Showing posts with label women. Show all posts
Showing posts with label women. Show all posts

The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World Review

The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World
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The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World ReviewI really wanted to love this book. I've been a big fan of Jacqueline Novogratz ever since I started reading about the Acumen Fund's work while serving in the Peace Corps in central Africa. In the years since, I've been working for a global health organization in several countries and read up on developments in this field regularly - and like Novogratz, I'm a UVA grad! And getting my MBA! I thought I'd eat this book up.
What first struck me was that this book is much less about the developing world (to say nothing of the Acumen Fund) than it is about Novogratz herself. The author is not a gifted writer, as others have pointed out, and the constant attempts at vivid descriptions of scenes of Africa and India become very tiresome. They also lend to the strong theme of the author's utter naivete. Novogratz seems to be constantly shocked or surprised when something she tries doesn't work, and nevertheless repeats the same self-sure pattern of presumption on her next "project."
I was an innocent abroad once too. The developing world, especially Africa, has a steep learning curve... but it's one that the author, from her luxury accommodations in the capital, jet-setting between countries as an overpaid ADB "consultant," hobnobbing with expat (read: white) elites in tennis clubs and fancy restaurants where local Kenyans/Rwandans/Tanzanians/etc. are nonexistent, never seems to overcome. She's exactly the type of foreign "expert" which she skewers early in the book (and whom exasperates the rest of us in this field). My eyes became sore from so much rolling, hearing her wax eloquent about local people and cultures to which she clearly has little true exposure or understanding of.
I give it two stars because many of the lessons she discusses - about accountability, the power of business in bettering people's lives, instilling a sense of dignity through economic security - are sound. I just wish she would talk more about business and less about, say, how shocked - just shocked! - she was when she was mugged while jogging alone in Tanzania, or about how she feels about the Rwandan genocide.The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World Overview

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Reconsidering Happiness: A Novel (Flyover Fiction) Review

Reconsidering Happiness: A Novel (Flyover Fiction)
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Reconsidering Happiness: A Novel (Flyover Fiction) ReviewDon't look for a fast-paced story here because you won't find it. And that seems at least partly the point. These people--Vivette and Margaret, mostly, but also the men in their lives--are searching and constantly refining what it means to be happy. That's something that develops over time, and through scenes in a fractured timeline the reader gets the sense of that evolution. I love that these are not perfect people with great lives. They're pretty ordinary, and they're flawed, and that's what makes this book a really fascinating read. That and the beautiful language.Reconsidering Happiness: A Novel (Flyover Fiction) Overview

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Pastries: A Novel of Desserts and Discoveries Review

Pastries: A Novel of Desserts and Discoveries
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Pastries: A Novel of Desserts and Discoveries ReviewI picked up this book because I like novels that have a food base to them. I especially love baked goods (who doesn't?) so Pastries seemed to fit the bill.
What a groaner this has turned out to be. The characters are flat, the dialogue is painfully unbelievable (from the French assistant who inserts a "oui" or a "bon jour" with every third line he utters to the movie director who describes his movie to Sunya over dinner like he's reading from a 13-year-old girl's journal of prose) and the plot twists are just plain silly. (For example, over dinner Sunya is stunned when her date rhapsodizes about a hole-in-the-wall doughnut shop with silk curtains he frequented as a boy. Guess what -- it's the shop Sunya's mom opened when Sunya was a girl.)
Then, as other reviewers have mentioned, the Bakery Wars?! For someone who really isn't doing much to save her business, Sunya sure get s a lot of ink in the city's major newspaper. And when I hit the part with the newspaper columnist making note of a man loitering outside Sunya's bakery I said aloud, "Come on."
All WTO references, and those involved and inspired by them, feel forced and unsupported.
Kirchner seems to create dialogue, characters and situations just to fill in the unexplainable gaps in the overall plot.
I keep picking up the book and giving it another chapter hoping it gets better, but it has become almost laughable (Perhaps I would laugh about it if I hadn't paid for it).
I gave it two stars because there are some wonderful descriptions of complicated pastries along the way.Pastries: A Novel of Desserts and Discoveries Overview

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Henry's Sisters Review

Henry's Sisters
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Henry's Sisters ReviewEven though the Bommarito sister's, Isabelle, Janie and Cecelia are close emotionally, they've all moved away from Trillium River, except for Cecelia. That is until they receive one of their mothers infamous pink notes beckoning them home. She's having surgery and needs the girls to come home and take care of their grandmother and mentally challenged brother, as well as run the family bakery. Each sister has her reasons for not wanting to return home. But the one reason they all have in common is the very reason they are asked to return - their mother River. River is, well, a bitch. She is cruel and mean and spiteful. No one wants to be around her. But the women all realize that while they may not want to help their mother, their brother and grandmother need them.
Isabelle (Cecelia's fraternal twin) lives a lonely, dark, depressing, self destructive lifestyle. Well known for her award winning photographs, she doesn't let anyone "in". Living a life full of traveling to third world countries, drinking Kahlua for breakfast, and hanging out her loft window naked (who cares if the people in the other building can see), she is afraid to commit and spends her nights with one night stands. One of which may just might get her killed.
Janie is a famous mystery author who leads a life alone on her houseboat. She hates going out and will only do so when necessary. She also has OCD and her rituals are very important to her. When Isabelle comes to discuss the pink letter from their mother, she forces her to walk out and come back in because she did not have a smile on her face when she came in the first time. Sweet, loving, quiet Janie spends her day thinking of the most gruesome ways in which to kill people in her books. Ideas that fill her head day and night. Janie is afraid that if she returns home to the harshness of her mothers tongue she will further retreat into her self as opposed to the centered calm self she is while on her houseboat. And what happens when poor frumpy Janie faces the potential of falling in love?
Cecelia is a bitter, harsh kindergarten teacher who has remained close to the family home to help care for her family. She also is not even close to being afraid of speaking her mind. Often hitting below the belt with the venom she spews. She's extremely overweight as she continually shoves food in her mouth to compensate for the hurt she is feeling. The hurt from a father that left them when they were young, and the hurt of a ass of a husband who is cheating on her with a bimbo. She also has two beautiful daughters. One who spends each month "trying on" different religions, and one who is so unsure of her self, pulls her hair out a strand at a time.
Henry is beautiful. While he is mentally challenged, he doesn't have a care in the world. He loves the work he does at the bakery, the shelter and the church. He is the light of his sisters lives. They will, and have, fought for him. Both physically and emotionally. There is nothing they wouldn't do for them.
The Bommarito sisters, along with their brother Henry, had harsh childhoods. From their Vietnam vet father leaving them to their mother struggling to keep them in food by stripping, that is when she wasn't in bed with her depression. The girls ended up helping keep the family afloat by baking during these times. Although it was just never enough. Several times they were placed in foster care, providing them the first sense of stability they've had in a long time while at the same time causing one of them an extreme amount of pain.
Will coming home to Trillium River be the wake up call that this family needs? Will they be able to finally deal with the trauma's of their lives and finally find peace and happiness? Will they once and for all get the answers that they've unknowingly been searching for? But just when things seem as if they are finally turning around they get the most crushing, heart breaking news they could ever get. They are faced with something that they are not willing to deal with and could very well destroy any of the progress that they've made. It is now time for them to put everything else aside and come together as a family.
A beautifully written tale of one families struggles and triumphs. Of how they overcome adversity and figure out a way to move on with their lives. Of how to love and trust again. Of forgiveness and family. Full of laugh out loud moments and heartbreaking scenes, scenes that will have you crying as you read them, Henry's Sisters is one story that you will regret not reading.Henry's Sisters Overview

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Devil's Food (Corinna Chapman Mysteries) Review

Devil's Food (Corinna Chapman Mysteries)
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Devil's Food (Corinna Chapman Mysteries) ReviewKerry Greenwood is the author of two delightful series featuring two unusual and interesting women: the Hon. Phryne Fisher and the zaftig Melbourne baker, Corinna Chapman. This novel is the third appearance of Ms. Chapman and her collection of unusual neighbors; ex-junkie apprentice, Jason; Israeli lover Daniel; and assorted cats and dogs. The series not only brings to the reader the smells and tastes of her bakery, Earthly Delights, but the various mysteries and troubles in which she gets involved which she has to solve.
Corinna, assisted by Daniel and others, are faced with three situations in this entry. First is the appearance of an herbal tea said to guarantee weight loss, but which almost kills four people. Then there appears a mysterious customer, a monk, requesting her to make 'famine bread,' a tasteless concoction which easily could be made of sawdust. The two problems merely have one thing in common: an aversion to obesity, which, of course, is anathema to Corinna's beliefs. Lastly, her estranged mother turns up after her father disappears, demanding that Corinna find him and make him return.
"Devil's Food," as its predecessors, is a recipe for light but delightful reading. And the actual recipes included at the rear should appeal to those of us with a sweet tooth. It's all good fun, and recommended.Devil's Food (Corinna Chapman Mysteries) Overview

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COAL & COCA-COLA: Small Town USA 1949 (Short True Story w/Photos) (Visceral History Series 1) Review

COAL and COCA-COLA: Small Town USA 1949 (Short True Story w/Photos) (Visceral History Series 1)
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COAL & COCA-COLA: Small Town USA 1949 (Short True Story w/Photos) (Visceral History Series 1) ReviewThis story hit home for me. My grandfather built the soddy (a house made of blocks of prairie sod) that my mother was born in on the Colorado plains. The spirit of the people who carved out a living on those plains could best be described as tenacious as a bulldog. And here I thought that Sloppy Joes were named after my uncle Joe Masterson. Ohh well I like Ms. Shelnutt's version better since I had my first one after moving to Denver. Her depiction of the people in her family make them recognizable as all of those who have fought to overcome life's boulders. I look forward to her next story.COAL & COCA-COLA: Small Town USA 1949 (Short True Story w/Photos) (Visceral History Series 1) Overview

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