A readable and wide-ranging playbook for government workers wanting to change the world.
Bell sounds a call for government workers to use their “superpowers” for workplace change.
“The US government helped to build, and in many cases continues to maintain, systems of oppression,” the author writes at the outset of her book, immediately setting the eye-opening tone; “Our country is falling short of the promise of liberty and justice for all.” In her view, the front line of resistance to these systems of oppression is perhaps an unlikely one: the rank-and-file government workers she refers to as “herocrats.” Faced with the whole gamut of the world’s problems, from climate change to poverty to global pandemics to rampant wealth inequality (and all too aware that many of these issues affect marginalized groups first and worst), these herocrats have their hands full and often face ingrained institutional obstacles as well as personal challenges (“herocrats don’t just point their finger outward; they also examine the roles they play,” asserts Bell). In concise chapters offering pointers, explanations, and personal stories, the author advises readers on productive steps herocrats can take. Bell is unflagging in her passion for justice—and also in her narrative cheerfulness, which bubbles throughout her book. This is a strong call to action that invariably makes said action seem like good, invigorating fun. There are quite a few sentiments in these pages that many readers may energetically reject—proclamations like “Ultimately, nobody really does anything important alone.” Some readers may balk at the idea of government workers engaged in ideological crusades (“dismantling the house” as Bell puts it, in order to “speak the truth” and effect change), and the author at times seems to advocate for her herocrats to pursue these agendas regardless of their roles as members of teams (“Although the day-to-day work of herocrats involves collaborating with people, the end goal … is to create more equitable and just communities by changing systems, policies, and cultures in their organizations”). Still, the broader picture Bell paints about combatting institutional biases is inspiring.
A readable and wide-ranging playbook for government workers wanting to change the world.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781634896412
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Wise Ink Creative Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
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