Hey Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing

 Hey Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and Other Lies Behind Multi-Level Marketing

Author:Emily Lynn Paulson

Publisher: Row House

Release Date: May 30, 2023

*I received my digital copy from Netgalley. I was not compensated in any way.

Emily Lynn Paulson was an upper middle- class stay at home mom when she was recruited into an MLM cosmetics company and rose to the top. She was making tens of thousands per month, traveling extensively, and showered with designer handbags and other perks. It took years for her to realize the truth about the company she worked for. She got involved with the company to make friends, earn a little "me time" and travel. What she got was exhaustion, a drinking problem, and hardly any time for her children or husband. In this, her second book, Emily Paulson comes clean about MLMs, who they prey on, and how they operate.

I chose this book because I have fallen for the MLM recruitment lines more than once. (Much more than once.) It took me learning the hard way that MLMs are a quick path to financial ruin. Why did I get involved? I needed extra money. MLMs look so exciting to women like me What kind of woman is that? Paulson describes in detail who gets targeted, and why.

I literally could not put this book down. I saw so much of myself and my friends who have fallen time and again for the idea of making money from home in our spare time. How do MLMs draw women in and how do they brainwash them into staying? Paulsen explains this as well as how MLMs use control tactics to brainwash their consultants (or whatever term they use for the people who sign up and pay money for a "starter kit"). Paulson explains how MLMs work and why they remain legal. 

 Thanks to this book, I now understand why MLMs set people like me up for failure. It all makes sense now. Paulson's writing style makes for easy reading and understandability. This is a fascinating book. I highly recommend it. Thank you Row House for allowing me to read this!

Read this book if...

... you have ever been involved in an MLM

... someone you care about is involved in an MLM

... you are being pressured into joining an MLM

...you are curious about "pyramid schemes" and MLMs

Forgotten Bookmarks by: Michael Popek

Title: Forgotten Bookmarks  Author: Michael Popek  Publisher:Penguin Pages: 182 Copyright: 2011

From Amazon:

It's happened to all of us: we're reading a book, something interrupts us, and we grab the closest thing at hand to mark our spot. It could be a train ticket, a letter, an advertisement, a photograph, or a four-leaf clover. Eventually the book finds its way into the world-a library, a flea market, other people's bookshelves, or to a used bookstore. But what becomes of those forgotten bookmarks? What stories could they tell?

By day, Michael Popek works in his family's used bookstore. By night, he's the voyeuristic force behind www.forgottenbookmarks.com, where he shares the weird objects he has found among the stacks at his store.

Forgotten Bookmarks is a scrapbook of Popek's most interesting finds. Sure, there are actualbookmarks, but there are also pictures and ticket stubs, old recipes and notes, valentines, unsent letters, four-leaf clovers, and various sordid, heartbreaking, and bizarre keepsakes. Together this collection of lost treasures offers a glimpse into other readers' lives that they never intended for us to see.

I first heard of Michael Popek's forgottenbookmarks.com online. After one visit, I new I just had to read the book. I found it fascinating. To think that these treasures remained hidden for decades. (Especially those tickets! You know someone went CRAZY trying to remember where they put those tickets!) I found myself wondering when I looked at the photographs- would someone read this book and see their own relatives? The letters were thought provoking as well. Page after page of hidden treasures: letters, cards, mementos-it made me wonder what memories are hiding inside my own books.

I plan to visit the website more often, and I hope Popek will publish more of his fascinating finds.

Read this book if...

*you love non-fiction

*you love old books

*you love old treasure and mementos

Southern Fried White Trash

Title: Southern Fried White Trash Author: Carole Townsend Publisher: Crabgrass Publishing LLC

I purchased this book for my Kindle.

From Amazon:

In the spirit of Southern humor brought to us by writers and comics like Lewis Grizzard, Jeff Foxworthy, and Bret Butler, Carole Adams Townsend's debut book , “Southern Fried White Trash,” is a must-have for tried-and true Southern enthusiasts. It has a twist, though. Townsend satirizes real life through the eyes of a Southerner, born and raised. Carole Townsend is a news correspondent and online columnist for the Gwinnett Daily Post newspaper in Georgia. A married mom and former corporate executive brought up by an old-school Southern mother, the author brings a hilarious perspective to old-vs-new-school life in the South.

First off, I have to say that this is the funniest book I have ever read in my life. It was hysterical! And, as a native southerner, I can tell you that it is 100% right on the money. Carole Townsend knows her white trash, and can tell a story as well as anyone I know. I laughed all the way through this book. What makes it so funny is that it is so accurate. We all know these people she describes in this book. We have all seen them. 

The south truly is divided into several subcultures. Like Townsend. I was brought up in a world of minding your manners, the southern status quo, so to speak. Yet we all know this other world. We have seen these people. And no one describes them quite like Townsend.

I loved this book (in spite of the cover, which might give me nightmares...). I can't wait to read her next book. Every southerner should read this. You will laugh out loud.

Loved it!

Read this book if...

*you are a southerner (either native or transplant)

*you need a good laugh

*you want to know more about white trash