Bold, insightful wisdom from a leading proponent of self-expression.
A personal growth manual on the importance of speaking up for oneself, particularly regarding matters of identity.
Building on the success of her Rants & Randomness podcast and first book, I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual (2017), Ajayi Jones, “a proud Nigerian woman,” pulls no punches in this well-organized guidebook. She asserts that the core basis of considering oneself a professional troublemaker involves an understanding that “chaos can come from being honest and authentic and going against the tide,” and her book demands that readers confront doubts and move toward fearlessness. The author’s goal is to get readers to communicate the wants and needs that continually hold them back from achieving everything from simple wishes to lifelong dreams. Split into three action-item sections—Be, Say, and Do—the guide shows how to work on internal issues before expanding outward, cultivating one’s voice to speak up for the greater good, and progressing from mere words to tangible movements that make a bigger difference. Ajayi Jones personalizes the narrative by incorporating anecdotes from her beloved grandmother (“the definition of boisterous”), whose life epitomized the lesson of “living beyond your fears.” The author also includes exercises that show how to maximize personal core values; the power of being an audacious dreamer (“dreaming is a gesture of courage in itself”); and the importance of self-exploration, clarity, and empowerment. Throughout, Ajayi Jones uses examples from her own random instances of impulsiveness to vividly illustrate points about learning from mistakes, setting boundaries, owning your own behavioral fumbles, and being independently fierce. Displaying a unique blend of tough love and compassionate advice, the author stresses that while embodying the kind of self-confidence she advocates may be perceived as arrogance, readers should live unapologetically and persistently strive for—not fear—success.
Bold, insightful wisdom from a leading proponent of self-expression.Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-984881-90-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Penguin Life
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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