An inspiring evaluation of the potential women have to create fully productive lives at home and at work.
Constructive advice for women on the work-life balance.
In her latest book, Morning Joe co-host Brzezinski (Obsessed: America’s Food Addiction—And My Own, 2013, etc.) continues with the theme she started in Knowing Your Value (2011). Using interviews from such successful women as PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, Latina movement leader Nely Galán, and Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive, among many others, Brzezinski examines how women have really begun to find their balance and demonstrate their value in the workplace but continue to struggle to find that same kind of equilibrium at home. “According to a 2013 Pew study,” writes the author, “only 16 percent of those Americans polled thought a home with the mother working full time was the best environment in which to raise a child….The whole proposition of being a breadwinning or career-driven mother is murky, sticky, and messy.” Brzezinski recounts the time she moderated a panel for the White House Summit on Working Families and received absolute silence when she asked the group of distinguished and highly accomplished women how they juggled the work-life balance. From this launching point, she delves into the conflicting emotions that women experience as they try to advance their careers and still maintain rewarding home lives. Throughout, Brzezinski’s prose is upbeat and encouraging, and she fills the narrative with personal stories of her own successes and mishaps, as well as those of her interview subjects. These provide a guide for women who have been struggling to equalize their lives, are just beginning to enter the workforce, and/or are ready to start a long-term relationship with or without children. As the author knows, anyone has the power to make wise decisions regarding his or her work and home lives, and this book will encourage plenty of readers to find that power and use it.
An inspiring evaluation of the potential women have to create fully productive lives at home and at work.Pub Date: May 12, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-60286-268-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Weinstein Books
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.
A lightweight collection of self-help snippets from the bestselling author.
What makes a quote a quote? Does it have to be quoted by someone other than the original author? Apparently not, if we take Strayed’s collection of truisms as an example. The well-known memoirist (Wild), novelist (Torch), and radio-show host (“Dear Sugar”) pulls lines from her previous pages and delivers them one at a time in this small, gift-sized book. No excerpt exceeds one page in length, and some are only one line long. Strayed doesn’t reference the books she’s drawing from, so the quotes stand without context and are strung together without apparent attention to structure or narrative flow. Thus, we move back and forth from first-person tales from the Pacific Crest Trail to conversational tidbits to meditations on grief. Some are astoundingly simple, such as Strayed’s declaration that “Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard.” Others call on the author’s unique observations—people who regret what they haven’t done, she writes, end up “mingy, addled, shrink-wrapped versions” of themselves—and offer a reward for wading through obvious advice like “Trust your gut.” Other quotes sound familiar—not necessarily because you’ve read Strayed’s other work, but likely due to the influence of other authors on her writing. When she writes about blooming into your own authenticity, for instance, one is immediately reminded of Anaïs Nin: "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Strayed’s true blossoming happens in her longer works; while this collection might brighten someone’s day—and is sure to sell plenty of copies during the holidays—it’s no substitute for the real thing.
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-101-946909
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
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