A well-written and informative guide to leading an equitable workplace.
A business book offers advice on leadership and equity in the workplace from a human resources veteran.
In this guide, Sever shares insights gained from years of work in human resources, both in-house and as a consultant, with a focus on issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The volume is aimed at managers, and the author opens by explaining what it takes to successfully supervise employees, from running meetings to evaluating performance. The book then moves to big-picture questions of missions, relationships, and behavior, advising readers who want to make sure their businesses are demonstrating the values they espouse. The following chapters explore how organizations—their HR departments, in particular—can take concrete actions to promote social justice in the workplace through hiring practices, compensation policies, and supportive environments. The narrative is interspersed with “Make It Your Own” sections, in which Sever asks questions designed to help readers apply the topics covered to their own workplaces (“What are structural changes within your organization that could make getting the work done and self-care both possible?”). The author is a thoughtful and methodical writer, and the volume covers a substantial amount of information without overwhelming readers. Proponents of social justice in the workplace will find concrete recommendations for taking action and creating a more equitable environment. Readers who are more skeptical about the topic should find Sever’s explanations of how an organization can take steps toward equity and why it benefits everyone involved both informative and persuasive. New managers are also likely to find the guide particularly useful, as the author explores the key elements of a supervisory role and how they can be implemented properly or badly. Readers without previous exposure to leadership or HR concepts will have no difficulty following along. The combination of theoretical explanations, hypotheticals, and anecdotes from Sever’s management career is an effective one, delivering plenty of nuance and a variety of ways of approaching a complex topic. The manual’s blend of idealistic goals and cleareyed assessments of corporate reality makes for an effective read.
A well-written and informative guide to leading an equitable workplace.Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64742-140-3
Page Count: 300
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A top-flight nonfiction debut from a unique artist.
The acclaimed director displays his talents as a film critic.
Tarantino’s collection of essays about the important movies of his formative years is packed with everything needed for a powerful review: facts about the work, context about the creative decisions, and whether or not it was successful. The Oscar-winning director of classic films like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs offers plenty of attitude with his thoughts on movies ranging from Animal House to Bullitt to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to The Big Chill. Whether you agree with his assessments or not, he provides the original reporting and insights only a veteran director would notice, and his engaging style makes it impossible to leave an essay without learning something. The concepts he smashes together in two sentences about Taxi Driver would take a semester of film theory class to unpack. Taxi Driver isn’t a “paraphrased remake” of The Searchers like Bogdanovich’s What’s Up, Doc? is a paraphrased remake of Hawks’ Bringing Up Baby or De Palma’s Dressed To Kill is a paraphrased remake of Hitchcock’s Psycho. But it’s about as close as you can get to a paraphrased remake without actually being one. Robert De Niro’s taxi driving protagonist Travis Bickle is John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards. Like any good critic, Tarantino reveals bits of himself as he discusses the films that are important to him, recalling where he was when he first saw them and what the crowd was like. Perhaps not surprisingly, the author was raised by movie-loving parents who took him along to watch whatever they were watching, even if it included violent or sexual imagery. At the age of 8, he had seen the very adult MASH three times. Suddenly the dark humor of Kill Bill makes much more sense. With this collection, Tarantino offers well-researched love letters to his favorite movies of one of Hollywood’s most ambitious eras.
A top-flight nonfiction debut from a unique artist.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-311258-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
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