An uplifting remembrance about choosing happiness in the face of loss.
Entrepreneur and public speaker Arik Housley recounts his experience of grief and growth following the loss of his daughter in this memoir, co-written with novelist Holly Lynn Payne.
Alaina Housley was just 18 years old and a freshman at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, in November 2018 when she was killed in a mass shooting at Borderline Bar and Grill, a popular country-western bar a few miles off-campus in Thousand Oaks. Housley writes of his and his family’s devastation after the incident, and how their Catholic faith and solidarity helped them when they decided not to let grief define their lives and to commit to finding the joy that remained. Housley recalls the kindness of those around him—such as a local community member who bought him coffee, and a friend who offered the use of his private jet—in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. In the months and years that followed, he writes, he began noticing signs of his daughter’s presence in everyday life—a bird tapping at his window, or particular songs playing on the radio. He still struggled when seeing other people reach milestones that Alaina never would, he says, but he took comfort in these small moments and remained thankful for new relationships and opportunities. For example, he used money from an unexpected GoFundMe campaign to start Alaina’s Voice Foundation, with a mission to “spread hope and kindness through education, music, and mental health initiatives.” Housley’s memoir is effectively guided by his experience as a motivational speaker, helping others process and grow from their own traumatic experiences; he also includes a guide answering the difficult questions that grieving people often encounter. His advice to surround oneself with kindness and community is straightforward, with plenty of examples from his own journey. It may still be overwhelming for readers dealing with very recent tragedy, but Housley’s book stands out for its openness and accessibility, offering reminders that healing can be found in small, everyday acts of grace.
An uplifting remembrance about choosing happiness in the face of loss.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2025
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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