A wide-ranging book that may help the travel-hesitant feel confident in taking the plunge.
An American author and healthcare executive recalls more of her global travels in this sequel memoir.
Knowlton’s first volume covered her upbringing in Pennsylvania, how she was bitten by the travel bug, and her and her husband Mike’s cross-country adventures in a van after college.In this book, she presents a new series of essays that take readers through seven safaris in six African countries, tours of Nepali temples, the Taj Mahal, and accounts of Maori haka performances. These essays manage to capture what Knowlton describes as “the splendor of these many works,” which include “the haunting beauty that the inexorable toll of time can evoke.” Rather than organizing her memoir chronologically or by region, Knowlton does so by theme, as in “To Market, To Market,” about the various food and wares sold in markets in Asian and African countries; “The Night Sky,” about observing the heavens from different points of the planet; and “Travel Wonders,” about some of the author’s favorite destinations. Other chapters are dedicated to travel tips on such familiar topics as battling sickness and finding accommodations. Knowlton’s prose effectively relates her awe at seeing new places, but her accounts don’t often delve deep into local history, nor do they examine the lasting impact of the experiences on Knowlton and her spouse, although a single chapter does ponder how the author’s travels influenced her thriller writing.The book breaks up the text with some picturesque landscape shots by both the author and her husband. One of the most compelling chapters is about the conversations she’s had with non-Americans about religious and political issues, such as the Syrian refugee crisis. The work occasionally analyzes how geopolitics have influenced personal interactions abroad, although some may find that a section on Vietnam lacks sufficient historical context.
A wide-ranging book that may help the travel-hesitant feel confident in taking the plunge.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9781620069172
Page Count: 185
Publisher: Sunbury Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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
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