A creative resurrection of people around the world who broke gender norms.
Living as themselves—and often punished for it.
In the late 18th century, Gregoria Piedra was sentenced to prison for eight years for being a “dissolute” and “perverted” woman. Piedra’s supposed crime? During the Eucharist at a Mexico City church, Piedra removed the communion wafer from their mouth and left the church laughing—while dressed in men’s clothing. Piedra is one of 15 people who are honored, posthumously, in this gem of a book. It’s a follow-up to Butch Heroes (2018), in which Brodell also paid tribute to figures who went against society’s gender conventions—and often paid a price for doing so. It’s an inspired project: Brodell, an artist who grew up Catholic, did a lot of research to find these heroes; the author not only tells their stories in brief biographies, but dignifies them in paintings done in the style of saints on holy cards that Brodell knew as a child, cards that are shared at funerals to memorialize the departed. “Even though I am no longer Catholic,” Brodell writes, “I still have a collection of holy cards that belonged to my late aunt.…They are beautiful, intimate objects. They are delicately rendered with bold colors, and often include gold borders or ornate banners.” Brodell’s 11-by-7-inch cards are similarly captivating. For example, the artist depicts Piedra—“known by the nickname ‘la Macho’ because of their masculine physical appearance and demeanor”—holding up a radiant wafer, a faint smile of self-assurance meeting the viewer’s gaze. The subjects in the collection go back as far as the 16th century and lived around the world, from Ecuador to South Africa, underscoring the universality of people, as the author writes, “who were strong or brave in the way they lived their lives and challenged their societies’ strict gender roles.” Some are unnamed, including a Black woman arrested in 1870s North Carolina for wearing men’s clothing. “They had a three-month-old child with them,” Brodell writes, “and upon arrest they were sent to the poorhouse.”
A creative resurrection of people around the world who broke gender norms.Pub Date: April 29, 2025
ISBN: 9780262049870
Page Count: 96
Publisher: MIT Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
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: yesterday
SEEN & HEARD
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 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.
