by Shilpa Anthony Raj ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
A deft, intimate portrayal of a young woman’s growth through education.
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Raj’s first book amazes. At 20 years old, she writes a memoir of uncommon grace and wisdom.
Born into an “untouchable” family in the South India village of Thattaguppe, the author suspects she may have eluded Vidhiy-Amma, “mother fate,” when she was chosen to go to a special school. Her younger sister and brother stayed behind with her parents, whose relationship existed within restrictive roles: her mother seemed devoid of hope and authority; her father, struggling to provide, responded to marital conflict with violence. For Raj, studying at Shanti Bhavan (or “Abode of Peace”) meant learning how to swim and speak English, how to enjoy good food and to avoid an early marriage. “I was very happy and free here—in a world where hardship, poverty, violence, and hunger didn’t exist,” she writes. But these luxuries came at a cost: losing fluency in Kannada, her mother tongue, and a limited connection with family. She felt she was living in two worlds, “each alien to the other.” Disconnection was most poignant in the case of her sister Kavya, whose unexpected death at 14 remains a mystery. A casualty of sexual violence and perhaps suicide precipitated by it, Kavya represents an alternative fate the author may have met. A falling out with Kavya opens the book; a haunting dedication to the lost sister completes it. The pacing moves with a sure step as the narrative uncovers complex layers of cultural challenges. Though Raj’s depiction of her school is so praiseful that it approaches propaganda, Shanti Bhavan’s power over a child—who remained there until adulthood—is indeed a credible expression of love. As her mother cleaned houses in Singapore and her father scared off wild elephants in the sugar cane fields near the village, the author planned for college and a career. She was given the chance to transcend her family history and perhaps her own karma, knowledge of which she has “long coveted.” If sarayam, the bootlegged liquor made from sugar cane, dictates village economy and life, it will not dictate hers.
A deft, intimate portrayal of a young woman’s growth through education.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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
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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
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