A vapid, throwaway book certain to exasperate most women who work.
Donald Trump’s daughter weighs in on “rewriting the rules for success.”
In a book that was written “before the election,” Trump (The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life, 2009) cites her father as an influence in her business ventures, which have included her position as executive vice president of development and acquisitions at the Trump Organization and co-founder of the Ivanka Trump Collection. The fact that the author was born into wealth and married into another highly affluent family doesn’t necessarily discredit her oft-repeated assertion that she is "deeply passionate" about "the education and empowerment of women and girls; leveling the playing field for female entrepreneurs and job creators; and advancing the potential of women in our economy.” Certainly her degree from the Wharton School helps her cause as well. However, there is very little in this book—essentially a culling of maxims from a host of other business books from more qualified authors—that rings true. It’s also difficult to take advice about “leveling the playing field” from a businesswoman who has blatantly traded on the power and prestige of the presidency. She states the demographic of her “Women Who Work initiative” is "mostly millennials, single and married women, with and without kids…all passionate about work.” However, the focus of her insipid version of a live-your-best-life mantra is unsurprisingly limited to well-educated women in the corporate world. As she repeatedly claims that she wants to change “the conversation around work and women" and that she’s “incredibly dedicated to creating solutions for modern women who are living full, multidimensional lives,” the author is oblivious to the real trials of those who are unlike her. This short, nearly useless book fails to offer or add new information to countless other examinations of work and "passion,” not to mention more honest and instructive memoirs written by actual entrepreneurs who had to begin their paths to success from the ground floor.
A vapid, throwaway book certain to exasperate most women who work.Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7352-1132-2
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Portfolio
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2017
SEEN & HEARD
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.
A lightweight collection of self-help snippets from the bestselling author.
What makes a quote a quote? Does it have to be quoted by someone other than the original author? Apparently not, if we take Strayed’s collection of truisms as an example. The well-known memoirist (Wild), novelist (Torch), and radio-show host (“Dear Sugar”) pulls lines from her previous pages and delivers them one at a time in this small, gift-sized book. No excerpt exceeds one page in length, and some are only one line long. Strayed doesn’t reference the books she’s drawing from, so the quotes stand without context and are strung together without apparent attention to structure or narrative flow. Thus, we move back and forth from first-person tales from the Pacific Crest Trail to conversational tidbits to meditations on grief. Some are astoundingly simple, such as Strayed’s declaration that “Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard.” Others call on the author’s unique observations—people who regret what they haven’t done, she writes, end up “mingy, addled, shrink-wrapped versions” of themselves—and offer a reward for wading through obvious advice like “Trust your gut.” Other quotes sound familiar—not necessarily because you’ve read Strayed’s other work, but likely due to the influence of other authors on her writing. When she writes about blooming into your own authenticity, for instance, one is immediately reminded of Anaïs Nin: "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Strayed’s true blossoming happens in her longer works; while this collection might brighten someone’s day—and is sure to sell plenty of copies during the holidays—it’s no substitute for the real thing.
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-101-946909
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
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.
bookshelf
