The Art of Badassery: Unleash Your Mojo with Wisdom of the Dojo

Motivational speaker Cassetta (Hear Me Roar) delivers an animated volume on how women can find inner strength by adopting principles from martial arts. The author, a third-degree black belt in hapkido, draws lessons from her martial arts training on how women can “stand up and fight” against sexism and find their “inner strength.” Organizing her volume to reflect the martial artist’s trajectory through the seven belt levels, she urges readers to accept life’s setbacks and get “used to being uncomfortable,” one of the first lessons novice white belts learn when they get sore from exercising in unfamiliar ways. The author suggests that women distance themselves from those who demean them, similar to how orange belts learn self-defense, and encourages readers to assert themselves, taking inspiration from green belts honing their fighting vocalizations. Cassetta weaves in personal anecdotes, telling how getting assaulted by a stranger on the street led her to focus her career on self-defense training, and how discovering her long-term boyfriend was having a baby with another woman brought on the realization that “life isn’t fair” and she needed to “adapt to the uncomfortable.” The author’s deep understanding of the principles and practice of martial arts buoys the guidance and connects the suggestions to the hapkido framework without coming across as gimmicky. This punchy outing lands some blows. (Aug.)