ginasbookreport

Selling the Dream: The Billion-Dollar Industry Bankrupting Americans by Jane Marie Publisher:  Atria Books Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Non-Fiction Read This If You Love:  The Dream  podcast / Cultish by Amanda Montell "...as many as 99 percent of those who do join [MLMs] make no money or even lose money." Selling the Dream by Jane Marie is an exploration of the MLM (multi-level marketing) industry and dives even deeper than her hit podcast The Dream . If you have ever received a message from a former classmate who is looking to help you "build your dream life" or "become your own boss" and you just rolled your eyes until they stuck, then this is a book (and podcast) for you. How and why do these companies prey upon mostly women who are looking to make extra money to help their families? What tactics are applied to get smart people to sign up, pay a huge fee, and then get trapped in the cycle of needing to sign up more and more people each mont...

Fodor’s Travel Puerto Rico by Fodor’s Travel Publications Inc. Publisher:  Fodor’s Travel Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Non-Fiction Read This If You Love:  Love to travel To celebrate a milestone birthday, we headed off to Puerto Rico in May. We picked up the Fodor’s Travel Puerto Rico  guide to help plan our visit…where to stay, what to do, where to eat, what foods to try, shopping, outings, etc. There were some hits and some misses, but overall the guide was a good way to build our vacation. Stay… We booked our stay at La Concha Resort and while the guide did mention that is a club spot, I had no clue it was going to be such a party place. Not having children, we were looking for a place with minimal little ones. While there were a few families with kids at the resort, it was mostly 20-40 year olds and LOTS of loud thumping music at all hours. If this is what you are looking for, great. If you need some sleep and quiet time, book another place. On ...

Spare by Prince Harry Publisher:  Random House Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Memoir / Non-fiction Read This If You Love:  Autobiographies “Carpe your diem while you may.” Spare  is a heartbreakingly raw and personal story of someone the world thinks we know, but (spoiler alert) we don’t. A rare look at the inner-workings of one of the world’s most public families is what will entice a lot of readers to this book. However, this is one man’s story of his life…a life that at 38 is packed full of complex experiences. While so much has been made of his statements about his family members, I was struck by the honesty of his daily life—eating dinner over the sink and being lonely, dealing publicly with grief and anxiety, and finding a way to carve out his own life when so many expectations lay on his shoulders.  My number one takeaway is that Harry has done tons of therapy work to deal with trauma and family dysfunction. I dare say that his family...

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell Publisher:  HarperCollins Publishers Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Nonfiction Read This If You Love:  Linguistics, Cult Documentaries, Interest in Sociology As a sociology minor, I’ve always had a fascination with cults and cultish type societal groups. Cultish  explores the language behind what draws people into cults, whether it is the Moonies or #bossbabe culture. I found this book packed full of interesting insight into how language is manipulated to both attract and keep the devoted faithfuls. I consume a rather high number of cult documentaries (which is a subculture of cultish behavior in itself). In one of those documentaries, Montell appeared on screen and gave details regarding that particular topic so I grabbed a copy of her book.  The book is divided into parts and the first section delves into how “normal” people get drawn in and that it isn’t so much what the cult leaders say as how t...