A delightfully enthusiastic tribute to the heartfelt care of horses.
A lifelong horse breeder and trainer reflects on an adventuresome life in this essay collection.
The nine stories in Mueller’s book are populated with notable people she’s encountered throughout out her four-decade career showing horses “up and down the Valley of Virginia.” (Some names and some details have changed.) She considers herself blessed to have raised so many impressive Arabian horses in an industry that she characterizes as prone to fraud and profiteering scams. She elaborates on this theme in her opening essay, set in the 1980s, which offers details of a pyramid scheme that hit dangerously close to home. Despite being raised by a mother who didn’t particularly care for the presence of horses, Mueller writes, she never outgrew her love of the animals that she had as an adolescent; she would go on to became recognized as a breeder who was “interested in the horses and not just the money to be made from them.” In two of the more compelling essays, she shares the story of the mysterious and dramatic life and tragic death of longtime friend and fellow horse enthusiast Marilyn and also presents a novella-length tale of coming-of-age of Tim, a natural-born horse trainer and rider. Within the collection, there are several intimate recollections of events at the author’s Pharoh’s Way horse farm in Virginia’s Rockbridge County, alongside exuberant discussions of her acquisition of purebred mares to “complement” the Pharoh bloodline. Other tales draw from her successful years of training and breeding horses, judging competitions, and teaching equine management classes at a local community college. Mueller also shares her sadness at the loss of stallion Pharoh, which she owned for 25 years. The author’s passion for equestrian pursuits is clear throughout, and she effectively conveys it through her affable, conversational storytelling. In the book’s closing pages, Mueller contributes her own short poem, “My Eden,” in which she expresses gratitude for the longevity of her livelihood and cherishes the “paradise in the running of the horses.” Hippophiles and equestrians alike are likely to enjoy this earnest volume.
A delightfully enthusiastic tribute to the heartfelt care of horses.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 9780989040358
Page Count: 186
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
© Copyright 2025 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.
