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KISSING ASPHALT

THE COURAGEOUS TRUE STORY OF ONE’S CHILD’S UNBREAKABLE SPIRIT—FROM KIDNAPPING & ABUSE TO SELF-LOVE

A heartfelt memoir of optimism in the face of abuse and neglect.

Niami describes the highs and lows of a rough childhood in this debut memoir, the first in a series.

When the author was 4 years old, about a year into her parents’ tumultuous divorce, she and her 7-year-old brother, Nile, were kidnapped by their father, Hazim, who told the siblings that they were going to Disneyland. Instead, they boarded a plane and flew to Hazim’s native city of Baghdad. Despite the strangeness of their new surroundings, the children quickly adapted to life in Iraq, enrolling in local schools and learning Arabic. After a year, the negligent and often cruel Hazim agreed to allow the children to return to their mother in America. Unfortunately, instability and negligence would continue to be themes throughout Niami’s childhood, as would abusive authority figures: Beginning at the age of 7, the author was molested by a series of men who initially appeared friendly but turned out to be monsters. As Niami recounts these traumatic experiences, she also touches on her life as a teen in Los Angeles in the 1980s as a die-hard fan of the band the Go-Go’s who experimented with drugs. The author recalls her difficult experiences with warmth and humor, even when describing the worst of times. Here she describes forcing herself to see the good in a night when, after attending an amazing concert, she was molested by her uncle: “This was the first and last time that The Bangles and the Go-Go’s ever shared the same stage exclusively…I wouldn’t have traded that for anything in the world. I wondered how my life would have been different if I hadn’t gone. Would it have really made a difference if I had had one less abuser in my life?” Like all survivor memoirs, the book often makes for a difficult read; one can almost feel Niami numbing herself just to remain a functioning human being. Her story demonstrates the ways in which certain tragedies seem to repeat themselves—and the ways people are forced to adapt in order to overcome them.

A heartfelt memoir of optimism in the face of abuse and neglect.

Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2023

ISBN: 9781647047719

Page Count: 236

Publisher: Resilientaf Press

Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2023

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TANQUERAY

A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.

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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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LOVE, PAMELA

A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.

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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

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