A powerfully written indictment of discrimination in the modern workplace.
A retired systems engineer discusses her experiences with workplace discrimination in this memoir and guidebook for Black women.
West’s résumé speaks for itself. The author holds a doctorate in engineering, she’s led a multi-decade career in civil service with institutions spanning from NASA to the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, she’s served as a project lead on multimillion dollar programs, and she’s one of the world’s leading experts on using pattern recognition and Bayesian probability theory in radar target identification. Yet, as she writes in this thoroughly documented work, at each stage of her career, she has been systematically excluded from leadership positions and retaliated against when she brought forth complaints. Her experiences, in part, led to the passage of the 2002 No FEAR Act, which strengthened anti-discrimination and whistleblower protection laws. In these pages, West emphasizes how her childhood experiences in segregated Memphis during the Civil Rights era provided her with the wisdom and strength to persevere. The author provides an overview of the discriminatory practices she confronted while working for the federal government and chronicles repeated attempts to marginalize and silence her, ranging from subtle procedural changes to overt violence (a male colleague once pushed her at the top of a flight of stairs). This detailed history undergirds the second half of the book, which serves as a handbook for Black women in the workplace. Comparing corporate, military, and laboratory settings to a chess board, West argues that the “Game is Rigged” against Black women (the queen on the board who “is the most capable piece”) in favor of white men (“The White King” who moves slowly and is rarely instrumental to the gameplay but is the most protected piece). The author launches a searing indictment against human resource policies and Equal Employment Opportunity mechanisms that “function less as corrective instruments and more as shock absorbers” that protect white male leadership. Drawing on her own experiences with mistreatment and her hyperattention to detail as an engineer, West provides practical, actionable advice for Black women, including best practices for interacting with fellow employees, guidance for navigating bureaucratic procedures, and tips on how to document and record their experiences.
A powerfully written indictment of discrimination in the modern workplace.Pub Date: April 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781892313126
Page Count: 446
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A rags-to-riches how-to as entertaining as it is wise.
In this debut memoir, Bahamian millionaire Bastian offers insight into building a business.
The author was a millionaire by the time he was 19, an impressive feat considering he began his working life filling stockpots and rolling napkins in his father’s Nassau restaurant, a locals’ hole-in-the-wall far from the city’s tourist hotels. “In many ways, I started ten steps behind the starting line in a world where opportunities felt few and far between,” writes Bastian in his introduction. A poor student with a gambler’s risk tolerance and a salesman’s eye for an unserved market, the author dropped out of college to launch his own satellite installation business—the first of its kind in the Bahamas—eventually expanding into prepaid phones and other electronics. With this book, Bastian uses his personal experiences to illustrate the steps aspiring entrepreneurs should consider when building their own empires. “My goal isn’t just to tell my story,” he explains; “it’s to provide you with a starting point, a strategy, and the encouragement you need to take your first step toward something bigger.” The book alternates between memoiristic chapters describing the author’s youth and career and instructional chapters outlining the best practices to “become a lion” (his preferred metaphor for a brave, risk-taking captain of industry). From evaluating one’s skill set and choosing a suitable goal to the practicalities of regulation and taxes, Bastian walks the reader through the complicated processes of starting and maintaining a successful enterprise. While much of the advice is of the boilerplate variety, the author offers it with clarity and candor, devoting an entire chapter, for example, on how to fail productively. It is the biographical material that lends his advice unusual weight—Bastian’s stories of flying back and forth between the Bahamas and Miami to personally import satellite dishes are fascinating enough to stand on their own. Readers may be unable to replicate his success, but there is no denying that his tale is inspiring.
A rags-to-riches how-to as entertaining as it is wise.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9798891882485
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Advantage Media Group
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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