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AUGUST WILSON'S AMERICAN CENTURY

LIFE AS ART

Welcome appreciation for a seminal figure in American theater.

A biography of one of America’s greatest playwrights.

His original plan was to become a poet, writing about the people he saw every day at Eddie’s Diner in the Hill District of his hometown of Pittsburgh. August Wilson would become instead one of America’s most celebrated playwrights with what Glasco calls his unprecedented achievement: the Pittsburgh Cycle of 10 plays, each one set in a different decade of the 20th century. As the professor emeritus of history at the University of Pittsburgh writes, “No other playwright—certainly none in the United States—has written a comparable set of excellent plays set in the same place and treating a common topic over an extended period of time,” plays that “gave dignity and respect to the lives of Pittsburgh’s working-class Black residents.” In this admiring biography, Glasco draws from Wilson’s personal papers and interviews with people who knew him to explore “how Pittsburgh influenced both Wilson’s identity and his accomplishments.” He charts Wilson’s path, from his exposure to racism from a young age when his mother won a new washing machine in a radio contest, only for the station to offer her “a used washing machine from the Salvation Army” when they learned she was Black; to his co-founding of Pittsburgh’s Black Horizons Theatre, where he and his colleagues sought Black plays that were “revolutionary and progressive”; to the ways in which he incorporated early experiences into works such as Two Trains Running and Seven Guitars. Another strong influence was artist Romare Bearden, whose collages “changed the way Wilson would write about Black life.” Glasco sometimes gets bogged down in details, as when he describes the maroon wallpaper Wilson’s mother used to make the living room look nicer. But this is a well-written biography that will persuade Wilson’s admirers to revisit his plays and introduce his work to a new generation of fans.

Welcome appreciation for a seminal figure in American theater.

Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2026

ISBN: 9780822948544

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Univ. of Pittsburgh

Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025

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  • New York Times Bestseller

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107 DAYS

A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.

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  • New York Times Bestseller

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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POEMS & PRAYERS

It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.

A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”

McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.

It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.

Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025

ISBN: 9781984862105

Page Count: 208

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025

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