These true, well-crafted stories provide wild entertainment and deeper messages of self-worth.
This raw memoir explores one woman’s remarkably dramatic history and its resulting emotional scars.
“That’s me,” Coffee remarks while discussing yet another incident of violence that has transpired in her life. “I have a PhD in trauma.” The author begins her story in San Antonio, Texas, where she and her first husband, Jon Philip Ray, bought a decrepit residence called Spy House on the Hill. It had a sordid history of Nazi spies and various illicit activities; Coffee worked to restore it, creating a funky space for 16 mm screenings of foreign films with friends. It was a happy life, until an incident with Valium caused Philip to break with reality and brought illegal drugs into the picture. An entrepreneur who had a hand in designing the first personal computer, Philip decided that cocaine manufacturing would be a great scientific challenge and converted their basement into a mad scientist’s dungeon of bubbling mercury and flesh-eating toxic chemicals. Never one to shy away from danger or to question the man she worshiped most of her adult life, Coffee endured the worst aspects and aided Philip however she could. Through his laboratory experiments, Philip also stumbled onto the creation of a smokeless cigarette (the author herself dubbed the process “vaping,” coining that phrase for the very first time), which led to disquieting scrutiny from law enforcement, tobacco companies, and other shadowy figures creeping around the edges of their lives. Inevitable violence and tragedy befell the couple, causing Coffee to depart for Belize in search of solace. It wasn’t long before an ill-fated taxi ride into Guatemala led to her being taken hostage by dangerous militia personnel, putting her once again in harm’s way. After a narrow escape that felt like something ripped from an action movie, the author found herself back home and beginning a toxic pattern all over again, which finally spurred deeper reflection on her past and a resolve to escape dangerous men once and for all.
Describing the astonishing events of her life, Coffee demonstrates her considerable powers as a storyteller and a wordsmith. She eschews the usual structures of a memoir, letting specific details of her history trickle in naturally as she keeps her attention focused on the action at hand. (The powerful moment she and Philip arrive at their house, both standing “spellbound as the city unfolded at [their] feet,” speaks volumes more about their attraction and mutual desires than any standard retelling of a first date.) Her narration recounting her escape from Guatemala and dangerous incidents of domestic abuse delivers suspense and action that rivals any thriller. Coffee uses dark humor and well-placed moments of introspection to keep things relatable—she compares her inability to parse through what sparked a fight with Philip to Abbot and Costello’s famous “Who’s on First?” routine. As a narrative, her book does feel slightly imbalanced, focused much more on Philip than on the author’s own subsequent travels or her eventual healing, but no matter what story she is concentrating on, Coffee consistently delivers unexpected twists and sharp insights.
These true, well-crafted stories provide wild entertainment and deeper messages of self-worth.Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9781647429065
Page Count: 256
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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