An opulent coffee-table tribute.
Homage to an iconic portraitist.
In a lavish celebration of photographer Annie Leibovitz, Phaidon has republished her 1999 volume of women’s portraits, with an introduction by Sontag, along with a second volume of recent portraits, with essays by Steinem and Adichie. Totaling 250 in all, the portraits, as Sontag writes, stand as “an anthology of destinies and disabilities and new possibilities.” Reflecting Leibovitz’s reputation as celebrity portraitist, Volume 1 is aptly star-studded, featuring Drew Barrymore, Patti Smith, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Yoko Ono, Serena and Vanessa Williams, Katharine Graham, and Martha Stewart, among many others. But Leibovitz also focuses her lens on women out of the limelight: a mountain biker and sewing machine operator, a waitress and two battered victims of domestic violence. “The ensemble says: So this is what women are now,” Sontag writes. “One of the tasks of photography is to disclose, and shape our sense of, the variety of the world. It is not to present ideals.” Steinem reiterates that message, adding that “Annie’s images demanded that women be seen” in all their variety and as a “proud reflection” of “feminist rebellion, self-respect, visibility and humanity.” Each essayist asserts that beyond their impressive artistry, the portraits convey an important message about beauty, power, and agency: “Any book of photographs of women,” Adichie writes, “simply by existing, has taken a political position about the value of women’s stories.” Volume 2 is replete with images of actors and activists, politicians and writers, musicians and scientists, young and old, among them Kara Walker, Michelle Obama, Greta Thumberg, Joan Baez, and Kim Kardashian. Each volume contains thumbnail biographies of the women portrayed; what is lacking, however, is the date the photograph was taken, which would be helpful information.
An opulent coffee-table tribute.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781837290499
Page Count: 493
Publisher: Phaidon
Review Posted Online: Aug. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: yesterday
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
