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NonfictionHistoryAmerican History

Wright Thompson’s ‘The Barn’ chronicles the fight to preserve the memory of Emmett Till

Fourteen-year-old Till was murdered in a nondescript barn in the Mississippi Delta. But few know the barn still stands today, or fully understand its history. Thompson believes we should.
Fourteen-year-old Till was murdered in a nondescript barn in the Mississippi Delta. But few know the barn still stands today, or fully understand its history. Thompson believes we should.
NonfictionMemoir

Connie

With candor and humor, Connie Chung shares the highs and lows of her trailblazing career as a journalist in her invigorating memoir, Connie.
With candor and humor, Connie Chung shares the highs and lows of her trailblazing career as a journalist in her invigorating memoir, Connie.
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Memoir

Life with mother

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

Felicia Sullivan grew up in 1980s Brooklyn, in the un-hip section where poverty, drugs and crime are facts of life. The author's mother, Rosina, was herself a criminal and a drug addict, as well as a breathtakingly selfish and uninterested parent. Even worse, she engaged in emotional and physical abuse, frequent near-overdoses, and chronic unreliability—the epitome of a bad role model. The list goes on and on, and the sadness builds with every page of Sullivan's memoir, The Sky Isn't Visible from Here, as it becomes clear that the author's efforts to be a good girl did not capture her mother's attention.

Sullivan evokes the tempo of her confusing existence by jumping from the present to the past and back again; no matter the time period, there is always an underlying sense of the author's shame and yearning. Sadly, readers who have endured this sort of parent, or know people who have, will not find many aspects of Sullivan's memoir surprising or unfamiliar. As in many addiction memoirs, there are depictions of the inevitable consequences of drug and alcohol abuse—alienated friends, hours lost to blackouts, loss of a job and the like. Sullivan's, that is: While the author is a high achiever (she graduated from Fordham, earned a master of fine arts degree from Columbia, and is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee) she's also done a lot of shoplifting and consumed a great deal of alcohol and cocaine in her attempts to forget her past. Fortunately, she made peace with her former life, admitted and faced her addiction, and is now creating a new sort of future.

There is another bright spot in Sullivan's story: She has maintained a relationship with Gus, the kindest and most loyal of her mother's ex-boyfriends. She writes touchingly of their time together, and thanks him in the book's acknowledgements. It's heartening to learn that, despite all she has endured—and put herself through—she has maintained a loving relationship with this man, whom she considers her father. Of course, his affection can't make up for the grief Sullivan clearly feels at not having had the kind of mother she longed for. But he may well have been just the life raft she needed.

Linda M. Castellitto writes from North Carolina.

Felicia Sullivan grew up in 1980s Brooklyn, in the un-hip section where poverty, drugs and crime are facts of life. The author's mother, Rosina, was herself a criminal and a drug addict, as well as a breathtakingly selfish and uninterested parent. Even worse, she engaged in emotional and physical abuse, frequent near-overdoses, and chronic unreliability—the […]
Business & Finance

Making your money work for you

Review by Susan Rucci

Check out Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer). You may know Cramer from his high-energy appearances on CNBC's Mad Money. A former hedge fund manager, he's intense and passionate about making your money do the most for you. In Stay Mad, he targets the financial novice who invests in a 401(k) to save money for retirement but wants his or her money to do more in the long run. Some of what Cramer preaches isn't exactly revolutionary: He stresses the evils of carrying credit card debt and urges readers to create a budget and to purchase health insurance if they don't get it through their employer because medical expenses are the number one cause of bankruptcy today. Besides the economic nuts and bolts, Cramer gives practical suggestions with solid evidence to back up his arguments on what to do with your 401(k): Only invest what your company matches and don't invest in the company stock (which could deliver a double whammy if you're laid off due to a business downturn). Cramer offers a list of 50 great stocks with long-term potential, weighted heavily toward energy companies as well as American favorites like McDonald's and Pepsi. This is the kind of book you'll want to keep in your home library.

A 21st-century powerhouse
A great provocative read is A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World's Greatest Market by Jim Rogers. Part of the enjoyment in reading this book is getting the backstory on Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros. Rogers retired at the age of 37 and rode a motorcycle across China almost 30 years ago. His book gives the American investor specific advice on which Chinese enterprises are worth investing in (power, energy and transportation, for example), along with an economic forecast on where each company is headed in the coming decades. Rogers writes that while the 19th century belonged to England and the 20th to America, the 21st will see China's turn as the economic powerhouse of the world. He even urges parents to teach their children Chinese. Time magazine nicknamed Rogers the Indiana Jones of finance, and those willing to heed the advice of this world traveler may find China to be a monetary risk worth taking.

A richer life
If talk about striking it rich makes you a bit squeamish, author David Wann offers a different approach. In Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle, he argues that you don't necessarily need more money to live a fulfilling life; rather, you need a new approach to what defines happiness. Wann says that by taking care of your health and investing in social interaction, you can help to keep medical costs at bay, which means more money for you. He also points out that by going slightly green (planting a tree near your house) you can save money by using less air conditioning. Simple Prosperity is a dense, information-packed read that helps us rethink everyday choices to shape our ultimate prosperity.

Check out Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer). You may know Cramer from his high-energy appearances on CNBC's Mad Money. A former hedge fund manager, he's intense and passionate about making your money do the most for you. In Stay Mad, he targets the financial novice […]
Business & Finance

Business savvy

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

Black, with a dash of red
Cathie Black, the president of Hearst Magazines, wants to help you lead the 360&anddeg; life a balanced existence in which personal happiness isn't trumped by the pursuit of professional success. Black is an excellent resource for such advice: During her 40-year (and counting) career, she's been the first woman publisher of New York magazine; president and publisher of USA Today; president and CEO of the American Newspaper Association; and is now overseer of 19 big-name magazines, including Esquire, Good Housekeeping and O, The Oprah Magazine. Her insight will prove useful even for those with less extensive resumes. She shares personal stories including ones about her own missteps and career counsel in Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life), and urges the reader toward a focus on a happy life vs. the largest paycheck, the nicest office or the most power.

Magazine-philes will delight in insider information about the likes of Rupert Murdoch, Tina Brown and Atoosa Rubenstein. There are strategies for handling criticism and adjusting to staffers' individual styles, plus job-seeker how-to sections that offer useful if not groundbreaking advice (use spell-check, don't lie on your resume, invest in quality paper). Basic Black is a clever hybrid of autobiography and career guide; the author's straightforward, knowledgeable voice makes it an engaging read and a valuable resource. Another nice touch is the use of red ink throughout for chapter headings and major points it's a perfect expression of the flair Black brings to the boardroom.

The dangerous book for career girls
Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio waste no time in The Girl's Guide to Kicking Your Career Into Gear. On page one, they cite a 2005 Harris Interactive poll that indicated 41 percent of U.S. workers were dissatisfied with their jobs. Their prescription for joining the other 59 percent? Acknowledge that you deserve a fulfilling career and start planning for it now. The authors, who also wrote The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business and The Girl's Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch), are the founders/principals of public relations firm YC Media. Their media savvy provides a strong foundation for their message: It's time for readers to conduct their own promotional campaigns by mapping out a plan, networking and increasing awareness, and keeping an eye out for new opportunities. The authors' advice is attuned to current trends in addition to typical interview-preparation tips, they suggest careful editing of MySpace profiles and recommend covering up tattoos. Real-life tales feature women in all sorts of jobs; quizzes and lists help with soul-searching; and the confronting coworkers will not kill you section should prove invaluable. One caveat almost all the profiles are of women who work in or near Manhattan. If readers can get past the city-centrism, they'll find lessons that apply to workers nationwide.

You may just want to quit
Brian Kurth's Test-Drive Your Dream Job: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding and Creating the Work You Love is excellent for dreamers looking for ways to become doers. Kurth went through his own career transformation when, in 1999, he realized he was a living, breathing Dilbert. Although he enjoyed his job and was paid well, it wasn't exciting anymore but starting a company for people who wanted to try out their dream jobs certainly was. Today, Vocation Vacations is in full swing; clients spend one to three days with mentors in jobs ranging from cheesemonger to sword-maker (there are more traditional jobs, too, such as architect and veterinarian). Test-Drive Your Dream Job is both an engrossing chronicle of Kurth's journey to creating his own dream job and a sourcebook for those who can't afford a mentoring fee or would prefer to set up a test-drive themselves. The book delivers by offering lists of questions to ask potential mentors; charts to help in establishing an action plan; and reality-checks about money, health insurance and the impact a life-change might have on your relationships. Anecdotes about successful dreamers are inspiring, while profiles of those who needed a dream-adjustment demonstrate the importance of taking action: Regardless of the result, you'll have useful experience and information. Kurth notes that many of us accept the ordinary because we've been conditioned to, but it's OK to want something different or better. Really.

What if your job is boring and your coworkers are annoying? You've got security and a steady paycheck, right? Think again, Dan Miller says in today's volatile workplace, there are no guarantees. And, he explains, the moment you realize that meaningful, purposeful and profitable work really is a possibility . . . all of a sudden, complacency and Ôcomfortable misery' become intolerable. The author of 48 Days to the Work You Love also works as a career coach, speaker and Internet radio-show host. He made mistakes en route to the busy business-life he enjoys now, and shares an important lesson: You have to create your own definition of success, or you're not going to be happy for long. To that end, he offers probing questions, Revolutionary Insights, anecdotes about passion-pursuers famous and unknown, and a healthy dose of tough love in his latest book, No More Mondays: Fire Yourself and Other Revolutionary Ways to Discover Your True Calling at Work. Might you have overlooked an opportunity while you were waiting for the perfect situation to find you? And who's making you stay at that job you hate, anyway? (Hint: look in the mirror.) There are strategies for readers who don't want to quit their jobs just yet, and straight talk about finances. Establishing a timeline is key, as is doing lots of reading the books, websites and articles in his Resources section are a good start. Approaching the usual in unusual ways can lead to solutions, Miller writes, including, presumably, eradicating the dreaded Monday blues.

Black, with a dash of redCathie Black, the president of Hearst Magazines, wants to help you lead the 360&anddeg; life a balanced existence in which personal happiness isn't trumped by the pursuit of professional success. Black is an excellent resource for such advice: During her 40-year (and counting) career, she's been the first woman publisher […]
Self-HelpLifestyles

Best foot forward

Review by Linda Stankard

Choosing Happiness: Life and Soul Essentials by Stephanie Dowrick has a title that implies a premise that runs through all four books: that happiness is a choice, not something to merely be hoped for, stumbled upon or given to a lucky few. In fact, no one can give you happiness, Dowrick asserts. People, situations, events outside yourself will affect you, but ultimately, you are responsible for your own happiness. A former psychotherapist and a spiritual retreat and workshop leader, Dowrick explains that by making choices that are right for you and your values, happiness becomes more a way of living that can also . . . . encompass the times when things do not go right or well. She ends each of her seven chapters with a summary section, listing Essential Insights and Essential Actions, such as these from chapter four, Building Self-Respect: Insight Self-respect and respect for others live back to back. What's more, self-respect brings peace of mind, as well as happiness. Action Encourage yourself as you would a good friend. Focus on your strengths. She divides each chapter into brief segments with subtitles such as Workplace Values, The ”Too Busy' Excuse, and Better Than Fighting which make it easy to dip back in for a quick refresher on a particular topic. You'll be glad this book is in your knapsack as you explore the many hills and valleys of the happiness trail.

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START
Dowrick would undoubtedly concur with author and PBS personality Loretta LaRoche, who writes early on in Kick Up Your Heels . . . Before You're Too Short to Wear Them that in order to thrive we need to increase our spiritual path by learning to forgive the past, love the present, and create a future that resonates with our deepest values. LaRoche's book focuses on how to age with gusto, or as her subtitle puts it, how to live a long, healthy, juicy life. She cites many role models of juicy living such as Lily Tomlin, who at age 61 was doing a two-hour, one-woman show on Broadway portraying a dozen characters in a demanding act of physicality and stamina, and other actors, writers, physicians, etc., who dive into new projects with passion and enormous curiosity. If you want to wind up dried up, however, LaRoche wryly offers numerous Ways to Wither : Don't sit down to eat. Walk around the house or office while you multitask. Leave the cell phone on at every meal as if you were a trauma surgeon. Staying vibrant requires other choices and LaRoche supplies plenty of Juicy Tidbits of advice. Get lots of massages, she urges. It's a great way to get touched without having to do anything but lie there and enjoy yourself. Or simply watch some fun, sexy movies starring juicy older men and women. Aging beats the alternative, and while You can't stop the inevitable . . . you can reinvent yourself in many ways. With warmth and humor, LaRoche helps light the happiness trail past the 50-year demarcation line.

WHERE THE HAPPY FOLKS ARE
In The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World, NPR correspondent Eric Weiner shares his experiences and insights as he traverses the globe on a quest for a people exhibiting signs of contentment, peace, serenity . . . in other words, happiness. Although a self-proclaimed grump (note the coincidental irony in the pronunciation of his last name) Weiner's writing is rich with deadpan humor: "Clearly, some words can elicit instant joy. Words like 'I love you' and 'you may already be a winner.' Yet other words 'audit' and 'prostate exam,' " he notices, "clearly have the opposite effect."

As he ventures from places like Bhutan, where "Happiness is other people," to less enchanting nations like Moldova, where unfortunately for its inhabitants, "Happiness is somewhere else," Weiner also comes to the conclusion that happiness is a choice. Despite living in a brutal climate and utter isolation he finds Iceland to be a delightfully quirky little nation where everything wise and wonderful about it flows from its language. "When they greet each other, Icelanders say komdu soell, which translates literally as 'come happy.' When Icelanders part, they say vertu soell, go happy. They could have faced the terrible dark and easily chosen despair and drunkenness," he writes with his characteristic comic flair, "but these sons and daughters of Vikings peered into the unyielding blackness of the noon sky and chose another option: happiness and drunkenness. It is, I think, the wiser option." As you settle down for the night along the trail, The Geography of Bliss will be a joy to pull from your knapsack.

GO IN GOOD SPIRITS
Designed like a workbook, the Field Guide to Happiness: Finding Happiness in its Natural Habitat by Barbara Ann Kipfer, Ph.D., will help light your way as you learn to write your way to a happier state of being. Kipfer, who listed 14,000 Things to Be Happy About in a previous book, explains in her introduction that by noting the things that make you happy and setting yourself on a course to ”choose' happiness you can virtually re-script the plot of your life. Her book offers more than 200 suggestions for creating lists, journals, diaries, memory books, and/or mind maps such as Make a List of What You Have Endured in Life That Has Made You Wise, or writing a journal entry about things that make you laugh. Completing even a few of these exercises should make you feel grateful for all you have to be happy for and lift even the most downtrodden spirit. So grab your knapsack, head for the bookstore and happy trails to you!

Choosing Happiness: Life and Soul Essentials by Stephanie Dowrick has a title that implies a premise that runs through all four books: that happiness is a choice, not something to merely be hoped for, stumbled upon or given to a lucky few. In fact, no one can give you happiness, Dowrick asserts. People, situations, events […]
LifestylesHealth & Fitness

Keep your New Year’s resolutions all year long

Review by Deanna Larson

Self Magazine's 15 Minutes to Your Best Self by Lucy Danzinger et al. presents multiple New Year's resolutions in one gorgeous little package. This brilliant compilation of 573 hip tips helps even the most harried but health-conscious woman catch up on topics like health, nutrition and fitness, style and beauty, happiness, sex, money, relationships and home by tackling them in tasks that only last from one to 15 minutes. Need to buy shoes for this summer's marathon but want to save time in the store? Wet the bottom of your foot, step on a paper towel and the imprint will tell you what kind of foot you have. Got another minute? Soothe morning moods, make your sex life brighter, figure out if you have a cold or allergies, and make even veggies healthier. Got three minutes? Become sun smart or find your ideal dog or yoga style. Ten minutes? Find the right winter boots. Fifteen minutes? Check for skin cancer and discover secret ways to save. The book also includes amusing to don't lists on various subjects and 10 things lists on topics from eating your way to slender happiness to looking stylish every time you leave the house.

BUT WHAT TO EAT?
If you've resolved to work more healthy foods into your lifestyle, get all the inspiration you need in 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life. This fascinating look at food as therapy is an A-Z guide to common nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, herbs, and grains with uncommon powers. Author David Grotto, R.D. L.D.N., contributing writer to Prevention magazine and president of Nutrition Housecall, a family nutrition consulting firm, bases his research on ancient medicine and scientific studies. He reveals the history, lore and uses for super foods that have boosted health and helped heal diseases and chronic complaints for centuries, including avocado (helps decrease gingivitis), cherries (anti-inflammatory, relieves arthritis pain), cardamom (helps heal ulcers), cumin (more effective than some diabetes medications), sardines (more calcium than a glass of milk) and wasabi (shown to inhibit growth of breast cancer cells). Simple, healthful and imaginative recipes by guest chefs and nutritionists make it easy to incorporate the foods into daily meals, including Cranberry Pear Salad with Curried Hazelnuts, Spicy Japanese Mint Noodles, Steamed Artichokes with Lemon Wasabi Sauce and Carob-Walnut Cake. The book includes vitamin and mineral counts, buying and storage tips and fun facts that make remembering items you've previously overlooked at the supermarket easier.

Prevention magazine is must-reading for a healthy lifestyle, and their new Prevention's 3-2-1 Weight Loss Plan: Eat Your Favorite Foods to Cut Cravings, Improve Energy and Lose Weight is the right antidote to eating endless bowls of cabbage soup. Written by Joy Bauer, M.S., R.D., C.D.N. (Yahoo.com's nutrition and weight-loss expert and Self magazine's monthly weight-loss columnist and author of the best-selling Joy Bauer's Food Cures), the book contains dependable information, backed by scientific research, designed to help dieters adopt good nutrition principles for a lifetime and drop pounds without hunger or cravings. The 3-2-1 plan of three meals, two snacks and one sinfully delightful treat each day is presented in three phases: changing habits, losing weight and maintenance. Each phase has its own health and nutrition information that includes meal plans broken out by calories, treat and snack lists and dozens of healthful recipes, plus illustrated workout routines using a mat and dumbbells. Every aspect of achieving a healthy weight is covered, from why bother to how to keep it off, making the book an excellent companion for those longing to finally shed a lifetime of excuses, fads and excesses.

TRAINING WITH THE STARS
Celebrity trainers are a dime a dumbbell, but Steve Zim manages to put a Hollywood gloss on ordinary workout circuits in The 30-Minute Celebrity Makeover Miracle. Zim (6 Weeks to a Hollywood Body), is a fitness expert on the Weekend Today show, and runs a gym in Southern California, where everyone wants to be a star whether in the next box-office blockbuster or their own life. Our microwave culture calls for instant results, however, so Zim designed a combined cardio-weight training program that promises to raise metabolism, burn fat faster and sculpt muscles in just 30 minutes a day, three times a week for 10 weeks. Of course, you don't get Taye Diggs' biceps or Nicole Kidman's colt-like legs without some serious sweat and this program does require a huge dollop of dedication. Walking, marching and jogging phases blend intense workout circuits of strength training using dumbbells and a balance ball (illustrated with black-and-white photos) interspersed with cardio moves, and Zim also presents a brief but good nutrition plan. While those easing into activity could be discouraged by this program, Zim's promises of Hollywood looks on a mere mortal's schedule will certainly motivate those who find themselves in a fitness rut.

More than 40 percent of women ages 55-74 are unable to lift 10 pounds, according to celebrity trainer Kacy Duke (whose clients include Julianne Moore, Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis and Gwen Stefani). That women accept this as a natural part of aging is B.S. according to Duke, who busts out the sistah moves to get self-esteem as well as weak muscles whipped into shape in The Show it Love Workout: Celebrate the Body You Have, Get the Body You Want, co-written with health and fitness writer Selene Yeager. Presenting her signature Woman Warrior Workout with its I Am, I Can, I Do philosophy, Duke's refreshingly up-front advice refashions a workout into a three-part boot camp for emotions, body image and diet, as well as physical self.

I Am looks at the power of the mind-body connection (Duke highlights a study that demonstrated merely thinking about exercising a muscle actually made it stronger). I Can gets the motivation mojo working and I Do focuses on movement after the mental foundation has been established. Pictures of Duke doing the workout moves appropriate for each stage (some brandishing a staff) are also included along with sensible nutrition advice (go on, call Dr. Godiva when needed) and some healthful recipes. The daily get through anything guide at the back keeps the newly-fit on track with short workouts for stressors like the post-baby blues, getting dumped or fired, having a bad day or feeling bored. The entire program can be done in a living room or the gym, and Duke excels at encouraging women to find what they love whether that's a treadmill, gymnastics or flamenco dancing and pushing beyond comfort to a new belief, motivation and strength.

Self Magazine's 15 Minutes to Your Best Self by Lucy Danzinger et al. presents multiple New Year's resolutions in one gorgeous little package. This brilliant compilation of 573 hip tips helps even the most harried but health-conscious woman catch up on topics like health, nutrition and fitness, style and beauty, happiness, sex, money, relationships and […]
NonfictionEducation

Simply surviving

Review by bookpagedev

For many teens, the transition to high school may seem like a matter of survival. With a title that captures their worries, Where Should I Sit at Lunch?: The Ultimate 24/7 Guide to Surviving the High School Years provides insight and answers to commonly asked questions, including those dealing with parents, friendship, dating and sex. With information on puberty and body image, test-taking, jobs, time management and preparing for life away from home, authors Harriet S. Mosatche and Karen Unger also answer questions teens may not have thought of or may be too inhibited to ask on their own.

While the topics covered may be hard-hitting, the authors maintain a light, conversational tone, using occasional humor ( Dozing in class doesn’t count as the nine hours of sleep you need ), quotes from teens who’ve been there, done that, tips from experts, and plenty of charts, checklists and quizzes. Their down-to-earth advice prepares teens to make wise decisions not only during high school, but throughout young adulthood.

Angela Leeper is an educational consultant and freelance writer in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

For many teens, the transition to high school may seem like a matter of survival. With a title that captures their worries, Where Should I Sit at Lunch?: The Ultimate 24/7 Guide to Surviving the High School Years provides insight and answers to commonly asked questions, including those dealing with parents, friendship, dating and sex. […]

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