Poignant dispatches from the mad world of stardom.
The story of a musician and songwriter who helped define the 1980s.
If you’re of a certain age, reading just the title of this heartfelt memoir will likely get a song stuck in your head: It’s the first line of “Everybody Wants To Rule the World,” Tears for Fears’ massive hit from 1985. Before Orzabal writes about the success of his band, though, the guitarist and singer-songwriter hits the reader with something heavy: The first chapter chronicles the 2017 loss of his longtime wife, Caroline, who died after suffering from alcohol-related cirrhosis and dementia. The decision to begin his memoir this way puts everything that follows in perspective—and the book is heavy on perspective, filtered through Orzabal’s interest in astrology, which he calls “a series of predictable coincidences, but luckily the fine details are left to us.” He recounts his somewhat unhappy childhood, growing up with an abusive father whom his mother would later leave and his friendship with a “young tearaway named Curt Smith” when both were boys in Bath, England. Orzabal and Smith played in a band called Graduate before forming Tears for Fears, which would go on to release hit singles including “Mad World” and “Shout” before breaking up in 1990. Orzabal doesn’t seem to have any ill will toward Smith; the two reunited under the name Tears for Fears for two albums, one unsuccessful (Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, 2005) and one a big hit (The Tipping Point, 2022). Orzabal intersperses memories of his life, musical and otherwise, with his thoughts on astrology, and it flows naturally—readers obsessed with all things zodiac will be thrilled, of course, but he makes it easy to follow for those who think Taurus is simply a discontinued car. The memoir is intense at times, but Orzabal is singularly charming, and the book concludes on a sweet, hopeful note: Everybody, indeed, loves a happy ending.
Poignant dispatches from the mad world of stardom.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2026
ISBN: 9780063455191
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
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
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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