For open-minded readers, an exceptional narrative that champions the discovery of freedom in sexuality.
The memoir of a former TV star who found freedom, success, and herself in the pornography industry.
Known for her roles on The Bold and the Beautiful and Boy Meets World, Ward looks back at her life growing up in Los Angeles, becoming an actor, finding some success in TV, and her current work in pornography. Throughout the narrative, the author is clear and engaging in her frank discussions of sex and womanhood. “The turn of the millennium was a hard time for young actresses,” she writes. “We were expected to exude sexuality and erotic appeal, but also to remain a virgin until we were married….Women’s desire or sexuality became solely focused on what a man on the other side got out of it, whether it be a spouse, or a father, or just a guy in the audience.” While her parents stressed the importance of being nice, which was well intentioned, “I was left with the idea that being nice was my value. That’s a dangerous thing to instill in a young girl.” Ward walks readers through her burgeoning sexuality and maturation process in the entertainment industry, showing how she learned some of the predetermined roles that she would play on mainstream TV before she began to look for a new path and found it in cosplay and, later, adult films. The author is generous and insightful in her reflections on finding a larger sense of self as well as finding true friends in an often superficial industry. “Anyone who tries to shame you for living in truth and happiness isn’t looking out for you,” she writes. “That’s a fact that takes too many of us, especially women, far too long to learn.” Regarding her work in porn, Ward expresses herself with effortless honesty and humor about the support and creativity she found in an industry where the creators “are all too often forgotten about as being human and deserving of anyone’s real help.”
For open-minded readers, an exceptional narrative that champions the discovery of freedom in sexuality.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982195-89-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
A brash entrepreneurial memoir driven by ambition and resilience if sometimes sidetracked by repeated score-settling.
The controversial Barstool Sports founder speaks his mind.
Love him or loathe him, Barstool Sports founder Portnoy has built one of the most influential—and polarizing—sports media brands of the digital age. Readers will likely approach his memoir with opinions already firmly in place. Fans will relish his blunt unapologetic voice; detractors may at least come away respecting the relentless drive behind his success. Although framed around Portnoy’s many public controversies, ultimately, this is less a grievance narrative than an entrepreneurial memoir in which nearly every business triumph is accompanied by another public feud that only amplifies his brand. He casts himself as perpetually at war with journalists, business rivals, and critics determined to cancel him. His fiercest attacks are reserved for agents and reporters. The strongest chapters chronicle Barstool’s unlikely beginnings as a free, Boston sports-gambling newspaper he launched in 2003. Beneath his swagger, Portnoy delivers a surprisingly grounded, even inspiring, account of building a business from scratch: cold-calling advertisers before the paper existed, writing nearly every article himself, delivering copies throughout Boston, inventing marketing schemes on the fly, and refusing to quit despite repeated setbacks. He vividly captures the obsessive work ethic and improvisational instincts that transformed a one-man operation into a multimedia empire spanning sports media, gambling, podcasts, merchandising, and internet personalities. Portnoy’s guiding principle is simple: trust in his instincts, no matter the backlash. That certainty fuels both his greatest successes and his most divisive moments, including his unwavering political opinions and repeated clashes with the press. Refreshingly free of the ghostwritten slickness that flattens so many celebrity memoirs, he proves a natural storyteller. His prose is unfiltered, profane, combative, and consistently entertaining. Even readers at odds with his worldview may better appreciate how the same unshakable convictions that repeatedly landed him in controversy also powered Barstool’s remarkable rise.
A brash entrepreneurial memoir driven by ambition and resilience if sometimes sidetracked by repeated score-settling.Pub Date: June 30, 2026
ISBN: 9781668222027
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: yesterday
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2026
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
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