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184 reviews for:
Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead--My Life Story
Cecile Richards
4.31 AVERAGE
184 reviews for:
Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead--My Life Story
Cecile Richards
4.31 AVERAGE
Memoirists take note: Around 300 pages. Lacks excessive boring details. Avoided gratuitous name-dropping. Fun photos. Nuggets of leadership wisdom along with way.
She is a spectacular woman!
She is a spectacular woman!
Okay, I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did. I heard Cecile Richards on The Daily Show mention her book, and when it popped up through aimless scrolling on Overdrive, I figured hey, why not.
Granted, most of the information in Cecile's book is new to me, due to me not being from or living in the United States. I knew about Planned Parenthood being an organisation that makes the political right get their knickers in a twist, though beyond that, I didn't know much else. So, perhaps this book was doubly interesting to me.
I enjoyed learning about Cecile's experiences across the spectrum - from being her mother's daughter, from becoming a mother herself, and her experiences in Planned Parenthood, right up to recent conversations with Jared and Ivanka Trump.
If you have expectations, I can't give guidance on how you might find this, but because I went with it on a whim, I was more than pleasantly surprised.
Granted, most of the information in Cecile's book is new to me, due to me not being from or living in the United States. I knew about Planned Parenthood being an organisation that makes the political right get their knickers in a twist, though beyond that, I didn't know much else. So, perhaps this book was doubly interesting to me.
I enjoyed learning about Cecile's experiences across the spectrum - from being her mother's daughter, from becoming a mother herself, and her experiences in Planned Parenthood, right up to recent conversations with Jared and Ivanka Trump.
If you have expectations, I can't give guidance on how you might find this, but because I went with it on a whim, I was more than pleasantly surprised.
3.5 stars. This is one of those books where the content is good but the actual writing made it a bit slow. I feel that it's a commendable trait for someone in the public eye to use their platform to talk about other great people they know, particularly women, but reading a whole book of it just starts to feel like lists. "Let me tell you about A, who did this great thing... but also let me tell you about B and she was involved in...." Part of my lukewarm response to this might be because I've been paying attention to reproductive justice and politics for a while now, and so there's a lot of this that I already knew.
A fantastic read that can inspire you to hope for a better future for America. Highly suggested for anyone who is feeling beaten down by the current political climate.
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
The women’s empowerment reads continue! I had the pleasure of meeting Cecile Richards at Rutgers last year and am happy to have bought a book for her to sign. She is a great example for women— hardworking, thoughtful, not one to back down from a fight, and a mother to three children who turned out to be wonderful troublemakers too. My favorite part was when she recalled the 2016 election. We shared so many of the same feelings of defeat, yet knew that doing better for yourself and others is the only way to move forward. Read this book!
Wow! She has lived an amazing life and isn't done yet! Does a great job telling of the struggle for women to keep their health care rights. It is crazy that in this day and age, we are still fighting old white men for the right to get a pap test and access to birth control!!
Cecile Richards started working in politics and activism when she created her own recycling organization as a kid, she did internships during college, she worked on her mom's campaign for Governor, she started the Texas Freedom Network to fight changes to remove facts from history and science textbooks, she cofounded America Votes, and was President of Planned Parenthood.
Don't skip the epilogue: Cecile says she gets asked almost every day by CEOs and people on the street, "What can I do?" She says this question is really: "Now that we can no longer take for granted that America will slowly but surely make progress our entire world seems to be spinning out of control and were fighting tooth-and-nail to protect our most human rights, how do we make it all better?"
This book is her response using her own experiences as examples; from the epilogue: "Right now, our country has some major soul-searching to do. We have to figure out how to address the fear and disruption that many people are feeling and continue to fight for the rights of women, immigrants, LGBTQ people, people of color, and anyone else who needs support. To do that we're going to have to ask tough questions speak clearly about what we believe and maybe even let of the political labels that have defined these kinds of debates for too long. Here's the good news, there's never been a better time to become an activist agitator or trouble maker. I promise you, doing something whether it's showing up at a town hall meeting, getting some friends together to start your own organization, or just refusing to keep quiet about what you believe feels infinitely better than sitting on the sidelines."
Of course, the people she mentions have always been in this position, and there have always been a few white men or people in positions of power who have been allies or accomplices to women, people of color, immigrants, and LGBTQ. Hopefully what we see is that number of people allies and accomplices is rising as the vestiges of racism and sexism engage in their long drawn out death throws over the next 100 years or so (since that seems to be how long steps in human rights take). We need to be more.
As Cecile says, "Looking back on my life so far, the moments I regret most are the ones when I was too scared to take a chance. The moments when I didn't know what to do and so did nothing. In some ways, being an activist in public is easy. Standing up for yourself in your own life can be much harder." As an example, Cecile regrets not saying something when sexually harassed or finding out she was paid less for fear of losing opportunities to learn and grow in her career - and hopes that women soon won't have to experience the same.
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I wish the book had had less detail about the 2016 campaign. I enjoyed hearing about the Planned Parenthood testimony, Ann Richards's campaign, the Texas Freedom Network, and America Votes, but felt the 2016 campaign had too much detail comparatively. It was very important that she gave the names of Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, Lucy McBath, mother of Jordan Davis, Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner, Geneva Reed-Veal, mother of Sandra Bland, Maria Hamilton, mother of Dontre Hamilton. But other places it just dragged.
Don't skip the epilogue: Cecile says she gets asked almost every day by CEOs and people on the street, "What can I do?" She says this question is really: "Now that we can no longer take for granted that America will slowly but surely make progress our entire world seems to be spinning out of control and were fighting tooth-and-nail to protect our most human rights, how do we make it all better?"
This book is her response using her own experiences as examples; from the epilogue: "Right now, our country has some major soul-searching to do. We have to figure out how to address the fear and disruption that many people are feeling and continue to fight for the rights of women, immigrants, LGBTQ people, people of color, and anyone else who needs support. To do that we're going to have to ask tough questions speak clearly about what we believe and maybe even let of the political labels that have defined these kinds of debates for too long. Here's the good news, there's never been a better time to become an activist agitator or trouble maker. I promise you, doing something whether it's showing up at a town hall meeting, getting some friends together to start your own organization, or just refusing to keep quiet about what you believe feels infinitely better than sitting on the sidelines."
Of course, the people she mentions have always been in this position, and there have always been a few white men or people in positions of power who have been allies or accomplices to women, people of color, immigrants, and LGBTQ. Hopefully what we see is that number of people allies and accomplices is rising as the vestiges of racism and sexism engage in their long drawn out death throws over the next 100 years or so (since that seems to be how long steps in human rights take). We need to be more.
As Cecile says, "Looking back on my life so far, the moments I regret most are the ones when I was too scared to take a chance. The moments when I didn't know what to do and so did nothing. In some ways, being an activist in public is easy. Standing up for yourself in your own life can be much harder." As an example, Cecile regrets not saying something when sexually harassed or finding out she was paid less for fear of losing opportunities to learn and grow in her career - and hopes that women soon won't have to experience the same.
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I wish the book had had less detail about the 2016 campaign. I enjoyed hearing about the Planned Parenthood testimony, Ann Richards's campaign, the Texas Freedom Network, and America Votes, but felt the 2016 campaign had too much detail comparatively. It was very important that she gave the names of Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, Lucy McBath, mother of Jordan Davis, Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner, Geneva Reed-Veal, mother of Sandra Bland, Maria Hamilton, mother of Dontre Hamilton. But other places it just dragged.
Fun read, but definitely aimed more at young adults (young women) than at my age group.