Katakam’s clear, accessible language and humanistic focus make this thoughtful work a pleasure to read.
In this treatise, former entrepreneur Katakam argues that there’s a more enlightened path between the economic poles of capitalism and communism.
The subject of Katakam’s book is inclusive economics, a system of economic thought that’s based on five principles: growth, participation, opportunity, stability, and sustainability. Rather than focusing solely on profit and competition, the author notes, inclusive economics seeks to maximize a spirit of cooperation and community; this results in a “third way” approach that starts within an individual and moves outward to improve the social, political, and physical environment in which they live. Throughout, Katakam draws on multiple disciplines, including business, philosophy, and psychology, to explain the core tenets of the inclusive economics concept and how it would address such issues as climate change and income inequality. Despite such weighty material, Katakam writes with a light, sometimes playful tone, explaining ideas clearly without getting bogged down in academic language. The author also deftly uses pop-culture references to elucidate his meaning and create connections with millennial and Gen Z readers, although he includes enough older references that Gen X readers won’t feel left out; fans of a certain 1999 SF/action film will appreciate at least one of Katakam’s extended metaphors: “Just like the human energy source in The Matrix, our mindless, desperate, or even well-intended spending makes the wealthiest even wealthier.” Ironically, his writing is so accessible and nimble that some readers may take it as a sign that the material isn’t as deserving of attention. However, the author—who credits his background in accounting and startup creation for his current interest in social economics—shows clear passion and intellectual acumen throughout.
Katakam’s clear, accessible language and humanistic focus make this thoughtful work a pleasure to read.Pub Date: Feb. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781955671347
Page Count: 388
Publisher: Otterpine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.
Documenting perilous times.
In his most recent behind-the-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668052273
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
IN THE NEWS
PERSPECTIVES
A revelatory meditation on shattering journeys.
Bearing witness to oppression.
Award-winning journalist and MacArthur Fellow Coates probes the narratives that shape our perception of the world through his reports on three journeys: to Dakar, Senegal, the last stop for Black Africans “before the genocide and rebirth of the Middle Passage”; to Chapin, South Carolina, where controversy erupted over a writing teacher’s use of Between the World and Me in class; and to Israel and Palestine, where he spent 10 days in a “Holy Land of barbed wire, settlers, and outrageous guns.” By addressing the essays to students in his writing workshop at Howard University in 2022, Coates makes a literary choice similar to the letter to his son that informed Between the World and Me; as in that book, the choice creates a sense of intimacy between writer and reader. Interweaving autobiography and reportage, Coates examines race, his identity as a Black American, and his role as a public intellectual. In Dakar, he is haunted by ghosts of his ancestors and “the shade of Niggerology,” a pseudoscientific narrative put forth to justify enslavement by portraying Blacks as inferior. In South Carolina, the 22-acre State House grounds, dotted with Confederate statues, continue to impart a narrative of white supremacy. His trip to the Middle East inspires the longest and most impassioned essay: “I don’t think I ever, in my life, felt the glare of racism burn stranger and more intense than in Israel,” he writes. In his complex analysis, he sees the trauma of the Holocaust playing a role in Israel’s tactics in the Middle East: “The wars against the Palestinians and their Arab allies were a kind of theater in which ‘weak Jews’ who went ‘like lambs to slaughter’ were supplanted by Israelis who would ‘fight back.’” Roiled by what he witnessed, Coates feels speechless, unable to adequately convey Palestinians’ agony; their reality “demands new messengers, tasked as we all are, with nothing less than saving the world.”
A revelatory meditation on shattering journeys.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9780593230381
Page Count: 176
Publisher: One World/Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
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