Jonesy’s talent lies in the sound bite, and she should stick to radio.
A fire-breathing diva DJ blows a lot of hot air.
Jones (popularly known as “Miss Jones” or “Jonesy”) is a highly rated radio host on New York’s hip-hop and R&B station Hot 97, an undistinguished recording artist and former lover of rappers Doug E. Fresh and Busta Rhymes. How these credentials justify the young author penning an autobiography remains a mystery. Tedious, self-serving, hobbled by wobbly syntax, haphazard chronology and weird inconsistencies (major figures’ names change disconcertingly), this is memoir as screed, an unmodulated attack on all of the haters and posers and betrayers who have disappointed Miss Jones and futilely tried to impede her progress. There is nothing interesting or useful here to learn about big-market radio or the music business, and, despite Jones’s reputation for withering bluntness, not much compelling dirt on the celebrities in her orbit—including Sean “Diddy” Combs, Patti LaBelle, Isaac Hayes, Lil’ Kim, Fat Joe and Christina Milian (with whom Miss Jones had an animated war of words). Jones chronicles her childhood in an abusive, unstable home environment, and her journey from the projects in Queens to a job at a massively popular radio station is impressive. But the author’s relentless peevishness and defensive hauteur make it difficult to stick with her story. The best bits are the “Jonesy’s Juice” paragraphs that open most of the chapters, in which the author offers her thoughts on various black celebrities; in these concise nuggets of gossipy observation, Miss Jones is a piquant and engaging presence.
Jonesy’s talent lies in the sound bite, and she should stick to radio.Pub Date: July 17, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-345-49748-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: One World/Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2007
No one’s mind will be changed by Karl’s book, but it’s a valuable report from the scene of an ongoing train wreck.
The chief White House and Washington correspondent for ABC provides a ringside seat to a disaster-ridden Oval Office.
It is Karl to whom we owe the current popularity of a learned Latin term. Questioning chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, he followed up a perhaps inadvertently honest response on the matter of Ukrainian intervention in the electoral campaign by saying, “What you just described is a quid pro quo.” Mulvaney’s reply: “Get over it.” Karl, who has been covering Trump for decades and knows which buttons to push and which to avoid, is not inclined to get over it: He rightly points out that a reporter today “faces a president who seems to have no appreciation or understanding of the First Amendment and the role of a free press in American democracy.” Yet even against a bellicose, untruthful leader, he adds, the press “is not the opposition party.” The author, who keeps his eye on the subject and not in the mirror, writes of Trump’s ability to stage situations, as when he once called Trump out, at an event, for misrepresenting poll results and Trump waited until the camera was off before exploding, “Fucking nasty guy!”—then finished up the interview as if nothing had happened. Trump and his inner circle are also, by Karl’s account, masters of timing, matching negative news such as the revelation that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election with distractions away from Trump—in this case, by pushing hard on the WikiLeaks emails from the Democratic campaign, news of which arrived at the same time. That isn’t to say that they manage people or the nation well; one of the more damning stories in a book full of them concerns former Homeland Security head Kirstjen Nielsen, cut off at the knees even while trying to do Trump’s bidding.
No one’s mind will be changed by Karl’s book, but it’s a valuable report from the scene of an ongoing train wreck.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5247-4562-2
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
IN THE NEWS
Jahren transcends both memoir and science writing in this literary fusion of both genres.
Award-winning scientist Jahren (Geology and Geophysics/Univ. of Hawaii) delivers a personal memoir and a paean to the natural world.
The author’s father was a physics and earth science teacher who encouraged her play in the laboratory, and her mother was a student of English literature who nurtured her love of reading. Both of these early influences engrossingly combine in this adroit story of a dedication to science. Jahren’s journey from struggling student to struggling scientist has the narrative tension of a novel and characters she imbues with real depth. The heroes in this tale are the plants that the author studies, and throughout, she employs her facility with words to engage her readers. We learn much along the way—e.g., how the willow tree clones itself, the courage of a seed’s first root, the symbiotic relationship between trees and fungi, and the airborne signals used by trees in their ongoing war against insects. Trees are of key interest to Jahren, and at times she waxes poetic: “Each beginning is the end of a waiting. We are each given exactly one chance to be. Each of us is both impossible and inevitable. Every replete tree was first a seed that waited.” The author draws many parallels between her subjects and herself. This is her story, after all, and we are engaged beyond expectation as she relates her struggle in building and running laboratory after laboratory at the universities that have employed her. Present throughout is her lab partner, a disaffected genius named Bill, whom she recruited when she was a graduate student at Berkeley and with whom she’s worked ever since. The author’s tenacity, hope, and gratitude are all evident as she and Bill chase the sweetness of discovery in the face of the harsh economic realities of the research scientist.
Jahren transcends both memoir and science writing in this literary fusion of both genres.Pub Date: April 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-87493-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
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