Tag: Book Review

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The Dumbest Generation is a dire report on the intellectual life of young adults and a timely warning of its impact on American democracy and culture

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the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, The Dumbest Generation is a dire report on the intellectual life of young adults and a timely warning of its impact on American democracy and culture. While this came out in 2009 it could not be more current . The recent unrest continues to point to a failure of public education .

For decades, concern has been brewing about the dumbed-down popular culture available to young people and the impact it has on their futures. But at the dawn of the digital age, many thought they saw an answer: the internet, email, blogs, and interactive and hyper-realistic video games promised to yield a generation of sharper, more aware, and intellectually sophisticated children. The terms “information superhighway” and “knowledge economy” entered the lexicon, and we assumed that teens would use their knowledge and understanding of technology to set themselves apart as the vanguards of this new digital era.

Continue reading The Dumbest Generation is a dire report on the intellectual life of young adults and a timely warning of its impact on American democracy and culture

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Overcoming the Hand You Were Dealt: One Woman’s Awe-Inspiring Story Of Tragedy To Triumph

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June 18,2018

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Raleigh NC, Deja’ was dealt a losing hand, and no one would have blamed her for simply accepting her fate. Her father died before she was born, and her mother chose drug addiction over her daughter. With loneliness consuming her, Deja’ could have folded. Should have folded. But instead, she learned how to recycle her pain, and she began drawing from every source of positive influence that entered her life: a God-loving grandmother, a supportive godmother and a street-savvy godfather who taught her how to redirect her pain and survive in this world.

But the challenges just kept coming, and Deja’ encountered countless betrayals and abuses along the way, which lead to an unhealthy marriage, and ultimately, a pattern of unhealthy relationships with men that lasted for several years. Aware that she is repeating a family cycle of poor choices, Deja’ needs to rally what’s left of her strength and determination to break that cycle. Will her fortitude be enough? Or will this final test break her spirit once and for all?

Overcoming the Hand You Were Dealt is the powerful new book from Kisha Taylor. Cultivated from her personal experience with abandonment, Overcoming weaves an authentic and captivating story of struggle, pain, hope and faith that culminates in a heartwarming climax of healing and restoration.

In addition to the book, Taylor’s website, lifeunlimited1.com, enables her to continue her passion for women’s emotional health, with courses that tap into the warrior in every woman, that cover abandonment issues and that help survivors understand why they act and feel the way they do. The website also houses inspirational items like T-shirts and mugs with messages of empowerment, and a blog with videos and messages of encouragement.

Author Kisha Taylor was born in Brooklyn, NY, and from a young age, she learned how to navigate the real world of hard knocks. She attended Binghamton University and Baruch College, where she studied accounting and psychology. She became counsel to many, sharing principles on surviving abuse, overcoming life’s challenges, healthy ways of handling personal mistakes and how to not surrender to self-defeat.

She is most proud of the lives her journey has impacted, as well as the happiness, confidence and emotional health she now has, which enables her to be a testament of, “You can, if you just don’t give up.”

To read more from Taylor, or to view her motivational videos, please visit www.lifeunlimited1.com.

Overcoming the Hand You Were Dealt
Pendium publishing
Released: February 2018
ISBN-10: 1944348409
ISBN-13: 978-1944348403
Available at www.lifeunlimited1.com, Amazon.com, and all other online outlets.

To view one of Taylor’s motivational videos, please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oFqKUAhL0w&t=250s.

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Ridgewood Blog Summer Sunday Book Review : Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman, by artist Jen Bissu

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Review of Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman, by artist Jen Bissu

I had very high hopes for this book. Perhaps that’s in part why I am so terribly disappointed. I must credit Harper Lee’s editors: it was a wise decision to insist that she rewrite this novel, and continue revising it, until it turned into the magnificent To Kill A Mockingbird that we all know and love. There are only perhaps two or three parts of this book that I found actually enjoyable; the rest I grudgingly endured. It had its good points: her vocabulary is strong, and some of the writing is eloquent. Unfortunately, much of the writing in this book is nebulous. There is a great deal of philosophizing, which I found tiresome. Also, most apparent in the beginning of the book, Lee chooses to “tell” the reader about her characters, rather than “show,” as she did in Mockingbird. “Showing” rather than “telling” is a much stronger writing technique. I found the “telling” juvenile, prosaic, and not engaging at all. Fortunately that ceased after the beginning of the book. If I weren’t so determined to read this book for its historical value, having been published some sixty years after it was written, I would’ve dropped it after the slow, poorly told beginning. So I pushed through, and upon completing it, I found myself with an empty, dissatisfied feeling. I’m almost sorry this book was published. I just re-read To Kill A Mockingbird very recently, in anticipation of this book, thus deepening the stark contrast between the brilliance and delightfulness of Mockingbird and this disappointing book. I do recommend reading it just for the sake of historical background, because it is interesting to see where one of the best, most revered pieces of American Literature got its start. I’m giving this three stars, which I feel is a bit generous, but I’ll allot extra credit for the admirable vocabulary.

Here is a video review/ discussion of the book that I feel hits the nail on the head. https://youtu.be/vPNk-0dv5_Y