Month: April 2019

With the Fire on High

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Review:

The two most important people in Emoni Santiago’s life are her daughter (two year old Emma, affectionately called Babygirl) and the grandmother who is raising her (‘Buela). Emoni is a senior in high school this year. When her school decides to offer an elective class in culinary arts, she is torn between the desire to improve her cooking skills and the knowledge that she doesn’t have time for a seemingly frivolous class. But Emoni’s cooking seems to be magical – it brings out emotions in the people who eat it. In her heart, she knows that cooking is her calling.

I absolutely adored With the Fire on High. The chapters are written in short vignettes, so it’s a great book to read if you only have a couple minutes at a time. But be forewarned – it’s so compelling that you can’t help but pick it up again shortly after you put it down. It’s a great read for high school students, particularly for those who are trying to decide how they want to navigate life after high school. It comes out one week from today, and is a must to add to your TBR list!

Favorite Passage:

I dream everyday for Babygirl. I see people in business suits on the bus and I imagine Babygirl grown up with a briefcase and a nice executive office job. I watch a TV show and imagine Babygirl as a famous actress winning an Oscar. There’s so much I want for her that somethings I think the seams of my skin aren’t enough to contain every hope I have. And I whisper it to her all the time. When I’m feeding her. When she’s asleep in my arms. When we are playing at the park. I whisper all the everything I know she can be and the ways I’ll fight for her to be them. I want her to know her entire life her mommy may not have been much but that her moms did everything so that she could be an accumulation of the best dreams.
— Dreams

What I Loved Most:

I’ve read several books about teen pregnancy, but they always seem to be about that moment when the girl finds out she’s pregnant and is deciding what she wants to do. With the Fire on High is an empowering story of a teenager who is successfully raising her daughter. It goes beyond the “OMG I’m pregnant” time period to focus instead on what it looks like to raise a child while being in school and working to help support a household. Emoni is a great mom, and I loved exploring her mindset and the way she cares so fiercely for her daughter.

Read this book if you like:

Contemporary fiction, teen moms, dreaming, charting your own path

Book Details:

Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Review:

Stoned is an examination of the way that precious gems and jewels have impacted world history. As Raden explains, value is subjective. We’ve decided that these shiny stones are valuable, because we like the way they look. We declare that they should be expensive, because we want to have status symbols to separate classes from each other. However, our decisions about worth and value have implications that reach so much farther than I would have thought. Each chapter looks at the way one jewel has shaped the economy and history of a given culture (or of the world), while also exploring the psychology of human desire. I listened to this in as an audiobook, and it made my commute the last week go by so quickly!

Favorite Passage:

“Gemstones are, in fact, just colorful gravel. They’re just rocks that we’ve given special names. True jewels are things that are beautiful and scarce. We want them because few others can possess them. We want them even more if they are from some very faraway, exotic place. Their value is, and always has been, 90 percent imaginary.”

What I Loved Most:

As I’ve told friends about this book (and I’ve told like everyone I’ve come into contact with about this book), I can literally see everyone’s eyes glazing over as they hear the book is about the history of gems. But y’all, this book is BEYOND fascinating. Raden not only examines the way that various gems shaped history, but also pulls economics and psychology (which were my undergraduate major and minor areas, so I’m always pumped to learn about real world applications of these two!). Plus, you get to learn a bunch of fun facts, like how Marie Antoinette isn’t the one who said “Let them eat cake!” and how we all have diamond engagement rings as the result of a very successful marketing campaign in the early 1900’s. This book makes you smarter. Go read it.

Read this book if you like:

Social studies, finding out how small things can have a huge impact, economics, history, fun facts

Book Details:

Give People Money: How Universal Basic Income Could Change the Future–For the Rich, the Poor, and Everyone in Between

~ rachelbenzine ~ Leave a comment

Review:

This book is about a radical concept made simple. Give People Money discusses a Universal Basic Income (UBI), or a guaranteed amount of money provided by the government to each citizen. UBI is not a new concept, but it is one that is becoming more popular. In response to the impending job loss from automation, it’s being heralded as a way to keep America’s economy strong while supporting its citizens. Lowrey has taken on a comprehensive examination of UBI, including looking at implementation of UBI trials in Kenya, Germany, and Finland as well as examining what it would mean to implement UBI in the United States.

UBI has historically been supported by people from a variety of political parties, including Republican Richard Nixon, Libertarian Charles Murray, and Marxist Socialist Erik Olin Wright. Andrew Yang, a Democratic candidate for the 2020 presidency, is currently running on a platform based on UBI. And a recent study demonstrated that approximately 48% of Americans are in favor of implementing UBI. Give People Money explains the concept of UBI in a way that is accessible to the lay person while remaining grounded in research.

Favorite Passage:

A UBI, I thought, was not so much about welfare as inclusion. Universal cash programs were a way of providing the poor with an opportunity to participate in the economy. Universal cash programs were a way of ensuring that all members of the society had a foundation to build on. 
— Chapter 9

What I Loved Most:

I’m not a proponent of implementing UBI in America. While it sounds great to have everyone receive $1,000 a month, with no obligations or requirements, I simply don’t think it is a feasible program to fund. Give People Money does suggest several options for funding UBI, such as increased income, corporate, and consumption taxes, as well as funds from shared national resources. In addition, a UBI would allow many of our current social welfare programs (TANF/Food Stamps, Medicaid, Housing Assistance, etc.) to be stopped completely. The money currently used for these programs could be redirected to fund UBI. However, Lowrey admits that UBI would likely increase the deficit; in fact, she advocates for starting the program and letting the funding fall into place eventually. Seeing as there is no feasible way that I can find to fund this program, I simply don’t think the UBI would work.

With all of that being said, I think it is SO important to be informed on political issues. And if I don’t agree with something, I want to have solid reasoning as to why I don’t agree with it. I like reading books that challenge me to consider how I’ve come to the conclusions I have. I ended Give People Money with the same opinion about UBI as I had at the beginning of reading it, but with more knowledge as to the proposed benefits and negatives of the policy. Especially since I think UBI is likely to continue gaining supporters, I am glad that I understand more about the policy.

Read this book if you like:

Politics, economics, considering what social programs are best for our country

Book Details: