A powerful story of the ubiquitous human longing for home.
A debut memoirist chronicles his quest for belonging and acceptance.
The Welsh word Hiraeth, per Morgan, has no English language equivalent. Like homesickness or nostalgia, the term refers to “an elusive ache for home,” but it also encompasses the very “idea of a home,” including “a time or place that never existed in the first place.” Born to a third-generation Welsh family as a United States citizen, the author experienced a childhood not characterized by feelings of warmth or safety. Both of his parents were in their 40s when he was born (nearly 10 years after his youngest sibling); his father grappled with addiction and mental illness while is mother was struggling with depression. A self-described “fat, sissy kid who grew up in the welfare system of Pittsburgh,” Morgan was further alienated due to his sexual orientation. Both in church and in the general cultural climate of the 1960s and 1970s, he was consistently told that not only were gay boys destined “to hell,” but that they were also “a danger to other children.” By the time he was a young man, he was living on the streets battling his own addictions, and he would eventually have “sex with more than a thousand men, often in exchange for gifts or a place to stay.” While the details of the book are often harrowing, what stands out is Morgan’s emotional honesty regarding his psychological trauma and journey toward self-acceptance. He discusses, for instance, his spiritual exploration of the Kama Sutra (which he describes as “spiritual porn”) and how his attraction to Buddhism was due, in part, to its popularity among hip, young white people. The narrative also includes anecdotes from his eclectic career path from stand-up comedy to a part-time acting (he appeared on a local Washington, D.C., television show alongside a young Dave Chapelle) to work as an academic with a doctorate degree in education. The book’s personal, engaging narrative is accompanied by a host of original poetry, photographs, reproductions of letters, and newspaper clippings.
A powerful story of the ubiquitous human longing for home.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9798891327467
Page Count: 294
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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
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