A rare look at a disappearing world.
A warm portrait of stark, strenuous lives in remote China.
From her home in northwestern China, essayist and nature writer Li joined a family of Kazakh herders—and their camels, sheep, cattle, and horses—to spend winter on immense pastureland where the population density was “one person per every square mile and a half.” Winner of the People’s Literature Award in China, this charming memoir, the author’s first to be translated in the U.S., captures the harsh reality and quiet pleasures of the herders’ nomadic way of life, migrations threatened by the consequences of overgrazing. Amid “towering waves of immaculate golden sand dunes,” where temperatures plummet to minus 31 degrees, the family constructs a burrow made with sheep manure, the “sole building material available in the desert,” incomparable because it “can magically, continuously radiate heat.” With wall hangings, rugs, a hearth, and a tablecloth for meals, the burrow becomes a home. Although the author wondered what contribution she could make, she took on a variety of necessary tasks: “I cleaned the cattle burrow and sheep pen every day, hauled snow”—critical for providing water—“made nan, embroidered,” and sometimes helped out with the exhausting job of herding. Li offers affectionate profiles of neighbors, visitors, and members of her host family: Cuma, the father, “intelligent and ambitious, capable and cocky,” and too often drunk; his reticent wife, whose “aloofness was enough to give you goose bumps. But when she did smile, she was radiant. Light beams shot out from between her brows as if she invented this ‘smiling’ business”; and their 19-year-old daughter, who had to leave school and dreams of becoming educated and independent in order to help her family. The arduous work caused Cuma and his wife to rely on daily doses of painkillers, but their mastery of their environment, and their contentment, earned the author’s admiration.
A rare look at a disappearing world.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-66260-033-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Astra House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
Doesn’t dig as deep as it could, but offers a captivating look at the NBA’s greatest era.
NBA legends Bird and Johnson, fierce rivals during their playing days, team up on a mutual career retrospective.
With megastars LeBron James and Kobe Bryant and international superstars like China’s Yao Ming pushing it to ever-greater heights of popularity today, it’s difficult to imagine the NBA in 1979, when financial problems, drug scandals and racial issues threatened to destroy the fledgling league. Fortunately, that year marked the coming of two young saviors—one a flashy, charismatic African-American and the other a cocky, blond, self-described “hick.” Arriving fresh off a showdown in the NCAA championship game in which Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans defeated Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores—still the highest-rated college basketball game ever—the duo changed the course of history not just for the league, but the sport itself. While the pair’s on-court accomplishments have been exhaustively chronicled, the narrative hook here is unprecedented insight and commentary from the stars themselves on their unique relationship, a compelling mixture of bitter rivalry and mutual admiration. This snapshot of their respective careers delves with varying degrees of depth into the lives of each man and their on- and off-court achievements, including the historic championship games between Johnson’s Lakers and Bird’s Celtics, their trailblazing endorsement deals and Johnson’s stunning announcement in 1991 that he had tested positive for HIV. Ironically, this nostalgic chronicle about the two men who, along with Michael Jordan, turned more fans onto NBA basketball than any other players, will likely appeal primarily to a narrow cross-section of readers: Bird/Magic fans and hardcore hoop-heads.
Doesn’t dig as deep as it could, but offers a captivating look at the NBA’s greatest era.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-547-22547-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
A skillful and succinct examination of Shakespeare’s relationship with Henry Wriothesley.
Medina delves into the life of William Shakespeare to investigate his love affair with the Earl of Southampton.
The author, a political and policy advisor and former deputy chief of staff for Michelle Obama, introduces his concise biography of Shakespeare by citing the subject that interests him most, which other biographers, per Medina, have either neglected or outright denied: the Bard’s relationship with a young aristocrat, which is prominently referenced in his sonnets and several other works. “Why ignore Shakespeare’s greatest love?” Medina asks. At the time he met Shakespeare, Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton, was only 17, but he already held impressive degrees and social status. The author analyzes Shakespeare’s sonnets, finding evidence of their passion against a social backdrop in which homosexuality was illegal but strong same-sex bonds were nevertheless encouraged. Medina traces their story through revealing moments in Shakespeare’s works, notably “The Rape of Lucrece” and The Merchant of Venice, while also giving careful consideration to Shakespeare’s rising financial and social status thanks to the Earl’s patronage and despite attitudes about the hedonism of the theatre scene. Political aspects also come under scrutiny with the end of the Elizabethan era and the arrival of King James (leading the author to reveal some of the more salacious court gossip he has uncovered). In his conclusion, Medina levels a thoughtful critique of literary editors and critics who, in the author’s view, have tried to erase Shakespeare’s romantic love for Wriothesley. Throughout, Medina is quick to dismiss traditional, heteronormative interpretations of Shakespeare’s work. His succinct, blanket statements about characters being “undeniably gay” or previous cultural assertions being simply “false” can come off as defensive rather than logical conclusions flowing from his research, but the sheer amount of material Medina has amassed and efficiently summarized may win readers over to his point of view in the end. Despite being a slim volume, his biography is overflowing with well-observed anecdotes and deft descriptions that paint a full portrait of the ways in which theater, homosexuality, and Shakespeare himself fit into the society of the time.
A skillful and succinct examination of Shakespeare’s relationship with Henry Wriothesley.Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9781633311060
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Disruption Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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