a staph infection he suffered that proved to be the start of a long, painful battle with various illnesses—soon after, he contracted a flu, which morphed into pneumonia. A spinal injury caused by a fall followed, causing him to undergo a series of surgeries and leaving him struggling with intense pain. And then there was his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, the treatment of which was complicated by his longtime struggle with alcohol and drug addiction. Osbourne peppers the chronicle of his final years with anecdotes from his past, growing up in Birmingham, England, and playing with—and then being fired from—Black Sabbath, and some of his most well-known antics (yes, he does address biting the heads off of a dove and a bat). He writes candidly and regretfully about the time he viciously attacked his wife, Sharon—the book is in many ways a love letter to her and his children. The memoir showcases Osbourne’s wit and charm; it’s rambling and disorganized, but so was he. It functions as both a farewell and a confession, and fans will likely find much to admire in this account. “Death’s been knocking at my door for the last six years, louder and louder,” he writes. “And at some point, I’m gonna have to let him in.”
A charming and often poignant valediction from rock ’n’ roll’s Prince of Darkness.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781538775417
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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