A worthy read, but its true worth will be reflected in the conversations it will start.
A collection of essays exploring women’s relationships with money.
In her latest book, prominent third-wave feminist Walker brings together a wide variety of contributors—both women and gender-nonconforming writers—to address the subject. “We had thought that telling the truth about money might divide us by revealing how different we were; we had not considered that the same honesty might unite us against whatever forces still kept us apart,” she writes. Throughout, the contributors show how money is inextricably intertwined with race, gender, body image, well-being, and more. From children of immigrants who witness their parents calculating how best to ensure their children’s (and thereby their own) futures to sex work, unpaid caregiving, and widowhood, the presence or absence of money is an invisible hand driving the fates of each essayist. Heart-wrenching pieces about the cost of addiction and the price of success for Black women coexist with fascinating, if less sympathetic, reflections on rejecting family wealth and the less-photogenic aspects of being an Instagram influencer. The collection contains universal truths as well as uniquely American ones, such as the contentious notion of having to pay for health care and the bureaucracy of college financial aid. While some pieces feel repurposed, with the topic at hand shoehorned in as an afterthought, for the most part, the essays are thoughtful and expansive, giving readers a glimpse of how people from across the socio-economic spectrum have had to define—and oftentimes reinvent—themselves through the prism of money. “I take as a given that we exist in a context of white supremacist settler colonialism and voracious capitalism,” writes poet and translator Jen Hofer. In this collection, talking about money becomes a revolutionary act against these systems. Other contributors include Daisy Hernandez, Porochista Khakpour, Tressie McMillan Cottom, and Jamie Wong; Alice Walker provides the foreword.
A worthy read, but its true worth will be reflected in the conversations it will start.Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5432-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.
Helping liberals get out of their own way.
Klein, a New York Times columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic staffer, lean to the left, but they aren’t interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side’s “pathologies.” Why do red states greenlight the kind of renewable energy projects that often languish in blue states? Why does liberal California have the nation’s most severe homelessness and housing affordability crises? One big reason: Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous “goals, standards, and rules.” This “procedural kludge,” partially shaped by lawyers who pioneered a “democracy by lawsuit” strategy in the 1960s, threatens to stymie key breakthroughs. Consider the anti-pollution laws passed after World War II. In the decades since, homeowners’ groups in liberal locales have cited such statutes in lawsuits meant to stop new affordable housing. Today, these laws “block the clean energy projects” required to tackle climate change. Nuclear energy is “inarguably safer” than the fossil fuel variety, but because Washington doesn’t always “properly weigh risk,” it almost never builds new reactors. Meanwhile, technologies that may cure disease or slash the carbon footprint of cement production benefit from government support, but too often the grant process “rewards caution and punishes outsider thinking.” The authors call this style of governing “everything-bagel liberalism,” so named because of its many government mandates. Instead, they envision “a politics of abundance” that would remake travel, work, and health. This won’t happen without “changing the processes that make building and inventing so hard.” It’s time, then, to scrutinize everything from municipal zoning regulations to the paperwork requirements for scientists getting federal funding. The authors’ debut as a duo is very smart and eminently useful.
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781668023488
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A sharp, entertaining view of the news media from one of its star players.
The veteran newscaster reflects on her triumphs and hardships, both professional and private.
In this eagerly anticipated memoir, Couric (b. 1957) transforms the events of her long, illustrious career into an immensely readable story—a legacy-preserving exercise, for sure, yet judiciously polished and insightful, several notches above the fray of typical celebrity memoirs. The narrative unfolds through a series of lean chapters as she recounts the many career ascendency steps that led to her massively successful run on the Today Show and comparably disappointing stints as CBS Evening News anchor, talk show host, and Yahoo’s Global News Anchor. On the personal front, the author is candid in her recollections about her midlife adventures in the dating scene and deeply sorrowful and affecting regarding the experience of losing her husband to colon cancer as well as the deaths of other beloved family members, including her sister and parents. Throughout, Couric maintains a sharp yet cool-headed perspective on the broadcast news industry and its many outsized personalities and even how her celebrated role has diminished in recent years. “It’s AN ADJUSTMENT when the white-hot spotlight moves on,” she writes. “The ego gratification of being the It girl is intoxicating (toxic being the root of the word). When that starts to fade, it takes some getting used to—at least it did for me.” Readers who can recall when network news coverage and morning shows were not only relevant, but powerfully influential forces will be particularly drawn to Couric’s insights as she tracks how the media has evolved over recent decades and reflects on the negative effects of the increasing shift away from reliable sources of informed news coverage. The author also discusses recent important cultural and social revolutions, casting light on issues of race and sexual orientation, sexism, and the predatory behavior that led to the #MeToo movement. In that vein, she expresses her disillusionment with former co-host and friend Matt Lauer.
A sharp, entertaining view of the news media from one of its star players.Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-316-53586-1
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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