A somewhat dry but comprehensive numbers-driven book about two legends of the links.
White offers a thorough comparative study of the legendary golf careers of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
For his nonfiction debut sports book, the author takes a side-by-side look at the careers of two of professional golf’s greatest figures. He focuses on Nicklaus’ career from 1962 through 1986 and Woods’ from 1996 through 2022, noting that although the latter missed some years later in his run, due to injuries, the ages during their ranges were similar. White centers his comparative account on the Grand Slam, naturally—the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship—but he also intriguingly looks at many other elements of the two careers, working up from a granular level; for example, readers are told that Nicklaus won the Ohio State Open at age 16, qualified for the U.S. Open at 17, and won the U.S. Amateur Championship at 19 (the second-youngest at the time, after Robert Gardner in 1909), and so on. White presents exhaustive stats on both figures: the total scores, the lowest scores, the average scores, and more—all presented in dozens of charts and graphs. At various moments throughout the book, White demonstrates narrative skill, and he picks excellent epigraphs, including Nicklaus’ great line:“Professional golf is the only sport where, if you win 20% of the time, you’re the best.” Much of the book, though, is aimed exclusively at stats-saturated golf enthusiasts, who are sure to love the sheer completeness of White’s approach. Others may wish there were more narrative analysis to go along with the landslides of data.
A somewhat dry but comprehensive numbers-driven book about two legends of the links.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2022
ISBN: 9781665569583
Page Count: 298
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.
An experimental, illustrated essay collection that questions neurotypical definitions of what is normal.
From a young age, writer and comedian Myers has been different. In addition to coping with obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks, she struggled to read basic social cues. During a round of seven minutes in heaven—a game in which two players spend seven minutes in a closet and are expected to kiss—Myers misread the romantic advances of her best friend and longtime crush, Marley. In Paris, she accidentally invited a sex worker to join her friends for “board games and beer,” thinking he was simply a random stranger who happened to be hitting on her. In community college, a stranger’s request for a pen spiraled her into a panic attack but resulted in a tentative friendship. When the author moved to Australia, she began taking notes on her colleagues in an effort to know them better. As the author says to her co-worker, Tabitha, “there are unspoken social contracts within a workplace that—by some miracle—everyone else already understands, and I don’t….When things Go Without Saying, they Never Get Said, and sometimes people need you to Say Those Things So They Understand What The Hell Is Going On.” At its best, Myers’ prose is vulnerable and humorous, capturing characterization in small but consequential life moments, and her illustrations beautifully complement the text. Unfortunately, the author’s tendency toward unnecessary capitalization and experimental forms is often unsuccessful, breaking the book’s otherwise steady rhythm.
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063381308
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
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