An affectionate and appealing account of the young Englishwoman who became a French icon.
Remembering Jane Birkin, the actress, singer, and style setter.
Born in London, Birkin (1946-2023) was the daughter of a respected actress and a successful businessman. She received a typical education for the time, including a short stay at a Parisian finishing school, but the 1960s “Youthquake,” with England setting trends in music and fashion, was a bigger influence. As journalist Meltzer notes in this nuanced biography, Birkin eagerly adopted new styles, adding her own touches, most famously a Portuguese basket used as a handbag. She followed her mother’s footsteps and became an actress, finding roles in trendy movies like Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 thriller, Blow-Up. At 17 she met and married film composer John Barry, 13 years her senior. But the marriage fell apart in 1967—four months after she gave birth to a daughter, Kate. Going to Paris for an audition, she met Serge Gainsbourg, the notoriously louche actor, director, and musician. They worked together in film and music, most famously recording the song “Je t’aime…moi non plus,” which generated shock waves with its aural simulation of sex. Their relationship, which included the birth of Birkin’s second daughter, Charlotte—the future actor and singer—lasted until 1980, when she left Gainsbourg for director Jacques Doillon. Beyond appearing in more than 70 films, captivating audiences with an “unforgettable face,” Birkin was “the real version of an often-overused term: a fashion icon,” Meltzer writes. “She maintained a fierce dedication to her own aesthetic that has charmed and inspired for decades. She is the reason why high-waisted denims with flared hems, fluttery white peasant blouses, Repetto ballet flats, crocheted dresses, and woven baskets as handbags are still worn today; why the French girl style proliferates. She is carefree elegance personified.”
An affectionate and appealing account of the young Englishwoman who became a French icon.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781668060285
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
A charming and often poignant valediction from rock ’n’ roll’s Prince of Darkness.
The late heavy metal legend considers his mortality in this posthumous memoir.
“I ain’t ready to go anywhere,” writes Osbourne in the opening pages of his new memoir. “It’s good being alive. I like it. I want to be here with my family.” Given the context—Osbourne died on July 22, 2025, two weeks after the publisher announced the news of this book—it’s undeniably sad. But the rest of the text sees the Black Sabbath singer confronting the health struggles of his last years with dark humor and something approaching grace. The memoir begins in 2018; he wrote an earlier one, I Am Ozzy, in 2010. He tells of a staph infection he suffered that proved to be the start of a long, painful battle with various illnesses—soon after, he contracted a flu, which morphed into pneumonia. A spinal injury caused by a fall followed, causing him to undergo a series of surgeries and leaving him struggling with intense pain. And then there was his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, the treatment of which was complicated by his longtime struggle with alcohol and drug addiction. Osbourne peppers the chronicle of his final years with anecdotes from his past, growing up in Birmingham, England, and playing with—and then being fired from—Black Sabbath, and some of his most well-known antics (yes, he does address biting the heads off of a dove and a bat). He writes candidly and regretfully about the time he viciously attacked his wife, Sharon—the book is in many ways a love letter to her and his children. The memoir showcases Osbourne’s wit and charm; it’s rambling and disorganized, but so was he. It functions as both a farewell and a confession, and fans will likely find much to admire in this account. “Death’s been knocking at my door for the last six years, louder and louder,” he writes. “And at some point, I’m gonna have to let him in.”
A charming and often poignant valediction from rock ’n’ roll’s Prince of Darkness.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781538775417
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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