April 2023 MBR Reviewer's Choice

Reviewer's Choice

Women's Entrepreneurship Policy: A Global Perspective
Colette Henry, et al.
Edward Elgar Publishing
9 Dewey Court, Northampton, MA 01060-3815
www.e-elgar.com
9781800374645, $145.00 HC / $40.00 ebook, 266pp

https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/women-s-entrepreneurship-policy-9781800374645.html

Synopsis: Collaboratively compiled and co-edited by the team of Colette Henry (Adjunct Professor, Griffith University, Australia), Susan Coleman (Professor Emerita, University of Hartford, US), and Kate V. Lewis (Reader, Newcastle University, UK), "Women's Entrepreneurship Policy: A Global Perspective" is comprised of contributions from members of the Global Women's Entrepreneurship Policy Research Network that explores and critiques contemporary policy instruments while also pointing toward potential policy solutions.

Individual chapters aim to deepen understanding of women's entrepreneurship policy and raise awareness among policy makers, programme managers and academics of the dangers associated with gender-blind entrepreneurship policies. "Women's Entrepreneurship Policy: A Global Perspective" then concludes that 'one size fits all' policies that ignore the gender dimension do not support women entrepreneurs effectively.

Research-based and international in approach, "Women's Entrepreneurship Policy: A Global Perspective" will be a useful guide for academics and advanced students in the areas of entrepreneurship, gender and management, diversity and management, and international business. It will also be beneficial for policy makers and those involved in designing and delivering women's entrepreneurship programs.

Critique: Informatively enhanced for the readers with the inclusion of illustrations, tables, a listing of the contributors and their credentials, and a sixty-nine page index, "Women's Entrepreneurship Policy: A Global Perspective" is an impressively seminal work that is a particularly and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, corporate, and academic library Contemporary Women's Business & Entrepreneurship collections and supplemental MBS curriculum studies lists. It should be noted that "Women's Entrepreneurship Policy: A Global Perspective" is also available from Edward Elgar Publishing in a digital book format ($40.00).

100 Things to Do in Wisconsin Before You Die
Dannelle Gay
Reedy Press
PO Box 5131, St. Louis, MO 63139
www.reedypress.com
9781681064192, $22.50, PB, 192pp

https://www.amazon.com/100-Things-Wisconsin-Before-You/dp/1681064197

Synopsis: Known as the Dairy State, Wisconsin is world famous for its cheese, beer, brats, and so much more. With the publication of "100 Things to Do in Wisconsin Before You Die", Wisconsin author Dannelle Gay has produced a comprehensive guide to all the must-see, must-taste, and must-do activities with suggestions and ideas for the whole family.

Readers are encouraged to don their foam cheese hat and feel the thrill of a whole state full of die-hard sports fans and Go Packers! Experience breathtaking nature along miles of sandy beaches and take in the fresh air while hiking or biking through one of Wisconsin's 66 state parks. Enjoy a leisurely dinner at a supper club -- a true and distinctive Wisconsin experience.

Moreover, they can eat farm to fork in a state that boasts an amazing and diverse agricultural history that covers everything from cranberries to goats. Sleep on a submarine or ride the only Zephyr shovel nose steamer train available in the world. Learn about experimental aircraft in OshKosh or check out one of the dozens of living history museums like Old World Wisconsin or Heritage Hill in Green Bay.

From outdoor activities to family fun, there's something for everyone in Wisconsin in a DIY guidebook filled with insider's tips and itineraries for every season.

Critique: Exceptionally well organized and presented, "100 Things to Do in Wisconsin Before You Die" is an excellent and recommended resource for planning day trips, weekend adventures, and holiday itineraries for both the native born and the tourist visitor alike! Enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of a section of full color photography, "100 Things to Do in Wisconsin Before You Die" is an ideal and essential addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library Wisconsin Travel Guide collections.

Editorial Note: Dannelle Gay (https://www.facebook.com/dannelle.gay) is a Wisconsin native who has been writing about travel for over a decade under the moniker The Traveling Cheesehead. As a professional chef who had her own restaurant, she loves discovering different locations through their unique food. She helps others live a champagne life on a beer budget and thinks travel should be a huge part of that. She hopes that "100 Things to Do in Wisconsin Before You Die" for Wisconsin residents and visitors is a useful guide that helps them do just that.

Four Battlegrounds
Paul Scharre
W.W. Norton
500 Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10110
www.wwnorton.com
9780393866865, $32.50

https://www.amazon.com/Four-Battlegrounds-Power-Artificial-Intelligence/dp/0393866866

Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence goes beyond the usual consideration of AI potentials and threats to consider the underlying battle to control it which has already pitted nations against one another. It comes from a defense expert whose position lends to an in-depth coverage of the political maneuverings and possibilities of those who would harness AI for their own purposes, providing a framework for understanding both these rivalries and their impact on political structures, from democratic processes to totalitarian regimes. AI is already shifting power dynamics at all levels of society; often quite unconsciously to ordinary consumers and citizens. This is why a thorough grounding in Four Battlegrounds is so necessary in order for everyone to understand the lines being drawn, the stakes in winning this battle, and the intersection of AI and technology with human interests.

Twist: An American Girl
Adele Bertei
ZE Books
https://www.zebooks.com
9781736309339, $28.00, HC, 250pp

https://www.amazon.com/Twist-American-Girl-Adele-Bertei/dp/1736309331

Synopsis: With the publication of "Twist: An American Girl", iconoclastic writer and musician Adele Bertei reveals a wholly original hero's journey that wages war on the cliche of the "misery memoir."

Set in a 1960s and '70s American neighborhood rife with poverty and violence, fatherless Irish mothers and Italian mobsters, and women crucified into madness by misogyny, Bertei speaks through her electrically alive avatar Maddie Twist to flip the victim script. Through her unshakable belief in imagination, poetry, music, and community, she transforms trauma into survival. The immediacy of Maddie's voice is a revelation, providing insight into long-enduring systemic problems without the scrim of adult analysis. In an age of lies and obfuscation,

As a deeply personal and candid memoir, "Twist: An American Girl" is a sharp yet tender arrow to the heart of naked truth as Bertei reveals what it's like to be a queer teen at a time when discovery could be fatal.

Maddie peers deeply into the American psyche, refusing to consent to the systems of harm. Along the way we encounter an unforgettable schizophrenic mother, Catholic saints, West Side Story and Oliver!, poet killers, the abyss of rape, girl-gangsters and faux-pimps, teenage lesbian sex, racial tensions and misconceived divides, a drag family known as the Holy Maudlins, Vietnam vets in dark and light, cabaret, true family, rock and roll. And the ultimate saving grace: love.

A compelling personal history of queer culture from a working-class view and a glimpse into worlds yet unseen, "Twist: An American Girl" is good medicine: for readers who've experienced similar traumas, for teens caught in the foster care system, for the formerly incarcerated looking for hope, for writers grappling with how to tell their own stories. Most of all, it's for everyone seeking transportive experiences in art and on the page.

Critique: Fascinating, candid, informative, intimate, insightful, emotional, deftly crafted, intensely personal, "Twist: An American Girl" is one of those life stories that will linger in the mind and memory long after the book has been finished and set back upon the shelf. Of special relevance to readers with an interest in LGBTQ biographies and memoirs, "Twist: An American Girl" is very strongly recommended for community and academic library American Biography/Memoir collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Twist: An American Girl" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $10.99).

Editorial Note: Adele Bertei (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adele_Bertei)is an American singer, songwriter, writer and director whose music career began in Cleveland with Peter Laughner of Pere Ubu. She entered New York's downtown scene of the late 1970s as an organist for the Contortions and went on to form the Bloods, the first out, queer, all women-rock band. Bertei has appeared in several indie films, most notably Lizzie Borden's Born in Flames and The Offenders. As a singer/songwriter, she has toured with, written songs for, and recorded as a backup vocalist for a diverse group of artists including Tears for Fears, Thomas Dolby, Sandra Bernhard, Culture Club, Scritti Politti, Whitney Houston, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Sheena Easton, Oleta Adams, Lydia Lunch, the Pointer Sisters, Matthew Sweet, and Sophie B. Hawkins. Bertei charted top twenty internationally with featured leads on Thomas Dolby's "Hyperactive!" and Jellybean's "Just a Mirage." Bertei is also the author of Peter and the Wolves, a short memoir of her rock and roll education.

Handwritten Notes
Carrie Pierce
Hiccup Press
9798987090305, $11.95 Paper/$4.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/Handwritten-Notes-Learn-Powerful-Enrich/dp/B0BJN7H7VV

Handwritten Notes: Learn How a Small, Powerful Act Can Enrich Your Life covers not just how to write notes, but how to communicate more effectively and personally via a rapidly-diminishing art form: the handwritten (not typed!) note.

Readers expecting a primer on how to write actually receive much more than another creative writing lesson. Carrie Pierce addresses the wider-ranging impact of the handwritten note, discussing the broader force of personal interaction rituals that have been largely replaced by technological distance and a from-the-hip shooting style of impulsive responding. Handwritten notes require more thought, purpose, and thinking about others. They inject a form of personal psychological inspection as communiques are put onto paper, taking the modern propensity for succinct interactions and expanding it into a deeper effort that promises greater rewards via improved life connections.

The promise of personal enrichment is presented from the start: "If you read the book closely enough you might convince yourself that this practice of writing notes by hand and sending them out into the world can do more than simply express thoughts, it can actually fill your life with greater joy and abundance." While this sounds lofty (and might, indeed, feel impossible) to generations raised in the age of technology, Pierce explores how heartfelt communications can change relationships and lives.

Both a lost art and a form of magic, the effort of putting a thought to paper via pen fulfills the promise of a type of closeness that has largely been dissolved by the distance created by typewriter, computers, and voice commands. From the neuroscience behind note-writing efforts to famous notes of others and the psychology that drives them to succeed where other avenues of communication fail, Pierce makes a thought-provoking argument for the power of the pen and the influence of written words that take time to be produced.

Handwritten Notes teaches by example, including reflections on Carnegie and others whose approaches fulfilled the goal of creating and fostering authentic connection. It also considers the long-term effects of isolation created by reliance on devices and technology over personal interactions, including case histories of disparate individuals. These include the author's own father, whose health and psyche was heavily impacted by the distance created by COVID isolation.

The book is far more than another 'how to write' guide, but a social survey of the handwritten note's impact, potential, and inspirational results. Handwritten Notes represents a promise, an opportunity, and a return to basics. Libraries and readers that pursue its wisdom will find its promise of abundance to be inspirational reading, promoting a form of connection that can reap surprising rewards via deeper authentic relationships.

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