PanWashington Independent Review of BooksThis inaccurate spin on the past is what sinks Heath Hardage Lee’s new biography ... Lee’s repeated contradictions and whitewashing of recent history keep The Mysterious Mrs. Nixon as unknowable as she was in life ... Compounding this is Lee’s rewriting of Richard Nixon’s political career that at times borders on the absurd.
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
PositiveWashington Independent Review of BooksAn easily readable, powerful narrative ... In retelling this family drama, Llewellyn-Jones makes excellent use of the sources available to him ... Unfortunately, his emphasis on filial melodrama doesn’t reveal much about how these extraordinary women actually governed ... The stunning tales of battle, poisonings, unions, and family strife assembled here are enough to overcome these omissions and keep the reader glued to the page.
Anne Boyer
RaveWashington Independent Review of BooksThere is a sardonic irony in Anne Boyer’s The Undying being published so close to October, also known as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, since she skewers the inadequacy and hypocrisy of this once-well-intentioned marketing ploy. On the other hand, the honesty and accuracy of her book in capturing the disorientation of breast cancer and its treatment deserves to be heard at the zenith of pinkwashing ... These complexities are downright refreshing for breast cancer patients and survivors to see articulated on the page, but they’re illuminating for non-sufferers, as well, whose good intentions of sending books about cancer patients and endless treatment advice ring hollow and tone deaf. How would they learn without hearing a blisteringly honest account such as this? ... Highlighting these truths is the greatest contribution of Boyer’s book, and she does so without being didactic or producing a screed. Instead, The Undying shares the many sides of breast cancer in poetic prose, almost dreamlike reflections that capture the dissociated mode of thinking that comes with treatment by poison, the threat of early death, and having your entire life suddenly upended ... [Boyer] writes of the incredible pain and exhaustion, but in a stream-of-consciousness style that is weighty enough to convey the message, yet lyrical enough to entrance the reader. Perhaps only a poet like Boyer could express these many absurdities in a way that is still beautiful.
The Undying is a cathartic read for breast cancer patients and survivors, and anyone caught in the relentless machine of treatment, suffering, and withstanding the ordeal. But it’s equally valuable for allowing the uninitiated to peer behind the pink ribbon and the tropes and, instead, see what so many parts of our society can’t or won’t countenance about this disease.
Bettany Hughes
RaveThe Washington Independent Review of BooksFrom its title, Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities, it’s clear that this book will explore the morphing character of a place that has played a pivotal role in the human story for thousands of years ... The strength of this particular account lies in Hughes’ focus on the totality of the city’s inhabitants, not just the powerful ones. She introduces the reader to emperors and sultans, but also to slaves and refugees ... Hughes walks the reader through the city’s evolution always with an eye on its past, and she deftly points out the constant cosmopolitanism that defined the city... Many chapters begin with an anecdote about a random spot in Istanbul, described in intimate detail, and then connected to a time of grandeur in the past ...Hughes’ conversational tone makes the book extremely approachable, regardless of one’s familiarity with the city. Peeling back layers of time and fantasy, she shows us why this city is such an integral part of humanity’s story.
