A call to duty and instruction manual that will appeal only to deeply conservative husbands and fathers.
A Christian-oriented book about the key role that fathers play in families.
In this comprehensive debut work, Combs promises readers “a common-sense approach to developing a character for success, understanding Biblical principles, re-establishing moral values, and building relationships.” He specifically aims to build the characters of fathers, whose increasing absence from the American family unit deeply concerns him. A father, he says, is in many ways the key to the stability of the family unit, so in these pages, he provides a series of moral instructions for prospective husbands and dads. He also offers a clearly written guide to more practical aspects of life, such as how to talk to potential employers, fill out job applications, manage credit cards, and balance one’s personal income. The book clearly lays out each of these pragmatic lessons, and many more, and effectively illustrates them with specific examples. They all revolve around Combs’ implicit contention that in order to be a responsible adult, a man must cultivate a small but crucial group of real-world skills. Overall, this self-help work couches its instructions in insistently conservative Christian terms that refer repeatedly to “Biblical principles and morals” and call the Bible “the perfect manual for living a good and just life”; this will accord nicely with the beliefs of its target audience, who may find its tone of moral clarity appealing. However, the book also includes the erroneous implication that the United States’ Founding Fathers intended their new nation to be Christian. Far more troubling, though, are its instructions to young women not to dress or act “suggestively” and to avoid crowds because a ratio of “two or more boys per girl” could lead to “male aggression.” These and other passages give the book the curious feel of a work written in another era.
A call to duty and instruction manual that will appeal only to deeply conservative husbands and fathers.Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5127-4874-1
Page Count: 236
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Career and business advice for the hashtag generation. For all its self-absorption, this book doesn’t offer much reflection...
A Dumpster diver–turned-CEO details her rise to success and her business philosophy.
In this memoir/business book, Amoruso, CEO of the Internet clothing store Nasty Gal, offers advice to young women entrepreneurs who seek an alternative path to fame and fortune. Beginning with a lengthy discussion of her suburban childhood and rebellious teen years, the author describes her experiences living hand to mouth, hitchhiking, shoplifting and dropping out of school. Her life turned around when, bored at work one night, she decided to sell a few pieces of vintage clothing on eBay. Fast-forward seven years, and Amoruso was running a $100 million company with 350 employees. While her success is admirable, most of her advice is based on her own limited experiences and includes such hackneyed lines as, “When you accept yourself, it’s surprising how much other people will accept you, too.” At more than 200 pages, the book is overlong, and much of what the author discusses could be summarized in a few tweets. In fact, much of it probably has been: One of the most interesting sections in the book is her description of how she uses social media. Amoruso has a spiritual side, as well, and she describes her belief in “chaos magic” and “sigils,” a kind of wishful-thinking exercise involving abstract words. The book also includes sidebars featuring guest “girlbosses” (bloggers, Internet entrepreneurs) who share equally clichéd suggestions for business success. Some of the guidance Amoruso offers for interviews (don’t dress like you’re going to a nightclub), getting fired (don’t call anyone names) and finding your fashion style (be careful which trends you follow) will be helpful to her readers, including the sage advice, “You’re not special.”
Career and business advice for the hashtag generation. For all its self-absorption, this book doesn’t offer much reflection or insight.Pub Date: May 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-16927-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Portfolio
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
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