An engaging, thoughtful introduction to an overlooked scientific pioneer.
An abandoned wife becomes an acclaimed astronomer in Vizurraga’s fictionalized autobiography of a real-life woman who charted the stars while navigating the constraints of her era.
In 1879, pregnant Scottish immigrant Williamina “Mina” Fleming is abandoned by her husband. Though she had hoped to continue her education in America, she counts herself lucky to find a job as a maid in the household of Harvard astrophysicist Edward Pickering. Once Pickering discovers Mina’s keen intellect, he employs her as a “computer” (“We have a few women computers, unusually adept at mathematics. But not in the Observatory proper. The machinery is heavy and requires some strength to manage, as you can see”). Analyzing photographic images captured by the observatory’s telescope, Mina identifies, classifies, and tracks the movements of stars. She is soon promoted and acquires many additional responsibilities. This begins a 30-year career at the observatory in which she plays various roles: supervisor, editor, and co-developer of what will become the field-wide system for classifying stars. Mina’s story is a compelling portrait of a talented woman coming into her own. Initially regarding her position merely as fortunate employment, she gradually recognizes herself as a true astronomer and trailblazer. The author skillfully illuminates the paradox of women’s scientific work in this era: Because examining photographic plates was dismissed as tedious drudgery, women were permitted—and egregiously underpaid—to perform it, yet this very marginalization granted them the intellectual liberty to excel. Mina emerges in these pages as a woman whose achievements are remarkable by the standards of her time, yet she remains systematically constrained, burdened with expectations placed on no male colleagues, and denied deserved recognition. She chafes at her inadequate compensation and the exhausting dual demands of a scientific career and household management, but her gratitude for opportunities she never anticipated and her amazement at her own accomplishments temper her protests—perhaps more than they should. Throughout, she maintains admirable humor and perspective. Vizurraga’s decision to render the text in verse lends the narrative a certain distinctiveness, but the approach adds little substantively and occasionally sacrifices sensory detail and immediacy.
An engaging, thoughtful introduction to an overlooked scientific pioneer.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2025
ISBN: 9780988393127
Page Count: 388
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A heartbreaking, laugh-provoking, and absolutely Ephron-esque look at the beauty and fragility of everyday life.
A woman faces a health crisis and obsesses over a local accident in this wonderful follow-up to Sandwich (2024).
Newman begins her latest with a quote from Nora Ephron: “Death is a sniper. It strikes people you love, people you like, people you know—it’s everywhere. You could be next. But then you turn out not to be. But then again, you could be.” It sets an appropriate tone for a story that is just as full of death and dread as it is laughter. Two years after the events of Sandwich, Rocky is back home in Western Massachusetts and happily surrounded by family—her daughter, Willa, lives with her and her husband, Nick, while applying to Ph.D. programs; her widowed father, Mort, has moved into the in-law apartment behind their house. When a young man who graduated from high school with Rocky’s son, Jamie, is hit by a train, Rocky finds herself spiraling as she thinks about how close the tragedy came to her own family. She’s also freaking out about a mysterious rash her dermatologist can’t explain. Both instances are tailor-made for internet research and stalking. As Rocky obsessively googles her symptoms and finds only bad news (“Here’s what’s true about the Internet: very infrequently do people log on with their good news. Gosh, they don’t write, I had this weird rash on my forearm? And it turned out to be completely nothing!”), she also compulsively checks the Facebook page of the accident victim’s mother. Newman excels at showing how sorrow and joy coexist in everyday life. She masterfully balances a modern exploration of grief with truly laugh-out-loud lines (one passage about the absurdity of collecting a stool sample and delivering it to the doctor stands out). As Rocky deals with the byzantine frustrations of the medical system, she also has to learn, once more, how to see her children, husband, father, and herself as fully flawed and lovable humans.
A heartbreaking, laugh-provoking, and absolutely Ephron-esque look at the beauty and fragility of everyday life.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063453913
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
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