A strong voice propels these springy personal anecdotes.
Comic misadventures take center stage in Alpert’s essays about wandering off course.
The collection opens with a paean to failure—or rather, to the opportunities that arise from misses. The essay “Czech-ing Out of Prague,” ostensibly about an awkward Teaching English as a Foreign Language course in Prague, tracks the author’s life from a childhood pursuing auditions to an adulthood chasing the spotlight, all in vain. Alpert’s unsuccessful attempts at launching a movie career (or singing career, or any other showbiz venture) ultimately become the launchpads of misadventures and brushes with the famous and fabulous in these pieces. The opening essay points to the author’s adventurous streak; “Revenge Travel” establishes her as a globe-trotter (including a nod to her stint as a Pilates instructor…in Dubai). “Celebrity Adjacent” captures what it’s like to be a friend of someone with a connection to a bona fide big deal (Chaz Bono, child of Cher). In Alpert’s words, she was “Cher adjacent”; the essay ultimately crescendos with a phone call from the iconic star herself. The core of the work, however, explores what it’s like to be independent and strong-willed, and how that affects relationships over time. In the center of the collection sits an essay titled “How Much for an Iron Lung?” about the Covid-19 pandemic, Alpert’s parents, and their memorabilia stashed in a cluttered attic—the piece captures the author’s fixation on her own individuality, and how that individuality fits within a family dynamic in which her parents are increasingly less parental (“I always wanted clear boundaries and structure. And because my parents were largely ineffectual in this department, I’d often have to be the one to set them”). This essay is the collection’s standout; other pieces don’t always reach such emotionally satisfying peaks. All of the essays are graced with Alpert’s characteristic humor and crackling prose, but some pieces may meander a bit for some tastes or don’t quite stick the landing. Still, for readers who can relate to Alpert’s independence (or who are tickled by Christopher Meloni), these essays are treats worth indulging in.
A strong voice propels these springy personal anecdotes.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9781966629191
Page Count: 208
Publisher: River Grove Books
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
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