While the book isn't likely to change many minds, those who share the author's point of view will likely feel encouraged to...
The founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America offers advice for women looking to take up that cause—or any other.
When the tragedy at Sandy Hook occurred in 2012, Watts was a stay-at-home mother of five older kids. Initially using her Facebook page, she rallied other mothers to form the organization for which she has been volunteering full-time ever since. In her first book, which she labels as “part manifesto, part memoir, and part manual,” the former public relations executive compiles a list of suggestions for would-be activists, including, “be dedicated to the ends, but flexible about the means” and “be devoted to your self-care.” The author focuses on the importance of using social media effectively and “branding” a movement, which Moms Demand Action does with its signature red T-shirts. The text veers between generic recommendations for (nonworking) moms who wish to devote their time to volunteering and more specific insights into the conflict between Moms Demand Action and the National Rifle Association, the group's primary opponent, whose “bluster and posturing” Watts finds repugnant. While the author provides a few glimpses into her personal life—particularly the challenges her frequent travel and commitment to the cause presented to her marriage and family—for the most part, she stays peppy and avoids revealing any details her enemies might seize upon. Some may find Watts' use of terms such as “naptivism” (activism achieved while children are napping) cloying and statements such as, “activism equals organizing, and if there's one thing moms know how to do, it's organize,” reductive. Others will find her chatty tone and positive attitude inspiring.
While the book isn't likely to change many minds, those who share the author's point of view will likely feel encouraged to put their political views into action.Pub Date: June 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-289256-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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