A highly personable story of one man’s long association with the world’s most populous country.
Art historian and author Huyler offers an account of his many decades of traveling and learning in India.
The author first went to South Asia in 1971, and in the half-century since then, he’s explored India “by rickshaw, bicycle, camel, bullock cart, horse-drawn buggy, elephant, tuk-tuk, scooter, motorcycle, car, bus, plane, boat, and on foot,” visiting almost every district, talking to countless people, and reveling in all aspects of the nation’s art and culture. Huyler grounds his travel tales in his larger life story, from his upbringing in Ojai, California, to his time at the University of Denver; his courtship and marriage to his wife, Helene; and his journeys to other locations, such as Afghanistan and Turkey. However, the heart of the author’s narrative involves his many encounters with the merchants, vendors, and artists of India, many of whom became longtime friends. Huyler recounts his dealings with people he calls “mentors”—such as Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, the founder of the Central Cottage Industries, a government-owned arts-and-crafts store based in New Delhi—and he also shares a great deal of information regarding the history and traditions of various cities and regions he’s visited. All these experiences have made him an in-demand expert on Indian art and culture; for instance, in the 1980s, he was consulted by various collections and museums in the United States about various Indian art items they possessed. Throughout these reminiscences, Huyler is an unfailingly readable and genial narrator, effectively conveying the sights and sounds that made him fall in love with India and its people. He’s also excellent at relating the culture shock that he experienced coming home to the United States, which he calls a land of “good cars, modern buildings, and efficient businesses”: “After India,” he reflects, “my native society appeared too clean and antiseptic.” Aficionados of India will be captivated by the details that Huyler highlights, and armchair travelers will also find much of interest here.
A highly personable story of one man’s long association with the world’s most populous country.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781913738211
Page Count: 408
Publisher: Pippa Rann Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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
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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