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It would be great if we could all retire with a nice portfolio of savings and pension income, without having to worry about paying the bills most retired people pay.

Yet...many retirees are living out their retirement on the breadline without much hope for even going on holiday without being assisted by relatives or even handouts. Don't let yourself be one of them...it's never too late!

Title : Celebration
Author : Harry Crews
Rating : 2 Stars out of 5.
Summary : An unbelievably lame tale from my favorite author. Bummer.

I've savored and passed around every Crews novel in print, but I had to force myself to finish this one. If you've never read a Harry Crews novel, don't start with Celebration. Skip it and pick up Scar Lover, Feast of Snakes or Knockout Artist and see the strange genius of Crews at its finest. His brilliance is in the way he touches deeply into the lives of disturbed outcasts and makes you laugh out loud and fall in love with all of them.

Celebration has the cast of outrageous characters that I love about Crews's novels, but here they just seem ridiculous and silly with none of Crews's previous characters' charm and wit.

The jacket art, depicting the gorgeous 18 year old Too Much, is the best thing about this book. Too bad Crews can't convince us that such a creature exists, even in Forever and Forever, a Florida trailer park for eccentrics at the end of their miserable lives.

Too Much shares a trailer and a giant bath tub with Stump, the elderly owner of the park whose missing hand and resulting nub is the main reason she's with him. "Had it been possible, she would have taken him inside her all the way to the shoulder." If you think the names of these characters are hard to swallow, you have an idea of how much disbelief you will have to suspend to get this one down. It's as if Crews had his students write this one as a class project.

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 : Celebration
Author : Harry Crews
Rating : 4 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Not one of his best, but a page-turner.

I just finished Harry Crews's _Celebration_. It's a Crews Cruise (TM) freak show, complete with stump-humpin', granny-drownin', Turkey suckin' good ole bad ole boys and girls, which incidentally answers the zen koan "What should you do if you meet the Buddha on the road and she offers to have outrageous sex with you?"

Title : 50 Fabulous Places to Retire in America (50 Fabulous Places to Retire in America)
Author : Ken Stern
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : Great for finding the perfect place to retire

This is the wonderful book for finding the perfect place to retire. You learn about each city's climate, costs, taxes, real estate, crime, culture, recreation, transportation, education, medical care job market.

The overview section is very helpful for getting a feel for the city as well recognizing both its positives drawbacks. A listing of newspapers, a realtor, the Chamber of Commerce with contact information is also great aid.

Since a great climate is important to me, I also found the detailed data on weather helpful. It includes seasonal high/low temp, avg. rain/snow inches, avg. # of rainy days, avg. humidity. The # of days below 32 over 90 is also included.

As a bonus this book also helps you figure out how much money you will need how to make it work for you. Tips on moving successfully are also included. If you're thinking about retiring, or even just moving, this is the book you.

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 : Get a Life: You Don't Need a Million to Retire Well
Author : Ralph Warner
Rating : 5 Stars out of 5.
Summary : My favorite retirement book.

Lawyer/consumer advocate Ralph "Jake" Warner thinks the popular advice that implores Americans to save piles of money for retirement is hugely exaggerated. Jake urges us to have built a life worth living by middle age, and tells the stories of seniors who have done just that. He offers advice on many issues, such as deciding what a reasonable nest egg should be and developing a healthy lifestyle. This book will help you find your way to a more fulfilling retirement, while it eases your current stress level.

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