Buffs of buried-treasure and long-ago true-crime tales will enjoy Preston’s expertly woven tales.
More adventure journalism from the noted thriller author.
As Preston, author of The Lost City of the Monkey God, writes in an engaging introduction, “I could never have become a novelist without first being a nonfiction journalist”—or a childhood reader of adventure tales, including one about the presumed pirate booty buried on Nova Scotia’s Oak Island. The author remembered that particular yarn as a grownup, traveled there, and wrote a story for Smithsonian that was “the most popular [article] the magazine had ever published.” His story, like many included here, turns up more questions than answers, but it’s worth noting that it also spawned a long-running reality-TV series that, if nothing else, speaks to our fascination with all things buried. One piece centers on the so-called Monster of Florence, whose brutal crimes Preston tracks long after the fact, confident that he could reveal the true story behind them, only to conclude, “Any crime novel, to be successful, must contain certain basic elements: there must be a motive; evidence; a trail of clues; and a process of discovery that leads, one way or another, to a conclusion,” adding, “life…is not so tidy.” Among the assorted untidy puzzles is the twisted tale of Kennewick Man, a skeleton that turned up in an eroding Washington riverbank and that touched off a huge controversy when its DNA suggested ancient European origins. It’s one of several archaeology-based pieces that deal with similar controversies: whether the possibility that cannibalism may have taken place in the ancient Southwest (with the ghoulish problem one archaeologist faced: “he needed a way to identify human tissue that had passed through the digestive system of another human being”), or why hundreds of skeletons were found at a lake high in the Himalayas.
Buffs of buried-treasure and long-ago true-crime tales will enjoy Preston’s expertly woven tales.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781538741221
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
Maher calls out idiocy wherever he sees it, with a comedic delivery that veers between a stiletto and a sledgehammer.
The comedian argues that the arts of moderation and common sense must be reinvigorated.
Some people are born snarky, some become snarky, and some have snarkiness thrust upon them. Judging from this book, Maher—host of HBO’s Real Time program and author of The New New Rules and When You Ride Alone, You Ride With bin Laden—is all three. As a comedian, he has a great deal of leeway to make fun of people in politics, and he often delivers hilarious swipes with a deadpan face. The author describes himself as a traditional liberal, with a disdain for Republicans (especially the MAGA variety) and a belief in free speech and personal freedom. He claims that he has stayed much the same for more than 20 years, while the left, he argues, has marched toward intolerance. He sees an addiction to extremism on both sides of the aisle, which fosters the belief that anyone who disagrees with you must be an enemy to be destroyed. However, Maher has always displayed his own streaks of extremism, and his scorched-earth takedowns eventually become problematic. The author has something nasty to say about everyone, it seems, and the sarcastic tone starts after more than 300 pages. As has been the case throughout his career, Maher is best taken in small doses. The book is worth reading for the author’s often spot-on skewering of inept politicians and celebrities, but it might be advisable to occasionally dip into it rather than read the whole thing in one sitting. Some parts of the text are hilarious, but others are merely insulting. Maher is undeniably talented, but some restraint would have produced a better book.
Maher calls out idiocy wherever he sees it, with a comedic delivery that veers between a stiletto and a sledgehammer.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781668051351
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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