An informative, adulatory look at a grassroots candidacy galvanizing young voters and reshaping urban politics.
Shaking up Gotham politics.
The subject of this knowledgeable, timely, proudly partisan portrait—a millennial, Democratic Socialist state legislator from Queens—“upended” the establishment in June, defeating well-known opponents in the Democratic mayoral primary in America’s biggest city. The author, an academic and journalist, doesn’t pretend to be objective, and his support for Mamdani informs some debatable assertions. But Hamm’s impressive command of granular details and broader trends makes this a key text for understanding contemporary left-of-center politics and New York City’s upcoming general election, in which Mamdani, who turns 34 in October 2025, tries to become New York’s youngest mayor in a century. Hamm interviewed Mamdani at length and attended many campaign events, noticing how the “always…on-message” candidate’s pledge to freeze rents, make city buses free, and provide universal child care resonated with voters. Tens of thousands of volunteers, lots of them young, pitched in. Backing from many small donors unlocked millions in matching funds from the city. Leveraging its “top-flight social media game,” Mamdani’s team orchestrated buzzy events. A video of his ride with a cabbie friend has been viewed more than 300,000 times. The Ugandan-born Mamdani also reached out to residents “in dozens of native languages, from Arabic to Vietnamese,” winning votes from oft-overlooked communities. Meanwhile, he withstood attacks on his Muslim faith, false charges of antisemitism, and death threats. Hamm makes big claims, stating that Mamdani’s “outreach operation” was “far more genuinely committed to its candidate than that of any mayoral contender in New York City history.” Maybe so, but the author offers no hard evidence. More persuasively, he argues that unlike some prominent Democrats, Mamdani triumphed by paying “close attention to the struggles faced by countless working-class people,” radiating “vitality” and “optimism” along the way.
An informative, adulatory look at a grassroots candidacy galvanizing young voters and reshaping urban politics.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9781682194461
Page Count: 160
Publisher: OR Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 11, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A dauntless, moving account of a kidnapping and the horrors that followed.
Enduring the unthinkable.
This memoir—the first by an Israeli taken captive by Hamas on October 7, 2023—chronicles the 491 days the author was held in Gaza. Confined to tunnels beneath war-ravaged streets, Sharabi was beaten, humiliated, and underfed. When he was finally released in February, he learned that Hamas had murdered his wife and two daughters. In the face of scarcely imaginable loss, Sharabi has crafted a potent record of his will to survive. The author’s ordeal began when Hamas fighters dragged him from his home, in a kibbutz near Gaza. Alongside others, he was held for months at a time in filthy subterranean spaces. He catalogs sensory assaults with novelistic specificity. Iron shackles grip his ankles. Broken toilets produce an “unbearable stink,” and “tiny white worms” swarm his toothbrush. He gets one meal a day, his “belly caving inward.” Desperate for more food, he stages a fainting episode, using a shaving razor to “slice a deep gash into my eyebrow.” Captors share their sweets while celebrating an Iranian missile attack on Israel. He and other hostages sneak fleeting pleasures, finding and downing an orange soda before a guard can seize it. Several times, Sharabi—51 when he was kidnapped—gives bracing pep talks to younger compatriots. The captives learn to control what they can, trading family stories and “lift[ing] water bottles like dumbbells.” Remarkably, there’s some levity. He and fellow hostages nickname one Hamas guard “the Triangle” because he’s shaped like a SpongeBob SquarePants character. The book’s closing scenes, in which Sharabi tries to console other hostages’ families while learning the worst about his own, are heartbreaking. His captors “are still human beings,” writes Sharabi, bravely modeling the forbearance that our leaders often lack.
A dauntless, moving account of a kidnapping and the horrors that followed.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780063489790
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Harper Influence/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
A powerful reiteration of principles—and some fresh ideas—from the longest-serving independent in congressional history.
Another chapter in a long fight against inequality.
Building on his Fighting Oligarchy tour, which this year drew 280,000 people to rallies in red and blue states, Sanders amplifies his enduring campaign for economic fairness. The Vermont senator offers well-timed advice for combating corruption and issues a robust plea for national soul-searching. His argument rests on alarming data on the widening wealth gap’s impact on democracy. Bolstered by a 2010 Supreme Court decision that removed campaign finance limits, “100 billionaire families spent $2.6 billion” on 2024 elections. Sanders focuses on the Trump administration and congressional Republicans, describing their enactment of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” with its $1 trillion in tax breaks for the richest Americans and big social safety net cuts, as the “largest transfer of wealth” in living memory. But as is his custom, he spreads the blame, dinging Democrats for courting wealthy donors while ignoring the “needs and suffering” of the working class. “Trump filled the political vacuum that the Democrats created,” he writes, a resonant diagnosis. Urging readers not to surrender to despair, Sanders offers numerous legislative proposals. These would empower labor unions, cut the workweek to 32 hours, regulate campaign spending, reduce gerrymandering, and automatically register 18-year-olds to vote. Grassroots supporters can help by running for local office, volunteering with a campaign, and asking educators how to help support public schools. Meanwhile, Sanders asks us “to question the fundamental moral values that underlie” a system that enables “the top 1 percent” to “own more wealth than the bottom 93 percent.” Though his prose sometimes reads like a transcribed speech with built-in applause lines, Sanders’ ideas are specific, clear, and commonsensical. And because it echoes previous statements, his call for collective introspection lands as genuine.
A powerful reiteration of principles—and some fresh ideas—from the longest-serving independent in congressional history.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9798217089161
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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