
Title : One World, Ready or Not
Author : Wil Greider
Rating : 3 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Take two aspirins, don't call me in the morning
A man goes to his dermatologist to have an ugly mole removed from his neck. He returns one week later to have his stitch removed.
"The good news is, you won't have any scar," the doctor says. "The bad news is, you'll be dead in six months."
Though many people criticize Mr. Greider's conclusions, few -- even eminent scholars -- can say why. They admit most of his facts are correct (damning with faint praise) without saying which facts are wrong. They provide simplistic parables about the economics of hot dogs and buns without benefit either of logic or evidence. In short, most of Mr Greider's "critics" seem more culpable than Greider of the crimes against intellectual integrity of which they accuse him.
Let's simply stipulate that Mr. Greider is like Ralph Nader, a Cassandra. Let's stipulate further that he is histrionic even paranoic. Let's simply rest with "the facts".
What we have left is the picture of a global economy in ICU, surrounded (a) by technicians who are not monitoring high performance, but failing vital signs; (b) by FedEx boxes for shipping body parts.
Had the world not already experienced an economic death but 70 years ago, we might dismiss Greider's prognosis.
So, his facts are worrisome; but, not as troubling as his prescriptions. He doesn't think it inevitable that the patient has to die because the "government" can somehow "keep it going" with a different IV solution, tracts to bolster the spirits of the patient's next of kin, and specific instructions to other governmental and cultural caretakers.
He doesn't satisfy me that he understands that we are not simply in another industrial revolution, but a post-industrial evolution. Yes, the whole world is changing, as it has several time before in the last 100,000 years -- but what comes from that process will be far better -- and simpler -- than what is now becoming ruins.
So, Mr. Greider gets full credit for research, and no credit for insight. Therefore, a 5.
--John Grassi

Title : The Inheritance of Loss
Author : Kiran Desai
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : "Mythic battles of past and present, justice and injustice."
Writing with wit and perception, Kiran Desai creates an elegant and thoughtful study of families, the losses each member must confront alone, and the lies each tells to make memories of the past more palatable. Sai Mistry is a young girl whose education at an Indian convent school comes to an end in the mid-1980s, when she is orphaned and sent to live with her grandfather, a judge who does not want her and who offers no solace. Living in a large, decaying house, her grandfather considers himself more British than Indian, far superior to hard-working but poverty-stricken people like his cook, Nandu, whose hopes for a better life for his son are the driving force in his life.
The story of Sai, living in Kalimpong, near India's northeast border with Nepal, alternates with that of Biju, Nandu's son, an illegal immigrant trying to find work and a better life in America. Biju, working in a series of deadend jobs, epitomizes the plight of the illegal immigrant who has no future in his own country and who endures deplorable conditions and semi-servitude working illegally in the US. As Desai explores the aspirations of Sai and Biju, the hopes and expectations of their families, and their disconnections with their roots, she also creates vivid pictures of the friends and relatives who surround them, creating a vibrant picture of a broad cross-section of society and revealing the social and political history of India.
Though Sai's romance, at sixteen, with Gyan, her tutor, provides her with an emotional escape from Kalimpong, it soon becomes complicated by Gyan's involvement with the Gorkha National Liberation Federation, a Nepalese independence movement which quickly becomes bloody. Gyan's commitment to the insurgency offers an ironic contrast with the commitment of his family to the colonial British army in earlier times, just as the judge's hatreds, learned in England, are ironically contrasted with his British affectations in later life.
A careful observer of behavior, with a fine eye for revealing details, Desai brings her narrative and characters to life, illustrating her themes without making moral judgments about her characters-creating neither saints nor villains, just ordinary people leading the best lives they can, using whatever resources are available. Her characters, like people from all cultures, make sacrifices for their children, behave cruelly toward people they love, reject traditional ways of life and old values, rediscover what is important to them, suffer at the hands of faceless government officials, and learn, and grow, and make decisions, sometimes ill-considered, about their lives. Dealing with all levels of society and many different cultures, Desai shows life's humor and brutality, its whimsy and harshness, and its delicate emotions and passionate commitments in a novel that is both beautiful and wise. Mary Whipple

Title : Investing from Scratch: A Handbook for the Young Investor
Author : James Lowell
Rating : 2 Stars out of 5.
Summary : A well written book for beginners.
The author writes very well, but all too often the advice is a little thin. I liked his approach to handling money but for real practical advice I found another book more useful: "How To Invest $50 to $5,000" by Dunnan. However, both make excellent presents for young and/or inexperienced investors and savers.

Title : General Washington's Christmas Farewell: A Mount Vernon Homecoming, 1783
Author : Stanley Weintraub
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : It takes chaos to invent a new order
Let's start on a personal note: I was in Cuba in January 1959, when the brutal dictator Fulgencio Batista fled in the middle of the night and Fidel Castro began making his way across the country to Havana.
The Cuban celebrations of the collapse of tyranny and terror were much like the events described in this book, a continuing rum-fueled celebration that lasted days and days in a nation at last free after years of terror. Castro made a triumphal procession across the country as a godlike liberator, just as Washington was hailed as the greatest man of his times. It is nice to celebrate the end of a war -- think of George Bush strutting across the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, wearing a borrowed flight suit with the banner 'Mission Accomplished' in the background. But, freedom is much more; it generates an ecstasy that stirs every emotion the heart, not merely the limited glory of victory, but also an unbounded hope for a better and brighter future without fear, fright or futility.
Washington, with a knowledge and wisdom rare among revolutionary leaders, went back to his farm. The ultimate tribute came from King George III, who personally knew something about the temptations and dangers of power, when he said that if Washington actually did return to his farm "he will be the greatest man in the world."
Think of Cuba today had Castro retired to a little rancho and learned how to cut cane instead of crushing gusanos. In Haiti, Jean Bertrand Aristide should have gone back to the priesthood after he tossed out the Duvalier regime. The list of "liberators" who seize power and try to impose their own rules is almost universal; Washington patterned his retirement after the Roman hero Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus "who, victorious, left the tented field, covered with honor, and withdrew from public life, to enjoy civium cum dignitate."
Unlike Cincinnatus, who was twice recalled from his farm to become dictator, Washington was recalled from his farm only to establish an enduring legacy of democracy. It is a rare quality. Weintraub describes those perilous times with painful detail.
Painful? It was a time of chaos in America, much to the satisfaction of the English who thought the independent colonies would collapse of internal confusion. Congress was even flakier then than now. A third of Americans were loyalists who had supported King George; Washington understood the power of reconciliation rather than the retribution of describing anyone who had not supported him as an enemy.
In 1783, Washington kept urging greater power for the central government. He could have become dictator and imposed his own regal solution; instead, he stepped back and let the people and Congress, however slow in their many imperfections, gradually work out the system that now exists. Everyone was slow to listen, waiting until 1787 to even begin writing a new Constitution. But, after trying all other solutions, they finally listened to Washington. The old boy may have had wooden (or ivory) teeth, but there was no wood between his ears.
Weintraub has written a masterful book outlining the chaos, confusion and cupidity of the time; explaining how from the primordial soup of American independence a resolute democracy emerged. This book helps explain the resolute independence of the American spirit, nicely summed up by a departing British officer, "These Americans are a curious, original people; they know how to govern themselves, but nobody else can govern them."
It was a wonderful tribute to an exceptional people, and this book nicely explains the mood of the times.

Title : Social Security, Medicare, and Pensions: Get the Most Out of Your Retirement and Medical Benefits
Author : Joseph L. Matthews
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Great summary of the Social Security system!
This happens to be the best all-around book concerning the difficult subject of Social Security that I have read. Understandable and very well written. The sections regarding disability are filled with just the info I needed to know.

Title : A Peaceful Retirement
Author : Read
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : A lovely and entertaining read, a book to get lost in.
Miss Read, again manages to captivate the feelings of those who to are approaching retirement; and also of those who aren't. Her characters are all someone you know in your own life. Always feeling that they could be so and so. I always felt as if I was included in the story, like I was a friend. I'm an avid reader of her books but it seems this is the last one? She puts such warmth and feeling into this book it spills out from every page. It is obvious that her friends are as devoted to her as she is to them whatever happens. The frequent requests of marriage from John Jenkins are bittersweet and has nearly succumb once or twice. Her lifelong friend Amy, trying so hard to matchmake over the years, tries not to let John Jenkins slip through Miss Reads' fingers but alas fails again. She gets great support from Henry Mawne, who has also been a suitor in the past but Miss Read also gently refused him. She looks forward to retirement with joy and some trepidation, however handles the situation very well. I hope there will be more stories from her in the not to distant future.

Title : Brilliant Deductions
Author : Wade B. Cook
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : BRIllANT ADVICE!!!!
Brilliant Deductions offers excellentstrategies to reduce taxes; section29 tax credits, Nevada Corporations,Pension Plans, living trusts, charit-abale trusts, limited partnerships andmore. Easy reading.
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