In this guide, a financial adviser points to homeownership as the key to increasing generational wealth in Black and brown communities.
With a Ph.D. in psychology, Brown is well aware of the motivations behind how people spend or save their money. In addition to this academic background, this work draws on her own personal and family experiences with homeownership, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy as an African American woman. Too many individuals, she argues, are plagued with “acid reflux” in their pockets. As the adage goes, most of what they earn burns a hole in their pockets. If people want to live the “Post Pandemic American Dream” of “Credit Cards, Cash, and Cadillacs,” the author emphasizes they must become financially savvy in researching investment trends such as cryptocurrency, attending college, and, most importantly, buying a house, which would “impact the generations to come.” Brown is the founder and owner of Fresh Community Development Inc., an organization devoted to providing affordable financial literature and services to low-income families; this guide is an important addition to her reference materials. At just over 100 pages, this concise volume provides practical advice on the benefits of property ownership versus rent as well as sensible, if basic, tips on how to save, spend, and invest, irrespective of one’s economic class. Though there is certainly a racial component to the narrative that emphasizes ownership as a key to assuaging generational poverty, the book does not dwell on the historical contexts or systemic barriers to the purchase of a home. While it offers crucial information to understanding American residential history, this volume is not intended as an indictment of capitalism or racism. Instead, the author is laser focused on individual responsibility and actions where “we all have a role to play” in alleviating poverty. Brown’s conversational prose style borrows heavily from the inspirational lingo of self-help books. In addition, the manual delivers ample references to pop culture, zodiac signs, and Christianity designed to motivate and educate readers to reconsider their spending habits and financial goals.
A useful primer on the benefits of homeownership to low-income communities.Pub Date: Dec. 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73513-323-2
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Success Lockdown Group LLC
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: SELF-HELP | ETHNICITY & RACE | GENERAL BUSINESS
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A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
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All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
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Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.
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More life reflections from the bestselling author on themes of societal captivity and the catharsis of personal freedom.
In her third book, Doyle (Love Warrior, 2016, etc.) begins with a life-changing event. “Four years ago,” she writes, “married to the father of my three children, I fell in love with a woman.” That woman, Abby Wambach, would become her wife. Emblematically arranged into three sections—“Caged,” “Keys,” “Freedom”—the narrative offers, among other elements, vignettes about the soulful author’s girlhood, when she was bulimic and felt like a zoo animal, a “caged girl made for wide-open skies.” She followed the path that seemed right and appropriate based on her Catholic upbringing and adolescent conditioning. After a downward spiral into “drinking, drugging, and purging,” Doyle found sobriety and the authentic self she’d been suppressing. Still, there was trouble: Straining an already troubled marriage was her husband’s infidelity, which eventually led to life-altering choices and the discovery of a love she’d never experienced before. Throughout the book, Doyle remains open and candid, whether she’s admitting to rigging a high school homecoming court election or denouncing the doting perfectionism of “cream cheese parenting,” which is about “giving your children the best of everything.” The author’s fears and concerns are often mirrored by real-world issues: gender roles and bias, white privilege, racism, and religion-fueled homophobia and hypocrisy. Some stories merely skim the surface of larger issues, but Doyle revisits them in later sections and digs deeper, using friends and familial references to personify their impact on her life, both past and present. Shorter pieces, some only a page in length, manage to effectively translate an emotional gut punch, as when Doyle’s therapist called her blooming extramarital lesbian love a “dangerous distraction.” Ultimately, the narrative is an in-depth look at a courageous woman eager to share the wealth of her experiences by embracing vulnerability and reclaiming her inner strength and resiliency.
Doyle offers another lucid, inspiring chronicle of female empowerment and the rewards of self-awareness and renewal.Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0125-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Categories: GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | SELF-HELP
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