Historical writing at its most thrilling and thought-provoking.
The author of Nicked (2024), a historical novel for adults, dishes up an equally rousing narrative based on his research on St. Nicholas, featuring flagrant heists, holy miracles, and human nature at its best and worst.
Weaving careful speculation into tours of archeological sites, close readings of (often conflicting) original accounts, and interviews with experts, Anderson retraces the ups and downs of both the legends and the remains of the fourth-century Anatolian St. Nicholas of Myra, aka Santa Claus. He also ventures down significant byways, including a consideration of the First Crusade’s ugly legacy of religious extremism, and adds fascinating tidbits, like some male scholars’ insistence that ancient “many-breasted” statues of fertility goddess Artemis are actually swathed in sacrificial bull scrota. An entertaining account tells how rival gangs of 11th-century looters both claimed to have brought the saint’s holy relics home to their cities of Bari and Venice (where they still, supposedly, reside). The author argues persuasively that Santa has gone from being a charitable miracle worker and scourge of pagan demons to a modern idol, a “lo-res, tinny version of the Christian God,” who exhibits godlike omniscience (“He knows if you’ve been bad or good”) and abilities. His enduring legends, Anderson insightfully reflects, challenge us to consider how older ideas of ethics, morality, and heroism relate to our own beliefs and how vitally important it is to listen to others’ stories.
Historical writing at its most thrilling and thought-provoking. (maps, author’s note, sources, end notes) (Nonfiction. 13-16)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2026
ISBN: 9780593699546
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
From the cockamamie (extreme ironing) to daredevilry (rooftopping) to a fine day out (catacomb rambling), a taste of...
A hodgepodge of adventuring activities designed for urban settings gathered under the rubric “hacking,” as in the old sense of “play[ing] a sophisticated practical joke on a community,” though considerably more inclusive here.
Place hacking, for author Rosen, comprises three categories of activities: urban exploration, urban adventure and urban infiltration. By its nature, hacking is an outlaw activity, often involving a measure of risk and some illegal acts. There is an unofficial place-hacker code of conduct and an admirable acceptance of personal responsibility for one’s behavior, plus much preparation for the hairier deeds. Still, there are some seriously dangerous exploits recorded in these pages, from entering buildings that may harbor toxic wastes, unstable flooring or creatures unhappy with your visit—skunks, snakes—to scaling the outsides of skyscrapers. But there are also a host of activities that are unlikely to hospitalize or incarcerate the participant, from exploring the urban underground to parkour, a kind of nimble, freestyle run-and-leap through an urban landscape. Despite the disclaimer, “This book...is not intended to be a how-to guide,” there is a segment on staging an illegal exploration—but Rosen emphasizes the pleasure of discovery and the joy of participating in a sport with style and a goal of mastery.
From the cockamamie (extreme ironing) to daredevilry (rooftopping) to a fine day out (catacomb rambling), a taste of unbridled adventure for everyone. (Nonfiction. 13-16)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4677-2515-6
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Twenty-First Century/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Enlightening, inspiring, and moving.
Pennies, glass bottles, a parking meter, and a kick line: how a police raid became a community’s symbol of freedom.
June 28, 1969: the night the gay bar Stonewall was raided by the police for the second time in a week to stop a blackmail operation. What began as a supposedly routine police raid ended with over 2,000 angry, fed-up protesters fighting against the police in New York’s West Village. Bausum eloquently and thoughtfully recounts it all, from the violent arrest of a young lesbian by the police to an angry, mocking, Broadway-style kick line of young men protesting against New York’s Tactical Control Force. Bausum not only recounts the action of the evening in clear, blow-by-blow journalistic prose, she also is careful to point out assumptions and misunderstandings that might also have occurred during the hot summer night. Her narrative feels fueled by rage and empowerment and the urge to tell the truth. She doesn’t bat an eye when recounting the ways that the LGBT fought to find freedom, love, and the physical manifestations of those feelings, whether at the Stonewall Inn or inside the back of a meat truck parked along the Hudson River. Readers coming of age at a time when state after state is beginning to celebrate gay marriage will be astonished to return to a time when it was a crime for a man to wear a dress.
Enlightening, inspiring, and moving. (Nonfiction. 13-16)Pub Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-670-01679-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015
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