by Rhonda Eason Rhonda Eason ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
An often engaging and intimate remembrance.
Awards & Accolades
Our Verdict
GET IT
A woman explores how her hair has shaped her identity in this memoir.
Eason (Man for Hire, 2015, etc.) is ordinarily a romance novelist, but in this book, she tells of her longtime affinity for the romance of beautiful, billowing hair. For many women, the concept of beauty is inextricably bound up with the idea of long, luxurious locks. The African-American author grew up with her mother, two older half sisters, and grandmother in 1980s Detroit. As a young girl, she had a head of “kinky” hair that simply would not fall at a vertical angle, and she became obsessed with the idea of “good” hair, which she found difficult to define. Painful braiding and at-home hair-relaxing kits, which burned her scalp and caused strands of her hair to break off, plagued her adolescence. As Eason’s hair-care methods became more sophisticated, her search for the perfect style—the “hairstyle that expressed who I was in that moment”—carried into her adult life, through different careers and boyfriends, from her time serving in the military overseas to her fresh start pursuing an acting career in New York City. But eventually, Eason was forced to ask herself, “Why?” When the communal pursuit of perfect hair started to affect the physical and emotional health of herself and those around her, Eason had to come to terms with her preoccupation. The first half of this book, covering the author’s childhood and early teenage years, brilliantly and colorfully combines her life story with her relationship to her hair, examining the intricacies and cultural context of the latter while never sacrificing the exciting storytelling elements of the former. Readers get to know the vile young boys at her elementary school, the heartbreaking and infuriating personality quirks of her mother and grandmother, and the distinct personalities of her sisters. As the memoir progresses into Eason’s adulthood, however, it loses this breadth of characters. Nonetheless, Eason’s prose remains impeccable and charming—quaint and quick but never wandering into whimsical territory—and this refreshing voice carries the book to its conclusion with momentum.
An often engaging and intimate remembrance.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Share your opinion of this book
by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006
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
Share your opinion of this book
by Daniel Kahneman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2011
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
Share your opinion of this book
More by Daniel Kahneman
BOOK REVIEW
More About This Book
IN THE NEWS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
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.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.