Elevate Difference

Reviews by Kristin Conard

Kristin Conard

Kristin Conard is a writing instructor in New Jersey by way of Kansas, New Mexico and England. As a child, she wanted to be a librarian, because she thought that the librarian was the one who got to write all the books in the library. Her obsession with reading and writing has continued, and when she is not grading papers and lesson planning, she is working on a collection of essays and planning her next trip.

Tillie Olsen: One Woman, Many Riddles

Part of Panthea Reid’s title seems to allude to Tillie Olsen’s 1961 collection of short stories, Tell Me a Riddle. It also seems to highlight the layers of complexity in a woman hailed as an iconic writer and feminist. Reid doesn’t idealize Olsen.

Makeover TV: Selfhood, Citizenship, and Celebrity

Makeovers are everywhere in today’s society, though I had never really given much thought to them until I read Brenda R. Weber’s Makeover TV. Weber points out that we are making over everything: bodies, houses, cars, hair, lifestyles, wardrobes, and even pets. Now that I am more sensitive to it, I realized we seem to be obsessed with change.

Goodbye Wifes and Daughters

In 1943, as the world dealt with trauma and tragedy in Europe and the Pacific during World War II, another catastrophe unfolded in Bearcreek, Montana. The Smith Coal Mine was one of the largest employers for the town, and the men worked six days a week around the clock to help provide coal for the war effort. But one morning, a fire broke out in the mine and 80 miners were trapped underground with little hope for escape.

Murder in the Name of Honor: The True Story of One Woman's Heroic Fight Against an Unbelievable Crime

Rana Husseini is a journalist from Jordan, and in Murder in the Name of Honor, she writes of the aftermath and trauma of honor killings in Jordan and around the world that she has researched and witnessed. Honor killings are defined as the murder of a woman by a family member(s), usually a man or men, because the woman has in some way brought dishonor upon the family.

Woman as Design: Before, Behind, Between, Above, Below

Stephen Bayley’s Woman as Design is a large, and fairly heavy, coffee table book that examines how a woman’s body has inspired and changed the world. A woman’s body has been used as the inspiration (whether conscious or unconscious) for a myriad of products including cars, soda bottles, and buildings. Divided into two parts, part one focuses on the sexualized and eroticized parts of a woman’s body and dress in a more historical context.

Another Life Altogether

Elaine Beale crafts the engrossing coming-of-age and coming out story of Jesse Bennet in Another Life Altogether. Jesse lives on the northeast coast of England, one of the world’s fastest eroding coastlines. The constant threat of the breakdown of the cliffs is mirrored by Jesse’s mother’s constant threat of mental collapse.

Keeping the Campfires Going: Native Women’s Activities in Urban Communities

Keeping the Campfires Going: Native Women's Activism in Urban Communities is a collection of essays featuring the struggles and triumphs of Native women living in urban communities. Written about people living throughout North America from San Francisco to Chicago to Vancouver to Anchorage, the essays focus on the role that women have played in keeping their native people connected as a community.

Prospect Park West

Brooklyn’s famously high-end and yuppie Park Slope neighborhood is nearly a character itself in Amy Sohn’s Prospect Park West. The book follows the lives of four women living in the neighborhood. There is Melora Leigh, a troubled actress, who joins the neighborhood co-op for good PR. Her time there ties her to Karen Shapiro, an overly protective mother and social climber desperate for a new apartment in the best school district.

Lost Alphabet

Lisa Olstein’s second collection of poems, Lost Alphabet, is a beautiful book of prose poems. The poems are written as entries in a naturalist’s notebook, and the entries are split into five sections. The speaker of the poems is never given a name, but is a lepidopterist living on the outskirts of a village of people that are not her own.

Life Is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally

Thirty-seven days after being diagnosed with cancer, author Patti Digh’s stepfather died. It is this moment that inspired the book Life Is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally.

The Importance of Being Iceland: Travel Essays in Art

Eileen Myles’ The Importance of Being Iceland: Travel Essays in Art begins with travels in Iceland. Myles writes about her own writing and research on art and culture in the little island country. From there, it moves in any number of ways, yet always comes back to an affirmation of life for all of its complications and trials. Myles is an intensely alive and proud woman, lesbian, and artist with a widely varied and beautiful personal history.

Crazy Sexy Cancer Survivor: More Rebellion and Fire or Your Healing Journey

Kris Carr was diagnosed with chronic cancer and instead of sitting around and waiting to die, she began to really live. She reshaped her life from the inside physically and mentally.

So Happy Together

So Happy Together is Maryann McFadden’s second novel in which the themes of love, change, and nature—along with a strong and very human woman protagonist—are at the heart. Claire Noble is a forty-five-year-old woman in the “sandwich” generation; she has to juggle living her own life while caring for her daughter, as well as her aging parents.

Trailer Trashed: My Dubious Efforts Toward Upward Mobility

Hollis Gillespie is a mother, writer, friend, sister, girlfriend, daughter and more. Her third book, Trailer Trashed, is comprised of touching and hilarious essays that shed light on all the different aspects of her life.

The Cult of Celebrity: What Our Fascination with the Stars Reveals About Us

I must admit that I have a minor addiction to so-called celebrity news. I’ll read People magazine at the gym and admit to having a fascination with hearing more about my favorite stars. This addiction is explained in The Cult of Celebrity. The book breaks down our addiction by first equating it to worship. Celebrities are, to some extent, deified. They are put on a pedestal, separate and special from the rest of us.

Bitchin' Kitchen Cookbook: Rock Your Kitchen-And Let the Boys Clean Up the Mess

The cliché don’t judge a book by its cover doesn’t hold true in regards to the Bitchin' Kitchen Cookbook, which depicts a glistening topless guy next to a meat cleaver wielding tattooed woman wearing a beehive hairdo and a leather apron.

Magdalene and the Mermaids

After reading Elizabeth Kate Switaj’s collection of poetry Magdalene and the Mermaids, I decided I wanted to know a bit more about her. It turns out that she grew up in Seattle, spent years in Asia teaching English and traveling, lived briefly in Brooklyn, and is now back in Seattle.

Write Here: A Journal for You

Many journals are just plain, bound, lined pages. Others overwhelm with too many pictures or inspirational quotes.

Kilobyte Couture: Geek Chic Jewelry to Make From Easy-to-Find Computer Components

As someone who has recently begun making and designing jewelry using the standard materials—such as beads, chains, ribbons—I was impressed to see a book about jewelry made from computer parts. Yes, that’s right, computer parts. Written by former Etsy seller Brittany Forks, Kilobyte Couture touts itself as "geek chic", but I think many of the designs and styles are simply chic!

Button It Up: 80 Amazing Vintage Button Projects for Necklaces, Bracelets, Embellishments, Housewares, & More

As a child, I remember marveling at the quart jar full of old buttons at my grandmother’s house; I would pour them out onto the floor and separate out the ones that I thought were the prettiest.

The Hedgehog’s Dilemma: A Tale of Obsession, Nostalgia, and the World’s Most Charming Mammal

I remember the first time that I saw a hedgehog. I was studying abroad in England, returning home after a night out, and outside my flat I heard a snuffling sound in the underbrush. Seconds later, a small hedgehog toddled out, seemingly unfazed by our presence.

30 Days in Sydney: A Wildly Distorted Account

Peter Carey’s 30 Days in Sydney: A Wildly Distorted Account is one of the most accurately named books that I’ve read recently. This book is not a traditional travel narrative, and it gains so much from that. The twists and turns inherent in Sydney’s history and people are developed throughout the book not only in the words, but in the style of the book. It is indeed a wildly distorted account, and an unapologetic one.

Dreams from the Monster Factory: A Tale of Prison, Redemption, and One Woman’s Fight to Restore Justice to All

I have been in a fairly low-key battle with my landlord over him not fixing the gutter that fell of the house in a windstorm a month ago. Before that, I was engaged in a fight against the post office for delivering our mail to the apartment below us. I’ve realized that I have a hair trigger for injustice; though, up until now, my causes have been a bit, shall we say, unimportant.

The $trip

Mafia hits, scandal, celebrity, subterfuge, Vegas. The $trip by E. Duke Vincent seems to have all you would want in a guilty pleasure read.

The Clothes on Their Backs: A Novel

To be particularly honest, I am partial to any and all texts set in Britain, and The Clothes On Their Backs is set in London. So I was already loving the book before I started reading. My love only grew as I went on. The story is of Vivien Kovacs, daughter of Jewish Hungarian immigrants. Vivien grew up in Benson Court, with parents who much preferred staying home than going out.

When Push Came to Shove: Mormon Martyrs in an Unrelenting Bible Belt 1821-1923

William Whitridge Hatch originally started writing on Mormon relations in the South as a graduate student, and his work has become a life-long quest.

Working the Skies: The Fast-Paced, Disorienting World of the Flight Attendant

In Working the Skies, Drew Whitelegg takes the interviews and study of a multitude of flight attendants and creates a readable, enjoyable tale of the perils and possibilities flight attendants face. The book is part psychology, part history and part cultural study with plenty of personal tales from retired and active flight attendants.

Clothing Labels

A business-sized envelope arrived in the mail with over a dozen samples from ClothingLabels4U.com. ClothingLabels4U.com is well aware of the importance of brand recognition in making clothing or crafts marketable and memorable; many of the labels they sent had their website and phone number advertised. They offer a variety of hanging labels, woven labels, care tags and logo tags. They come in paper, iron-on, stick-on and fabrics. All the samples I received were square or rectangle, though according to the website they can print die-cut designs. Sizes range from ½ inch to 4 inches.
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