According to Lisa Bloom, the women and girls of today represent a stark paradox. While American women excel in education at every level, they likewise obsessively focus on celebrity media. While women outperform their male counterparts in employment in urban areas for the first time in history, they simultaneously spend countless hours staring in the mirror contemplating plastic surgery. Lisa Bloom fears that women are in danger of spiraling into a nation of dumbed down, tabloid media obsessed, reality TV addicts. Too often, they outsource matters to “experts” and in doing so neglect to truly think for themselves. The solution:

Lisa Bloom has the solution and it involves one simple word: Think.

In this provocative, entertaining, educational, and thoroughly researched book, Lisa outlines the ways that we as a society, and particularly women, have fallen off the intellectual path, and, very specifically, points to how damaging this has been to us on many levels. Lisa shows us the fallout–but she also provides the solutions for “Reclaiming the Brain God Gave You” and seizing back control of your mind and your life. Think is delivered in a no-nonsense manner that will make you laugh, make you question yourself, make you squirm, but, most important, make you start thinking again.

Think by Lisa Bloom has re-lit the flames on many candles in my life, some of which representing knowledge and humanitarianism. While being informed about the world may seem a bit intimidating, it is so important to know not only what is going on but what we can do to make it better… and not so much for our own fulfillment either. Why? It’s all in the book.

Bloom takes on the problem of “Dumb American Syndrome” in Part One, in which she mentions how so many of us have neglected our brutally oppressed third world sisters among other things. While Bloom, an attorney and legal analyst does acknowledge her participation in the extensive media coverage of celebrity cases, daily, she is also sharing international news (at work, on Think.Tv, Twitter, Facebook, etc…) that gets brushed over so much for the celebrity news.

She even goes so far as to mention how the Jaycee Dugard coverage rarely shown a light on the millions of missing children and sex slaves around the world. Currently, 10,000 Jaycee Dugards are captive in Sri Lankan brothels alone! As Bloom’s mother has said, Gloria Allred, “Don’t give to charity, give to change.” It is one thing to make sure that your various charitable efforts are actually making a positive change, but it is just as important to get more physically involved in making those changes. Sometimes, money and supplies aren’t the start to the answer. Sometimes freedom is. Sometimes knowledge is. Sometimes they are one in the same.

Anyway, Bloom also gives some startling facts that not only made me embarrassed to not already know but encouraged me to do more of my own research to see why these things are, what is being done about it, and what I can do about it.

For instance, The U.S Senate and House of Representatives is only 17% women, ranking us #68 in the world for female legislatures. Also, the number of prisoners that are currently serving life without parole for juvenile crimes in the United States is 2,225. The number of prisoners that are currently serving life without parole for juvenile crimes in the rest of the world is 12.

The comparison of the number of schools days and school year lengths around the world really put things into perspective. No wonder. The facts about reading got me so fired up that I had to share a few on Twitter. As an avid reader since I first learned how to read, these facts broke my heart. Is anybody else on Goodreads, because if not, I will invite you!

Part Two of Think is just as captivating as it details a number of solutions to reclaiming the time to think, engage, and act. I’ve always been a curious person but it seems not curious enough and Bloom has helped me to take the next step in gaining knowledge, acting on it, and being consistent with both. I sincerely hope that her words can help you too. As far as reading goes, thank you Bloom for mentioning Read All Day. Talk about a motivation and dedication to reading. I’ve also recently given to two causes through Global Giving since reading Bloom’s book.

Global warming, the unnecessary price of beauty, the media coverage after 9/11, the Iraq War, and the Cambodia War Crime Tribunal are just a number of the many topics that Bloom sheds quite a light on in this book and every single word will propel every reader to research, research, research and not just take what the news gives at face value, if they give the complete story and in an unbiased way to begin with. The research will spark its own inspirations so be sure to soak up knowledge like you used to soak up cartoons every Saturday morning or TGIF every Friday night.

The end of the book includes Recommended Reading, “Un-Recipes,” Notes, and an Index. Of Bloom’s recommendations, I immediately ordered Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn, Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler. I have since read all but the last book which I will be starting to read soon, before going through her recommendation list once more.

Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World encourages women to find substance in a nation that represents so much in which it does not take advantage of and promote enough. Bloom shares many of the problems and just as many solutions with a comedic tongue that make for not only a though provoking read, but a disturbingly (harsh and) funny one. Now there have been times every now and then when I have been given that extra boost of motivation to not take for granted the rights that those before me fought for (Hint: Watch Iron Jawed Angels) and to be all that I can be for the world, and Think is one of those boosts.

And like prior boosts, it has stood in the front of my mind every day since, so I know that it is so much more. Bloom has not only helped me light my candles but has made those flames impossible to go out. For that, I am forever thankful and will recommend this book to everyone that I know (female or not, feminist or not) and can only hope that it will be passed down in time to keep this message alive and strong in future generations. Think is a must read so be sure to get your copy today!

Own Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World by Lisa Bloom today.