Lauretta’s account of a historic mission is an impressive combination of fascinating science and human inspiration.
An uplifting story of a NASA project to send an unmanned probe to an asteroid with the aim of collecting a soil sample.
Lauretta, the mission’s principal investigator, shows that this particular asteroid, named Bennu, had important advantages: It was relatively close to Earth, its composition indicated that it could provide clues to the origin of the solar system, and it was as large as an aircraft carrier. Another issue, however, was that astrophysical calculations suggested that at some point in the future—specifically, September 2182—Bennu might “hit the surface of the Earth at a velocity of Mach 36, or 27,000 miles per hour—a freight train crashing into the planet.” The chance was only about one in 1,750, but NASA thought that Bennu was worth further investigation. The author tracks the years of planning, testing, and simulations. Building a spacecraft for the two-year journey to Bennu was difficult, but designing for the landing was even harder. Lauretta explains how NASA scientists solved countless problems during the design phase, and the OSIRIS-REx mission took flight in September 2016. when the spacecraft reached the asteroid, however, scientists discovered that Bennu held a few surprises. Far from being a smooth rock, Bennu offered very few possible landing sites, and the pitted surface turned out to be extremely soft. Nevertheless, touchdown was achieved, and a sample was collected. Then it was time for the return journey, and the probe landed in Utah in September 2023. The sample is now being analyzed in every possible way, but Lauretta is certain that the mission itself was entirely successful. The message is that the U.S. government can still complete remarkable projects, a resonant, hopeful conclusion that is much needed in these chaotic times.
Lauretta’s account of a historic mission is an impressive combination of fascinating science and human inspiration.Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9781538722947
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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.
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