Timely and engaging; a heroic environmental story well told.
A former Environmental Protection Agency attorney delivers an impassioned plea to fight pollution and climate change.
Both a memoir and an informed commentary, this debut book addresses pollution and climate change from an insider’s perspective. Emory, who spent much of his legal career working for the EPA, weaves together his personal story with observations that demonstrate why, when compared with Europe, the United States is largely lacking in its use of renewable energy and its response to climate change. The volume begins with something of a historical overview of environmental abuses and regulations. It also provides a laudatory look at the influential Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring (1962), a book that “helped to move” the U.S. government from environmental “promoter to regulator” with the creation of the EPA in 1970. Emory’s real awakening to pollution came as a Maryland legislator when he “encountered frightful cases of toxic-waste dumping.” His battle against pollution in his state led to the author’s being hired by the EPA in 1980. Unfortunately, Emory was witness to political power plays inside and outside the agency; in 1993, he bravely filed a whistleblower suit against the EPA and was consequently demoted. The author relates this narrative with candor and selflessness, offering a behind-the-scenes peek at the ugly inner workings of the federal government. Still, he managed to redirect his career to work internationally on environmental issues. He and his wife flourished in France and Germany; living in Europe afforded Emory the opportunity to witness that continent’s advanced view of environmental regulation. The author writes eloquently and passionately about pollution and climate change throughout the book, showing how they converge. In the closing chapter, he provides an authoritative discussion of two powerful environmental tools: “adaptation” and “mitigation.” While lamenting the fact that the EPA was “deconstructed” in 2017, Emory optimistically sees hope for combating climate change in the future: “While my generation still does too little, younger generations, who are more thoughtful and alert now see this danger and are marching in demonstrations for immediate action.”
Timely and engaging; a heroic environmental story well told. (bibliography)Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64438-069-7
Page Count: 302
Publisher: Booklocker.com
Review Posted Online: April 22, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
© Copyright 2024 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.
bookshelf
