Reviewer Victoria Brewster captured the essence of the book in her review and interview of both the author and the publisher. She says:
"Seasoned or more experienced social workers will be nodding their heads and smiling while remembering their own beginnings in the field. Social work students will see the book as a wonderful learning opportunity and get an idea of what lies ahead and those relatively new to the profession will ‘see’ or ‘be’ a mixture of the two"
She asked author Ogden Rogers to summarize his book. His response:
"I like to say the book is sort of like 'The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Social Work Universe' meets 'Everything I needed to learn I learned in Social Work School'… The book is a collection of 99 stories, some of them quite short (I call them 'potato chips') that reflect beginnings, middles, and ends- mostly about social work relationships.... The idea is that there might be something in any story to think, feel, or resonate with the reader."
Brewster asked Linda Grobman, the book's publisher, why she chose to publish this book. Grobman said, in part:
"Simply put, I loved it...in the early to mid-90s...that’s when I 'discovered' the brilliance of his writing. I first published one of his pieces in 1995 [in The New Social Worker]. This book...is very real—he’s willing to write about mistakes he made along the way and how he learned from them, so others can learn from them, too. But he also uses an artistic story-telling approach to show readers how social workers can think outside the box to come up with creative ways to find solutions to problems."Read the full review and interview here.
To purchase Beginnings, Middles, & Ends:
White Hat Communications Online Store (publisher's site)
Amazon.com (print)
Amazon.com (Kindle)
