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GIRLS ON THE BRINK

Name: GIRLS ON THE BRINK
Author: Donna Jackson Nakazawa
ISBN: 978-0-593-23307-8

HELPING OUR DAUGHTERS THRIVE IN AN ERA OF INCREASED ANXIETY, DEPRESSION, AND SOCIAL MEDIA

by Donna Jackson Nakazawa ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 13, 2022

A perceptive, informative examination of the problems young American girls face and how to change them.

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How to help girls deal with the many toxic elements of contemporary society.

Jackson Nakazawa, the author of The Angel and the Assassin and Childhood Disrupted, opens with a disturbing note: “When we look at the mental health of American girls today, one thing becomes clear: We as a society are failing pretty miserably….One out of four adolescent girls reports suffering from symptoms of major depression compared with fewer than one in ten boys.” This stark assessment sets the tone for the author’s incisive analysis of the causes of the stress, anxiety, and depression that American girls are experiencing at an unprecedented rate. Of course, social media plays an outsized role, as girls constantly compare their lives with others online—even though those portrayed lives are often grossly misleading. Jackson Nakazawa cites research into the roles that genes play during pregnancy and how parental stresses in early childhood can affect a girl’s ability to handle adversity. Furthermore, girls are reaching puberty at earlier ages, causing undue stress and anxiety about body image. Jackson Nakazawa chronicles her interviews with numerous young women, giving readers a firsthand perspective on the many difficult issues they face, and she offers 15 strategies for how to work with girls, giving them the tools they need to navigate an often misogynistic society. These include seeking the help of mentors and mental health professionals, figuring out how to “dial back on evaluating your daughter,” and learning how to “create routine, ritual, and structure—including a family media plan.” Outside of the family, the author “wants to see men—especially those in powerful roles…wake up to the reality of the fear girls experience growing up female in a world dominated by sexism and male power.” All of the author’s advice is sound, and her insights into how to start the process of change make this an important book for parents of girls.

A perceptive, informative examination of the problems young American girls face and how to change them.

Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-593-23307-8

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Harmony

Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022

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THINK YOU'LL BE HAPPY

MOVING THROUGH GRIEF WITH GRIT, GRACE, AND GRATITUDE

by Nicole Avant ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 17, 2023

Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.

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Memories and life lessons inspired by the author’s mother, who was murdered in 2021.

“Neither my mother nor I knew that her last text to me would be the words ‘Think you’ll be happy,’ ” Avant writes, "but it is fitting that she left me with a mantra for resiliency.” The author, a filmmaker and former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, begins her first book on the night she learned her mother, Jacqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during a home invasion. “One of my first thoughts,” she writes, “was, ‘Oh God, please don’t let me hate this man. Give me the strength not to hate him.’ ” Daughter of Clarence Avant, known as the “Black Godfather” due to his work as a pioneering music executive, the author describes growing up “in a house that had a revolving door of famous people,” from Ella Fitzgerald to Muhammad Ali. “I don’t take for granted anything I have achieved in my life as a Black American woman,” writes Avant. “And I recognize my unique upbringing…..I was taught to honor our past and pay forward our fruits.” The book, which is occasionally repetitive, includes tributes to her mother from figures like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, but the narrative core is the author’s direct, faith-based, unwaveringly positive messages to readers—e.g., “I don’t want to carry the sadness and anger I have toward the man who did this to my mother…so I’m worshiping God amid the worst storm imaginable”; "Success and feeling good are contagious. I’m all about positive contagious vibrations!” Avant frequently quotes Bible verses, and the bulk of the text reflects the spirit of her daily prayer “that everything is in divine order.” Imploring readers to practice proactive behavior, she writes, “We have to always find the blessing, to be the blessing.”

Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.

Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023

ISBN: 9780063304413

Page Count: 288

Publisher: HarperOne

Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023

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THINKING, FAST AND SLOW

by Daniel Kahneman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2011

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...

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A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.

The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.