I Read It So You Don’t Have To: Rebecca, Not Becky by Christine Platt and Catherine Wigginton Greene

The novel, Rebecca, Not Becky by Christine Platt and Catherine Wigginton Greene is the tale of two Millennial age women, one white and one Black, as they navigate raising children, taking care of elderly relatives, managing their marriages, and dealing with the thorny topic of race, bigotry, and race relations.

Meet De’Andrea Whitman. She just left her successful career as a lawyer, and not by chance, and is now settled in Rolling Hills, Virginia with her husband Malik and their little girl, Nina. The Whitmans have moved to Rolling Hills to be closer to Malik’s mother who has dementia and is living in a care facility called Memory Village. The Whitmans used to live in Atlanta and found a sense of place within the Black community. De’Andrea stays in touch with her old Atlanta friends and doesn’t know if she can find a home in the very white Rolling Hills.

Now meet Rebecca Myland. She used to go by Becky, but with the name Becky being used as a euphemism for clueless basic white bitches. Rebecca is a stay at home mom who lives with her husband Todd and their two daughters Lyla and Isabella in Rolling Hills. And like De’Andrea, she also has a mother in law at Memory Village.

Rebecca is thrilled when she finds out a Black family has moved to Rolling Hills. She hopes to befriend the Whitmans, which will allow her to use all the knowledge she has gained when it comes to race as a diversity leader at her daughters’ school and as a member of an anti-racist book club. And it does come across like Rebecca might treat this black family as an experiment instead of seeming them as unique individuals.

De’Andrea is feeling adrift and depressed in Rolling Hills. She’s dealing with the heavy burden of running a household, raising Nina, and being there for Malike’s mother. De’Andrea feels useless without her law career and she misses her friends in Atlanta. Is she going to find a sense of community in the white bread enclave of Rolling Hills?

De’Andrea’s therapist comes up with an assignment. De’Andrea should try to befriend a white woman. Not surprisingly, De’Andrea is a bit apprehensive. She doesn’t want to have a friendship that feels forced. And can she really fit in with the privileged white ladies of Rolling HIlls?

But then De’Andrea’s daughter Nina becomes besties with Rebecca’s daughter Isabella. The two little girls have bonded in their kindergarten class. This means De’Andrea has to deal with Rebecca at school drop offs and pick ups, various school functions, and at play dates for Nina and Isabella.

At first, De’Andrea tries to keep Rebecca at arms length. But begrudgingly, she begins to get involved with some of Rebecca’s social activities and social circle. Rebecca can be a bit too much when it comes to being the “white savior.” And to be honest, De’Andrea comes a across as a bit stand-offish and narrowminded. But at times, it is quite understandable why she would question the motives of a privileged white woman like Rebecca.

But De’Andrea and Rebecca soon bond over similar life experiences. Both are dealing with raising children and elder care issues. Both are trying to keep their marriages strong. And both are trying to navigate the racial and social issues that affect Rolling Hills.

Then De’Andrea and Rebecca join forces to bring down a Confederate soldier’s statue in Rolling Hills. A lot of the town’s people also want to bring the offending statue down. But due to a place like Rolling Hills being in the deep South plenty of the town’s citizens want to keep the offensive statue up because or “heritage” or “history” or some rot. De’Andrea and Rebecca learn through all of this that people are stronger when they work together.

Rebecca, Not Becky, in the hands of better writers, could have really been a fantastic read. It covers many of the current issues we face today-race, bigotry, and social changes. It also covers the everyday issues so many women face-raising children, running a household, elder care, and trying to make their marriages thrive. But in the less capable writing talents of Platt and Wigginton Greene, these issues and situations never go very deep. Plus, when Rebecca, Not Becky goes into some intriguing story lines, the writing just putters out. It’s quite disappointing.

And there’s the two main characters, De’Andrea and Rebecca. I don’t expect characters to be flawless, but both ladies are not likable. Both of them come across as conceited and full of themselves. There’s a lot of name-dropping, slang that won’t age well, and vapid texts in place of decent dialogue. It’s as if both of these women were the real housewives of Rolling Hills rather than fully fleshed out characters who are compelling.

Rebecca, Not Becky is not to be read.

Book Review: Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond

Matthew Desmond, whose Pulitzer Prize winning book Evicted I reviewed several years ago, is back with another must-read book, Poverty, By America. And though it clocks in at a brief 189 pages, this book is a gut punch. Poverty, By America is eye-opening and will make you think.

Poverty, by America has several short, but impactful chapters focusing on topics like why poverty has such a grip on so many people in the United States. When it comes to the United States, money is spent on programs and benefits for people who are struggling. But for the most part, those programs and benefits are just a mere bandage on the problem. Much of our issues with poverty also have to do with low and stagnant wages. A lack of collective bargaining power when it comes to employees dealing with their employers. Plus, because employees pay so little (just look at Wal-Mart), many of these employees rely on government benefits leaving corporations off the hook.

Furthermore, there is so much bias towards those mired in poverty. “What did they do to end up that way?” and “Do these poor people deserve our help?” are questions people often have when it comes to America’s poor people. There are so many hoops poor people have to jump through just to receive a smidge of help. On the other hand, wealthy people aren’t asked to prove their moral worth when it comes to their riches. Also, crimes committed by the wealthy often get a slap on the wrist, and the wealthy have money to hire the best lawyers and suck up to the right politicians. The poor don’t have those advantages.

Desmond goes into great depth focusing on the policies and structures that exploit the poor, and yes, even those who consider themselves middle class. Interestingly enough, a lot of policies enacted in the wake of Covid helped alleviate poverty, yet sadly, these policies were allowed to expire. For readers looking for facts, analysis, and data to back up Desmond’s claims, believe me, he has them in spades.

But all doesn’t have to be doom and gloom. Desmond also provides doable solutions including various reforms. However, these reforms may have naysayers, but Desmond is quick to point out how we all suffer from the poverty of others, and looking into these issues and making an attempt to alleviate poverty can benefit all of us. Of course, it will take a lot to convince others of these things. As Desmond claims, “Poverty will be abolished in America when a mass movement demands it.”

Poverty, By America is a small book that packs a powerful punch. It is one that should be read, truly studied and understood, and maybe, but maybe, enough people will be convinced that poverty affects us all, not just those on the bottom rung.

Book Review: Bootstrapped-Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream by Alissa Quart

One of my favorite TikTok accounts is a man whose account has a running theme that “self-made is a toxic myth.” He focuses mostly on singers and musicians who come from wealth and privilege (Taylor Swift and The Strokes come to mind), and how that wealth and privilege helped them gain a foothold in the cutthroat and highly competitive music industry. He doesn’t deny their talent and work ethic. But he realizes having parents with money, connections, and advantages helped these singers and musicians attain success. Even artists who weren’t flush with cash and connections benefitted from a supportive community like the iconic band Nirvana.

What am I getting at? Well, in other words, nobody is totally self-made, American rugged individualism is total bupkis, and we all benefit from having a sense of community, support, and a safety net.

And this idea of being self-made and picking oneself up by one’s bootstraps is thoroughly investigated in Alissa Quart’s eye-opening and impactful book Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream.

The idea of American idea of being self-made. Quart gives us examples of hyper individualism and total self-efficiency naming people like Laura Ingalls Wilder for creating “A pioneer-Western-self-creation-fantasy,” the Horatio Alger stories, and the likes of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Ayn Rand.

Interestingly enough, if you dig deeper into those people you will find out many of them benefitted from the government and the largesse of other people. Pioneer families like the Ingalls benefitted from 1862’s Homestead Act, which gave 160 acres of land to citizens that they could nurture and live on. Emerson grew up with considerable wealth and Thoreau often depended on the generosity of others. And though Rand thought of Social Security as some type of welfare (even though we pay into our entire working lives), she had no qualms about taking Social Security in her latter years.

However, those truths are often buried under a load of myth, and I must admit it did open my eyes quite a bit. We all benefit from a collective of some type of community both public and private. The trick now is to get Americans to understand how we benefit from a sense of a supportive society for all of its citizens. And Quart gives us examples of people who are trying to do things that help others thrive.

One such group of people are the Patriotic Millionaires. Patriotic Millionaires actually want to be taxed more (yes, these people exist). And they want their taxes to go to things that actually benefit all Americans, not just themselves.

Quart also mentions various grassroots organizing that is occurring all through out the United States that benefit communities and individuals. But she also mentions we shouldn’t live in world where people have to rely on GoFundMe to pay for their cancer treatments or go through countless hoops just to get food stamps. Quart also talks of how the Covid 19 pandemic really made us look at ourselves as a sense of community in such a critical time. It was a time where we relied so much on essential workers like those in healthcare or those working at the grocery stores, as delivery drivers, and teachers educating our children through Zoom. But sadly, there were also vile people flipping out when they were asked to wear a mask while shopping at Wal-Mart.

Bootstrapped is a book that focuses on a very fraught concept and is one that should inspire conversation and perhaps some change in this idea that relying on others is a bad thing. As Prince one sang, “Dearly beloved. We are gathered here today, to get through this thing called ‘life’.”

Book Review: Profiles in Ignorance-How America’s Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber by Andy Borowitz

It seems to me, that when it comes to politics, especially for the current state of the GOP, ignorance isn’t a hindrance. Currently, Lauren Boebert, who dropped out of high school and kept flunking her GED tests, is a member of Congress. To me, this is a tragedy. But apparently her constituents in Colorado are perfectly fine with having a willfully ignorant moron representing them. Boebert is now in her second term in Congress.

Yes, the embrace of idiocy makes me want to throw things. And it turns out accepting stupidity in our politicians isn’t exactly a new thing for the GOP. It’s been going on for decades. And political satirist, Andy Borowitz, takes on this phenomenon is his book Profiles in Ignorance: How America’s Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber.

According to Borowitz there are three stages of ignorance-ridicule, acceptance, and finally, celebration.

In ridicule Borowitz discusses how an affable but dim B-list actor named Ronald Reagan because President for two terms, and how so many of his shitty policies are still having a negative impact on the United States today. Even Reagan’s speech writer called him a “barren terrain.” And remember when Dan Quayle misspelled potato? What did we do? We mocked and laughed, and thought things can’t get worse than Dan Quayle misspelling potato. But I digress.

The next stage is acceptance, where many people accepted good old boy President like George W. Bush even though he didn’t have much going on upstairs because he was the type of guy you could have a beer with. Why would we want an egghead who cares about the planet and shit like Al Gore? And who cares if Sarah Palin meandered through five different colleges and thought Africa was a country. She’s a folksy hockey mom, you betcha!

Now we’re at the most dangerous phase, the celebration phase of ignorance in politics. Our country barely survived the Trump as President, and now he’s the leading GOP candidate for the 2024 Presidential election. Several smooth brains who are also liars, uneducated, do-nothing howler monkeys like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and George Santos are in Congress. And even politicians who are relatively smart and highly-educated like Senator Ted Cruz and Governor of Florida and GOP Presidential candidate, Ron DeSantis are dumbing themselves down to appeal to voters. I don’t know about you, but I want my representatives in politics from President to my state Senator to be smart and to be willing to show it.

Of course, Republican politicians aren’t the only ones who act stupidly. Former mayor of Washington D.C., the late Marion Barry was caught smoking crack and it was filmed. And former president, Bill Clinton, had an affair with Monica Lewinsky, lied about, and got impeached. But for the most part, it’s the Republican party that has been acting like idiots and even reveling in it.

Is there hope for us who are disgusted by the embrace of idiocy in our political sphere? In the final chapter, “Conclusion: Democracy’s Braking System,” Borowitz gives us some ideas on how to fix this. Sure, we can vote, stay informed, and donate to various campaigns of candidates who aren’t mentally deficient. But Borowitz behooves the reader to get involved in the grass roots level of politics. And there are quite a few examples of how we can do this, which he lays out in book. And because so many of my readers are total braniacs, I’m sure they can figure out what they can do to insure the stupid people don’t totally screw things up…forever.

Book Review: Getting Me Cheap-How Low-Wage Work Traps Women and Girls in Poverty by Amanda Freeman and Lisa Dodson

In the book Getting Me Cheap: How Low-Wage Work Traps Women and Girls in Poverty, Amanda Freeman and Lisa Dodson examine the various journeys of women trying to get by and get ahead by doing low-wage work. People tend to thin of low-wage work as unskilled and therefore, people performing these jobs don’t deserve decent life supporting pay. But these women doing low-wage work are performing labor that makes our lives much easier. They clean our homes and offices. They prepare and serve the food we eat. They ring up our purchases. They take care of our children, and work other jobs we deem lowly.

Over the past several years, Freeman and Dodson interviewed several American women caught up in low-wage work. These women were also juggling family duties, other employment, and sometimes school. While working these low-wage jobs, these women dealt with unreliable hours, less than understanding bosses, and often had no decent benefits like health insurance.

Many of these women relied on public assistance. The hoops they had to jump through to get aid and the horrible way many of them were treated by people employed to help them was quite infuriating. It’s disgusting how people who are already struggling get pushed down ever further. And finding affordable and reliable childcare was also a roadblock.

The authors spoke to these women both one on one and in group sessions. They also connected their stories to various statistics to illustrate the frustration and discouragement of working low-wage jobs for these women.

Some of the women tried to improve their circumstances by going to college to gain more skills and possibly find a better paying job. However, college isn’t cheap and many of them had employers who weren’t willing to work with their school schedules. Still, I couldn’t believe how clueless some these women going to college were when it came to things like office hours and class credits. This is something most students acclimate to once the go to college.

And yes, there is talk of Covid-19 and how the pandemic upended so many of their lives. A high level executive could easily work from home. But some of the women worked with the public and faced getting infected with Covid-19, not to mention some women lost their jobs and had difficulty finding new employment.

Though most of these stories were heartbreaking, I did find myself questioning some of the women’s choices. A majority of these women were single moms, many with more than one child. And the fathers of these children were mostly absent. To be honest, I couldn’t help but be a little judgmental of these women. Babies happen by design; they just don’t appear on your doorstep. I was often left wondering why women without children working low-wage jobs weren’t profiled. Is it because there is this idea that those of us with kids are hyper careerists and swimming in money? Heck, even jobs requiring education and advanced skills often pay pitiful wages. A few years ago, I saw a copywriting job that wanted applicants to have a Master’s degree and it paid only 10 bucks an hour.

I really wanted to love Getting Me Cheap, but something about it left me wanting more, perhaps a wider scope of women (like women without kids). Even with the personal stories, Getting Me Cheap didn’t grab me the way the late Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed did.

And if you really want to read a tale about a woman working a low-wage job while raising a child, you’re probably better off reading Stephanie Land’s brilliant memoir Maid.

Book Review: The Hope Raisers-How a Group of Young Kenyans Fought to Transform Their Slum and Inspire a Community by Nihar Suthar

With so many bad things happening in the world, I often want to read books that are positive and uplifting. And positive and uplifting is exactly what I got with Nihar Suthar’s book, Hope Raisers: How a Group of Young Kenyans Fought to Transform Their Slum and Inspire a Community.

Korogucho is a slum in Kenya where life is quite difficult. Extreme poverty, gang violence, environmental degradation, and food and water shortages negatively affect Koroguchos citizens. Some people have to earn a living by going through piles of trash, which is very dangerous. And often, the children of Korogucho have no hope of getting an education or improving their lives for the better. Many of them turn to a life of crime.

Two young men, Daniel Onyango, and his friend Mutura Kuria started a band they called the Hope Raisers. Daniel and Mutura wanted to inspire the children of Korogucho through their music. Little did they know, the Hope Raisers would do so much more.

One day, while going through one of the trash piles, they came across a pair of inline skates, rollerblades, and came up with an idea. Why not learn how to use these rollerblades and and teach the children of Korogucho. Rollerblading became very popular amongst the boys and young men, and soon girls wanted to get involved with rollerblading, too. One of these girls, Lucy Achieng , proved to be quite adept at rollerblading, and figured it would elevate her above and beyond what most girls in were destined to in the slums-a life of early marriage, too many kids, and a life of poverty. After Lucy joined, many other girls joined the rollerblading club, and the club started competing in rollerblade races.

The rollerblade club figures out ways to raise money to purchase more rollerblade and attend rollerblading competitions. Lucy, especially, became a very strong skater, often teaching and mentoring new members along the way. And she often represented Kenya in international competitions where she won both trophies and money, which made her dreams of being a flight attendant so much more realistic and achievable.

Whereas the Hope Raisers and the rollerblading club had a lot of triumphs, they also had to experience defeat, whether it was losing a race or dealing with many obstacles in their way like crime, poverty, or inhospitable environments.

But mostly, The Hope Raisers shows what can be done with a positive spirit, lots of ambition and hard work, and community support can do. I loved learning about Lucy’s travels to China for a rollerblading competition where she flew on a plane for the first time, got lost in trying to find the hotel, and ate frog legs thinking it was chicken. I also loved learning how her friend, Chumbana Omari, also got involved with rollerblading and had dreams of her own. And then there was Mama Bonie, an early supporter of the Hope Raisers. Every community, rich, poor, or somewhere in between needs a Mama Bonie.

Ultimately, The Hope Raisers is a tale one what a committed band of young people can do with a few resources, a lot of community support, and a desire to better one’s self and one’s community. The Hope Raisers is never patronizing; it is wonderful inside look at the beauty of one very special community and it’s people. After reading The Hope Raisers, I wish for a sequel. I truly want to know where Daniel, Matura, Lucy, Chumbana, Mama Bonie, and the people of Korogucho are up to these days.

Book Review: Not Your Father’s America-An Adventure Raising Triplets in a Country Being Changed by Greed by Cort Casady

Being a woman without children, I can only imagine what it’s like to raise one child. But what about raising three children, and not three children born consecutively, but all at once. Yes. TRIPLETS! Raising triplets is a huge undertaking, one that TV writer Cort Casady along with his wife Barbara are quite familiar with. They raised three triplet boys, Jackson, Carter, and Braeden, and Casady documents the raising of his three boys in his memoir Not Your Father’s America: An Adventure Raising Triplets in a Country Being Changed by Greed.

Cort and Barbara met, fell in love, and got married. They knew they truly wanted children, but the process of getting pregnant wasn’t exactly easy (though initially, I’m sure they had fun trying-wink). Having difficulties, Cort and Casady resorted to IVF and other fertility treatments, which I am now very familiar with.

However, there was heartbreak in conceiving a child. They lost a baby early on, and were devastated? We’re Cort and Barbara never going to have children? But soon Barbara was pregnant with triplets, which truly threw them for a loop. There was talk of elimination of one or two of the embryos, but Cort and Barbara decided to keep all of them. Knowing being a woman of a certain age (Cort and Barbara became parents when most of their peers were sending their oldest to college), Barbara to extra care of herself and her pregnancy.

The Casady boys were born in January of 1995. Being multiples, they were underweight and had some health issues that needed to be attended to. But soon Carter, Jackson, and Braeden were safely home with their parents. And that’s when the fun, and a lot of hard work began. Fortunately, Cort and Barbara had a lot of help from family, friends, and several nannies, though it did take time to get the nanny situation figured out. It truly does take a village to raise a child, or in this case, three children.

Cort lovingly records Carter, Jackson, and Braeden’s development and progress from babyhood through childhood onto the teen years and then young adulthood and college. No small detail escapes Cort. And to think about it no details are small. It’s a major accomplishment to learn how to walk, go to school the first time, travel to a new place, and figure out one’s place in the world. And what I appreciate it, is how Cort and Barbara encourage their boys to be unique individuals with their own separate ideas, talents, and skills. Often parents think their children should be carbon copies of each other, especially those who are multiples. Cort and Barb don’t do that.

But Cort does so much more than cover his son’s growing up. He also covers the major events that have occurred during their lives (and ours), and how it has affected so many people. Though very young when September 11th happened (the triplets were in first grade), the boys knew something very bad had happened. How do you explain this horrific act of terror to children when adults could barely explain it to themselves?

Cort also discusses corporate malfeasance and greed. Remember Enron? And then there was the fall of financial institutions thought too big to fail and a recession that hurt countless Americans. Sadly, it seems corporate malfeasance and greed is built into the fabric of our society.

Cort doesn’t pretend to have all the answers, and he knows politics and social issues are very thorny topics. But I do appreciate how he is concerned about various issues that have harmed everything from our political landscape to our environment to the world of finance and business.

But ultimately, Not Your Father’s America is one father’s love letter to his boys. At times it may seem Cort is bragging, but Cort has a lot to brag about. Carter, Jackson, and Braeden have grown up to be wonderful young men. In a world where we hear about so much abuse parents do to their children, it’s lovely to come across a father who not only loves his sons, he also likes them a whole lot, too.

Book Review: Race and Reckoning-From Founding Fathers to Today’s Disruptors by Ellis Cose

In a time where people are freaking out over CRT being taught in grade schools (it’s not), hate crimes against people of color are too numerous, and Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida wants to cut AP African American Studies from high schools because he doesn’t think it has any educational value, Ellis Cose’s book Race and Reckoning: From Founding Fathers to Today’s Disrupters is a very needed and important book.

Race and Reckoning takes a very comprehensive look at the entities and actions and how they affected various races and America as a whole. Ellis muses on slavery, the New Deal, Jim Crow, the Covid Pandemic. He talks about the seminal labor and decisive resolutions that resulted in inequity, disinformation, and other problematic outcomes even in the modern age. And this labor and resolutions didn’t just affect people who were around when they were implemented. They have affected generations after.

Race and Reckoning examines America’s history, slavery, bigotry and exclusion of Asians, the removal of Indigenous people from their native lands and so much more. And America has prospered in the wake of this bigotry take advantage of the work of people seen as “lesser.” Even after people proved themselves and served their country, they still faced discrimination. African American soldiers and veterans were denied benefits that went to their white peers. Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during World War II. And we can’t forget how Black people were denied the right to vote in the days of Jim Crow.

Now in 2023, there are people who think racism is no longer a problem. We’re living in a post-racial world. After all, Barack Obama was President for 12 years. Vice President, Kamala Harris, is both Black and Asian. Certainly, she’s in a position of power. We have many more people of color who are successful and in notable positions in everything-politics, media, business, sports, and entertainment.

But to anyone who has been paying attention, we are not living in a post-racial world here in the United States. Racism is still so much a vile problem we are still dealing with. And Race and Reckoning explains this is a way that is both thought-provoking and maddening.

I got quite the education reading Race and Reckoning. This book filled in so many gaps that were lacking in my formal schooling. I recall learning about the Civil War, but truly learning about the horrors of slavery were barely mentioned. Instead, our class watched “Gone With the Wind.” Sure, that movie is a classic, but it’s hardly an honest depiction of slavery during the those times. I never learned about internment camps during World War II or the removal of the Indigenous people. I’m angry that my schooling was so lacking, but I’m very grateful for Ellis Cose’s Race and Reckoning. This book may not be on Ron DeSantis’ reading list, but it should be on yours.

Book Review: The Gospel of Wellness-Gyms, Gurus, Goop, and the False Promise of Self-Care by Rina Raphael

You’ve done Keto and have eschewed carbs. You invested in a Peloton and go to a hot yoga class weekly. You try to align your chakras and think only positive thoughts. You berate yourself for eating a brownie or for skipping a day at the gym to just “Netflix and chill.” You know it’s a good thing to exercise, get fresh air, and eat right, but at times you wonder if you’ve gone a little to far on your journey to better health, self-care, and enlightenment. Perhaps you are treating wellness, physical, mental, and spiritual, as some type of intense worship.

Rina Raphael understands this mindset, and she writes about many people’s addiction to this issue in her book The Gospel of Wellness: Gyms, Gurus, Goop, and the False Promise of Self-Care.

Once caught up in the worship of being a higher state of being herself, health and wellness journalist and former senior producer and lifestyle editor at The TODAY Show, Raphael takes a very important look at the wellness industry that takes in trillions of dollars. Many of these wellness practices are rooted in positive and effective practices like fitness, eating right, and getting plenty of sleep and fresh air.

However, the gospel of wellness is also filled with far too much hyper consumerism, crackpot theories, and desperate hope for millions of people who want to better their lives physically, mentally, and spiritually. And sadly, there are far to many opportunistic grifters only too willing to take advantage (and a whole lot of money) of people who want to achieve greatness. Though some in the wellness industry rely on encouragement and positive affirmations to encourage followers, many of them manipulate people’s insecurities, especially women. So many women feel so out of sorts these days, whether it comes to work, relationships or the home front. And the pandemic only made things worse. Women are desperate to have some semblance of peace and command over their lives. So does it hurt to buy a $30.00 tranquility candle?

Well, that candle may make your house smell nice, but it won’t lessen sexism in the workplace, improve your marriage, or give you thinner thighs.

The Gospel of Wellness takes a very thorough look and examines the various products and practices that have become popular in the past several years. She looks at how fitness influencers and instructors have become like rock and roll demi-gods and goddesses to their faithful followers. She attends Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP wellness retreat and gives us the scoop on GOOP’s quackery and money making endeavors.

Raphael also explains on why so many women have eschewed so many mainstream medical practices in favor of new age healing methods and advice. Raphael looks at some women’s addiction to eating only “clean” foods and slathering one’s body and face with “clean” beauty products even though there isn’t always science to back these practices up.

And the path to better health and an elevated state of being isn’t a phenomenon of the modern age. People have been trying to obtain these things for eons. The Gospel of Wellness goes down memory lane informing us about different practices people in decades ago did to remain hale and hearty, like the precursor to Pilates, the Mensendieck system, which was practiced in the nude during the 1930s. Or Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound, a “health” tonic from the 1870s, which claimed to cure women of headaches, menstrual cramps, indigestion, and labor pains. And more currently, I can remember the promise of oat bran, Dexatrim diet supplements, and aerobic dance studios. Today there is an app that somehow helps you align your workouts to your menstrual cycle!

There is one issue that Raphael examines in The Gospel of Wellness that really made me think. It’s the idea of “Wealthness,” that health and wellness is often only accessible to people with a great deal of wealth and time. Gyms, especially fancy boutique gyms are quite expensive. Purchasing a Peloton and its monthly subscriptions are quite pricy. Organic food is more expensive than non-organic food, and some people in urban and rural communities live in food deserts and don’t have access to proper healthcare, let alone a gym. Sure, someone can always get exercise by walking but some communities don’t have sidewalks and others are plagued with violence. And if you’re working two, three jobs just to survive, it might be easier to go through a McDonald’s drive-thru than go home and cook a healthy meal.

While, reading The Gospel of Wellness, I got such an education. Raphael has most definitely done her homework. And I must admit, I, too, have gotten caught up in the gospel of wellness. I’m still kind of beating myself up for indulging in to much fattening food between Christmas and New Year’s. And I’m still pissed off at myself for not going to the gym for several days when I had a bad head cold last November. Yes, I know this is nuts, but I still feel like I got off track. Thank goodness, The Gospel of Wellness let’s me know I’m not alone.

Book Review: Black, White, and Gray All Over-A Black Man’s Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement by Frederick Douglass Reynolds

Despite having a friend who was once married to a cop and watching many episodes of various Law and Order shows, my grasp of what it’s truly like to be a police officer was quite limited. But now that I’ve read Frederick Douglass Reynold’s memoir Black, White and Gray All Over: A Black Man’s Odyssey In Life and Law Enforcement, my eyes have been opened.

Let’s face it, police officers don’t always have the best reputation, especially in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of law enforcement. But the police also have one of the toughest jobs on the planet, and for that they deserve a lot of respect and understanding.

Reynolds was the son of two impoverished sharecroppers who moved to Detroit. His childhood was not easy, and there was a lot of tension between his parents. Despite being smart and showing a great deal of potential, Reynolds got caught up in a bad crowd and criminal behavior, something he does not sugar coat. He was going down a really bad path.

Joining the Marines was a means of escape for Reynolds, and proved he could be responsible and work hard, but still he faced challenges the four years he was in the Marines. When he tried to re-enlist he was denied because he had be reduced in rank two times. And despite working two jobs, Reynolds ended up homeless in Compton, living in his car, and often hanging out in all-night movie theaters.

However, things began to turn around for Reynolds when he got a job as an armed security office through the city of Compton. This led him to his career path as a police officer from 1985 through 2000, and he was later made a detective ultimately retiring in 2017.

When Reynolds joined the force, crack was beginning to destroy many in the black community, and he saw first hand its devastating effects on far too many people. Gang violence was also taking hold of Compton, and Reynolds speaks about the deadly battles between rival gangs naming such gangs as the Bloods and the Crips. He saw his fellow officers get gunned down. And he saw riots nearly destroy Compton. Reynolds witnessed things that I only knew through watching the news and by reading newspapers.

Reynolds’s fellow officers are also a potpourri of characters, some of which he speaks fondly and others, well, not so much. Some in law enforcement are principled and truly want to serve and protect the citizens of Compton. And sadly, there are some officials in law enforcement are quite corrupt.

Reynolds also discusses how his career in law enforcement also affected him personally with the break up of his first marriage to finding true love with his devoted second wife, Carolyn. He also is not hesitant to discuss his relationship with his children, which wasn’t always a smooth ride. In fact, he and Carolyn are raising his son Dominic’s child who has autism. Reynolds remains a man of conviction who wants to do the right thing no matter how difficult.

Black, White and Gray All Over is rich in detail, certitude, history, and information. While reading it, I figured Reynolds must have written down copious of his experiences working on the force. He really explains so many things that at times, it’s overwhelming.

In Black, White and Gray All Over, Reynolds proves law enforcement (like many professions) is filled with saints and sinners, and a lot of in-between. His books is a singular primer of what it’s like to be a police officer in one particular dangerous city.