2006

I didn’t know who Don Aslett was til I somehow wound up with one of his books last month. Clutter’s Last Stand somehow ended up on my library reserve list – I probably saw it mentioned on a blog or in a magazine article or something. Whatever the reason, it came home with me and TW talked about this guy like he was famous or something. Apparently he is if you’re into cleaning tips and stuff. I am not that kind of person sooooo I obviously have never heard of him.

I skimmed that first book and returned it pretty quickly. It was booorrinnngggg. But, I reserved another. Weekend Makeover – ack, that one was a wee bit boring but it is also dangerous. It makes me want to get up and throw things away. A lot of things. In fact if anyone who lives in my house notices something that belongs to them is missing – it might be because I got throw it away fever because of this book and ummm. threw. it. away.

I would really, really, REALLY like to stay home one weekend soon and get rid of about half of the stuff in this house. Looking at the calendar, we might have a stay home weekend sometime around the end of September. Maybe.

Technorati Tags: clutter, weekend, makeover, junk, donaslett

Well, I loved parts of The Leopard Hat and didn’t love other parts. Some chapters felt like they droned on and on and on while others felt too short and just a little empty. It’s interesting to read “memoirs” to see which stories people give the most detai, the most heart,l to. Or maybe it’s just that Steiker had difficulty writing about the years after her mother’s death? It’s the stories about the later years that I didn’t really enjoy.

If you want to read a nice mother/daughter book, read the first 150 pages of The Leopard Hat and then put it down, you won’t be missing anything by skipping the end.

Technorati Tags: mothers, daughters, mothersanddaughters, nonfiction, memoir, newyorkcity, jewish, breastcancer

I’m not a fan of money. In fact I hate money. Money is the root of all evil, along with gendered bathrooms. And yet, (see there’s that phrase already), money items are on my 101 things to do in 1001 days list. I’ll probably never manage most of them but I should get some credit for having put those things in my list. It indicates I’m at least thinking about money.

Dave Barry’s Money Secrets is about my speed. I much prefer his ideas to the “real thing”. They make about as much sense to me. Someone shoot me if you ever hear me talk about reading a real book about money management, ok? Because that would mean I’m ready to be plasticined and I’d appreciate being helped to the next level. Even Barry’s Money Secrets was too much money talk for me, at points, and I had to put it down and go back to ignoring money completely.

In fact, if I didn’t like Dave Barry, I probably would not have read more than the introduction. But I do like Dave Barry so I read the whole thing. And liked it, in the same way I like a good Dave Barry column. Some chapters (or sections of chapters) were better than others – as is true of all Dave Barry columns. Some chapters (or sections of chapters) were pretty bad in that “Airplane” movie sort of slapstick comedy way. (I hate Airplane and any movie with Leslie Nielson playing some idiotic comedy role)

If you enjoy Dave Barry in the Sunday paper (or on his blog) then you’ll probably enjoy Money Secrets. If you don’t like Dave Barry then try a Suze Orman book instead.

Technorati Tags: davebarry, moneysecrets, financialplanning, humor, nonfiction