Trump once called DeSantis a “brilliant cookie.” Read within to watch him crumble.
Inside the rise and (likely) fall of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 presidential ambitions.
As the leader of one of the country’s most politically divided states, DeSantis has gained (and chased) national attention for his pugnacious attacks on Disney, public health officials, and LGBTQ+ youth. Dixon, a national politics reporter for NBC News and former Florida bureau chief for Politico, doesn’t have much to share about his main subject’s inner feelings, but that’s less a function of the author’s reporting chops than DeSantis’ notoriously aloof demeanor (he “has a social circle that could fit in the back seat of a Mini Cooper”). Instead, Dixon focuses on Sunshine State realpolitik, explicating Florida’s recent political history and DeSantis’ skill at strong-arming the state’s legislature and leveraging wealthy donors, his constant Fox News appearances, and the early support he drew from Donald Trump. Dixon also has a deep well of sources to explain—if not humanize—the governor. As his presidential ambitions accelerated in 2022, DeSantis sought to brand himself as a “sensible” alternative to Trump, but with Trump leading the race, DeSantis has struggled to separate himself while still kissing Trump’s ring. Dixon goes deep on the governor’s efforts to land endorsements and find a message that might resonate with voters, which is mainly a chronicle of missteps. (His glitchy candidacy announcement on Twitter was just the start.) Add to that a growing reputation as being a bit odd—Dixon offers a host of details about when DeSantis was seen gobbling down the contents of a pudding cup with his fingers—and DeSantis is unlikely to capture America’s heart in 2024. Still, the book is valuable as a time capsule of the right’s recent obsession with culture wars and how DeSantis was able to take advantage—for a time.
Trump once called DeSantis a “brilliant cookie.” Read within to watch him crumble.Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2024
ISBN: 9780316397223
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.
Portraits in a post-pandemic world.
After the Covid-19 lockdowns left New York City’s streets empty, many claimed that the city was “gone forever.” It was those words that inspired Stanton, whose previous collections include Humans of New York (2013), Humans of New York: Stories (2015), and Humans (2020), to return to the well once more for a new love letter to the city’s humanity and diversity. Beautifully laid out in hardcover with crisp, bright images, each portrait of a New Yorker is accompanied by sparse but potent quotes from Stanton’s interviews with his subjects. Early in the book, the author sequences three portraits—a couple laughing, then looking serious, then the woman with tears in her eyes—as they recount the arc of their relationship, transforming each emotional beat of their story into an affecting visual narrative. In another, an unhoused man sits on the street, his husky eating out of his hand. The caption: “I’m a late bloomer.” Though the pandemic isn’t mentioned often, Stanton focuses much of the book on optimistic stories of the post-pandemic era. Among the most notable profiles is Myles Smutney, founder of the Free Store Project, whose story of reclaiming boarded‑up buildings during the lockdowns speaks to the city’s resilience. In reusing the same formula from his previous books, the author confirms his thesis: New York isn’t going anywhere. As he writes in his lyrical prologue, “Just as one might dive among coral reefs to marvel at nature, one can come to New York City to marvel at humanity.” The book’s optimism paints New York as a city where diverse lives converge in moments of beauty, joy, and collective hope.
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781250277589
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
