If you are following events in the Middle East—and who isn’t—then I recommend you read A Choice of Enemies: America Confronts the Middle East by Lawrence Freedman ($29.95, Public Affairs). It is one of the best books for anyone struggling to understand what we are doing there now and how presidents since the end of WWII have had to make decisions regarding the endless conflicts of that region. From Eisenhower’s rebuke of the British and Israeli attempt to take over the Suez Canal to the present civil war in Iraq, with stops in Lebanon, the region has been a sinkhole of diplomatic efforts and military interventions, few of which had a happy ending. With attention to detail, the author looks at the various nations with which presidents have had to contend, as well as the shifting alliances and the unintended consequences of what seemed like rational policy at the time. I have read many books about the Middle East and this has to rank high among them for the clarity it brings to the otherwise impenetrable politics and tribal hostilities of the region.

On May 8^th, Israel celebrates the 60^th anniversary of its founding as a sovereign nation. What better time to read The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land ($16.00, Free Press, softcover) by Donna Rosenthal? For a very small nation, it generates a great deal of news, remaining since its beginning, the focus of Arab hostility. The author, a former Israel TV news producer and reporter for Israel Radio and the Jerusalem Post, describes what life is like, not just for Jewish Israelis, but also for Christian and Muslim Israelis, in this historic holy land claimed by all three faiths. What is it like to live in the first Jewish state since the days of the Romans? It is the only Middle Eastern nation with a growing Christian population. It drafts its women for military duty. It has a thriving Silicon Valley of its own. The daily and often dramatic stories of a nation that is still under siege, threatened now by Hezbollah and Hamas, are fascinating. 

I love big, fat books. They are so full of promise of things to read. One such is Understanding America: The Anatomy of an Exceptional Nation, edited by Peter H. Schuck and James O. Wilson ($35.00, Public Affairs). I frankly always wince when I hear people berate and condemn America, forgetting or perhaps never knowing how much goodness outweighs its occasional failures. No other nation has gone to war for freedom and, having defeated its enemies, stayed around to help rebuild nations like Japan, Germany, and now Iraq. From its beginnings, through its Revolution and Constitution, America has been exceptional and this collection of essays about its political and legal systems, our military, the role of religion, and much more takes a clear-eyed look at America today and what we may anticipate in the future. A very different look at America is Roger Lowenstein’s While America Aged ($29.95, The Penguin Press) that warns that America now faces “a crisis of epidemic proportions” involving our pension systems. The author looks at the way pension programs are coming due for an aging population, those born after World War Il, creating havoc as both corporations and governments. An over-obligated, crippled General Motors is one example, the pension strike that halted New York City’s subways is another. A long list of cities and states are so deep in debt that it is likely to generate pension wars along with a healthcare crisis. The author calls it “a moral crisis” in addition to being a financial one.

Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart: Thirty True Things You Need to Know Now by Dr. Gordon Livingston, MD ($12.95, Da Capo Press, softcover) is a gem. There is no end of books that attempt to capture the essence of eternal truths about the human experience, but it must be said the author has done an exceptional job. The author is a graduate of West Point and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, a Vietnam War veteran, a psychiatrist, and a parent, twice bereaved. He writes of the necessity of perseverance and of maintaining hope, even when events inflict unjustifiable suffering. This is a book about becoming the person you want to be. A most unusual, but very interesting one is Holy Unexpected: How I Became an Unorthodox Jew by Robin Chotzinoff ($14.95, Public Affairs, softcover) in which the author, raised by a Catholic mother and a Jewish father as an agnostic, made a spiritual journey pockmarked by a lot of personal problems. The journey began with her own daughter’s interest and records her discoveries about her Jewish heritage and her surprise at the way Judaism approaches life’s challenges and serves as a guide to dealing with them. A very different, but wonderfully entertaining book, is Puppy Chow is Better Than Prozac: The True Story of a Man and the Dog Who Saved His life by Bruce Goldstein ($25.00, Da Capo Press). Plagued by suicidal thoughts, his psychiatrist had for weeks recommended he get a dog (after prescribing lithium!) and, after a search, he found the perfect one for him. It is a chronicle of falling in love and experiencing all the joys of man’s best friend. His dog forced him back into the world and did, indeed, save his life. It is a wonderful true story.

People who love to read books often want to write one of their own. Among the new books available to help you become an author is The Writer Within You by Charles Jacobs, described as a step-by-step guide to writing and publishing in your retirement years ($19.95, Caros Books, Woodcliff Lake, NJ, softcover), but useful for anyone of any age. My friend, Dan Poynter, a noted author’s coach, says it provides outstanding support for hopeful writers and I agree. It is filled with useful, practical advice. Manuscript Makeover: Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore by Elizabeth Lyon ($14.95, Perigee, imprint of Berkeley Publishing Group, softcover) and, as the title says, its emphasis is on how to create stories that will stand out from the competition and attract the interest of agents and editors. The tendency is to think that writing is easy, but anyone who tries for the first time or any time will tell you it has rules that must be learned and applied if one is to achieve any success. Biography: A User’s Guide by Carl Rollyson ($27.50, Ivan R. Dee Publisher, Chicago) is written by an author of biographies of Rebecca West, Norman Mailer, Marilyn Monroe, and others. He knows the craft and now, in a witty, instructive book, he teaches everything you will need to know if you have it in mind to write a biography. This is the nitty-gritty of this genre and I would not hesitate to say read this book before you ever begin writing a biography. Of course, if you weren’t paying attention in school when the fundamentals of writing were being taught, you might want to pick up a copy of The English Language: A User’s Guide by Jack Lynch ($12.95, Focus Publishing, R. Pullins Co., PO B 369, Newburyport, MA 01950, softcover). Arranged alphabetically, it covers the gamut of terms and rules every writer should know. It explains the “whys” of the language for good grammar and style. This publisher, at www.pullins.com has a number of excellent books on these topics.

Having paid your taxes last month, there never was a better time to pick up a copy of Julian Block’s Ultimate ’08 Tax-Saving Resource: Strategies to Increase Investable Assets ($43.55, The National Underwriter Company, POB 14367, Cincinnati, OH 45250-0367). In essence, this book is all about lowering your taxes next year because the tax laws change all the time and Block, an expert on tax law, reveals the best, most practical and effective tax options available. The guide tells you, for example, about the money-saving techniques used by the wealthy and gives advice on how to shield income from tax collections through safe and sensible arrangements that can eliminate, reduce or postpone the amount that goes to the IRS. We are either in a Recession or about to be, so a book like this one is a valuable resource. If, like most Americans, you are trying to figure out how the U.S. economy works, this would be a good time to pick up a copy of Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries) by Jared Bernstein ($26.95, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco) that answers questions such as whether Social Security really is going broke, how much influence does a president have over the economy, and how do I know if politicians and economists are telling me the truth? Here’s an economist who has written an easy-to-understand book that is particularly timely since the media is doing its best to tell us nothing but the bad news, while largely ignoring the positive factors, i.e. exports, that will help us through this latest in cyclical ups and downs. Yet another economist, Steven E. Landsburg, has written More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics ($14.00, Free Press, softcover) wherein he offers an economist’s take on economic and social problems, noting that many odd behaviors have logical explanations while apparently logical behaviors often make no sense at all. These two latter books go far to explain the headlines these days. Just watching the Dow rocket up and down from day to day is your first hint that logic often has little to do with anything the stock market does.

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Marriage, Parenting, Life!

 Life is a constant challenge so it is a good thing that there are books available to help us cope at various stages and with important decisions.

The Birth Order Book of Love by William Cane ($14.95, Da Capo Press, softcover) explores the twelve birth order types based on studies that allege that your personality is shaped in part by your position among siblings (or as an only child), gender, and age gaps. I have a brother seven years older than me who might as well been born on another planet, but as the unexpected bonus in my parent’s life, I was showered with love, so—yes—I tend to think there’s something to the advice about why some couples benefit from sharing a common birth order and others encounter problems would prove helpful to anyone looking for a mate. There’s a Spouse in My House: A Humorous Journey Through The First Years of Marriage by Peter Scott ($14.00, Plume, softcover), a television writer, offers some good advice to newlyweds through the peaks and valleys of the first years of marriage because there are some real issues with which to deal, from co-habitation to balancing one’s career with marriage, handling pressures to have children, and, of course, finances. I’d say this is a good book for anyone planning marriage. And then there’s Make Any Divorce Better by Ed Sherman ($24.95, Nolo Press, softcover includes a CD). Sherman, an attorney for 35 years has handled more than 45,000 cases. If anyone knows the specific steps one should take to make things smoother, faster, and less painful, it’s him! Since half of all marriages these days end up in divorce, this is an excellent book to consult if that’s on your mind.

At various stages of our lives, it’s useful to know that others are experiencing the same doubts, hopes, and problems associated with our age group. The 20 Something Manifesto by Christine Hassler ($15.95, New World Library, softcover) is filled with the shared experiences of people in one of the most defining decades of their lives. It is filled with practical lessons learned and suggestions on how to deal with all manner of issues. With new found freedoms and choices, this book will prove very helpful to guide one through life’s many landmines. Stephen Arterburn and John Shore have written the Midlife Manual For Men: Finding Significance in the Second Half ($19.99, Bethany House Publishers, also available in 4 CDs). There are some 39 million baby boomer men going through midlife these days as husbands, fathers, sons, and the other roles in which they find themselves. They often encounter feelings of loss or failure, have difficulty dealing with suppressed emotions, are facing financial and career challenges, and must come to terms with aging. If this describes you or someone you know, I would surely recommend this book. The older we get, the more attention we pay to our health. Body Signs by Joan Liebmann-Smith, PhD, and Jacqueline Nardi Egan ($25.00, Bantam Books) identifies the many symptoms that we either choose to act upon or to ignore. We all learn to spot changes, many of which are perfectly normal and benign, but others need a response. How to diagnose yourself, detecting your body’s signals, and determining their seriousness, as well as being able to describe them to your doctor, is the subject of this excellent book.

It was named one of the 25 most influential books of the past 25 years by USA Today and has been a perennial New York Times bestseller. It is What To Expect When You’re Expecting by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel ($14.95, Workman Publishing, softcover) and it is now in its 4^th edition, completely revised. It’s bigger, better, and clearly invaluable when it comes to providing moms and dads-to-be the information they need, answering all the questions about pregnancy and birth. There are two other books out about pregnancy that are worth reading. The Real Deal Guide to Pregnancy by Erika Lenkert ($16.95, DK Publishing, softcover) is a quick and easy guide to the nine months, explaining the changes occurring in the body and offering advice on all aspects of the experience as it affects the mother-to-be and those around her. A far more detailed guide, now in its sixth edition, fully updated and revised is Your Pregnancy Week by Week by Glade B. Curtis, MD, MPH, and Judith Schuler, MS ($l5.95, Lifelong Books, an imprint of Da Capo Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group, softcover) has already sold millions of copies as testimony to the excellence and breadth of the encyclopedic information it provides.

The ABCs of Breastfeeding by Stacey H. Rubin, MN, ($14.95, Amacom, softcover) addresses the physical and emotional benefits of breastfeeding for the new mom and her baby. Breast milk provides proper nourishment, helps strengthen a baby’s immune system, and deepens the mother-child bond. This book is a practical, reader-friendly guide that will help every new mother feel comfortable and confident about feeding her baby. Before I leave this topic, I will take note of The Best Breast 2: The Ultimate Discriminating Woman’s Resource for Breast Augmentation by John B. Tebbetts, MD, and Terrye B. Tebbetts ($24.95, Brown Books Publishing Group) that is 608 pages of detailed information that can go far to avoiding the 25% of re-operations required for the 100,000 women who require it. This is a clinical book on implant choices, surgical options, and how to prepare for and recover from surgery. This is not exactly light reading, but for any woman contemplating this procedure, well worth reading.

For every parent with a child in school, I want to recommend Pressured Parents, Stressed-Out Kids: Dealing with Competition While Raising a Successful Child by Wendy S. Grolick, PhD and Kathy Seal ($17.95, Prometheus Books, softcover) takes a look at the way kids face competition at all stages of their youth and how parents can channel the anxiety that goes with it into positive parenting. How to acquire and foster the right attitudes is the subject of this important guide that teaches how to provide structure in their children’s lives to help them solve their problems and be responsible for their actions. Also from Prometheus Books comes The Mother Factor: How Your Mother’s Emotional Legacy Impacts Your Life by Stephan B. Poulter, PhD ($18.95). It provides five templates of mother types, perfectionist, unpredictable, the ‘me first’ mother, the ‘best friend’ mother, and the complete mother, though he makes clear that many mothers are a combination. Most, however, fit into one category than others. Thus, they impart a legacy of unspoken rules that govern their children’s lives as they grow older. By being able to identify those rules, we can learn to make our own choices. I would think today’s parents would want to understand these things in order to either break the cycle or utilize it when raising their children. What Every 21^st-Century Parent Needs to Know by Debra W. Haffner ($16.95, Newmarket Press) has the benefit of the author’s more than twenty-five years as a parenting educator. Even better, she presents information to dispute the scary headlines intended to convince parents that today’s kids are all obese, alcoholics, and sexually active. The data indicates a better picture than the media offers. Here’s good, solid, practical advice for today’s parent who is trying to do the right thing for their children.

An extremely important new book that should be read by every parent is Walking Targets: How Our Psychologized Classrooms Are Producing a Nation of Sitting Ducks.  Written by B. K, Eakman, a former director of the National Education Consortium, ($24.95, Midnight Whistler Publishers, PO Box 91161, Raleigh, NC 27657-1161, softcover) the book describes how the basic technique used to psychologically assess children and their families is essentially a knock-off of marketing and advertising. These techniques are used to predict attitudes, including political reactions—called “worldviews”—and have been used by the Department of Education to collect data on the kids and their families. It’s not about mental health. It’s about political indoctrination, sometimes disguised as “career planning.” The deterioration of the nation’s education system is an open secret, but parents often find themselves defenseless. In California, a high court recently ruled against the right of parents to home-school their children as one more effort to ensure that the state has more control over them than parents.  Millions of students passed through the pre-1960s education system as healthy, productive young people. Today, they are as likely to be required to take various behavior altering drugs as not. Are you a parent? Read this book! Learn more at www.BeverlyE.com.

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Reading History

 It has long been noted that a people who do not know history can be expected to repeat the errors of the past. It is history that binds us together as a nation. It is history that not only provides a window to the past, but one to the future, guiding us to make the right decisions based on the errors of previous generations, connecting us to the 5,000 years of civilization that is our human heritage.

Ten Discoveries That Rewrote History by Patrick Hunt, PhD ($15.00, Plume, softcover) was published in October and is one of those deceptively slim books that are easy to overlook. The author asks the question, if scientists choose to rank the greatest archeological discoveries since the creation of the discipline, what would they be? A Stanford University archeologist, the author shares his choices. From the Rosetta Stone to the discovery of Troy, King Tut’s tomb, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, the reader learns how the past was revealed and anyone with an interest in ancient history will thoroughly enjoy it. Do you like to travel or know someone who does? Then pick up a copy of From Agincourt to Zanzibar: Where-in-the-World Guide to 300+ Places by Don Hausrath and Paul Wasserman ($19.95, Capital Books, softcover). These two wise and witty world travelers, both librarians, offer an entertaining and eccentric survey of the world in a fact-filled gazette of more than 300 biblical, historical, mythical, literary and real places, all filled with heroes and villains, battles, empires, and so much more it is impossible to fully describe it. For each location, the authors offer their choice of the most significant book on the place and/or a website to consult.

The American Civil War continues to generate excellent books on its events and personalities. The latest three are General Lee’s Army: From Victory to Defeat by Joseph T. Glatter ($30.00, Free Press), Roll Call to Destiny: The Soldier’s Eye View of Civil War Battle by Brent Nosworthy ($27.95, Carroll & Graf) and Gettysburg Heroes: Perfect Soldiers, Hallowed Ground by Glenn W. LaFantasie ($24.95, Indiana University Press). The first of these three is a thick volume of 600 pages that takes the reader from start to finish with the Confederate army and makes abundantly clear that its soldiers knew very well what they were fighting for, believing that the war was to be a defense of slavery. The reader will learn how close the Confederates came to winning their war and much more about this event that still fascinates us nearly a 150 years later.

Brent Nosworthy points out that a new generation of historians has emerged to challenge many of the sacrosanct views and attitudes that have characterized this conflict. Nowhere is this truer than the perspective of the soldiers on the battlefield. Gathered here are the eyewitness accounts of small units engagements at Bull Run, Fair Oaks, the third day of Gettysburg, and the attack up Missionary Ridge. Battles large and small come to life again.  LaFantasia’s book is a collection of 14 essays that examine the lives and experiences of several key personalities who gained fame during the Civil War and afterward. The battle of Gettysburg was the thread that tied their lives together and marked a turning point for each. These three accounts are history at its best.

The war in Iraq is already generating a host of books. One of the latest is House to House: A Soldier’s Memoir by David Bellavia with John R. Bruning ($15.00, Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, softcover). Bellavia is on a tour across America to educate the public about the politicization of media coverage of our military operations in Iraq. Nominated for the Distinguished Service Cross and Medal of Honor, the author provides a raw, unvarnished account of modern urban warfare. This is what it is like to be a soldier in combat. After reading it, you will feel like you were there, thank God you were not, and your admiration for those going in harm’s way will know no bounds. Wars, of course, are fertile ground for the writing of history. Michael Green has written a number of books about the tank in war. His latest, War Stories of the Tankers, ($24.95, Zenith Press, imprint of MBI Publishing Co.) relates the breathtaking and true stories of American tank fighters who took on enemies in several wars from WWII through Korea and Vietnam, up to our current conflict in Iraq. Anyone who enjoys reading military history will want to read this one. Steeds of Steel: A History of American Mechanized Cavalry in World War II by Harry Yeide ($27.95, Zenith Press, an imprint of Quayside Publishing Group, Minneapolis, MN) is an excellent piece of history that explores how, in 1939, the U.S. Cavalry was still mainly the horse-mounted force it had been since the nation’s founding. When the U.S. entered the war in 1941, it became a tank force and the author follows this change as it took place in the different theatres of war as soldiers learned to operate in the African desert, in Europe, and in Pacific jungles. It is an inspiring story, enhanced by maps and photos. Order of Battle: German Infantry in WWII by Chris Bishop ($19.95, Zenith Press, softcover) is strictly for those whose interest in WWII goes deeper than most. Filled with maps, the various theatres of war are examined with an eye to the chain of command and units involved. It is a very impressive look at the formidable enemy the allies had to face.

The Making of FDR: The Story of Stephen T. Early, America’s First Modern Press Secretary by Linda Lotridge Levin ($27.95, Prometheus Books) has been waiting to be told. Though practically unknown to American’s today, Early was one of the most influential men of mid-twentieth century America. It was Early who was chiefly responsible for getting the president’s message out to the press as he helped shape it. He remade what had been a routine White House briefing function into the modern high visibility role of today’s press secretaries. For the first time, the president held two news conferences a week, he helped create FDR’s famed “fireside chats”, and Levin credits him with ensuring that FDR went on to become the longest-serving president in U.S. history. One of the most famous clashes in the modern era was the one between Truman and MacArthur ($29.95, Indiana University Press) and Michael D. Pearlman provides an objective and comprehensive account of the very public confrontation between a sitting president and famed general over the military’s role in the conduct of foreign policy. If that sounds like something out of today’s headlines, it is. General McArthur pressed the White House for an invasion of China after its armies had entered the Korean War in 1950. Truman refused and McArthur set about arguing his case in the press. On April 11, 1951, Truman removed him from command, thus affirming that it is the president’s job to set policy and direct the actions of the armed forces. This makes for some very timely and interesting reading.

Summers with Lincoln: Looking for the Man in Monuments by James A. Percoco ($24.95, Fordham University Press) is a delightful and informative story of the author’s fascination with the fact that nearly 200 statues have been erected in memory of Abraham Lincoln and can be found throughout the nation. Now, in time for the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth in 2009, Percoco, a history teacher for both the man and the public sculpture celebrating him, takes the reader on a tour, a chronicle of four summers on the road looking for Lincoln stores in marble and bronze. Beginning and ending in Washington, D.C., seven emblematic statues have their stories told. I am personally familiar with Gutson Borglum’s Seated Lincoln in Newark, NJ that beckons visitors to sit next to him and who is not familiar with the brooding Lincoln in the D.C. memorial? Other than George Washington, few men have imprinted their memory on Americans as Lincoln did. This is a delightful book in so many ways and now you can take it to the beach or the patio and enjoy your summer with Lincoln as well.

You can also listen to history in the form of audiobooks. An excellent new one is A Splendid Exchange by William J. Bernstein ($39.00, Tantor Audio, trade edition 14 CDs). The author has literally taken on the job of revealing the way trade shaped the world from prehistory to modern times. It is a sweeping narrative of world trade from the days of Sumer in 3000 BC to the issues involving globalization today. You will find yourself transported back to the days of caravans and ancient sailing ships or the way the new markets for sugar, tobacco and spices were the beginning of the way all manner of things move back and forth across the face of the planet today. It is a fascinating story. You can learn more about Tantor titles at www.tantor.com. Check it out.

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Getting Down to Business (Books)

Books on personal finance and how to manage a successful business keep pouring off the press, so let’s take a quick look at just a few, any one of which might prove useful.

It is an appalling fact of modern life that today’s college students are graduating with thousands of dollars in debt for the loans they took to attend. Ramen Noodles, Rent and Resumes: An After-College Guide to Life ($14.95, Super College, Belmont, CA, softcover) by Kristen Fischer addresses what some are beginning to call the “quarter-life crisis” as graduates face both debt and the need for a job to relieve the burden. This book offers practical tips to help cope with the stress and transition to a satisfying career. This is stuff a graduate needs to know in order to cope effectively. The book is available at www.supercollege.com. Career Contentment by Jeffrey Garton ($22.95, ASTD Press, softcover) addresses the fact that employees lack control over the people and things such as salary, benefits, a good boss and favorable working conditions. Formerly in human resources with Philip Morris Companies for over twenty years, Garton presents specific techniques and step-by-step strategies to shape your job situation into one that yields satisfaction. It is all about one’s state of mind and resilience at a time when corporations are laying off employees, the job markets are uncertain, and there are grounds for skeptism. Maybe you should also read Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives ($24.95, Jossey-Bass) by Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek that is about integrating the principles of entrepreneurship into one’s life beyond just the arena of business. In an uncertain economy, the authors interviewed a variety of successful people to demonstrate how developing a personal vision for one’s life is the first step to achieving it. 

There are a number of books devoted to marketing that are worth a look. Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Brands by David Vinjamuri ($24.95, Wiley) is about the stories behind seven different brands started by amateurs such as Craig Newmark of Craig’s List, John Peterman of J. Peterman Company, and Julie Aigner-Clark who started Baby Einstein. None were privileged Ivy Leagers and some didn’t even graduate college. This is a look inside the process by which they created brands that made them wealthy and provides practical insight to what steps they took that may prove surprising as well as the pitfalls they avoided. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it can happen. The Alpha Factor by Wes Ball ($27.95, Westlyn Publishing) shatters a lot of myths. Based on the author’s long-term study involving 100,000 interviews, he offers a proven blueprint that any organization can apply in order to drive demand, showing how the world’s leading companies are doing it even in the present economy. This is some real nitty-gritty stuff that will benefit any CEO or top management person. Gravitational Marketing: The Science of Attracting Customers by a trio of authors ($26.95, Wiley) provides entrepreneurs, business owners, and independent sales professionals a simple method for finding customers without the hassle of traditional sales techniques. They examine what chasing prospects doesn’t work, how to Recession-proof your business, why traditional small business marketing is dead, and much more worth learning. The chairman and CEO of Proctor & Gamble, A.G. Lafley teamed with Ram Charan to write The Game Changer ($27.50, Crown Business) to put the process of innovation to work in order to stay competitive and on top of the marketplace. It explains how to make customers the real “boss” of your company, how to innovate to grow a mature business, manage risk, and much more in today’s challenging and increasingly globalized competitive marketplace.

A slew of books address personal financial topics. Robert T. Kiyosaki has written Increase Your Financial IQ: Getting Smarter with Your Money ($16.95, Business Plus) that has a foreword by Donald J. Trump. In 1997, the author stunned readers saying, “Your house is not an asset.” His book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, was an international bestseller as a primer on the importance of financial education. His new book examines the problems of today’s depressed housing market and how investing in the stock market has become even riskier. In a time of turbulence, knowing how to manage your finances has become even more essential. A Million Is Not Enough: How to Retire with the Money You’ll Need by Michael K. Farr ($24.99, Springboard Press) addresses the steps one must take to save, invest, manage and protect your money in a clear, practical guide to wealth accumulation. If you are at a point in your life where you need to be planning for retirement, this is an excellent book. Likewise, Cash-Rich Retirement by Jim Schlagheck ($24.95, St. Martins Press) examines the investing techniques of the mega-wealthy as a way to secure your own future. It avoids the conventional advice, offering provocative and practical advice by an author who is an investment advisor to the wealthy. It takes a plan and any one of these books offers the kind of information you need to create a plan that will work for you.

Finally, if you have thoughts to becoming an online millionaire, you need to read Internet Riches: The Simple Money-Making Secrets of Online Millionaires by Scott Fox ($17.95, Amacom, softcover). Featuring exclusive interviews with online entrepreneurs, the author demonstrates how to get started and build an enterprise using readily available technology and turn-key opportunities. This is not for the risk-aversive, but for those looking at the Internet as a means to make big bucks, this is a useful book to read.

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Novels, Novels, Novels!

Not long ago I was asked to offer an opinion on the website of The National Book Critics Circle and wrote that there were too many books being published these days. Visitors to this site can read our policy statement at the top that states I will not review self-published books any more. I may make the occasional exception, but the view that there are too many books applies especially to new novels.

I have stacks of novels that have been sent to me by mainstream publishers, university presses, and small, eclectic publishing houses, most of which will never be noted in Bookviews.com for the simple reason that no one could ever read them all.

Ursula K. Le Guin has established herself as a novelist of science fiction and fantasy, so Lavinia ($24.00, Harcourt) is a change of pace, but one that her fans will welcome along with those who have not yet read her. It is a historical novel that features a heroine who provides a woman’s view of the world of ancient Italy. Spun from Vergil’s The Aeneid, it tells the story of the wife of the Trojan hero Aeneas who is destined to establish a great empire that will lead to the founding of Rome. She has enjoyed a life of peace and freedom, but the omens say she will marry a foreigner, war ensues, and the ancient story unfolds as seen through her eyes. She is a powerful storyteller, building on one of the classics. The past is brought to life in the debut novel of Iidefonso Falcones. Already an international bestseller with over two million copies in print, Cathedral of the Sea ($26.95, Dutton) is about faith, freedom, and love, set during the construction of Barcelona’s greatest landmark and against the backdrop of the Spanish Inquisition. The year is 1320 and Spain is a dangerous place. If you want to steep yourself in the lives of a family caught up in this period against the backdrop of the building of the cathedral. This is a rich, dense novel that richly deserves its success overseas and is now likely to repeat it in America. With the Olympics due to begin in China, Rabbit in the Moon by Deborah and Joel Shlian ($24.95, Oceanview) arrives in time to take the reader back to 1989, forty years after Mao and his People’s Liberation Army had changed China. Dr. Lili Quan prepares for a journey that will change her life forever. At 27, she had never thought of herself as anything but American, but a trip to honor her mother’s dying wish is the starting point for this international bestseller as she unlocks the secret of her past. This fast-paced story is full of ingenious plot twists and will keep you turning the pages.

Lisa Jackson is another writer who has gained fame for her thrillers and, in 2007, she had four bestsellers. Her latest is Lost Souls ($22.00, Kensington). This one is set in Baton Rouge and All Saints College where Kristi Bentz has returned to finish her degree. What she really wants to do is write a true crime book. Fascinated by the minds of killers, she doesn’t understand why her father, a homicide detective, and his partner won’t help. Taking on the project by herself, she begins to investigate a trail of missing women with two things in common; all were lost souls with no real family ties or anyone who would look for them if they disappeared. Each is also connected to All Saints. I think she has another bestseller. You will too. Another intriguing novel is Rowland Stewart’s The Dilemma ($23.95, Foxboro Press). Joe Mason, in his final year of medical training, is moonlighting for extra money in a small town emergency room when an escaped prisoner shows up claiming to be the victim of involuntary experimentation at the prison. Shortly after arriving, he dies of massive bleeding in his lungs. When Dr. Mason is contacted by a reporter who tells him there have been other cases, they discover they are ensnared in a much larger problem, a complex web of government decisions that leads all the way to the White House.

One of my favorite small publishers is Unbridled Books, a house that has a talent for spotting talent. One of their latest is Tara Yellen’s After Hours at the Almost Home ($14.95, softcover) in which we meet people who are instantly recognizable from the well-read waiter who cannot motivate himself to find a job more fitting to his intellect, a widow so steeped in grief she cannot parent her teenage daughter, and a brassy girl who has never found a companion. They all gather at the Almost Home Bar and Grill on a Super Bowl Sunday. When the bartender suddenly walks off the job, they ponder why she left and why they stay? This is a very satisfying story in so many ways that you will not want to miss out on reading it. Departing from her novels about the lives of Arab-Americans, Diana Abu-Jaber has written Origin ($13.95, W.W. Norton, softcover), a thriller about a series of baby killings in wintry Syracuse, New York. The main character, Lena, is a fingerprint expert working in a crime lab, her sanctuary, when its peace is disturbed by the mother of a baby whose death was attributed to sudden infant death syndrome barges in and insists the infant was murdered. There have been other similar cases. As the others in the lab and story emerge, you will find yourself fascinated by the intertwined stories of their lives and the pursuit to find a killer.

Don’t have enough time to read? Well, you can always listen to a good novel if you picked up any of the Hachette Audio recent releases. It’s a bounty of good listening. There’s James Patterson’s Sundays at Tiffany’s, a change of pace love story about a little girl’s imaginary friend with whom she is reunited years later, but this time in the flesh! Yes, the ladies will like that one as well as Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch about two sisters who grow up in Charleston, destined to be debutantes, but who discover there’s a very different world beyond the rules of the Camellia Society and its filled with adventure and romance. This has a very authentic feel to it because the author is a native of Charleston. The bestselling author, David Balducci, serves up The Whole Truth about the CEO of a huge defense contractor who needs a war to keep his profits flowing. Pitted against him is man working for a secret multinational intelligence agency whose job is to keep the world at peace. The story just rockets along in a thoroughly entertaining fashion. Two audiobooks deal with different kinds of possession. The first is when the state, in this case the former Soviet Union, owns your life. It’s Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith about a Russian war hero who always strove to serve the state only to discover how ruthless it is. When a serial killer is loose it is a state secret, but one Leo Demidov must find to save his life and his family. This is a heart-wrenching story of what it was like to live in the Communist world built by Stalin. Finally, there’s The Host by Stephanie Meyer about a different kind of possession in which our world has been invaded by unseen enemies that make humans into the “host” for their existence. When Melanie Stryder, one of the few remaining “wild” humans is captured, she encounters Wanderer while refusing to relinquish possession of her mind. Together they begin to search for the man Melanie still loves. This is a riveting story about the very essence of being human. From BTV Audio Books comes How I Spent My Summer Holidays by W.O Mitchell. Set in small-town Saskatchewan with 12-year-old Hugh, it is the hot summer of 1924 when he and his friends discover a cave out on the prairie where an escaped mental hospital patient is hiding. They decide not to reveal the whereabouts of the former war hero and current rumrunner, helping to shelter and feed him. When a murder occurs, Hugh leaves his boyhood behind him forever. Originally published in 1981, this story of lost innocence is excellent summer listening.

Don’t forget to visit our "Featured Books" section to discover some quite unique and interesting books that might otherwise be overlooked by the mainstream reviewers.

Do tell your friends and family members who love to read to visit Bookviews.com for news about books that too often get short shrift in the competition to become bestsellers.

That’s it for May! Come back in June when we begin to look at books that will prove to be great reading over the months of summer.

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