A must-have treasury for diehard Dolly fans and armchair fashionistas.
The sparkly story of country music’s most recognizable woman told through an archive of outfits.
Featuring fringe, vibrant color, and rhinestones, Parton’s fashion sense has always contributed to her immense popularity. In this effervescent, full-color volume, Parton, along with veteran music and pop-culture writer George-Warren and Seaver, the director of archive services for the author, recounts the vivid tales behind the clothes. Blocks of text run alongside photographs as Parton looks back on her poor childhood, when she was fascinated with clothing and creating makeup from foraged household items. Inspired by Mae West, she writes about many of her pivotal career moments, including her move to Nashville in 1964 to become a country musician, despite warnings to tone down her image. “From early on, I loved the big hair and makeup,” she writes, “the long nails, the high heels, the flashy clothes, and—as soon as I could afford them—the rhinestones!” Passion is the common element throughout this graciously and generously illuminated book, commemorating her celebrity, zest for sparkling fashion, and identity as a funny, outspoken, effortlessly charming personality. A woman who wins over audiences with bubbly giggles, candid opinions, and a bedazzled, often risk-taking wardrobe, Parton moves with ease through the design innovations that have marked her decadeslong career as a music and fashion trailblazer. From album cover shots to photos from TV and movie appearances and award ceremonies, Parton’s personal style shines brightly as she shares the intricate details behind the glittered fringe, coiffured wigs, rhinestone stilettos, and glamorous designer collaborations that have made her wardrobe unique. She also writes frankly about how the weight of those outfits could be overwhelming, often making it a challenge to perform on stage. From beneath its splashy hot-pink cover emerges an unforgettable personal and professional history of a beloved country music performer whose outfits “reflect my innermost self, my own personal truth.”
A must-have treasury for diehard Dolly fans and armchair fashionistas.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9781984862129
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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