Space exploration gets the headlines, but Casey makes a convincing case that the deep ocean is more interesting.
A fascinating account of the ocean below its twilight zone.
Many scientists and adventurers have explored waters down to 600 feet, where the sunlight barely reaches, but award-winning journalist Casey, author of the bestseller Voices in the Ocean, points out that this zone, the epipelagic, “occupies only 5 percent of the ocean’s volume. For all its loveliness, it’s merely a ceiling. The real action takes place below.” Real action is not in short supply, as the author, an oceanography enthusiast, demonstrates her journalistic professionalism, beginning with a compelling history. Clumsy exploration persuaded some 19th-century experts that the deep was lifeless, but 20th-century technical advances allowed scientists to descend to the bottom (36,000 feet at its deepest) to reveal wildly strange life forms, boiling hydrothermal vents, and volcanoes—an entire ecosystem living on chemicals and heat pouring from the center of the Earth. At these depths, there are creatures that breathe methane, fish with glasslike skeletons, and other animals that communicate through their skin. The farther down you go, “the more astonishing everything becomes.” Today, dozens of deep-sea vehicles, built and operated by governments and universities as well as the occasional entrepreneur and billionaire, roam the oceans. Casey chronicles her travels around the world interviewing designers, adventurers, and scientists; she also joined some expeditions and participated in deep descents. She reminds readers that far more people have visited the International Space Station than the ocean floor, and getting down there remains more dangerous. Readers will be thrilled by the author’s descriptions of truly bizarre sights and creatures as well as dazzling archaeological treasures (according to estimates, some 3 million ships linger on the seabed). Less moving is the human detritus that has reached the deepest trenches, including ubiquitous microplastics; synthetic fibers as well as industrial, chemical, and pharmaceutical waste; and bombs, live ammunition, and unneeded weapons, which the world’s armies routinely dump into the sea.
Space exploration gets the headlines, but Casey makes a convincing case that the deep ocean is more interesting.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9780385545570
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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
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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