by Mika Brzezinski ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 12, 2015
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
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More by Mika Brzezinski
BOOK REVIEW
by Mika Brzezinski with Diane Smith
BOOK REVIEW
by Mika Brzezinski with Daniel Paisner
by Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 12, 2019
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
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More About This Book
SEEN & HEARD
by Robert Greene ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 13, 2012
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
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