A short memoir, but one that’s packed with advice.
In her debut memoir, Mabry-Height recounts her struggles against racism and sexism as she worked to achieve success in the medical field.
The author was born to a poor, African-American family in rural North Carolina in the early 1950s. At the age of 5, she left her great-grandparents’ farm and moved North with her young, single mother to Brooklyn, New York. The early advice she received from her relatives—such as “If I wanted to be successful, I should ‘find a need and fill it’ ”—provided the foundation for the rest of her life. Despite discouragement from teachers and counselors, Mabry-Height pursued her dream of becoming a medical doctor; after graduating from the City University of New York, she went on to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. While in medical school, she received a grant to travel to Kenya as an aid worker, which she says was an eye-opening experience. She subsequently received her medical degree; however, she writes that despite her education, she still had to contend with employment discrimination and sexual harassment. Eventually, she took control of her career by founding her own medical and consulting practices in California. This book is quite brief, particularly for a memoir, and many chapters wrap up in less than four pages. As a result, readers looking for an in-depth remembrance may wish that this one explored some of its incidents in greater detail. However, the book’s conciseness makes it focused and direct. Ultimately, Mabry-Height seems more concerned with imparting lessons than telling her full life story. Almost every chapter contains explicit messages for aspiring doctors, or more generally, for any readers trying to succeed in a professional field. “Let this book teach you,” she writes in a representative passage, “that you must be able to reinvent yourself at some point, professionally and as an entrepreneur.” This quick read would make a fine gift for a graduate or anyone else who needs a bit of inspiration as she or he seeks to conquer life’s obstacles. The book also includes several black-and-white photographs.
A short memoir, but one that’s packed with advice.Pub Date: April 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9830117-1-2
Page Count: 196
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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