The $100 Startup

The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future by Chris Guillebeau

My rating (out of 5 stars):

3 stars—I liked it!

Description from Goodreads.com:

“…In preparing to write this book, Chris identified 1,500 individuals who have built businesses earning $50,000 or more from a modest investment (in many cases, $100 or less), and from that group he’s chosen to focus on the 50 most intriguing case studies. In nearly all cases, people with no special skills discovered aspects of their personal passions that could be monetized, and were able to restructure their lives in ways that gave them greater freedom and fulfillment.

Here, finally, distilled into one easy-to-use guide, are the most valuable lessons from those who’ve learned how to turn what they do into a gateway to self-fulfillment. It’s all about finding the intersection between your “expertise” – even if you don’t consider it such -- and what other people will pay for. You don’t need an MBA, a business plan or even employees. All you need is a product or service that springs from what you love to do anyway, people willing to pay, and a way to get paid…”


My Thoughts:

Interesting profiles included. A recommend for the entrepreneurial mind!

Captivated By You

Captivated by You by Sylvia Day



My rating (out of 5 stars):

1 star—I didn’t like it.

Description from Goodreads.com:

“Gideon calls me his angel, but he's the miracle in my life. My gorgeous, wounded warrior, so determined to slay my demons while refusing to face his own.

The vows we'd exchanged should have bound us tighter than blood and flesh. Instead they opened old wounds, exposed pain and insecurities, and lured bitter enemies out of the shadows. I felt him slipping from my grasp, my greatest fears becoming my reality, my love tested in ways I wasn't sure I was strong enough to bear.

At the brightest time in our lives, the darkness of his past encroached and threatened everything we'd worked so hard for. We faced a terrible choice: the familiar safety of the lives we'd had before each other or the fight for a future that suddenly seemed an impossible and hopeless dream...”

My Thoughts:

Just…yuck. I am over this trend of breaking books into multiple “installments” following the same characters. Sadly, I really liked the first in this series. In fact, had the first three in the series been combined into one book it probably would have made my favorites list.

I liked the characters enough to drag myself through four books, even though I disliked the writing after the first and actually ended up hating the characters. Books two and three were incredibly repetitive. Then, this installment has zero substance. And folks…there’s a fifth coming out! Sigh.

I recommended book one before I knew better. But now I don’t recommend anyone read ANY of this five book series (that could seriously be one book).

Teach Your Children Well

Teach Your Children Well by Madeline Levine

My rating (out of 5 stars):

3—I liked it.

Description from Goodreads.com:

“Psychologist Madeline Levine brings together cutting-edge research and thirty years of clinical experience to explode once and for all the myth that good grades, high test scores, and college acceptances should define the parenting endgame.

Parents, educators, and the media wring their hands about the plight of America's children and teens—soaring rates of emotional problems, limited coping skills, disengagement from learning and yet there are ways to reverse these disheartening trends. Teach Your Children Well acknowledges that every parent wants successful children. However, until we are clearer about our core values and the parenting choices that are most likely to lead to authentic, and not superficial, success, we will continue to raise exhausted, externally driven, impaired children who believe they are only as good as their last performance. Real success is always an inside job, argues Levine, and is measured not by today's report card but by the people our children become fifteen or twenty years down the line.

Refusing to be diverted by manufactured controversies such as "tiger moms versus coddling moms," Levine confronts the real issues behind the way we push some of our kids to the breaking point while dismissing the talents and interests of many others. She shows us how to shift our focus from the excesses of hyperparenting and the unhealthy reliance on our children for status and meaning to a parenting style that concentrates on both enabling academic success as well as developing a sense of purpose, well-being, connection, and meaning in our children's lives.

Teach Your Children Well is a call to action. And while it takes courage to make the changes we believe in, the time has come, says Levine, to return our overwrought families to a healthier and saner version of themselves.”

My Thoughts:

Levine provides some good information here. I agree that kids need more play time and less pressure. Good food for thought for parents out there!

War

War by Sebastian Junger

My rating (out of 5 stars):

5 stars—Amazing.

Goodreads.com Description:

“Junger turns his brilliant and empathetic eye to the reality of combat--the fear, the honor, and the trust among men in an extreme situation whose survival depends on their absolute commitment to one another. His on-the-ground account follows a single platoon through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. Through the experiences of these young men at war, he shows what it means to fight, to serve, and to face down mortal danger on a daily basis.”

My Thoughts:

Junger is certainly a brilliant story teller. This book is gripping and the men profiled are brave, upstanding soldiers. Junger tells their stories in such a way to show their bravery, but also to show that they are flawed people, like everyone else. War is horrific and most of us will never understand being in a combat situation. Junger tries to bring the conflicted emotions of a soldier to the page.

What a dedicated journalist…Junger actually lived with these soldiers. I admire him!

A definite recommend.

Monday Recommendation List

Monday Recommendation List

Random list of 10 books Monday! I have read and enjoyed each of these enough to flag for a potential personal library purchase.

Be bold and just choose randomly, stick to your normal genre...or step outside of your normal reading zone and try something you usually wouldn’t. You can look up the descriptions at Amazon.com, or search my blog for old posts by entering the title in the little search box in the top left-hand corner and clicking the magnifying glass.

This week-- 10 recommendations (in no particular order):

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
2. Spirited by Rebecca Rosen
3. The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper
4. Genesis  by Bernard Beckett
5. Say You’re One of Them  by Uwem Akpan
6. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
7. Raising Freethinkers by Dale McGowan
8. Freakanomics by Steven Levitt
9. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
10. Schindler’s List  by Thomas Keneally