A powerful story of redemption after numerous challenges and stumbles.
A debut memoir takes on a host of complicated issues involving sexual orientation, religion, rape, sex work, and addiction.
In his introduction, Turnipseed makes an arresting statement: “My lies began when I was six years old, and throughout my childhood and many years of my adult life, I tried to build a house on a foundation of those lies.” The confession will resonate with readers who, like the author, have hidden crucial parts of themselves from others in fear of reprisals. In the pages that follow, he makes his anguish and turmoil palpable as he recalls struggling with his sexuality in a devoutly Christian household, being raped as a teenager, abusing drugs, and secretly pursuing sex work while married. But what sets this book apart from memoirs with similar themes is his ability to explain how trauma, shame, and coping mechanisms can mutually reinforce one another. Readers will come to understand how Turnipseed used sex and drugs in an effort to deaden his emotional pain, and how that had far-reaching consequences for him and his loved ones, including two wives and two children. At one point, he shows how something as simple as a hiking excursion with a man he’s attracted to becomes a fraught situation: “I tried to play it cool, but without drugs or booze, that was unnatural for me. It was intolerably uncomfortable.” Turnipseed sometimes excessively employs similes to make his points; at one juncture, for instance, he compares his mental state to walking in a “lava field” before he came out as gay and to walking in a strawberry field afterward. However, other comparisons are impressively well crafted, as when he describes yellow sofa cushions that “balloon out like the distended belly of an aging diabetic.” There are many poignant moments throughout the text, such as an account of the unexpected reactions he received upon coming out to his all-male sobriety group. The author eventually found salvation in the Ironman athletic phenomenon—the perfect metaphor for the healing of body, mind, and spirit, as moving forward under grueling conditions requires intense discipline and offers immensely satisfying rewards.
A powerful story of redemption after numerous challenges and stumbles.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73602-190-3
Page Count: 238
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
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
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