Tag: Simon & Schuster

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
Books

The Singles Game by Lauren Weisberger

RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 343
Quick Review Charlie is an American sweetheart when an injury jeopardizes her tennis career. In order to make it back in the game, she changes everything inviting a fierce coach into her life.

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The Singles Game is my first Lauren Weisberger novel, who is the bestselling author of The Devil Wears Prada and many other books. I grabbed it because it looked like a great book for summer. It is! Weisberger takes you along on drama, high fashion, trips, and a young woman’s journey in elite tennis to find her game and herself.

Charlie Silver is one of the most likeable characters I have ever read. I wouldn’t necessarily call her complex and dynamic, but she is a genuinely good person. She makes mistakes and makes up for them, but she is never not a good person. She is young, barely in her mid-twenties, and from Southern California. Charlie was a talented tennis player from the beginning, but she has an injury at Wimbledon causing her to take a look at her life. She hires a new and very tough coach to help her recovery and become the tennis player she knows she can be.

The Singles Game is pretty much the perfect summer/vacation read because it takes the reader to incredibly luxurious locations with glamorous parties and men with amazing bodies.

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I would call the plot line mysterious; in fact, I was able to guess it pretty quickly. The “hints” are pretty blatant. The characters are fairly flat, but it doesn’t make them unlikable. Todd, the tennis coach, is heralded as the devil himself, but even he’s not that awful. One of the aspects I really enjoyed about the book was Charlie’s conversations with her best friend. They’re honest. Their conversations about sex is so realistic for twenty-something women.

Weisberger has a great sense of humor and ability to tell a well thought out story. It’s the perfect easy and compelling read for the summer. I highly recommend it for any vacation coming your way.

Memorable Quotes
“…chunk-heeled snakeskin booties that could, oddly, work for both prostitutes and grandmothers.”

Title: The Singles Game
Author: Lauren Weisberger
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Copyright: 2016
ISBN: 9781476778396
Books

The Queen of Katwe by Tim Crothers

RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 224
Quick Review Phiona Mutesi is from one of the worst slums in the world in a country left behind. Overcoming every impossibility, she is one of the most promising young women in chess.

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Phiona Mutesi should not be a name I know; it should not be a name anyone knows. She is from Katwe a slum of Kampala in Uganda. It has some of the worst living conditions in the world. She was born poorer than poor. Through what can only be explained as divine intervention, she found chess and success and a place in a world she didn’t even know existed.

Tim Crothers published The Queen of Katwe in 2012. A Disney movie of the same name was released in 2016 starring Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo. I saw the movie before I knew about the book. Obviously, the book is better, but the movie was pretty damn good. Tim Crothers happened upon Phiona’s story as a sports journalist. His attention was captured, and this book became the product.

Crothers spends more time describing Katwe, conditions, Uganda, and people than he does Phiona. At the time of publication, Phiona was maybe 14. Her life just beginning. He does this because it is necessary to set the scene in which Phiona was born into. It would be impossible to understand the magnitude of the miracle without understanding the devastation of her reality.

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Katwe has a sad history. People from rural areas left for a better life in Kampala, but with no skills suited to city-life they found refuge in a place they could go without notice. Katwe grew from a swamp to a sprawling slum. As Uganda went through regime changes and rebellions Katwe saw the worst of it. The citizens are often flooded out of their homes or ravaged by disease. Tragedy and death is their reality. So much death that Uganda is the youngest country in the world with an average age of 14. No one is certain of their birth year simply guessing how old they are. Surviving is the driving force. A need to eat and lack of funds and opportunity requires children to work. Without education a cycle has formed of dependency, poverty, ignorance, and children having babies.

Robert Katende grew up in slums, but was lucky enough to have an education. Without contacts, he had little prospect. Through his faith, he made a contact that would change so many lives. He brought sports to Katwe. Giving the children who had no hope a bright spot in their day. Katende spread his faith through soccer and eventually chess as well as one meal a day. Sometimes the only meal the children would have. Phiona Mutesi followed her brother to chess club one day. Maybe it was the promise of a meal or a diversion from reality, she kept returning. She took to the game quickly.

Phiona had no understanding of the world outside her slum when she bordered a plane for the first time. Chess opened up her world in a way nothing else could have. Through her natural talent, her hard work, her drive, the tireless support of Katende and all the others, Phiona has traveled the world competing at the highest tiers of chess competitions, and she has won.

As I read, I was constantly on the verge of tears. It is an impressive account of overcoming every impossibility. Crother’s includes so many accounts of Ugandans overcoming and succeeding and Ugandans who are just surviving in Katwe. It is impossible to read this without being moved on an intensely deep level. There is one passage towards the end of the book, which summed up every emotion I had:

“Phiona Mutesi is the ultimate underdog. To be African is to be an underdog in the world. To be Ugandan is to be an underdog in Africa. To be from Katwe is to be an underdog in Uganda. To be a girl is to be an underdog in Katwe.”

It is an intensely moving passage. Crother’s spends the whole book demonstrating the truth of this statement. Phiona is an underdog. She’s an underdog who has continued to overcome.

The Queen of Katwe isn’t just Phiona’s story. It is the story of every person who helped her. By helping her succeed, they were paving a path for Uganda to gain respect in a world that has largely forgotten it. She’s a young woman with the weight of a country on her shoulders.   

*The Queen of Katwe was published in 2012. There is a new postscript for the paperback edition, which updates the reader about Phiona’s circumstances. I, of course, had to research more because I want this underdog to succeed. She is a Woman Candidate Master in chess with a FIDE score of 1628. She received a scholarship and is a part of the chess team at Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington, which she started attending in 2017. She is still succeeding and creating her story!!!  

Memorable Quotes
“What name Phiona come back day after day were the beautiful pieces that attracted her in the first place.”
“…positive reinforcement being an unfamiliar but powerful incentive to a slum child.”
“Phiona was like a boy, but because she was not a boy, her opportunity to advance quickly in the game was mind-boggling.”
“The shriek of a dismissed girl from a dismissed world finally making herself be heard.”

Title: The Queen of Katwe
Author: Tim Crothers
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 9781501127182
Books

The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer

RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 323
Quick Review Amy Schumer is a household name as a bold and open comic, movie star, TV star, writer, and more, but do we really know her?

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I live under a rock, so I had never heard of Amy Schumer until her 2016 movie Trainwreck. In the two years following, I have become a big fan. I love her honesty. She’s not perfect, but she is real. In The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, she ramps up her candor and imperfections even more. She becomes an even more relatable star as she humorously tells some of the ups and downs and face plants of her life.

I am drawn to people who deal with struggle through humor; probably because I do the same damn thing. Schumer’s stand up is hilarious and powerful and sometimes in your face. Her book is a subdued version of all of those things. She looks comfortable on stage for comedy shows. During interviews, she seems nervous and uncomfortable like she’d rather be any where else preferably not in the spotlight. Instead of entertaining on a stage or sitting on a couch for an interview, her introversion shines through. She is just that: an introvert. In her book, it feels like she gets to tell her story on her own terms without having the pressure of being funny.

I have always appreciated her unapologetic honesty. Her book is even more so. She talks about her family, her struggles, her relationships, losing her virginity, abuse, the road to success, having money, and so much more. She lets her fans and readers in and see what is behind her on stage persona.

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She has a very self-deprecating sense of humor. I appreciate this because I too spend most of my time pointing out my flaws. Although, I hope she could see herself the way so many people see her: as a smart, talented, beautiful woman. It is obvious she deals with self-esteem issues sometimes bordering on ‘does she have any self-confidence at all?’ But I would love to meet a woman on this earth who doesn’t. This book was written two years ago, and it’s evident the themes in her latest movie I Feel Pretty have been long lasting themes in her own life.

Candor is one of the most notable points in her memoir. She talks about her parents honestly. She has no qualm about critiquing or slamming present and past self. Her inclusion of diary entries is hilarious and wonderful. She includes footnotes, which are equally funny. It takes a lot of lady balls to let the world see the ridiculousness that is teenage diaries.

Schumer is a born storyteller. She has a tendency to meander through her stories and chapters by adding one or three tales on her way to making her main point. They may or may not have something to do with her point, but they are all entertaining.
I highly suggest The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo to anyone who enjoys a good laugh and a multidimensional memoir. I know I do!

Memorable Quotes
“If you’re a true introvert, other people are basically energy vampires.”
“I don’t know what a hedge fund is. I want a hedgehog fund.”
“…nobody can be innocent and wise at the same time.”
“This is how we were raised: we were always oppressively OKAY.”

Title: The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo
Author: Amy Schumer
Publisher: Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster)
Copyright: 2016
ISBN: 9781501139888
Books

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu

RaeAnna

Read: Yes
Notable: New York Times Bestseller
Quick Review: A look into the collecting, conserving, hiding, and rescuing the most important manuscripts documenting African history, literature, culture, life, philosophy, science, religion and more.

Abdel Kader Haidara is not a name most of us are familiar with. Joshua Hammer reveals the heroic efforts of Haidara and his team to save not just once but twice the illuminating manuscripts documenting a little known history of Africa in his third book The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu.

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Africa has a reputation for not having a history because it lacks written documentation of their vast and varied history. Haidara began a journey in the 1980’s to contradict the stereotype of a dark continent. Timbuktu was the center of scholarship in Africa for centuries. Out of fear from jihadis and colonizers in the past five hundred years, those who possessed valuable manuscripts began hiding them in order to protect. Haidara spent years accumulating these precious manuscripts that had been buried, hidden, and even forgotten. In the early 2000’s, Haidara gained recognition for his conservation efforts and building a large library to house his family’s manuscripts. In the 2010’s, Al Qaeda began moving into the region and took over Timbuktu. In order to protect the manuscripts, Haidara moved them into private homes before smuggling them out of the city. 

The book is split into several chapters alternating between Haidara’s story and the terrorist activity in the region. The sections describing the terrorist activity are very dry full of facts. The area has been a hotbed of religious extremism for centuries, so the information is incredibly important. A lot of the names and events are familiar because they were mentioned in the news at the time but never went into in any detail.

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Hammer does a great job in relaying the emotions the citizens of Timbuktu went through during the Al Qaeda invasion. He relays a great deal of information in a concise package. There is a lot of cultural, religious, and regional information, which he describes to those who may not have a knowledge of Northern Africa. It is well written but a tad dull. 

Fun Fact: Bouctou means: the woman with the big belly button. Tin means: well. The Tuareg tribe was a nomadic tribe. In the twelfth century, they found an area with good water. When they described the area to others in their tribe they said it was the Tin of Bouctou or the well of the woman with the big belly button. Over Tin Bouctou evolved into Timbuktu.

Fun Fact: Hammer refers to the kidnapping of 276 girls. Alexis goes deeper into the subject in her debut work A Moonless, Starless Sky. A great book also dealing with extremism in Africa.

Memorable Quotes:
“The confrontation between these two Islamic ideologies-one open and tolerant, the other inflexible and violent-would bedevil Timbuktu over the following five centuries.”
“He was particularly interested in manuscripts that contradicted Western stereotypes of Islam as a religion of intolerance – pointing with pride to Ahmed Baba’s denunciation of slavery…”

Title: The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu
Author: Joshua Hammer
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: 2016
ISBN: 9781476777412

 

Books

The Last Black Unicorn

RaeAnna

Read: Yes
Length: 288
Quick Review: She is hilariously funny and heartbreakingly honest in a memoir about her uphill battles to a little bit of money, fame, stability, and happiness.

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I had never heard of Tiffany Haddish until Christmas, which is unsurprising since I live under a rock. She knocked my socks off in Girls Trip. I just had to read her book.

I read The Last Black Unicorn last night in one sitting in under a few hours. She is funny finding the humor in some of the darkest hours of her life. I can completely identify with her sense of humor. She used laughter as a survival and/or defense mechanism. Comedy was her way out of a life that could have ended in a million different ways of bad.

Haddish doesn’t shy away from the dark in her life with a cut and dry style. Her life is filled with concepts and feelings so many struggle to name and describe, but she lays them out in the world. Her childhood was filled with an abusive mom, an absent father, foster care, sexual abuse, physical abuse, homelessness, racism, depression and more. She was able to use her talent for entertaining to gather every experience and hardship and rise above. She succeeded when everything in the world was against her.

I knew she had had a rough childhood. I knew she was a comedian. Most comics write over the bad stuff with a sense of humor. Haddish wrote funny, but she also did not gloss over or try to make things funny that cannot be funny. She embraced the hard.

Haddish writes the way she talks. Her voice is evident throughout the entire novel. It’s hard not to feel a certain camaraderie because she’s talking to you. Allowing you to enter her internal dialogue and love her flaws and quirks and insecurities. She comes off as this confident woman, but under all the self-assuredness, she is still fighting to prove and explain her existence to everyone and herself.

I just want to give her hug. I don’t know if she likes hugs, but she deserves all the hugs.

Memorable Quotes
“Hurting myself made them stop hurting me and care about me.”
“I was eighteen. To survive, I had to quit comedy.”
“I wanted to be in the gang, because I felt like then I’d be a part of something.”
“When you ruin a black man’s shoes, you never know what’s going to happen.”

Title: The Last Black Unicorn
Author: Tiffany Haddish
Publisher: Gallery Books  (Simon & Schuster Inc. )
Copyright: 2017
ISBN: 9781501181825