A lovely celebration of a long and fascinating career.
Kennard, an environmental activist and one of the founders of Earth Day, offers a set of essays on a variety of topics that have defined his life.
The pieces in this collection are short—most are only a few pages long—and they cover a range of issues that have personal importance to the author, giving the book as a whole a memoiristic feel. The subjects include environmentalism, and what successful activism in that area involves—he was one of the co-creators of Earth Day, with Mike McCabe, in 1970, which mobilized millions, and he’s lobbied for important pro-environment legislation, among other achievements. He also talks about small businesses and their potential for innovation, political theory, and LGBTQ+ rights. Some essays are more autobiographical than others (as in one in which he notes that “the realization I was queer was a hellish experience, which I was forced to endure as a child”), but all spotlight Kennard’s distinctive voice and explain how he’s put his beliefs and values to use. The tone is satirical but not caustic (“How come Bonaparte gets 300,000 books written about him and I get none? Not even one!), and it’s clear that Kennard doesn’t actually want to be blindly praised. However, he does discuss his considerable activism work, which may win over more readers to his ideas. It’s certainly fair for an accomplished fighter for justice, at the end of his career, to take the opportunity to show off a little bit, and Kennard proves to be a funny, generous writer. It’s a lot of fun to watch essays’ concepts overlap and influence one another, as when he notes the influence of economist E.F. Schumacher’s dictum that “Small systems are likely to be more manageable, responsive, efficient, accountable, and resilient than big systems.” His own expertise will almost certainly teach aspiring activists something new. Some may wish that some ideas were explained more thoroughly, but his essays are convincing and enjoyable throughout. He’s an engaging writer and teacher, and it’s easy to see how his work brought so many people into the fight to save the planet.
A lovely celebration of a long and fascinating career.Pub Date: June 23, 2025
ISBN: 9798286391059
Page Count: 206
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: yesterday
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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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