Book Reviews - Double the Fun

As some of you, my many wonderful followers, know by now, I also do book reviews. In the past year or so I have read two books that I think are some of the best in their genre but, to my surprise and disappoinment, are unavailable on Amazon. If there were a way for me to promote these books and get them a greater readership, I would. Consider the following two reviews part of that effort.

Conquering Your Financial Stress: The Five-Point Plan for Generating True Wealth, Bruce Eaton

I frankly do not understand why this book is hidden in the dark corners of the publishing world. This is absolutely one of the best, if not the best, book that I have ever read on personal finance. Eaton provides a new paradigm for the reader to view finances. Rather than looking at money as income and something to use for spending, you look at your financial life from the perspective of value - generating value, exchanging value and preserving value. In each of these areas he provides what he calls H2O's, or events that Have 2 Occur in your life for financial stress to be reduced or eliminated. Once you identify these H2O's you can then set reasonable objectives (and not pie in the sky goals) for achieving them. An H20 might be, for example, improving your health. This will reduce your financial stress because you will reduce medical expenses and the worry over how to meet them. Your objective may then be to eat less fatty foods, for example. There are a good number of areas like this that Eaton provides for H20's. They all make a great deal of sense and one can see how applying the steps will ultimately lead to less or eliminated financial stress.

Also, Eaton does not mince words to give the reader excuses for not taking action. The reasons the reader is in trouble are clearly spelled out. Only a person in serious denial could read these pages and not think they apply.

Finally, the book is also written with a lot of humor and Eaton's writing is often down-right hysterical, which is not something you ever hear someone say about a personal finance book. If I can ever get hold of the author, I would urge him to write and publish a second edition. It seems that the times could not be more right for another healthy dose of commonsensical (and humorous) financial advise.

Intelligent Memory, by Barry Gordon

I'm amazed that this book has been lost among the dozens of good books out there on creativity and problem solving. For me, this book is as good a find as Conquering Your Financial Stress, a great book on managing finaces which, like Intelligent Memory, is also currently unavailable. Perhaps the title of this book helped its demise, as it is not so much about memory as it is about how memory supports the creative and problem solving processes. Gordon and co-author Berger do a great job of providing crisp and clear explanations of how the two types of memories - short and long term - support the ability to problem solve and be creative. The authors provide useful and entertaining exercises which clearly demonstrate their theories in action. They provide guidance for seven areas: 1) enhancing attention; 2) expanding scratch-pad (short-term) memory); 3) storing more memories; 4) sparking connections; 5) solving problems; 6) working creatively; and 7) preventing mental mistakes. Improving in each of these areas, individually and in combination, will help the reader become better at problem solving and creativity. In sum, this book was educational, entertaining and motivating, as it provides the tools to become a better thinker overall in a fun and easily accessible manner.

Loneliness is a Cooty

New research shows that loneliness is something that can be spread, much like a cold or a bad attitude. So, if you feel lonely and shared that with someone you know, ironically and paradoxically, that person is more likely to feel lonely than if you had kept your mouth shut. Even a friend of a friend of someone who feels lonely has a greater chance of feeling lonely themselves. So how do we stop this epidemic? Lonely people need to keep their loneliness to themselves. I hope I'm not alone on this.

Beware the Latest Threat to Human Life!

Jellyfish are Taking Over the Ocean!

Despite their pacific sounding name (pun intended) jellyfish are quickly becoming a threat to other ocean life and to human beings. See the harrowing report on how many giant, icky jellyfish are propagating off the coast of Japan, and how deadly the sting of the box jellyfish can be. Did you know that 500,000 people per year are stung by jellyfish in the Chesapeak Bay? I didn't even know that many people swam in the bay. It seems like a 100% guarantee that if you go swimming in the bay you will become just another statitic.

Clearly this is a job for government intervention, and the answer is not just throwing dollars at the problem (the jellyfish will just eat them). No, the US of A must recruit the only known weapon against this menace:



Nick at Night, send us Spongebob so we can sleep at night!

How Men Can Be So Stupid

There's a new study out that indicates that men basically beat up their wives if their home football team, when favored to win by 3 points or more, loses. This seemingly unimportant upset in the larger scheme of things, seems to be incredibly upsetting to many of us men, who then take out their frustrations on their spouses.

So how should "society" respond? Perhaps an ad after such a loss by the home team, discouragin their male fans from reacting this way, sort of like a "drink responsibly" add: "lose with dignity"? Who knows. But clearly those of us with testosterone in our gender package have issues.

My Favorite Philosopher

Not Socrates, not Aristotle, not even Yogi Berra. No, it's Allain de Botton, author of The Consolations of Philosophy; Status Anxiety and How Proust Can Change Your Life, among others. He writes beautifully and captures the essence of mundane events and otherwise ordinary characters, and elevates them to a sublime sense otherwise missing from everyday reflections. You need to read his books to see what I mean.

He recently started a "school" for people interested in tying philosophy to their everyday life. He aptly called it The School of Life. On the website he has contributors of the same ilk. One just wrote a short piece on why bankers' wealth gets our goat but that of rock stars doesn't.

Hapless Again - The 2009 New York Mets

As if things weren't bad enough for the 2009 New York Mets, the latest news that Johan Santana is out for the season with bone chips in his elbow seems like that's as bad as it can get. But wait, there is still more than a month left in the season, so who knows what else can happen. Will a hot prospect get injuried in his first at bat, or after throwing his first pitch? What new twist can this team give to losing a game at the last moment? Unassisted triple play. Done. Missing third base. Ditto. Dropping an infield pop fly. Been there. Perhaps an outfielder will toss the second out of an inning into the stands, thinking it's out number three and the winning run will score for the opposing team. Maybe someone will bat out of order, forcing Jerry Manuel to use a non-pitcher to pitch in a late inning game. Let's just wait and see.

I was going to mention as emblematic of the season the offer of free Mets tickets from an online pawn broker. I guess that's the most positive association that one can make with the Mest these days, but even they have pulled the offer.

What will McDonald's name them and Will Sarah Palin be on Board?

Unable to control the growth of its imported camel population, the Australian government has decided to shoot 650,000 camels from helicopters and sell them for meat and other uses (whatever those may be). Any guess as to what McDonald's will call this tasy new treat? Will it be on sale on "hump" day? Rumor has it that Sarah Palin, fond of shooting wildlife from helicopters, has asked to go on a ride-along to test her skills against the slow-footed targets.