Photos of the event can be found here.

The project is an initiative driven by the Seven Sisters colleges that remain single-sex in conjunction with the State Department to attract more women to careers “in public service and political leadership to forge global solutions to improve governance, expand civil rights, and combat corruption,” as the program’s mission statement explains.

The launch began with a morning Colloquium at the State Department building, in which attendees had the opportunity to hear accomplished women across numerous fields speak about the merits and challenges of female leadership.

Highlights included speeches from the 64th Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, current Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, President of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga, 2011 Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde, feminist activist Gloria Steinem, and Chiedza Mufunde ’12.

President Jahjaga was a personal favorite of many Mount Holyoke attendees. “She was hopeful, accomplished and extremely modest. She’s achieved an enormous amount in a small amount of time. It was wonderful to see an international, little known leader who is making lasting change in her part of the world,” said Jenna Lempesis ’12.

Jenna Ruddock ’13 had a similar impression “[She] epitomized poise and eloquence, and as she spoke about her vision for her country’s future I found both her optimism and also her decidedly pragmatic outlook to be genuinely refreshing.”

After a morning full of panelists and speakers, the audience walked a little over a mile and a half to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

As students and representatives from the Seven Sisters dined, an afternoon program featured words from Claire Boyd ’12 and United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer to bring an end to the day.

To facilitate networking, attendees were asked to limit the number of students to three per table and include faculty representatives that the different colleges presented.

With providing networking opportunities as a major goal of the project’s launch, the administrations of the participating colleges took many efforts to increase the number of opportunities for the students to meet each other.

Such efforts included a dessert buffet the night before the Colloquium to allow students to socialize. Many students found this time helpful, such as Ruddock. “I actually reconnected with a Wellesley student who had been a high school classmate of mine before moving to Switzerland after our sophomore year,” she said.

Also featured at the dessert social was Farah Pandith, Special Representative to Muslim Communities at the State Department.

Pandith shared with the students her history as a Student Government President and how this ultimately led to her position within the office of First Lady Barbara Bush upon her graduation in 1990.

Many students favored Pandith’s relaxed and candid speaking style. Kirsten Therrien ’14, SGA Public Relations Officer, cited Pandith as her favorite speaker.

“I thoroughly enjoyed her story of how she made it to D.C., beginning with Mrs. Bush reading her address to Smith students as their Student Government President. Although I don’t currently see myself going into public service, or having her luck and eloquence, I could still relate to some of her story. The type of leadership she had at Smith is similar to my own-being on the SGA Executive Board at a sister school as well.”

Pandith’s speech came after a very long day, as Mount Holyoke students had left at 7:45 a.m. that morning for a long bus ride down to Washington, D.C.

“It was reading days so So Jin [Lee ’13], Kara [Matsuzawa’12] and I decided to stay up all night before the ride, working on our finals. Needless to say, the ride went by pretty quickly, having slept the whole time,” reflected Emily Bouvier ’13, former Chair of Senate for SGA.

The Women in Public Service Project will continue to unfold this summer, when Wellesley will host the first conference of over 50 up-and-coming female leaders from around the world. The conference will include workshops on topics pertaining to career advancement and networking in public service fields.

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Tailored for “Young South Asian women raised in the United States,” the advice column allows readers to submit questions and benefit from Nanda’s experience that magazines like Seventeen or Cosmopolitan probably wouldn’t know how, or bother, to answer.

The Mount Holyoke News: What inspired the idea for your column?

Seema Nanda: I like to read advice columns and have been reading them for a long time, to the extent that my mom used to call me Dear Abby when I was a teenager. I came up with the idea because the magazine’s audience is 17-24. I’m in my thirties, so I figured an aunty figure would be perfect.

MHN: Do you feel Brown Girl Magazine does a good job at catering to your ethnic identity?

SN: To some extent it does address things that are different. I have the experience of growing up in a family with similar values and expectations. I’ve already been through this stuff, so I can relate. Plus, the benefit of hindsight and being able to look backward is always helpful when looking at any problem.

MHN: What are some topics you’ve received questions about?

SN: So far, most of it has revolved around maintaining a balance between your family’s expectations and what you want. One girl wrote asking for advice on how to talk to her parents about having a boyfriend who isn’t Indian. She knows she’s doing something her family isn’t going to be crazy about, but she’s also not going to find much help with this kind of thing in Seventeen, or whatever people are reading these days. That’s where I can come in. When she asks me that question, I already know that her parents aren’t going to approve and the kinds of pressures she’s up against. This helps to understand the problem on a deeper level and it automatically puts me in a good position to be able to help her understand how to handle it.

MHN: What issues are closest to your heart?

SN: The hardest thing I remember is trying to communicate with my parents. This is a hard thing for everyone, but within this specific community it can feel even more so. The thing is, there are all these special expectations from all of
these people in your life, plus you’re expected to stick to a set of values. Everyone has this struggle, a balance between expectations and what you yourself want to do. It’s really hard to figure out where you are in the range and where you want to be in that range.

MHN: Have you come across questions that you don’t feel comfortable answering?

SN: There was one girl who asked how she could stay trendy but also dress respectfully enough for her conservative family. I had no idea how to even go about answering that, but I was able to pass her question on to our fashion editor. The staff is great with communication, collaboration and supporting each other so that we can better support our readers. The News had a Mount Holyoke College student turn to Seema Aunty to see what she could offer:

“Dear Seema Aunty,

At an internship last year, I met someone a month before I left. We didn’t really have time to get to know each other very well, but we had a fantastic connection, and would develop it more via email and Skype over the next few months. On somewhat of a whim he came out to visit this year and we had an unbelievably fantastic time. We’re both graduating this year. While we both feel very strongly for each other, it’s a hushed-up mess of what comes next. We keep skirting the issue. I feel like I know I should just be direct and talk to him about it, but I’m worried about the possibility of freaking him out. I want to give the relationship a chance, but I’m worried about letting feelings influence my career path. Is this something I should cut loose and be happy it happened at all? Should I stop being scared and try to keep a good thing going?

Nanda answered:

Dear Anonymous,

How wonderful that you’ve met someone that you like so much! I’m happy to hear this. I recommend a combination of the things you’ve suggested.

First, you must talk to him about your feelings. One thing that I’ve noticed about people is that we want others to intuit what we are thinking. This is an unreasonable expectation. Hearing what you feel may freak him out, but if he’s the guy he seems to be, he is thinking the very same thing you are.

People do freak out and that’s perfectly fine. Most people are scared silly when they meet someone that they feel strongly about. That’s a normal response, on your part and his, and shouldn’t hamper your own actions. Second, I must tell you that the movies are right about one thing. Meeting people that you care about happens less frequently than you would imagine. In one’s lifetime, it is something to behold and savor. Remember to value the feelings you have and the person for whom you feel them.

As for your career path, stay on it. Do what you were planning to do post-graduation. You might think about making a few additions to your pool of applications that would place you in closer proximity to this person. This is something I recommend that he do, as well, if after your conversation you decide to pursue a relationship. You never know what fate has in store for you! I have some friends who had been thinking about getting married and moving. One of my friends worried about this too, saying “How will we find jobs/schools in the same city?” They applied to jobs and universities in some overlapping places and they allowed things to work themselves out. It ended really happily with both of them in Boston doing exactly what they wanted to do.”

Nanda clearly lays out the options for her advice-seeker. Often we already know what we need to do, we just don’t know how to go about doing it. It might have been more pragmatically helpful if Nanda provided more specific tools to handle the problem, like a simple opening line to prompt the conversation with her partner.

The advice given is a reiteration of what the reader has expressed as sources of anxiety, followed by a similar real-life example that ended successfully. The reader seems to already knows what she needs to do, she’s just afraid to do it. And while Seema Aunty isn’t bestowing any inspiring new gems of wisdom, she does give the extra push of confidence and enthusiasm to encourage her reader to take on her problem head-first.

In need of some advice from Seema Aunty? Write to her at staff@browngirlmagazine.com.

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As Romney continues on the path, he next encounters some folks walking their dogs. One of the dog owners raises her eyebrows in disgust and another one lets out a bellowing “boo!”

Romney may boast about his business with Bain Capital, but his infamous act of making his Irish setter named Seamus ride on the roof of his family station wagon for a twelve-hour trip to Canada seems to be the bane of his reputation among dog lovers, and apparently among dogs themselves.

Romney’s “dog incident” caught fire in the media: liberal pundit Rachel Maddow devoted a whole segment to it on her Jan. 12 show, and New York Times columnist Gail Collins can’t seem to resist referencing it in her columns. Move over Newt Gingrich’s Super PAC, there’s a new Super Pack in town devoted to destroying “Meanie Mitt.”

The Dogs Against Romney Super Pack has its own website, Facebook and Twitter pages, and even its own line of merchandise. What better way to show your canine compassion than sporting a T-shirt with slogans like “Dogs Aren’t Luggage,” and “Mitt is Mean!”? The T-shirts come in dog sizes too, since of course this anti-Romney campaign is all about the dogs.

This whole ordeal provides fresh fodder for Romney’s rivals. The Gingrich campaign released a web video a few weeks ago highlighting Romney’s campaign gaffes and questionable statements, including his justification for his dog’s roof ride as he explained it to Fox News’ Chris Wallace in 2007. The video ends with Romney remarking, “Who let the dogs out? Hoot, hoot!” Following Gingrich’s example, the Obama campaign is capitalizing on Romney’s dog faux pas. On Monday, the day before the Florida primary, Obama’s chief political strategist David Axelrod tweeted a photo of the President and Bo, his Portuguese Water Dog, riding together in the back of a limo; it was captioned, “How loving owners transport their dogs.”

And now the campaign has created – gasp – a Facebook page, “Pet Lovers for Obama,” for the purpose of “showcasing the Obama 2012 spirit of our favorite animals and those of us who love them.”

So what’s next in a political battle that has become so sensationalized it’s already gone to the dogs? We shall just have to wait and see.

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Sherlockians of Mount Holyoke are clearly still reeling from the long-awaited second season of the BBC drama Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. After an excruciating 18-month hiatus, the three new episodes of Sherlock were almost too much for the content starved fans, many of whom abandoned New Years festivities to make sure they caught the episode. One gets the impression that Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, co-creators of the show, enjoy exerting the extraordinary amount of control they have over their emotionally invested fans. Just before the finale aired, Moffat tweeted, “Not long now! Remember it’s just a TV show. Only the emotional damage is real.”

For those who have watched season one, it may be shocking to hear that the new season is even more stunning in terms of plot, character development and visuals. The cliffhanger pool scene from season one’s finale is resolved in a spectacularly Moffat-esque fashion: refusing to surrender any dramatic momentum by plunging right into the story from the first minute. The first episode of season two, “A Scandal in Belgravia,” offers a novel take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s character, Irene Adler, who appears in Sherlock as a gay dominatrix and the only person to have ever beaten Holmes. If fans were outraged at the possibility of Sherlock Holmes having a love interest, they were satisfied when the story turned out to be about “Sherlock and love” instead of “Sherlock in love,” as asserted by Moffat.

Paul McGuigan, director of photography, brings us further into Sherlock’s mindset through clever scenes that seem to be drawn from the realm of the consulting detective’s own mind, making the series feel more intimate than ever. One interesting addition was Sherlock’s “mind palace,” a memory device he uses to store information. The stunning visuals are comprised of interesting transitions of scenes bleeding into each other and slipping in and out of reality, beautiful costume design (or lack thereof) and a strange obsession with wallpaper.

If Sherlock grapples with the impediment of love in the first episode, the second deals with fear, reinventing The Hound of the Baskervilles as a psychological thriller. The trend across the season appears to be Sherlock losing control, whether it be of his emotions, brain or situation. The magpie-like approach to plot construction with relation to the original books works perfectly, allowing the writers to tell new stories updated to the present for the viewers, while still referencing the Sherlock canon to thrill the fans of the books. I certainly cheered when Holmes put on the iconic deerstalker cap to hide from the paparazzi and when Watson unwittingly disturbed the members of the Diogenes Club by committing the heresy of speaking to them. In addition to comic relief, these references also serve the purpose of misdirection, red herrings being the staple diet of the creators Moffat and Gatiss. Fans of the books felt ahead of the game when Morse code was introduced into the plot of “Hounds,” only to discover they were being toyed with.

Steven Thompson, writer of the previous (somewhat disappointing) episode “The Blind Banker,” surprised everyone with the brilliant finale, “The Reichenbach Fall,” which strikes terror into any Sherlockian’s heart. Benedict Cumberbatch is overshadowed by the flawless acting of Martin Freeman and Andrew Scott. You just know it will be a good episode when you’re crying within 17 seconds, and that is exactly the effect Watson’s heartbreaking reaction to Sherlock’s fall has on the audience. His performance is rivaled only by that of Andrew Scott, who previously stole the show by appearing in only nine minutes of season one, and returns this time in all his psychopathic, playful, reptilian, campy and terrifying glory. He had me doubting everything I had ever learned about Sherlock Holmes, but fans of the consulting detective, and those of the BBC show, are very loyal very quickly.

I believe in Sherlock Holmes.

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I love pop music. Pop music as in, yes, that is autotuned. Pop music as in, yes, those choruses consisting of “oh na na,” or “boom,” almost exclusively. Pop music as in hip hop, rap, rave, dance, disko, pop. I love it.

Generally, people don’t take you seriously if you confess you love pop. I might take this moment to clarify that it’s not my sole interest. I might mention that I use the gym as an excuse to listen to the most lyrically atrocious songs I own. Offhand, I’ll complain that Top 40 is the only station I can find when I’m driving, but at least it keeps me alert. I’m in the habit of explaining why I admire Rihanna as a person, and it often turns into a conversation that connects my feminist proclivities with my deep desire to play “We Found Love” on repeat.

These defenses feel passé.

I have not always understood mainstream pop music. I’ll admit that I had problems with it that I couldn’t fully articulate. When boy bands were in vogue, I hated them on principle. Britney made me uneasy. I loathed everything Aaron Carter stood for. Yet I always kind of knew the words to “That’s How I Beat Shaq.” Radio Disney played in the carpool on the way to school and I’d rage if I heard “it’s like boom (boom) I put it in the hoop like slam (slam),” but sometimes I’d pretend not to notice it was
playing.

Similarly, one of my more righteous friends once told me that she liked the tune of Spice Girls songs, but didn’t really like what they were singing about. I think that’s probably my most fixed memory of musical shame. I looked down at my Fruit Roll-Up and agreed with her even though I really (really) loved the Spice Girls. Except for maybe Posh. She seemed superficial. Superficiality is probably my biggest complaint about pop.

And then I aged, and words like “mainstream” and “poseur” entered my vocabulary. I wrinkled my nose arbitrarily, primarily based off of what these artists looked like. I didn’t like Posh Spice because she seemed snooty and like she cared about things like “labels” as applied to both handbags and people. It wasn’t what I was supposed to like. I hated judgmental people and I was heinously judgmental.

Still, in my wretched elitism, I could at least admit that pop music elicited a reaction from me. Pop music is so much more complicated than it lets on. Those same recycled beats you hate have incredible history, effort and emotion in them. My own
experiences with pop are extremely specific to my socioeconomic background, my race and my identity. But Top 40 artists are often the most recognizable faces in the world, and it’s increasingly worthwhile to discuss them as they reflect the tastes of society.

And obviously, it’s worthwhile to dance.

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Smash, which premieres Feb. 6 on NBC after the Superbowl, is a new show about the hard-scrabble lives of actors, writers and directors on Broadway. With the full force of executive producer Steven Spielberg behind it, Smash is poised to become the new break-out hit of the spring TV season.

The show, which centers around the creation of a musical production based on the life of Marilyn Monroe, boasts an impressive cast of film, television and Broadway stars. Debra Messing of Will and Grace fame plays Julia Houston, the show’s lyricist and co-writer, whose decision to create Marilyn the Musical comes into conflict with her family’s plans to adopt a child. Jack Davenport of Pirates of the Caribbean is lothario Derek Willis, who haphazardly accepts Eileen’s offer to direct Marilyn. The other cast members are Megan Hilty as the driven Broadway veteran Ivy Lynn and Katherine McPhee as the talented and naive Karen Cartwright.

While the first episode delivers several glitzy numbers and both the leading ladies are well-conditioned and engaging performers, the show’s script drags a little, especially in the scene when the musical’s writers discuss the current Marilyn Monroe media obsession. Other characters, like the hotshot director Derek Willis, remain mostly caricatures during the first episode. However, the British actor Jack Davenport rises above the indignity of uttering lines like “Darling, I need to see everything you’ve got,” and becomes one of the standouts of the show.

Smash struggles to balance the multiple story lines with the “backstage” musical concept, but that is not to say that it won’t as it continues on this season. The acting and the music, especially during a wonderful baseball-themed musical number, were strong enough to hook me for at least another episode. And isn’t that the point of a pilot?

House of Lies is Showtime’s sleek new series about the high-flying lives of management consultants. The show stars Don Cheadle as Marty Kaan, the leader of a crack team of consultants at Galweather & Stearn. Marty is a cunning salesman who ruthlessly exploits the weaknesses in big businesses for his own financial gain. The show’s writers try to fashion him as a kind of modern day Robin Hood, crusading for the rights of the American people against the giants of Wall Street. He proudly proclaims in the pilot that the highlight of his job is, “when [he’s] got the guys who have the world by the balls by the balls.”

Cheadle plays Kaan as a savvy con-artist, who will say anything or do anything to close a deal. His team is comprised of socially inept Doug Guggenheim (Josh Lawson) and ambitious Clyde Oberholt (Ben Schwartz), two Ivy League graduates who have little to no people skills. Rounding out the cast is Kristen Bell as Jeannie Van Der Hooven, a whipsmart Columbia grad, who must deal with being the only woman on the team and fend off her boss’ sexual advances. Her case is not aided by her willingness to hang with strippers and dance in her underwear.

House of Lies exploits it pay-for-cable status by including lots of gratuitous female nudity and sex, which has become a staple of channels like Showtime and HBO. I find it a little sad that an actress cannot secure a job on these channels without agreeing to appear naked. Overall, House of Lies is a funny, albeit over the top, peek into the world of excess on Wall Street, a topic so timely it has already won this show a second season.

House of Lies airs Sundays at 10p.m. on Showtime.

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No award show exemplifies the divide between television and film better than the show that brings them together: the Golden Globes! By far the most fun of the award shows, the GG’s red carpet is a case study on the difference between a movie star and a TV star. Case in point: Rainn Wilson will never elicit the kind of response walking down the red carpet that George Clooney gets whenever he appears on the arm of a tall blonde.

Nevertheless, this year’s GG ceremony was good fun. All the stars got drunk and mingled and NBC’s masochistic executives hired Ricky Gervais to come back and attempt a hosting style that combined Johnny Carson and Ali G.

Here were a few of the night’s biggest winners:
Best Picture (Drama) – The Descendents
Best Picture (Comedy) – The Artist
(Look for these two films to be neck and neck for the big prize on Oscar Night)
Best TV Show (Comedy) – Modern Family
Best Actor (Drama) – George Clooney (The Descendents)
Best Actress (Comedy) – Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn)
Best Actor (Comedy) – Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
Best Actress (Drama) – Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)

SAG Awards: Jan. 29
The Screen Actors Guild awards, while still a more marginal entry Academy Awards: Feb. 26 into the award season catalog, has gained popularity in the past few years. This rather young awards ceremony (the inaugural SAG Awards was in 1995, compared to 1944 for the GGs and 1929 for the Oscars) airs on TBS and TNT.

With awards for best individual actor and for ensemble work, this show is all about the performers. This year’s SAGs aired on Sunday and while most of the winners were favorites, there were a few surprises.

The big winner of the evening though was the cast of The Help, which took home the award for Best Cast in a Motion Picture. Other highlights of the evening included the cast of Bridesmaids playing a drinking game with Martin Scorsese’s name. Fun fact: The SAG statuette is by far the heaviest, weighing in at 12 pounds, while the Oscar statue is a measly 8 1/2 pounds.

Grammy Awards: Feb. 12
A musical oasis in the middle of an unending awards season, the Grammy Awards is the night for lovers of mainstream music. Last year’s broadcast was notable for Lady Gaga’s red carpet entrance inside an egg. The Grammys offers a venue for stars like Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj to show off their craziest get-ups, and that in itself is reason enough to tune in.

Although the Grammys tend to favor mainstream artists with questionable talent, there is still room for performers like Esperanza Spalding. This mostly unheard of singer took home the award for Best New Artist last year, much to the chagrin of Justin Bieber fans everywhere.

The 2012 nominees for Best New Artist are J. Cole, The Band Perry, Bon Iver, Nicki Minaj and Skrillex.

The competition for Best Album of the year will be close. They include Adele with crowd favorite 21, the Foo Fighters with Wasting Light, Lady Gaga with Born This Way, Bruno Mars with Doo-Wops & Hooligans and Rihanna with Loud. The show airs Feb. 12 on CBS.

The BAFTA’s: Feb. 12
In award show parlance, the BAFTAs are known as the “British Oscars.” Officially, they are the British Academy Film and Television Awards, with an emphasis on the British. There is even a special category devoted to the best British film of the year, which this year includes My Week With Marilyn, Senna, Shame, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and We Need to Talk About Kevin.

The bevy of Oxford accents at the BAFTAs are enough to satisfy the appetite of anglophiles for years to come. The Feb. 12 broadcast promises to showcase such noteworthy British celebrities as Colin Firth, Dame Helen Mirren and Daniel Radcliffe.

The eminently snooty Steven Fry will host the event, so you can expect his own brand of dry humor tinged with a mocking air.

Several films, including Drive, that were overlooked in the Academy Award nomination process were nominated for BAFTAs. Similarly, actors such as Michael Fassbender received a BAFTA nomination after being passed over for an Oscar nomination for his controversial role in Shame.

Independent Spirit Awards Feb. 25
For a more relaxed, intimate ceremony before the spectacle of the Academy Awards, tune into the Independent Spirit Awards, which airs Feb. 25 on IFC. The Spirit Awards are all about celebrating individual artists, directors and actors. There are awards for Best First Feature, Best First Screenplay and, of course, the usual accolades to Best Actor and Best Actress.

The Spirit Awards are a great chance to see what independent films might have slipped under the mainstream award show radar. Screen gems like Margin Call and Martha Marcy May Marlene received critical praise in the last months of 2011, but did not gain enough commercial recognition to propel them into the ranks of the Oscars. Other notable nominations went to Will Reiser’s autobiographical film 50/50, Mike Mills’ Beginners and Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter for Best Feature Film.

Seth Rogen will host the low-key event in a tent on the Santa Monica beach, before the grand ceremony and pomp of the Academy Awards the following evening.

Academy Awards: Feb. 26
Although the ceremony is long and overly-stuffy, the Academy Awards is still the most important award show of the season. Billy Crystal is back to host for the nineth time and will attempt to erase the memory of last year’s unfortunate hosting duo Anne Hathaway and James Franco. Here are a few of the nominees and our predictions.

Best Picture:
The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
The Help
Moneyball
War Horse
The Tree of Life
Editors Prediction: Due to some new, convoluted nomination rules, there are nine nominees for best picture. Our money is on the tender and funny silent movie The Artist to take home the big prize over critical darling The Descendants, which could potentially cause an upset.

Best Actor:
Demian Bichir (A Better Life)
George Clooney (The Descendants)
Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
Brad Pitt (Moneyball)
Editor’s Prediction: Count on Academy-favorite George Clooney to go home with the Oscar.

Best Actress:
Viola Davis (The Help)
Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs)
Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn)
Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)
Rooney Mara (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo)
Editor’s Prediction: Viola Davis and Meryl Streep have both picked up awards for Best Actress in the past month, making the competition for the Oscar too close to call.

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The TOMS story is essentially one man putting capitalism and philanthropyin a blender and hitting Ice Crush. Blake Mycoskie’s book Start Something That Matters is his way of convincing readers to do the same. Mycoskie, founder and Chief Shoe Giver of TOMS, the innovative and fast-growing shoe company, believes that anyone can make a difference in the world through their work and enjoy doing it. This short and concise book begins by telling the TOMS story, in which the twenty-nine-year-old author is inspired to do something about the prolific lack of footwear in Argentina. His solution: TOMS, a company dedicated to providing children in Latin America and Africa with a free pair of shoes for every TOMS shoe purchased in North America.

To Mycoskie, TOMS represents not only a progressive business model, but the ultimate culmination of a career, a cause, and a passion. The book segues smoothly from the opening TOMS anecdote to the first topic of advice for readers: finding your own story. The story is central to the model of conscious capitalism, as the author promotes and aims to evoke emotional connections between a given company and its consumers and suppliers. The rest of the book continues this self-help pattern established in the first chapter.

The advice segments are peppered with convincing and inspiring examples of each chapter’s topic applied by successful contemporary organizations. In the chapter titled “Find Your Story,” Mycoskie uses the Subway company to illustrate the profitable importance of having a story: in 1999, a struggling Subway put out an advertising campaign based on the tale of Jared Fogle, who defeated obesity and associated health problems using a diet of Subway sandwiches. Subway morphed into the hugely successful restaurant chain.

The author comfortably transitions from his first topic to the next, aptly teaching readers about overcoming fears in order to accomplish their dreams. Mycoskie’s tips on starting a new venture with limited capital, the value of simplicity, creating trust within and outside the company, and the profitability of philanthropic work are equally simple and well presented. Mycoskie’s discussion of each topic is specific and action-oriented; his clean prose and clear, consistent organization mercifully do not waste words.

However, the author’s starry-eyed sincerity cultivates a slightly overwhelming atmosphere of tree-hugging, environmental-loving attitude, which is present throughout the work. Although this may be disconcerting to some readers, Mycoskie appears well-intentioned and largely symptomatic of his intense dedication to the idea of conscious capitalism. Mycoskie fervently insists that the topics he covers can enable anyone with a passion to make a positive impact on the world via a new business, a not-for-profit organization, or in their current position. By the end of the book, most readers will believe him, too.

With this book, Mycoskie has not only published a meaningful tool for budding philanthropists and bleeding heart capitalists, but has also started a fund to support inspired readers. Find out more about the Start Something That Matters Fund here.

Start Something That Matters
Written by Blake Mycoskie
Spiegel & Grau
208 Pages

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It’s official: Mindy Kaling completes a holy comedic triumvirate with Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. If you don’t believe me, then you really need to read Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), Kaling’s recently released collection of essays.

While Kaling is best known for her role as Kelly on the mockumentary television program The Office, she skillfully and humorously writes about a surplus of topics in her new book. The collection of essays starts off thoroughly autobiographical and eventually veers into ruminations on Hollywood, relationships and Irish exits (an Irish exit is leaving a party without telling anyone). There wasn’t an essay in the book that didn’t make me laugh out loud and the funniest anecdote has to be “Revenge Fantasies while Jogging.” One of her daydreams is that Al Qaeda holds the NBC television program “The Voice” hostage. The image of Kaling hiding in Cee-Lo Green’s fur coat to take out the terrorists made me howl with laughter.

Surprisingly, the strong point in the collection is not in its humor, but its relatability and earnestness. In the essay, “Chubby for Life,” Kaling remembers her high school’s star athlete tormenting her for being overweight. Many a girl can attest to being made fun of for her appearance, and Kaling is able to perfectly balance the hurt and isolation of body shaming with reassurance and wit. Throughout the early portion of her book, Kaling deliberates on universal experiences of post-college jobs, female friendships and romantic relationships. Kaling proves her ability to connect with her reader and share both the happy and the sad moments of her life.

In spite of these high points, Kaling’s shift from autobiographical essays to general musings in later stories can be off-putting. While her later essays about the different types of romantic movie heroines and the male dress code are vastly amusing, I felt myself yearning for her earlier autobiographical anecdotes. I would have preferred that the collection of essays stick with either an emphasis on her life experiences, or her insights as a candid and witty woman. However, the book is wonderful entertainment, and I enjoyed it greatly.

Overall, Kaling’s experiential familiarity makes up for any flaws and makes Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) highly entertaining. Kaling is an awesome and witty older sister dishing out all of her misadventures and experiences as advice to her naive and eager younger sister, her readers-who may soon become avid fans.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
Written By Mindy Kaling
Crown Archetype
240 pages

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Perfect for any high school or college-aged female looking for confidence and support, What You Really Really Want provides insight to young women on the most difficult topics of sex, safety and interpersonal relationships. Jaclyn Friedman covers a variety of issues with perspective from women of all different sexual, religious, and racial backgrounds.

Not to be confused with Cosmopolitan Magazine many articles claiming “50 Sexy Ways to Get a Man in Bed,” Friedman does not suggest sexual poses or recommend types of toys. The guide does not highlight the importance of Victoria’s Secret lingerie,but instead Friedman goes beneath the surface to a woman’s needs and wants mentally and sexually. What You Really Really Want gives honest stories, advice and mental exercises to increase confidence and happiness with oneself sexually and emotionally. Stories that are both harrowing and giggle-inducing gives the guide a quality of personal relation. The book leads its readers into a direction of self-fulfillment and joy.

Throughout each chapter Friedman inserts “Dive Ins,” exercises that push readers further in thinking about themselves and what they want out of relationships and sex, while considering the emotions involved with so many physical and mental acts of love. It was enjoyable to find ways in which I could better improve my happiness, using personal confidence and a greater understanding of myself when it comes to love within my relationships. The guide expands beyond the ideas of sexual relationships, and focuses on the vast amount of relationships women have.

Friedman provides many resources within the guide that allows readers to examine specific topics (like unwanted sexual pain and experimental sex) much deeper. In addition to providing great resources, I also enjoyed the narration of Friedman’s guide: she speaks in the first person, recommending and giving advice as though she is talking directly with her readers. The guide is similar to talking with an experienced best friend about sexual issues in that it is helpful, direct
and incredibly comforting.

I recommend this novel to anyone who is feeling unsure or not confident about their experiences or happiness with sex. Friedman impresses upon her readers the importance of safety and knowledge, and she does a wonderful job enabling young women to find both. Explore What You Really Really Want to feel comfortable and secure with your own sexual experiences.

What You Really Really Want: The Smart Girl’s Shame-Free Guide to Sex and Safety
Written by Jaclyn Friedman
Seal Press
352 pages

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