by Margaret Porter ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 14, 2021
A witty and meticulously researched treat for devotees of old Hollywood.
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An Oklahoma teenager arrives in Hollywood and enters a glamorous world thanks to her famous cousin in this historical novel set in the 1930s and based on a true story.
Helen Nichols is a pretty, intelligent high school student in Oklahoma. Her early life is marked by tragedy. At 10 months old, Helen and her mother and sister, Jean, are injured in a gas explosion that kills her father. Helen is also run over by a truck as a child. The Nichols sisters and their cousin Ginger Rogers live with their grandparents while Helen’s mother and Aunt Lela establish themselves in careers and remarry. Lela, the first female Marine sergeant, has written and produced military training films but devotes her energy to promoting the career of her only child, Ginger. In her early 20s, Ginger is a rising star, navigating the studio contract system with the help of her indefatigable “momager.” Lela and Ginger are convinced that Helen has the looks to land an RKO contract. With a new name, Phyllis Fraser, and financial support from her aunt and cousin, she moves to Hollywood. Although she lacks Ginger’s exceptional talent, Phyllis is offered a bit part and enjoys limited success in various films. Living with Ginger and Lela, Phyllis meets notable neighbors, including Harpo Marx and Clara Bow. When Phyllis and her relatives attend a play starring newcomer Humphrey Bogart, Lela comments: “Terrible name. He should change it.” There are many intriguing historical facts in Porter’s well-researched book. Author Ayn Rand was a wardrobe assistant for many mediocre films. When Ginger Rogers read that Adele Astaire was moving to Ireland and leaving her brother without his dance partner, she cried: “What on earth will Fred do without her?” The entertaining novel details a succession of trysts and marriages among the young actresses. Ultimately disheartened, Phyllis decides to devote herself to writing, which brings her to New York and into the orbit of New Yorker editor Harold Ross and his close friend Random House editor Bennett Cerf. She soon marries Cerf, who is twice her age. More compelling than the litany of stars, wannabes, and their mostly forgettable films is the section devoted to Phyllis’ life in New York, her work on Madison Avenue, and her unusual “hot desk” arrangement there with Ted Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss.
A witty and meticulously researched treat for devotees of old Hollywood.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-9907420-1-2
Page Count: 391
Publisher: Gallica Press
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Barbara Kingsolver ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 2022
An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored.
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New York Times Bestseller
Pulitzer Prize Winner
Inspired by David Copperfield, Kingsolver crafts a 21st-century coming-of-age story set in America’s hard-pressed rural South.
It’s not necessary to have read Dickens’ famous novel to appreciate Kingsolver’s absorbing tale, but those who have will savor the tough-minded changes she rings on his Victorian sentimentality while affirming his stinging critique of a heartless society. Our soon-to-be orphaned narrator’s mother is a substance-abusing teenage single mom who checks out via OD on his 11th birthday, and Demon’s cynical, wised-up voice is light-years removed from David Copperfield’s earnest tone. Yet readers also see the yearning for love and wells of compassion hidden beneath his self-protective exterior. Like pretty much everyone else in Lee County, Virginia, hollowed out economically by the coal and tobacco industries, he sees himself as someone with no prospects and little worth. One of Kingsolver’s major themes, hit a little too insistently, is the contempt felt by participants in the modern capitalist economy for those rooted in older ways of life. More nuanced and emotionally engaging is Demon’s fierce attachment to his home ground, a place where he is known and supported, tested to the breaking point as the opiate epidemic engulfs it. Kingsolver’s ferocious indictment of the pharmaceutical industry, angrily stated by a local girl who has become a nurse, is in the best Dickensian tradition, and Demon gives a harrowing account of his descent into addiction with his beloved Dori (as naïve as Dickens’ Dora in her own screwed-up way). Does knowledge offer a way out of this sinkhole? A committed teacher tries to enlighten Demon’s seventh grade class about how the resource-rich countryside was pillaged and abandoned, but Kingsolver doesn’t air-brush his students’ dismissal of this history or the prejudice encountered by this African American outsider and his White wife. She is an art teacher who guides Demon toward self-expression, just as his friend Tommy provokes his dawning understanding of how their world has been shaped by outside forces and what he might be able to do about it.
An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-325-1922
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
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SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
by Colleen Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 2022
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
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New York Times Bestseller
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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SEEN & HEARD
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