A playful exploration of color that favors perception over introspection.
An evocative poetry collection about the complexity of color.
Woodman explores the emotional, sensory, cultural, and historical dimensions of color in this book of poems that includes complementary artwork. In “Black Is Not a Color,” the poet catalogs the “conflicting complications” and associations with blackness, from Churchill’s “black dog” to the Bubonic Black Death. “Yves Blue” immerses readers in the abstraction of Yves Klein’s iconic monochrome artwork. “Turquoise Dharma” connects color to faith and ritual, following a Nepalese pilgrim’s prayer wheel. The wide array of shades of pink and the ever-shifting public opinions about those hues are at the center of “Provocative Pink.” The many uses for yellow, from police tape to wet floor signage to crosswalks, make up “Yellow into Yellow.” Da Vinci, Rubens, and Rothko are a few of the artists referenced in “Contradictory Red.” The author’s research into green burial, human composting, and intentional funeral care inspired “Recompose,” which features the refrain, “I want to be dirt when I die.” “Poor Brown,” explores the maligned hue of “mud, filth, and shi*.” Color theory informs “Shades of Anger” and “Tints of Anguish.” The book concludes with “Silver Is More Than a Color,” in which the poet gives voice to silver, stating, “I am a metal with flair and fortitude / I’m more than a color, // Call me attitude!” Woodman invites readers to reconsider how they conceive of color in this breezy, easy-to-read poetry collection. The poet excels at setting detailed scenes with minimal language, conjuring “Two wrought iron chairs / braced for the season snuggle / cloaked with puffy white armrests” or “bronzing oaks / still wearing cloaks of dry leaves.” The accompanying artwork, including photographs, paintings, and stock images, visually echoes the tone and topics of the poems; “The Many Faces of Green,” celebrates “the glory of being green” opposite five gorgeous paintings featuring the color. However, some readers may long for more context about who the poet is versus what she sees in her poems.
A playful exploration of color that favors perception over introspection.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9781962082860
Page Count: 137
Publisher: Shanti Arts LLC
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A smart, rewarding consideration of football’s popularity—and eventual downfall.
A wide-ranging writer on his football fixation.
Is our biggest spectator sport “a practical means for understanding American life”? Klosterman thinks so, backing it up with funny, thought-provoking essays about TV coverage, ethical quandaries, and the rules themselves. Yet those who believe it’s a brutal relic of a less enlightened era need only wait, “because football is doomed.” Marshalling his customary blend of learned and low-culture references—Noam Chomsky, meet AC/DC—Klosterman offers an “expository obituary” of a game whose current “monocultural grip” will baffle future generations. He forecasts that economic and social forces—the NFL’s “cultivation of revenue,” changes in advertising, et al.—will end its cultural centrality. It’s hard to imagine a time when “football stops and no one cares,” but Klosterman cites an instructive precedent. Horse racing was broadly popular a century ago, when horses were more common in daily life. But that’s no longer true, and fandom has plummeted. With youth participation on a similar trajectory, Klosterman foresees a time when fewer people have a personal connection to football, rendering it a “niche” pursuit. Until then, the sport gives us much to consider, with Klosterman as our well-informed guide. Basketball is more “elegant,” but “football is the best television product ever,” its breaks between plays—“the intensity and the nothingness,” à la Sartre—provide thrills and space for reflection or conversation. For its part, the increasing “intellectual density” of the game, particularly for quarterbacks, mirrors a broader culture marked by an “ongoing escalation of corporate and technological control.” Klosterman also has compelling, counterintuitive takes on football gambling, GOAT debates, and how one major college football coach reminds him of “Laura Ingalls Wilder’s much‑loved Little House novels.” A beloved sport’s eventual death spiral has seldom been so entertaining.
A smart, rewarding consideration of football’s popularity—and eventual downfall.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593490648
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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