by Alex Counts ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 11, 2022
An edifying work and a thorough introduction to an important issue of social justice.
Awards & Accolades
Our Verdict
GET IT
A panoramic account of efforts to relieve poverty with microcredit programs.
Nonprofit consultant and author Counts astutely observes that, throughout history, poverty alleviation often focused on the weaknesses of disadvantaged communities, rather than their strengths. He agrees with Bangladeshi economist and Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus’ theory that the people who manage to survive great deprivation are often “highly motivated entrepreneurs” who need organizations and structures to flourish. In this rigorously researched and granular account, the author surveys the history of Yunus’ devotion to microfinancing as well as his founding of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in the 1980s to provide small loans to hardworking but cash-strapped entrepreneurs. Yunus’ methods were revolutionary, Counts notes, as they focused on customized solutions for different localities and borrowers: “He believed that the entire exercise in planning should be turned upside down so that the national plan is mainly the sum of thousands of smaller plans developed at the village level.” Counts ably defends Yunus against potential detractors, whom the author characterizes as “fickle philanthropists and journalists,” and furnishes an empirically convincing advocacy of his approach, which was promulgated in many other countries by the World Bank. Moreover, he informatively profiles some women in Bangladesh, as well as in Chicago, who found success through microcredit. Overall, Counts’ overview is dizzyingly expansive; readers are treated to a history of Bangladesh, the microcredit movement, Yunus’ career as an economist, and much more—so much more, in fact, that it can be overwhelming at times. However, his prose is crystal-clear throughout, even when broaching technically formidable matters, and he succinctly summarizes the “humanistic values” that undergird Yunus’ economic vision.
An edifying work and a thorough introduction to an important issue of social justice.Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-953943-19-4
Page Count: 410
Publisher: Rivertowns Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 3, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
More by Alex Counts
BOOK REVIEW
by Alex Counts
BOOK REVIEW
by Alex Counts
by Alok Vaid-Menon ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2020
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
Share your opinion of this book
More In The Series
by Shavone Charles ; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
by Leo Baker ; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
Awards & Accolades
Likes
37
Our Verdict
GET IT
Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2023
New York Times Bestseller
by Walter Isaacson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2023
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
Awards & Accolades
Likes
37
Our Verdict
GET IT
Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2023
New York Times Bestseller
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
Share your opinion of this book
More by Walter Isaacson
BOOK REVIEW
by Walter Isaacson with adapted by Sarah Durand
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More About This Book
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.