An uplifting, courageous book about the healing power within.
A woman finds inner strength and overcomes a cancer diagnosis in this debut memoir/self-help book.
Villanueva can still remember the day in September 2016 when doctors told her she had six months to live. After rushing to the ER, unable to breathe, she received a terrifying diagnosis: She had stage 4 lung cancer, which held almost no hope of recovery. However, her reaction was not what readers might expect, as she responded with defiance rather than fear: “I heard the death sentence they gave me, but all I could think was, these doctors do not know who they’re talking to or what I am capable of achieving!” She underwent targeted drug therapy, and her fearless attitude would serve her well as she started her own pursuit of a healthy living. It wasn’t easy, and the author makes it clear that it required a fierce level of commitment as well as courage. Over the course of her book, she lays out the exact steps that she took to improve her health, which included making a conscious decision to go on living. It also included healthier eating habits, and she helpfully provides lists and recommendations of produce and other items that she currently keeps stocked in her pantry, and there are delicious recipes to get readers started on the path that she took. Her journal exercises encourage deeper reflection, and her book explains the power of developing a personal healing mantra. Villanueva’s tone is earnest yet compassionate throughout; it’s clear that she seeks to educate and inspire her readers. In addition to her own insights, she incorporates quotations and excerpts from medical professionals as well as scientific bases for her advice. What makes this book stand out, though, is the fact that Villanueva doesn’t merely advise readers on how to take on a cancer diagnosis, but also how to get out of their own way while doing so.
An uplifting, courageous book about the healing power within.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5445-0793-4
Page Count: 268
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2020
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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