by Brooke Baldwin ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 6, 2021
A celebration of female empowerment and empathy.
How women find support by banding together.
Inspired by the Women’s March of 2017—“the largest single-day protest on American soil”—CNN news anchor Baldwin traveled around the country interviewing women who have found “comfort, strategy, and stamina” from close camaraderie: what the author calls a huddle. “A huddle,” she writes, “is a place where women can become energized by the mere fact of their coexistence.” As a journalist in a male-dominated industry, Baldwin reveals her personal experiences in finding support from female mentors, sponsors, and her own huddle of friends. Women, she discovered, are each other’s “most valuable asset.” Conversations with women—some famous, such as Ava DuVernay, Stacey Abrams, and Gloria Steinem, and many others lesser-known—have convinced Baldwin that a “new, intersectional women’s movement” is thriving. In Houston, for example, she discovered the Black Girl Magic judge huddle, a group comprised of Black women supporting one another in their efforts to attain judgeships: In 2018, an unprecedented 19 were elected. Some of the huddles have had national impact: the #MeToo movement, for one, and Time’s Up, an initiative to raise money and public awareness for combatting sexual assault, harassment, and inequality in the entertainment and other industries. Other huddles emerge from various needs: Girls on the Run, a female-led nonprofit to support runners; Kode with Klossy, a coding camp for teenage girls; Hello Sunshine Filmmaker Lab for Girls, Reese Witherspoon’s project for empowering young aspiring filmmakers; GirlTrek, “America’s largest health movement for Black women”; and “the Badasses,” a text chain among newly elected Congresswomen. Besides huddles, Baldwin celebrates women who dedicate themselves to amplifying women’s stories and lifting up others. “When multiple women command respect,” Baldwin writes, “they provide a foundation for all women to demand respect.” Though the author uncovers little groundbreaking news, the stories are encouraging and often inspiring.
A celebration of female empowerment and empathy.Pub Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-301744-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harper Business
Review Posted Online: Jan. 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
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by Colum McCann with Diane Foley ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024
A harrowing memoir of grief and love.
An indelible portrait of a mother’s courage.
Award-winning novelist McCann and Foley, mother of murdered journalist James Wright Foley (1973-2014), offer a powerful recounting of the unspeakable tragedy and its aftermath. In August 2014, after being held hostage for two years, Jim was beheaded by Islamic Group terrorists. He had been taken hostage once before, in Libya, but that time was released after 44 days. Undaunted, he went to Syria “determined to bear witness to the horrific bombings and gassings of innocent civilians by the Assad regime.” After he was taken hostage, the Foley family, to their deepening dismay, discovered that the U.S. refused unequivocally to negotiate for hostages’ release, and the Foleys were threatened with prosecution if they tried to raise ransom money on their own. Meanwhile, though, through “an incredibly circuitous route,” several European governments managed to free their own hostages. “They insinuated themselves carefully into the communications system,” the authors write, “got under the umbrella of the emails, and forged their own secret methods that included a network of agents and ambassadors and, yes, even spies.” Foley vents her anger toward the many government officials who claimed they were powerless to help. “The plain fact of the matter is that we don’t care as much for our aid workers or our volunteer ambulance drivers or our journalists as we do for our military,” the authors assert. Foley and her family founded the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation to advocate for the freedom of those taken hostage or detained abroad, and she takes hope from recent legislation, most recently by Biden’s executive order, in support of hostages. Hoping for “answers to help her in the wider work against hostage-taking,” Foley met with one of the terrorists involved in her son’s murder—unsettling encounters that bracket the striking narrative.
A harrowing memoir of grief and love.Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9798985882452
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Etruscan Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
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SEEN & HEARD
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
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by Shavone Charles ; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
by Leo Baker ; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
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