If you were a woman hired at Newsweek magazine in the 1960s, you had a limited career path. Most women were hired as researchers, working to provide background and information to male writers who received all the bylines and credit for each of the magazine’s stories. Women had almost no chance to move up from researcher to writer, and an even smaller possibility of ever becoming an editor or among the top brass at the magazine.
Book Review
In an effort to maybe, perhaps, hopefully get caught up on all the books I haven’t reviewed, I’m planning to start doing mini-reviews every couple of weeks for books that I read but didn’t have much to say about. If you have more specific questions about any of this week’s titles, leave them in the comments! In this post, Ready Player One and The Last Policeman.
When someone cuts you off on the freeway, what’s your first thought? When you see Donald Trump on television, what’s the first word you think to call him? When a politician is exposed as a hypocrite, for whatever reason, what’s do you turn to your friends and exclaim?
For me, it’s usually something along the lines of “What an asshole!” And I’m not the only one, at least according to linguist Geoffrey Nunberg. As Nunberg, a scholar in UC Berkeley’s School of Information, explains in the introduction of his new book Ascent of the A-Word.
What are the top ten issues that candidates should be discussing during this election, but won’t be because of the economy? How is Ron Paul’s run for president like Friday Night Lights? What are five ways we could reform Congress to make it work better? If those questions or their answers intrigue you, then The Gospel According to The Fix by Chris Cillizza is a book you should get your hands on as soon as you can.
Joanna Brooks grew up believing she was special. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Brooks felt set apart from her peers (in a good way) during her childhood, where her parents emphasized love, faith and service.
It wasn’t until Brooks started college at Brigham Young University in the 1990s that she started to see a side of Mormonism she didn’t feel connected to — a church that excommunicated vocal Mormon feminists and a church willing to invest millions of dollars into a California campaign to restrict the rights of gays and lesbians to marry. The Book of Mormon Girl chronicles Brooks childhood in a faith she loved and subsequent struggle to find a way to live that faith despite her distance from its leadership during her adulthood.
In an effort to maybe, perhaps, hopefully get caught up on all the books I haven’t reviewed, I’m planning to start doing mini-reviews every couple of weeks for books that I read but didn’t have much to say about. If you have more specific questions about any of this week’s titles, leave them in the comments! This post features The Lifeboat and The Secret History.
I think it’s sort of hard to me to review Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson because I may not be the target audience for this book. I’ve never been a regular reader of Lawson’s very popular blog, The Bloggess, so I can’t really remember why I decided to make this book one of my first Audible purchases except that everyone who does read The Bloggess seems to really love her. Still, I wasn’t really sure what to expect with the book.
When Kristen Iversen was a child, she and her family moved to a small subdivision just outside of Denver. Their neighborhood was downwind from Rocky Flats, a nuclear weapons facility that produced plutonium bomb components. At one time, Rocky Flats was identified as the most contaminated site in the United States. Neither Iversen nor her family nor her neighbors knew what was produced at the factory. When asked, Iversen’s mother often guessed cleaning supplies. Besides, Iversen and her family had more important things to worry about — paying the bills, dealing with boys, and surviving their father’s alcohol-induced neglect.
In an effort to maybe, perhaps, hopefully get caught up on all the books I haven’t reviewed, I’m planning to start doing mini-reviews every couple of weeks for books that I read but didn’t have much to say about. If you have more specific questions about any of this week’s titles, leave them in the comments! Find out my thoughts on Silver Sparrow, Everything Beautiful Began After, and Rules of Civility.
I have struggled for more than a month now to write a review of Fooling Houdini by Alex Stone, and I haven’t managed to write a single word. The only cause I can come up with for this reviewing writer’s block is that I’m feeling pressure to write a review that expresses just how totally delightful this book is and will convince everyone to go pick up a copy as soon as you can.
