A significant book that will hopefully spark change.
Often shocking tales from a veteran litigator courageously battling menacing stalkers and online predators.
Brooklyn-based victims’ rights attorney Goldberg profiles hair-raising cases involving extreme stalking, vengeance-driven retaliation, and rejection-fueled abuse in which families, reputations, and livelihoods are systematically dismantled by scorned lovers. The author barely survived the wrath of a vindictive ex-boyfriend, and she began devoting her expertise toward representing clientele who unwittingly become the targets of deranged stalkers, a demographic she feels is grossly underrepresented. The real-life cases she presents—some of which have garnered national media attention—chillingly illustrate the insidious nature of these types of crimes and also act as a necessary call to arms regarding the importance of victim empowerment. Goldberg notes that these incidents are far more common than many of us realize, and the perpetrators are typically male and classic masters of charm and charisma, luring unsuspecting women into whirlwind romances with “jiu-jitsu-level mind games.” In the opening section, the author discusses the case of a woman whose boyfriend was discovered to be behind a barrage of mysterious online attacks, which soon turned nefarious once she terminated their relationship. Goldberg attests that many of these assailants are so skillful at using anonymizing software to cover their tracks that the time it takes to prosecute them can be prohibitively lengthy. Other cases feature a high-profile lawsuit involving a gay man viciously terrorized by an ex-lover, an arrogant “professional life-ruiner,” victims of “revenge porn,” and “sextortionists,” who are “part of a vast league of sex predators who use intimidation, threats, and trickery to coerce victims into sex acts.” Though the incidents became increasingly complex, they further sharpened Goldberg’s mastery in dealing with the cases. From bullied teenagers to women exploited by revenge porn, Goldberg’s cases usually get much worse before any kind of resolution is reached, but the author does an important service in bringing these horrific exploitations to light.
A significant book that will hopefully spark change.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-53377-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Plume
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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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