The Obituary Writer, by Ann Hood

The Obituary Writer: A Novel by Ann Hood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've been a fan of Ann Hood's writing for years, ever since reading her novel Somewhere Off The Coast of Maine (1987). So when I stumbled across her book The Obituary Writer: A Novel, I had to read it.

The Obituary Writer is about two women who are faced with life-changing dilemmas, albeit years apart. Clair's dilemma takes place between the November 1960 election of John F. Kennedy and his January 1961 inauguration, while Vivian's happen during the first two decades of the Twentieth century.

Clair and her suburban neighbors are fascinated, bordering on obsessed, with JFK, and his stunning wife Jackie. The neighbors plan to have a party to watch the inauguration on TV, a party that Clair and her husband will miss. Instead, they will be with her mother-in-law to celebrate the other woman's eightieth birthday.

Clair's dilemma is that she is unsure if the child she's carrying is her husband's or her lover's. Her husband managed to catch the two together, and he, too, is unsure whose baby his wife is carrying.

For Vivian, 1906 was the year she lost the love of her life. The San Francisco earthquake strikes while the two are apart. Vivian is sure that her married lover is alive, but she can't find him. Over the next few years, she becomes an obituary writer to learn how to deal with the pain of loss. Finally, with the help of another man, Vivian learns the truth of her long lost love.

Back in the '60s, the reader discovers the link between Clair and Vivian. Part love story, part mystery, The Obituary Writer vaguely resembles Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine in that Hood brings the reader back and forth between two time periods and several women's stories to show the commonality of life.

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Financial Books

Recently, I decided to read through several books geared toward helping one with his or her finances. The books I read through are: How To Reduce Your Debt Overnight: A Simple System To Eliminate Credit Card And Consumer Debt, by Tom Corson-Knowles, How To Beat the Financial Monster At the End of this Book, by Tomny Elam, How To Make Money Online, by Mike Omar, How To Make Your Money from Passive Income Websites in 3 Days, by Dennis Eagle, 701 Money Saving Tips: A Huge List For Frugal Living, by Ron Tomby, and Couponing For Busy People: Learn How to Coupon Without Making it a Full Time Job, by Elle Marshall.

Taking Care of Your Credit

How To Reduce Your Debt Overnight: A Simple System To Eliminate Credit Card And Consumer Debt by Tom Corson-Knowles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

How To Reduce Your Debt Overnight: A Simple System To Eliminate Credit Card And Consumer Debt, by Tom Corson-Knowles is a very clear, concise book on eliminating credit card and consumer debt, and definitely one of the better books on the subject.

Unless you're one of the mythical 1%-ers with more money than time to spend it (read: millions, if not billions), there's a good chance that you've struggled with your personal finances at some time in your life. Heck, you might be there now. Most of us have been there. And most of us could benefit from Corson-Knowles' advice throughout this book. Don't have a credit card? Doesn't matter; you'll still find plenty of helpful advice here on how to take charge of your finances.

One of the things Corson-Knowles has the reader do is write down to write put together a financial journal. (I used an old notebook I had lying around.) In this, he has the reader write down his or her monthly income from every source, expenses, debts, assets, goals, and much more. He guides the reader through the process of seeing where one's financial strengths and weaknesses are, then guides us through overcoming the hard parts while keeping the strengths intact.

Definitely worth reading several times, as each time, you're bound to find a few more tidbits to get your finances turned around. On a scale of 1 to 5, I would give this book a good, solid 4 - 4 1/2.


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How to Beat the Financial Monster at the End of this Book by Tony Elam
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

How to Beat the Financial Monster at the End of this Book (Knock Out Past Due Bills and Credit Card Problems) by Tony Elam is another good book to help the consumer get rid of credit card debt and past due bills.

Justin Lukasvige of http://coachradio.tv states in the book's intro, "The plan you follow isn't as important as actually having one to being with. Even more important, is doing the work. How to Beat the Financial Monster at the End of this Book is a great place to start, if you take Tony's advice, create a plan specific to you, and do the work." Fortunately, a lot of the advice in Elam's book is relevant and helpful, though not quite as helpful as Corson-Knowles' book.

On a scale of 1 to 5, this one would rate a 3 1/2 - 4. Definitely a good book to help with one's finances.

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Making Money Online

HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE by Mike Omar
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

How To Make Money Online by Mike Omar is a good book to read through if one wants to make money online. However, while the book shows the reader the steps to go through to make money online with several websites that (theoretically) will pull in money, it is not a magic wand.

This book is best read several times. My first read came across leaving me stuck between awe, excitement, and wonder at the ability to create several websites that might create passive income. It took a second read to see the amount of work it would take and then decide whether it was a path I wanted to follow. This is what most readers will have to decide on their own.

That said, for those who choose to follow Omar's path and put in the amount of work it will take, the advice he gives and the path that he shows seem to be a great place to start. Definitely worth reading several times.

How to Make Your Money from Passive Income Websites in 3 Days by Dennis Eagle
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

How to Make Your Money from Passive Income Websites in 3 Days by Dennis Eagle is a book designed to guide the reader to making money online with websites. However, I found the book to be disappointing.

While the book started out with glowing reviews (the first 10% of the Kindle version of the book), the book itself was a little difficult to get into. The first half of the book announced that if one follows the steps set forth in the book, one could make a decent income using passive income websites in a matter of days. Near the beginning, Eagle mentions using one's websites to teach others what one has learned and enjoys. However, that is just one small tidbit in the beginning; the rest of the first half is spent on "follow my advice, follow my advice" that I tended to skip ahead and missed a lot of the actual advice. As any reader knows, if the writer continuously says the same thing over and over and over, we tend to skip ahead. If the paragraphs or pages we skip have the one bit of advice that will make the book worthwhile, the writer has done a disservice by not keeping our interest. I'm afraid that this is what has happened in this book.

I did go back and reread the book to find what I may have missed, which was this: If one is to have a successful passive income website, one should write what we have learned over the years and enjoy doing, whether it's niche cooking (Veganism, Italian cooking, diabetic meals, etc.), knitting, music, what-have-you, and use that interest and learning to teach others. The other thing he mentions is writing copy.

If one has the patience to read through this book, it is possible to pick out good pieces of advice. I feel that a good editor could have helped chop away much of the repetitiveness in the book. Having to wade through the repetitiveness warrants a 1 1/2 on a 5-point scale. If you are going to buy only one book on making money online, go with Mike Omar's book.

Being Frugal

701 Money Saving Tips: A Huge List For Frugal Living by Ron Tomby
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

701 Money Saving Tips by Ron Tomby is basically a list of tips to save money in your life. The book is divided into sections, with tips on saving on food ("Save on Groceries," "Bulk Buying," etc.), electricity and energy ("lights," "refrigerator & freezer," "Computers & Electronics", etc.), water, heating, cooling, driving & transportation, clothing, and other areas of our lives.

This book is great for someone just starting out in life on his or her own. While many of us who've been struggling to cut corners will find many of these tips no-brainers along the lines of "Well, duh, I've been doing that for years," there are still the occasional tip that one might not have thought of.

Great for those who are just starting out...and for those of us who've been around for a while, this one is best borrowed.

And finally, Couponing For Busy People: Learn How To Coupon Without Making It a Full Time Job, by Elle Marshall is a great book for learning the finer points of frugality by using coupons and store websites to find when stores' sales are on. I found many tips that made this book more than worth the read. 4 to 4 1/2 points on a five point scale.