A decidedly skewed, hilarious collection of life reflections and colorful storytelling.
The adventures and misadventures of a young Australian humorist.
Melbourne-based writer Skinner, whose work has appeared in the Best Australian Essays and Best Australian Comedy Writing series, relates telling episodes from his life in short, wry chapters. Variously employed as a dishwasher, tour guide, bus driver, and bookstore clerk, the author’s outlook is refreshingly free of careerism. He is most passionate about the short story journal he co-founded, The Canary Press, but he also discovered that magazines are far from a lucrative business. His slim recompense means he sometimes slept on “couches, lawns and living room floors" and even "in what might reasonably be described as a ditch, though I tried not to think of it in those terms for morale reasons." Skinner’s energies are largely directed to literary pursuits, but the task of writing a book “is a lot harder than reading one.” The author excels in describing his unique approach to leading tour groups on camping expeditions through the Outback. "I never had qualms messing around with the European version of things,” he writes. “Most of the best places were just named after some guy.” More than mere push back against conventional expectations or battles with bureaucracy, Skinner's essays are about what makes life worth living. For example, a 10-day camel trek into the Outback with his parents gave him a new appreciation for rustic life. “One of the reasons people go bush is to trade our old, boring problems…for new and refreshing ones,” he writes. Admittedly no paragon of “industriousness,” the author finds beauty in solitary fishing trips. "Fishing can take you to the most beautiful places…and promptly ruin your enjoyment of them,” he writes. Regarding the fish, "I didn't want to catch them, I wanted to join them." Brevity may be the soul of wit, but the nimble economy of this slim volume will make readers pine for more.
A decidedly skewed, hilarious collection of life reflections and colorful storytelling.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9781586423780
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Steerforth
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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