A thorough guide best suited for people working in or responsible for safety and health aspects of these industries, or as a...
In the first of five books in a planned series, a trained occupational physician and retired consultant with the U.K.’s National Health Service uses firsthand accounts to provide an overview of traditional craft industries.
Using an encyclopedia format, Dasgupta (Disasters, 2011) describes typical crafts, such as sewing and basket weaving, but also stretches the definition of “craft” with entries such as lavender harvesting. The entries, which are randomly presented, fall into three general areas: decorative jewelry, clothing and housewares (embroidery, bangle-making and glass-making); harvesting of crops (sugar cane, coffee, tea); and industrial goods (plastics, rope-making and brick-making). Each chapter follows a similar structure and format, starting with historic origins of the craft, followed by a list of products and chemicals used, the cultural and social impact of each industry and a list of health and safety hazards. Large color photos also depict activities involved in the practice of the craft. The descriptions of the cultural aspects are a strength of the book, as Dasgupta emphasizes how developing countries still depend heavily on handmade goods, providing the reader with an understanding of the important role carried out by people who continue to work in handmade and traditional craft industries at a time when other industries are dominating the marketplace. However, each two-page entry is too brief to be instructional for those interested in taking up the craft as a hobby or as a profession, and there isn’t a clear grouping of the entries to provide organization and needed context for the collection as a whole. The health issues listed are too general in some chapters—such as injuries due to slips and falls—and could apply to any profession.
A thorough guide best suited for people working in or responsible for safety and health aspects of these industries, or as a starting point for those wanting to learn more.Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2011
ISBN: 978-1456792336
Page Count: 54
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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