Everts (The Reluctant Witness) and Cook, writer and vice president of global ministries, respectively, at Lutheran Hour Ministries, deliver a short, practical guide for neighborhood improvement aimed at faith-based community groups. The plan is divided into six sections—focus on possibilities, share individual gifts, value uniqueness, “long for neighborhood well-being,” imagine collaboratively, and create a plan—and instructs readers on the art of pursuing the common good of their neighborhood. The authors posit that “divisive media, partisan politics, and the basic fear of people different from ourselves” are common roadblocks hindering community action, and suggest seeing a neighborhood’s potential through a “well-being window” that frames cultural diversity, civic participation, residential equity, biodiversity, and adequate infrastructure as top priorities. Unfortunately, the authors rely on hollow platitudes (“you are limited by what you can personally see”) and obvious suggestions (such as to talk about the history of one’s neighborhood to process and overcome historical traumas), but never provide real-world examples from their work on neighborhood collaborations to demonstrate these principles in action. This doesn’t have all the answers, but for readers looking to become more locally engaged, it’s is a decent starting point. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 02/05/2021 | Details & Permalink

Historian Brady (Twelve Desperate Miles) delivers a dramatic group portrait of three teenage girls who fought in the Dutch resistance movement during WWII. Truus Oversteegen and her younger sister, Freddie, were born into a family active in leftist political circles in Haarlem, and after the German military overwhelmed Dutch defenses in 1940, the sisters, who were 17 and 15 years old, distributed copies of an anti-Nazi magazine and helped sabotage a speech by the head of the Dutch Nazi party. Eventually, they joined a resistance cell and met fellow teenager Hannie Schaft, who became known to the Gestapo as “The Girl with the Red Hair.” The trio took part in missions to save Jewish children from deportation, smuggle weapons, gather intelligence, destroy public infrastructure used by the Germans, and assassinate Dutch Nazis. Brady conveys the inhumanity of the period with precision, describing in one instance how Truus had to dispose of the corpse of an elderly Jewish woman who had gone into hiding at the home of fellow resistance members. This moving story spotlights the extraordinary heroism of everyday people during the war and the Holocaust. Agent: Farley Chase, Chase Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 02/05/2021 | Details & Permalink

Fletcher (Cosmic Democracies), professor of story science at Ohio State’s Project Narrative, delivers an innovative take on storytelling that shows how stories “plug into different regions of our brain.” Each chapter examines a literary invention, such as “The Empathy Generator” and “The Fairy-Tale Twist,” and shows how engaging with various authors and thinkers can shed light on the way modern works of literature and pop culture are received. One chapter focuses on the “Valentine Armor,” meant to ward off heartbreak, and begins with Cervantes’s Don Quixote, which inspired the mock romance of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones and led to themes in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. This blending of love and irony, Fletcher writes, is especially powerful because the two are processed in different parts of the brain, and “open our heart to other people without duping us into mistaking our own desires for the laws of reality.” The “Stress Transformer,” meanwhile, shows how Frankenstein led to such modern horror films as The Cabin in the Woods and considers the “physiological rush” from the fight-or-flight response and fictional scares. Fletcher proves that understanding the classics brings new life to the craft of literary creation. The result is a fresh take on the history of literature and a testament to the enduring power of reading. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 02/05/2021 | Details & Permalink

Despite the title, the unexpected pregnancy trope comes into play rather late into Pammi’s sensual second Born into Bollywood romance (after Claiming His Bollywood Cinderella), which instead focuses on reigniting the powerful flame between old lovers. Ten years earlier, Zara Khan was trying to break into Bollywood when she met Virat Raawal, a descendant of Bollywood royalty who was just starting out as a director himself. Their romance was intense, but Zara abruptly left Virat to work on a project with his famous older brother, Vikram. Zara and Vikram became fast friends and were incorrectly rumored by the press­­ to be dating—and Virat has never gotten over the perceived betrayal. Now all three are at the heights of their careers and Vikram is happily engaged, though the press paints him and his fiancée as monsters for supposedly breaking Zara’s heart. Virat, meanwhile, is caught in rumors of an affair with a minister’s wife. Zara concocts a plan to change the story: she and Virat will announce that they’re engaged. But faking a relationship soon brings up old pain—and old feelings. Zara makes a refreshingly honest and straightforward heroine, and her candor enhances her love story with Virat. Equal parts sweet and sexy, this is sure to please. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 02/05/2021 | Details & Permalink

Constitutions were not just records of political change and consolidation but historical objects and agents in their own right, according to this probing study. Princeton historian Colley (The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh) surveys dozens of constitutions from the 18th through the 20th centuries, including the 1755 constitution written by Corsican independence leader Pasquale Paoli, the 1889 Japanese constitution, and the 1838 constitution of Pitcairn Island (settled in 1790 by nine HMS Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions), one of the first charters to grant women the vote. Colley attributes the spread of constitutions to the rising scale and cost of trans-oceanic warfare, which led to crises that required governments to concede rights and political participation to their subjects. Print culture then spread the “new constitutional technology” around the world to inspire reformers—the 1790s, the author notes, saw a craze for amateur constitution-writing—and serve as sacred texts dissidents could rally around in their battles against oppressive states. Copiously researched and elegantly written, Colley’s treatise goes beyond the usual Anglo-American focus of constitutional history to show the global impact of the constitutionalist movement. The result is a fresh and illuminating take on these still-living documents. Photos. Agent: Michael Carlisle, InkWell Management. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 02/05/2021 | Details & Permalink

Paleoanthropologist DeSilva (A Most Interesting Problem) takes readers on a brisk jaunt through the history of bipedalism. Humans are the only living mammals to walk upright, the author notes, and in exploring how and why, he reveals what the fossil record says about the history of human evolution, migration, and social organization. “Homo erectus almost certainly moved in and out of Africa in pulses” rather than in one big wave, for example, and he describes various primate fossils that led to new discoveries in bipedalism, including those of Lucy, a 3.2-million-year-old skeleton whose bones confirmed “bipedalism appeared early in our evolutionary history.” DeSilva argues bipedalism is a “prerequisite for changes that define our species” as it freed up hands for tool-making, and investigates its implications on modern human life, including the creative benefits of walking and the complications it introduces into giving birth. DeSilva’s love of fossil discovery and of collaborating with colleagues comes through in the wonder he experiences in examining bones firsthand: “Light reflected from it as if it were a geode, not an ancient human fossil. I hadn’t expected Taung to be so beautiful.” DeSilva’s ability to turn anatomical evidence into a focused tale of human evolution and his enthusiasm for research will leave readers both informed and uplifted. Agent: Esmond Harmsworth, Aevitas Creative Management. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 02/05/2021 | Details & Permalink

Introverts can succesfully network and create authentic connections by embracing their strengths, advises business consultant Pollard (The Introvert’s Edge: How the Quiet and Shy Can Outsell Anyone) in this refreshing guide. Too much of standard networking is “transactional” he notes, and can feel “inauthentic and even sleezy.” As a remedy, he recommends introverts focus on “strategic networking,” a tightly scripted process of planning, listening, and reframing conversations. Pollard urges readers to “channel your superpower” and make connections in ways suited to their personality, namely “harnessing [the] introverted strength of preparation.” He walks readers through picking their targets, telling stories rather than hard-selling, using their passions to determine a niche, and creating their “Unified Message” (a two-to-three-word phrase to set off a conversation, as with a personal trainer who chooses to be called a “Strength Architect”). Planning and scripting are key, he stresses; it’s important to do 90% of the work before getting in the room, which will land as welcome advice for those who feel lost for words after a handshake. Pollard’s energetic, encouraging advice will give introverts the boost they need to make connections. Agent: Cynthia Zigmund, Second City Publishing. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 02/05/2021 | Details & Permalink

Wall Street Journal correspondents Parkinson and Hinshaw debut with a riveting chronicle of the 2014 kidnapping of a group of Nigerian schoolgirls by the terrorist group Boko Haram. Drawing on extensive interviews with several of the girls, the authors describe how the Islamic jihadists descended on the girls’ school in northeastern Nigeria in order to steal a brick-making machine, and ended up taking 276 of them as hostages and holding most of them for more than three years. Over 100 are still missing, and the ones who escaped or were released tell harrowing stories of starvation, beatings, and forced marriages. Parkinson and Hinshaw sketch the history of Boko Haram and its leader, Abubakar Shekau, a former child beggar; detail the complex diplomatic maneuvers to secure the release of some of the girls; and describe how the 2014 #BringBackOurGirls Twitter campaign, which was amplified by Mary J. Blige and Michelle Obama, brought the girls’ plight to the world’s attention and led to a large ransom being paid to the terrorist group. Written with compassion and insight, this deeply investigated account brings renewed attention to an ongoing tragedy. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 02/05/2021 | Details & Permalink

Neeley (The Language of Global Success), a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, shows in this much-needed survey that the seismic shift from in-person to virtual workplaces has been long underway and is here to stay. While Neely cites many benefits of remote work (increased productivity among them), she also shows that there are considerable drawbacks, including employee isolation, lack of synchronization and the ability to have shared goals, and problems with bonding and trust. To combat these challenges, she offers employers and managers research-based guidance, tackling common issues such as how to best use digital tools (cloud-based apps such as Slack and Microsoft Teams “require virtually no investment in infrastructure”), assess productivity, manage global teams across different cultures, and identify when remote working fails. Among the examples of companies who have made successful transitions to remote work, Neeley cites Unilever’s formation of agile teams and petrochemical company Tek’s move to add “respect for others and their cultural differences” to their annual employee evaluation criteria. A supremely helpful guide for addressing topics covered in each chapter rounds things out. Significant and timely, Neeley’s guidance will provide vital information to those struggling to work and lead in the virtual workplace. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 02/05/2021 | Details & Permalink

Former General Electric CEO Immelt looks back on what he terms his “controversial” 35 years at the company in this page-turning if petulant debut. Spurred to action because of a “histrionic” 2018 article in Fortune that called him “inept,” Immelt energetically recounts triumphs, failures, and the end of his time at GE in 2017: “I’d been about as brilliant as I was lucky, by which I mean: too often I was neither,” he quips. Immelt started as CEO the day before 9/11, taking over for Jack Welch (who had no shortage of “idol worshippers,” the author notes). His defensiveness about this transition shines through, and he points out that he took over “without speaking a single negative word” about Welch, with whom he had a tumultuous relationship. Immelt’s account reveals the inner workings at GE, including efforts to clean up the Hudson River, corporate board issues, and the decline of GE Capital. Though it’s presented as a leadership book (sections are headed with such koans as “Leaders Show Up” and “Leaders Manage Complexity”), instead of guidance Immelt opts for succinct, personal writing that often comes across as self-exoneration. Readers in search of a behind-the-scenes look at GE will be entertained, but those looking for business wisdom can give it a pass. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 02/05/2021 | Details & Permalink