There is no more famous intersection in the world than Times Square, and no intersection has gone through so many highs and lows. The construction of the Times Square Tower, the new home of The New York Times, in the early 1900s not only led to the renaming of what was then called Longacre Square but helped attract the theaters and restaurants (and neon signs) that made it the thriving, brightly lit tourist mecca it became. Decline then set in, making Times Square synonymous with vice, drugs, muggings, and, not to get too technical, sleaze. The cleanup campaign that began in the 1980s may have left some deriding it as the Disneyfication of Times Square, but, face it, would you rather be accosted by a pimp or by a panhandler dressed as Goofy? True New Yorkers still avoid the place unless they work there or wish to see The Lion King, but in Lynne B. Sagalyn’s smart and elegant analysis of what constitutes a public space successfully reborn by government and private partnership, one can only marvel at what has been wrought. Times Square, like it or not, symbolizes the city, and New York depends on its vitality if it is to remain the city that never sleeps.
The author shot to fame (there really is no better way to put it) by lip-synching Donald Trump’s ridiculous assertions on TikTok and something then called Twitter, but her backstory is even more unbelievable than the success she enjoyed as a Jamaican immigrant woman imitating the orange-hued 45th president of the United States. Graduate degree in digital design? Check. Stand-up comic? Check. Google employee? Check. Married (twice)? Check. Did Hollywood come calling after the Trump videos? Oh, yes, check. And did all the auditions and pilots and a Netflix special launch her into permanent stardom? Well, not exactly. But the way Sarah Cooper describes her life before and after Trump is a treasure, and her book is charming, funny, self-deprecating, and a sure sign she will never need to lip-synch Trump again. Unfortunate for us, but best for her.
So many thousands of innocent Mexicans have been killed by the cartels in that country that one is left numb, unable to comprehend the impact of those deaths on families and friends. In a masterful piece of reportage, Azam Ahmed zeroes in on one of those victims, Karen Rodríguez, who in 2014 was kidnapped from her town in Tamaulipas. Demands for ransom were met, but her mother, Miriam, never heard anything back. The story might have ended there, except Miriam decided to target her daughter’s killers, especially the one she called “the Florist,” whom she had known as a child in her town selling flowers. Her battle against the Zeta cartel is the heart of the story, but Ahmed also paints a chilling portrait of the rise of the cartels and their deadly battles with each other, as well as a system of justice both broken and corrupt. Does Miriam live to accomplish her mission? Are the killers ever found? Will one man emerge to seek the vengeance due the Rodríguez family? Read Fear Is Just a Word to find out. We will reveal this much: you will read no better or more heartbreaking narrative of a mother’s love this year.
Fear Is Just a Word is available at your local independent bookstore, on Bookshop, and on Amazon. Foolish andTimes Square Remade will be available beginning October 3 and 10 respectively