Every writer’s situation is unique, and each needs to find his or her own path, but this admirable journey through a veteran...
A sparkling look at how children’s book author and poet Atkins (Mary Anning and the Sea Dragon, 2012, etc.) writes and lives.
Atkins’ conceit is a simple but endearing one: a collection of her thoughts for each season of the year, not only about the vexing craft of writing, but also about the events happening in her life. She colorfully captures the solitary existence of the writer, struggling largely against her many self-doubts but also against a changing, inhospitable publishing marketplace. Atkins takes readers through the many fits and starts along the meandering road to the completion of one of her works; she then quickly switches to another book to occupy her mind while the first sits trapped in an agonizing publishing limbo. She artfully sketches her procedure as being akin to carrying a child to term and then hoping the offspring can find a place in the world. Despite also being a college professor (Writing/Simmons College), Atkins keeps the tone of her advice conversational and not at all lecture-ish, making it accessible for wannabe writers and casual readers alike. This isn’t a how-to book; rather, Atkins simply offers up many pointers she has learned during her decadeslong development as a writer. Running along a parallel track is what’s going on in her life as she deals with empty-nest syndrome and her best friend’s dying of cancer, along with the minutiae of quotidian life that can distract any creative person from achieving his or her ultimate goals. She offers lessons she has drawn from nearby flora and fauna, as viewed from her writerly perch at her Massachusetts home or from the locations of several re-energizing trips she takes throughout the book.
Every writer’s situation is unique, and each needs to find his or her own path, but this admirable journey through a veteran author’s process provides instructions that should prove valuable to most.Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2013
ISBN: 978-1491000557
Page Count: 190
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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