A collective biography showing flight careers as normal, exciting, and attainable.
Brief biographies of female pilots and astronauts to encourage young would-be aviators.
Glossy minibiographies describe the childhoods and professional trajectories of women working in careers such as pilot, astronaut, balloonist, and businessperson. Though some are famous (Sen. Tammy Duckworth, for example, and all of the astronauts) and some are groundbreaking (such as Puerto Rican Olga Custodio, who was the U.S. Air Force’s first Latina military pilot), others are everyday women who chose cool jobs. There’s Brooke Roman, a pilot for an oil company in Alaska, and Edgora McEwan, a hot air balloon pilot from Uzbekistan who works in the United Arab Emirates. Other than McEwan and Samantha Cristoforetti, the first Italian woman astronaut, the subjects are American, and the majority are military, a career path that is presented positively. A passion for aircraft permeates the whole, and the strongest of the sidebars delve into the mechanics of aircraft. The women of color (comprising about half the subjects) are almost invariably identified by race, while the White women are not, situating Whiteness as a default. Some achievements are presented as notable firsts, though most of the sexism and racism the women have experienced are sanitized and situated firmly in the past. Despite some awkward turns of phrase, this is an accessible volume highlighting women in fields where they remain underrepresented.
A collective biography showing flight careers as normal, exciting, and attainable. (notes) (Nonfiction. 12-15)Pub Date: July 19, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64160-589-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fans of all things martial will echo his “HOOYAH!”—but the troubled aftermath comes in for some attention too.
Abridged but not toned down, this young-readers version of an ex-SEAL sniper’s account (SEAL Team Six, 2011) of his training and combat experiences in Operation Desert Storm and the first Battle of Mogadishu makes colorful, often compelling reading.
“My experiences weren’t always enjoyable,” Wasdin writes, “but they were always adrenaline-filled!” Not to mention testosterone-fueled. He goes on to ascribe much of his innate toughness to being regularly beaten by his stepfather as a child and punctuates his passage through the notoriously hellacious SEAL training with frequent references to other trainees who fail or drop out. He tears into the Clinton administration (whose “support for our troops had sagged like a sack of turds”), indecisive commanders and corrupt Italian “allies” for making such a hash of the entire Somalian mission. In later chapters he retraces his long, difficult physical and emotional recovery from serious wounds received during the “Black Hawk Down” operation, his increasing focus on faith and family after divorce and remarriage and his second career as a chiropractor.
Fans of all things martial will echo his “HOOYAH!”—but the troubled aftermath comes in for some attention too. (acronym/ordinance glossary, adult level reading list) (Memoir. 12-14)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-250-01643-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Even rabid fans of Lennon or the 1960s will find new information and angles in this searching study.
On the verge of her 80th birthday (Feb. 18, 2013), Ono steps out of her iconic late husband’s shadow for a sympathetic profile.
The authors present her as a groundbreaking creative artist whose work has been misunderstood, not to say derided, for decades and who was unjustly vilified as the woman who broke up the Beatles. They describe a comfortable upbringing in Japan and the United States, childhood experiences in World War II and artistic development as part of New York’s avant-garde scene in the 1950s and early ’60s. The book goes on to chronicle her relationships with various husbands, including “soul mate” John Lennon, and her two children, life as a peace-activist celebrity in the ’70s, and (in much less detail) her activities, honors and exhibitions after Lennon’s death. The account is occasionally trite (“Yoko and John were stressed to the max”) or platitudinous, and it’s unlikely to persuade younger (or any) readers to appreciate Yoko’s creations—which run to works like an 80-minute film of naked rumps walking by and sets of chess pieces that are all the same color—as great art. Nevertheless, it does impart a good sense of conceptual and performance art’s purposes and expressions along with a detailed portrait of a complex woman who for several reasons has a significant place in our cultural history.
Even rabid fans of Lennon or the 1960s will find new information and angles in this searching study. (photos, timeline to 2009, resource lists) (Biography. 12-15)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0444-4
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2012
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