Tag: Simon and Schuster

Books, NonFiction

Good & Mad by Rebecca Traister

RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 320
Quick Review Anger has been subdued, ignored, and vilified in women for-literally-ever. It’s not even something that can be discussed as if it’s in the past. Good & Mad is a look into women’s pent-up anger.

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Good & Mad by Rebecca Traister || Red Dress || Heels

Earlier this year, I read Rebecca Traister’s All the Single Ladies (read the review here) and enjoyed it very much. When I found out about her newest book Good & Mad, I was ecstatic to read it.

Anger is a natural emotion. Everyone is angry at some point, in some way, on some level. For men, anger can be an asset. For women, it never is. Anger is something I have struggled with my entire life. I was never encouraged to be angry; instead, calm down became a mantra. Anytime I was angry, it was always played off as irrational and, when I got older, or just PMS. Just so you know, it was never PMS. The even more infuriating thing: it was women telling me these things. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized other women experienced the same thing.

Good & Mad isn’t necessarily ground breaking, but it is important. Now is a time of upheaval. Women are fighting for their rights. Equal rights. A lesser known right: the right to be angry. We deserve to feel angry and express it. Rebecca Traister explores the history of women’s anger with a great of emphasis on American women.

I enjoy reading Traister’s work because she has a sense of humor even when writing about dark topics like feminism, violence, and anger. Good & Mad is no exception. She finds flaws in the American system, but through the criticism, it is obvious she loves this country and wants the best for it. Focusing on competent yet vilified women in politics is one way of showing examples of women’s anger being unacceptable. Women can’t win on either end. If they’re angry, they’re vilified; if they’re too kind, they’re adorable and a push over. Neither way is a woman taken seriously.

One of my favorite points, which I had not thought of much, is the idea that when a woman criticizes a man it is reminiscent of maternal criticism and marks an emotional return to childhood for men. This is a really interesting concept that could be expanded upon.

I highly suggest this read. It’s very interesting!

Buy on Amazon || Buy on Book Depository

Memorable Quotes
“Over the threat of a potential female leader, brutal masculinity won.”
“The aspersions that a woman who is angry is also unstable is cast every day in popular political discourse.”
“Maybe we cry when we’re furious in part because we feel a kind of grief at all the things we want to say or tell that we know we can’t.”
“The close cousin of sadness is laughter”

Title: Good and Mad
Author: Rebecca Traister
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9781501181795

Books, NonFiction

You Are A Mogul by Tiffany Pham

RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 224
Quick Review The Founder of Mogul, Tiffany Pham, compiles her knowledge, experience, and desire to change the world in You Are A Mogul; it will leave you motivated and confident. The perfect book for every female entrepreneur finding her way!

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Reading You Are A Mogul by Tiffany Pham || My friend has the cutest dog!!!

At the age of 27 (what am I doing with my life), Tiffany Pham had already graduated from Yale AND Harvard Business School, been a producer on movies, been on Forbes 30 under 30 list, worked in finance, a whole bunch of other stuff, and then launched a website, which she coded herself, that would become one of the most successful and influential communities of women. Yikes. She sets the bar so high! In her book You Are A Mogul, she talks about her life and all the hard work, time, and determination it took to become the mogul she is today.

Pham writes a book which cannot be described as self-help or memoir; it’s a combination. She uses her life as a basis to inform and help lift up other women. Her life and tips for success intertwine to create a portrait of who she is. She comes across as a beautiful, kind, hardworking soul. Honestly, as I read her book, I really want to be friends with her. The biggest pieces of her advice in succeeding in business and in life are incredibly similar to what I tell people. You’ll believe her more because she’s, well, successful, and I’m … working on it! The three things you should take from You Are A Mogul: 1) Be authentically you, always. 2) Don’t just make connections, create relationships. 3) Work as hard as you can on everything you do.  

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Cover of You Are A Mogul by Tiffany Pham.

I want you to read this book. Not because it’s groundbreaking information. It’s not. All the tips and advice and statistics in the book are not new if you are aware of the world and women’s place in it. What is beautiful about You Are A Mogul is Pham’s ability to seem like she’s chatting with a friend. So many women mention their accomplishments with humility if at all. Other’s go overboard trying to prove they are competent. Pham has confidence in who she is and what she created. She shares her accomplishments with a sense of pride, while also giving credit to everyone who helped her achieve her goals. More women need to have confidence and take pride in their accomplishments. She is an amazing role model.

At the end of every chapter, another female mogul write a one to three page blurb giving her own advice and story. Even though women are vastly under represented as moguls, they do exist. It’s important to hear their stories and know their faces.

Pham writes You Are A Mogul for women. Her business is for women. It’s an important book to read as a female entrepreneur, if for no other reason than to support one another. Though, I think it is probably more important for men to read this book and ones like it. They need to see and understand the difficulties women face in the business world. More importantly, they need to see women killing it. When women win, men win.

Tiffany Pham, if you’re reading this, I would love to be friends! You’re amazing.     

Click to buy on Amazon! Buy on Book Depository.

Memorable Quotes
“Be flexible but strategic.”
“True failing is not doing, not trying.”
“Always trust that you have the willingness to learn.”

Title: You Are A Mogul; How to Do the Impossible, Do It Yourself, & Do It Now
Author: Tiffany Pham
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 978150119855

Books

The Caregiver by Samuel Park

RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 288
Quick Review A novel about the desire to understand people and situations. The desire is rarely satisfied, but you don’t have to understand to connect and care.

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The Caregiver by Samuel Park was published posthumously. He passed away from stomach cancer at the age of 41. It is hard to read this novel without seeing it as being written out of a place of hope and sadness.

Mara Alencar is a young woman living in the United States sans documents after a childhood watching atrocities in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is the caretaker to a woman dying from cancer. She reminisces about her childhood home and her mother, Ana. Mara is both caretaker and child to her mother. Like most children there is a duality to her. She understands more than the adults around her realize, but she also is only able to accept the world as it appears to her without perceiving the nuance, complexity, and difficulty that is being human.

The writing style is very beautiful. Park allows Mara to witness situations as a child she cannot understand, but the reader, with adult experiences, sees what she cannot. Lacing the present with the past, brings a fullness to Mara’s adulthood that would otherwise result in a flat character. Park uses lexical foreshadowing to create emotional space between characters without giving away any events to come. The use of Portuguese words brings the reader closer to Mara’s cultural heritage.  

Park captures the experience of trying to understand a situation from the outside. There is a yearning for understanding in Mara, which comes to fruition through her connecting with those around her.  

Title: The Caregiver
Author: Samuel Park
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9781501182426
Books

No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNicol

RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 304
Overview A fabulous memoir about a newly 40, childless, single woman in New York learning to struggle, be proud of, regret, love, question, and live the life she has.

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No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNicol is a new release having hit bookstore shelves barely a month ago. I jumped at the opportunity to read this, and I absolutely love it.

I’m single, childless, and getting older every day. As a woman of a certain age, I hear “when are you getting married?” “when are you going to have babies?” and “you’ve still got time.” more than often. I’m not searching these things out. We live in a time where I am not forced into a one-way path of female adulthood; I can choose, support, and live almost anyway I desire. This is revolutionary even though it’s not completely unusual. There is a serious lack of variation in female role models. Every path is beautiful and fulfilling and difficult as long as we are able to choose the path we live.

Glynnis MacNicol shares her fortieth year story as she figures out if she’s happy with the life she’s accidentally, purposely chosen. No kids. Single. Her mother’s health is failing from Parkinson’s. Her friends are getting married and having babies. She hasn’t found anyone. Does she even want babies? She spends the year she turned 40 figuring out if she wants to keep going down that path.

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I don’t want to tell you too much, but the book is amazing. MacNicol is incredibly honest with the good and the bad. She taps in to her inner voice in an incredibly sincere way. She can be sad and funny in the same moment. There are incredibly touching moments, which will resonate deeply for women of all backgrounds and lives about finding happiness and being true to oneself.

The group of friends MacNicol describes is amazing. I hope to have a support group as deep, loyal, and wonderful as the one she describes. I also love how she often goes off on tangents describing her life in terms of “if my life were a rom-com.” She has no fear in tapping into the hilariously ludicrous inner voice we all have but would probably not want thousands of people knowing.        

I highly suggest you add this book to the top of your reading list. It’s perfect for any woman and should be read by men too.

Memorable Quotes
“Women alone always seemed to be seen as an advertisement: open space, please fill.”
“What cultural markers were there for women other than weddings and babies?”
“Women my age were always being accused of getting tell serious too quickly, but in my experience, men were just as guilty of it, maybe even more so.”
“People leave, but they also come back.”

Title: No One Tells You This
Author: Glynnis Macnicol
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9781501163135