Finley, a stand-up comedian and assistant professor of Africana Studies at Pomona College, debuts with a nuanced and creative analysis of how Black women use sass as a means of “deflection and humanization.” Comprising rhetorical (appraisal, questioning, and provoking) and gestural components (eye-rolling, teeth-sucking, and finger-snapping), sass, which the author characterizes as “a dialogic, intelligible pattern of address... to an assumed superior in institutional or interpersonal settings,” pushes back against power structures and the pressures Black women receive to “stay in one’s place.” Among other topics, Finley analyzes how raunchy humor “functions in the framework of sass” to interrogate white patriarchy, citing a group of protestors who sang Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP”—a “raunchy... Black feminist credo”—outside the White House following Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential defeat and how butch female comics use sass to “deal with their butchness onstage” and compel audiences to “expand their ideas of what Black womanhood means.” Mining a rich trove of examples, including the character Topsy from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, comedian Jackie “Moms” Mabley, singer Gladys Bentley, and contemporary figures including Michelle Obama and Jada Pinkett Smith, as well as her own experiences as a Black comedian, Finley provides an enlightening and rigorous examination of sass as a means of asserting one’s power in an oppressive world. It’s an insightful study of the politics of humor. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/24/2024 | Details & Permalink

Christians should center God in their marriages to forge stronger and holier bonds with their partners, according to this optimistic guide from Living the Sweet Wife blogger Damon (Together with Christ). She explains how pride and selfishness prevent partners from “seeking God’s goodness.” Instead, she encourages husbands and wives to “model sacrificial submission” to each other in the same way the church is said to submit to Christ. For the author, this means readily confessing one’s sins, asking for and offering forgiveness, and prioritizing the relationship over one’s individual comfort. While Damon provides reflection questions and sample prayers, much of her advice is easier said than done—readers may struggle, for instance, to understand what it looks like to forgo the “desire to put ourselves first and control outcomes” in favor of “the desire to make God great in our lives.” Still, the central notion of a marriage rooted in sacrifice is lucidly constructed, and Damon’s lighthearted candor about how her own relationship has sometimes fallen short (“Is it possible to fold laundry in a threatening way? If so, I’m pretty sure I’ve done it”) will endear her to readers. Christians looking to build more durable, faithful marriages will find inspiration here. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/24/2024 | Details & Permalink

Pardoe (IQ Unknown), chair of the Deep Tech Innovation Centre at the University of Warwick, delivers a scattered exploration of AI’s role in the workplace. The technology will likely transform nearly every industry, he contends, noting that it’s already being used to detect fraud in the finance sector and to make personalized recommendations in online retail. Pardoe ostensibly aims his guidance at young people considering a career in AI, for whom he describes how to position oneself for various roles (“To be a successful data scientist, it is important to have a strong foundation in mathematics, statistics, and computer science”). However, his rundown of how to incorporate AI into business operations appears geared toward executives and managers, recommending that they “adopt a portfolio approach” to introducing the technology by pursuing projects in multiple departments simultaneously to increase the likelihood one will pan out. Additionally, Pardoe’s overview of how AI works will be familiar to anyone with a basic understanding of the technology. This struggles to find a new angle on a much discussed topic. (July)

Reviewed on 05/24/2024 | Details & Permalink

In this confused debut collection, Yong, a former beauty editor at Allure magazine, sends mixed messages about the societal premium placed on good looks. A sharp critic of beauty culture, Yong laments in “No Fun in the Fun House” how Dove’s ostensibly progressive ads suggesting “you’re beautiful as you are” reinforce the notion that one’s appearance is “the central defining characteristic of our identity.” However, Yong espouses that same outlook later in the essay, writing that “beauty is... how I play with identity, how I visually communicate who I am.” This contradiction is indicative of Yong’s unsuccessful efforts to redeem the social obsession with beauty while recognizing its harms. In “No Gore, No Gorgeous,” she recounts the painful procedures she’s undertaken to change her looks (including a wince-inducing description of a botched bikini wax), but appears to regard the discomfort they caused as the price one pays for glamour. Attempting to reconcile such incongruities, Yong asserts that “a pleasant experience with beauty is possible when you engage with it on your own terms,” but this pat explanation fails to acknowledge the ways in which notions of what constitutes beauty are reliant on social and aesthetic values that individuals have little power to change. Candid but conflicted, this will leave readers scratching their heads. Agent: Kate Childs, CAA. (July)

Reviewed on 05/24/2024 | Details & Permalink

Novelist Tóibín (Long Island) serves up a loving tribute to Baldwin in this incisive critical study. Placing Baldwin in conversation with other authors, Tóibín compares Baldwin’s and James Joyce’s first novels (Go Tell It on the Mountain and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, respectively), arguing that in both the authors present “versions of themselves as young men dealing with family” and their ambivalent relationships with religion. Baldwin “had it in for easy and fixed categories,” Tóibín contends, tracing how characters in Another Country chafe against the constraints of racial and masculine norms. Tóibín suggests that the novel’s imagining of a hypothetical place “where there were no definitions of any kind, neither of color nor of male or female” constitutes Baldwin’s idea of liberation. Elsewhere, Tóibín likens the muted romance between the gay émigré protagonists of Giovanni’s Room to his own flings with men while living in Barcelona in the 1970s, suggesting that both attest to how a lack of spaces accepting of gay people can constrain the flourishing of love. These astute essays are doubly rewarding, shedding light on Baldwin’s profound visions of freedom while offering insight into how Tóibín reads and thinks about fiction. The result is a testament to the talents of both writers. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/24/2024 | Details & Permalink

This sweeping account from Pulitzer winner Taylor (American Republics) examines the Civil War in a wider North American context. America’s conflict forms the backbone of Taylor’s narrative—he moves through the war’s epochal events with striking conciseness—while his explorations of developments in Canada and Mexico reveal how the fates of all three nations were intertwined. After Mexico’s defeat in the 1846–1848 Mexican-American War, the country was “bitterly divided” between conservative and liberal factions and defenseless against regular incursions by American raiders. Meanwhile, Canadian leaders worked to bridge divisions between Francophone and Anglophone states in hopes of forming a confederation—eventually established in 1867—that would be “better prepared to resist American invasion,” a perceived likelihood at the time. Strife on the continent heightened further with the French invasion of Mexico in 1862 and the 1864 elections, which were riven with tension in all three countries, especially in Mexico, where the French held votes structured to prove that Mexicans welcomed French rule. Taylor trenchantly observes that the situation in Mexico further spurred America’s Unionists, who feared similar European incursion into their own divided country. He also provides fresh analysis of Mexican and Canadian leaders Benito Juárez and John A. Macdonald, liberals whom he credits with holding their countries together in the face of out of control conservative revanchism. This penetrating study is a must for Civil War history buffs. (May)

Reviewed on 05/24/2024 | Details & Permalink

In this winning debut memoir, CUNY writing instructor Treska untangles what she learned from growing up in a working-class, crime-adjacent Boston family. Treska came of age in the 1980s and ’90s, long after the beachside amusement park of the book’s title had shuttered, though its legacy lived on as a symbol of the hopes and dreams of the “hardscrabble Bostonians” who populated the author’s early life. Her father, Phil, was a habitual gambler and occasional drug trafficker whose perennial optimism (“Each decision and small act was imbued with hope”) sculpted the author’s own sensibility. His entanglements with the Winter Hill Gang and other shady figures taught Treska to “hone her hustle,” a lesson she’s put to good use as one of “the waitresses of academia,” who makes ends meet by renting out her Harlem apartment on Airbnb. The death of Treska’s paternal aunt spurs her to return home to Boston and anchors her self-reflections, but there’s not much narrative thrust to speak of. Instead, Treska paints indelible impressions of Phil, his criminal cohort, and her lovers, including the avoidant academic she falls for in New York City. It amounts to an arresting and compassionate self-portrait. Agent: Annie DeWitt, Shipman Agency. (July)

Reviewed on 05/24/2024 | Details & Permalink

The 1984 album Born in the USA cemented Bruce Springsteen’s reputation for drawing listeners from across the political divide, according to this boisterous account from music critic Hyden (Long Road). Recalling how he first heard the album as a six-year-old in his father’s car—“All these years later, I am still chasing the rush”—Hyden traces some of Springsteen’s musical influences (Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan) before situating him alongside John Mellencamp, Tom Petty, and other contemporaries whose songs centered working-class protagonists. According to Hyden, Born in the USA straddled “a hard-hat, working-class conservatism” and an idealism “born out of the civil rights and anti-war movement of the sixties.” That combination garnered Springsteen fans on both the right and the left, Hyden writes, noting that the title track, a song about the disillusionment of a Vietnam war veteran, was co-opted by Reagan-era conservatives as a patriotic anthem. Balancing a fan’s enthusiasm with a critic’s attention to detail, Hyden sheds light on Springsteen’s legacy and the political moment that allowed him to occupy the cultural “center of American life.” Fans of the Boss will want to add this to their bookshelves. (May)

Reviewed on 05/17/2024 | Details & Permalink

In this helpful business manual, Belsky (The Great Client Partner), cofounder of the marketing agency Acadia, expounds on how executives and managers can get the most out of their company’s relationships with marketing firms and brand consultants. Outlining best practices for giving feedback, Belsky suggests criticism should always tie back to the brand being advertised, an approach he illustrates by recounting how during his time at Fanta, he redirected an overly solemn advertising campaign by reminding the agency developing it that the soda “stood for fruity, fun, and playful experiences.” Belsky also offers insights from the other side of the relationship. For instance, he contends that showing appreciation for an agency’s employees can get them excited about collaborating with a brand and describes how at one of his former agencies, his client treated all 40 people working on the account to a fun off-site bonding event. Elsewhere, Belsky encourages companies to respond to agency work with gratitude and appreciation (even when it requires revision) and attempt to work through any problems with firms before deciding to fire them. Belsky’s focus may be niche, but his sound wisdom addresses a consequential topic rarely covered by other guides. Business leaders would do well to check this out. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 05/17/2024 | Details & Permalink

Business consultant Griffiths (The Creative Thinking Handbook) and Medlicott, an editor at Wales Art Review, set forth a lackluster guide for fostering outside-the-box thinking. The authors are primarily interested in how readers can “unlock your true creative potential” by practicing “focused daydreaming.” This “mental meandering” involves selecting a problem to solve (for example, “My intention is to reimagine how I might reorganize my average day in order to be more efficient”), conducting background research, and then letting one’s thoughts drift while keeping one’s attention on the problem at hand (the authors never provide a satisfactory explanation of how to reconcile these contradictory imperatives). The idea is to tap into the wisdom of the subconscious, which they contend “might blend and intersperse seemingly irrelevant experiences and fragments of information to produce novel ideas.” To that end, they recommend entering a daydream state by cooking, doing chores, exercising, or listening to music. Historical anecdotes illustrating the breakthroughs that have stemmed from daydreaming will be familiar to most readers (e.g., Isaac Newton formulating his theory of gravity after watching apples fall from a tree), and the authors struggle to elaborate on their central framework, leading to repetitive passages extolling the benefits of getting lost in thought. This misses the mark. (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2024 | Details & Permalink