An accessible guide to overcoming the taboos and myths surrounding money.
An angel investor and financial empowerment expert encourages women to reframe their approach to wealth.
“Women are doing the work,” writes Dawood, who notes that while women are earning, saving, giving, and supporting their loved ones, many “still feel stuck.” Encouraging women to reframe the way they think about money, the author blends practical advice centered around financial empowerment with a broader psychological commentary on the way that women have been taught “to be responsible with money but not to take real ownership of it.” Dawood poignantly highlights how “generational welts”—the “deep, inherited scars left by exclusion, silencing, and limitations”—still hold a psychological grip on women today. Such attitudes include cultivating a disconnected approach toward money as a defense mechanism (“I’m not good with money”) and the persistent sense of guilt felt by women who buy things for themselves, even when they can afford them. Arguing that women should take agency over the human urge to build wealth—not just in the financial sense, but also the stability that comes with controlling one’s own time and livelihood—the author blends historical and psychological commentary with practical advice on saving, investing, and generating lasting wealth. To this end, Dawood provides a parallel workbook and worksheets for financial planning, reflection questions accompanied by lined paper for personal journaling, and other practical tools. The chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee and chair emeritus of the Angel Capital Association, Dawood is a leading advocate for the financial empowerment of women. Like the author’s TEDx talks, podcasts, and previous publications, this book balances her expert understanding of American financial markets with a jargon-free, conversational approach to financial literacy that draws on real-world examples from women across the socioeconomic spectrum. The handbook is accessible, its text peppered with illustrations, diagrams, and other visual aids. While geared toward women, this book will be of use to any readers looking to take greater agency over their finances.
An accessible guide to overcoming the taboos and myths surrounding money.Pub Date: March 10, 2026
ISBN: 9798993816104
Page Count: 208
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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