A slim, useful, broad-minded guide to being a powerful woman.
A debut motivational manual breaks down the multiple facets of female power.
In her long career as a lawyer, there have been many moments when Annino misplayed her hand due to a lack of confidence. When negotiating may have won her a favorable position, she instead panicked, quit, or accepted an outcome she didn’t want. She began to wonder—especially as the #MeToo movement pushed notions about strong women to the center of the national dialogue—about just what exactly female power meant. How was she failing to recognize and use it in her own life? Some obstacles that women encounter today are the same faced by the first-wave feminists; others are new complications of the shifting gender paradigm. Using the biographical examples of prominent women from recent (and not so recent) history as well as relevant studies on current trends, the author unpacks the challenges that women deal with in the workplace, relationships, and the world. She is particularly interested in the various forms of direct and indirect power that women have—everything from flirting to protesting and consuming—encouraging them to recognize this clout in their own lives. “It took me longer to understand that power is a process,” writes Annino. “Owning, claiming, and connecting to your power is necessary but not sufficient. You must pay attention to how you choose to use your power, and how much of it you want to use.” She delves into the psychology of concepts like women’s intuition, “ageless wisdom,” and beauty as well as providing practical advice for readers seeking to activate their own innate power to help them achieve their goals. Armed with this information, the author hopes to provide a way forward for women who feel adrift in the current landscape of feminism and its backlash.
Annino’s voice is smooth and authoritative, and one can hear the motivational speaker behind her prose: “Thinking that you must live your life in linear fashion undercuts your power. Understanding that the world is catching up with how women have always had to live their lives and accepting it is powerful.” The book represents an intriguing middle ground between various ideologies: Annino is steeped in the history of feminism, but her definition of the movement is broad and filled with competing arguments. In addition to figures like Gloria Steinem, she is happy to hold up reactionaries such as Phyllis Schlafly and slippery personages like Cleopatra as potential models. Presentational elements like dress, charm, and politeness are on the table, and the penultimate chapter is on the subject of “Women’s Betrayal of Women.” It’s a short work at under 100 pages, and a single unified argument never really emerges. The author’s personal stories are often rather bare-bones, and there are times when it feels as though the raw material could have been shaped a bit more. But as a primer for women who wish to be exposed to various feminist ideas while receiving some helpful, motivational advice, Annino’s manual does the job.
A slim, useful, broad-minded guide to being a powerful woman.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 93
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sharp, entertaining view of the news media from one of its star players.
The veteran newscaster reflects on her triumphs and hardships, both professional and private.
In this eagerly anticipated memoir, Couric (b. 1957) transforms the events of her long, illustrious career into an immensely readable story—a legacy-preserving exercise, for sure, yet judiciously polished and insightful, several notches above the fray of typical celebrity memoirs. The narrative unfolds through a series of lean chapters as she recounts the many career ascendency steps that led to her massively successful run on the Today Show and comparably disappointing stints as CBS Evening News anchor, talk show host, and Yahoo’s Global News Anchor. On the personal front, the author is candid in her recollections about her midlife adventures in the dating scene and deeply sorrowful and affecting regarding the experience of losing her husband to colon cancer as well as the deaths of other beloved family members, including her sister and parents. Throughout, Couric maintains a sharp yet cool-headed perspective on the broadcast news industry and its many outsized personalities and even how her celebrated role has diminished in recent years. “It’s AN ADJUSTMENT when the white-hot spotlight moves on,” she writes. “The ego gratification of being the It girl is intoxicating (toxic being the root of the word). When that starts to fade, it takes some getting used to—at least it did for me.” Readers who can recall when network news coverage and morning shows were not only relevant, but powerfully influential forces will be particularly drawn to Couric’s insights as she tracks how the media has evolved over recent decades and reflects on the negative effects of the increasing shift away from reliable sources of informed news coverage. The author also discusses recent important cultural and social revolutions, casting light on issues of race and sexual orientation, sexism, and the predatory behavior that led to the #MeToo movement. In that vein, she expresses her disillusionment with former co-host and friend Matt Lauer.
A sharp, entertaining view of the news media from one of its star players.Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-316-53586-1
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
An unflinching self-portrait.
The tumultuous life of a bisexual, autistic comic.
In her debut memoir, Scottish comedian Brady recounts the emotional turmoil of living with undiagnosed autism. “The public perception of autistics is so heavily based on the stereotype of men who love trains or science,” she writes, “that many women miss out on diagnosis and are thought of as studious instead.” She was nothing if not studious, obsessively focused on foreign languages, but she found it difficult to converse in her own language. From novels, she tried to gain “knowledge about people, about how they spoke to each other, learning turns of phrase and metaphor” that others found so familiar. Often frustrated and overwhelmed by sensory overload, she erupted in violent meltdowns. Her parents, dealing with behavior they didn’t understand—including self-cutting—sent her to “a high-security mental hospital” as a day patient. Even there, a diagnosis eluded her; she was not accurately diagnosed until she was 34. Although intimate friendships were difficult, she depicts her uninhibited sexuality and sometimes raucous affairs with both men and women. “I grew up confident about my queerness,” she writes, partly because of “autism’s lack of regard for social norms.” While at the University of Edinburgh, she supported herself as a stripper. “I liked that in a strip club men’s contempt of you was out in the open,” she admits. “In the outside world, misogyny was always hovering in your peripheral vision.” When she worked as a reporter for the university newspaper, she was assigned to try a stint as a stand-up comic and write about it; she found it was work she loved. After “about a thousand gigs in grim little pubs across England,” she landed an agent and embarked on a successful career. Although Brady hopes her memoir will “make things feel better for the next autistic or misfit girl,” her anger is as evident as her compassion.
An unflinching self-portrait.Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 9780593582503
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Harmony
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
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