Lawrence Goldstone and Nancy Goldstone
Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone are the Nick and Nora Charles of book collecting. “Slightly Chipped” is similar to their previous book, “Used and Rare“: a collection of essays about books, booksellers, and book collectors. The Goldstones have a talent for meeting fascinating people and writing about them in a light and engaging manner.
Ingo Swann
While this has some interest as a catalog of Marian apparitions, it suffers from Swann’s attempts to force all such apparitions into an apocalyptic model. He pays little attention to and shows little regard for the Church’s investigations into these events and is much more credulous than the ecclesiastic investigators. There are a number of Web sites that do a better job of covering the subject.
Junius Podrug
I have a weakness for time travel stories, to the extent that I can enjoy nearly any pulp if it involves a trip to the past. This book, however, tested my tolerance. Two Islamic terrorists break into a secret Los Alamos lab which has inadvertently discovered time travel. They go back to the time of Christ to try an prevent the Crucifixion, since this will somehow allow Islam to dominate the world. An unlikely quartet is sent back to prevent them. To recount any more about the book would only embarrass me for having actually finished. it. It’s illogical, profane, and, aside from having a rather brisk pace, it’s poorly written.
Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter
Kiyosaki tells a folksy tale of his own dad, a well-educated but financially inept educator, and his childhood friend’s dad, a low-profile money-making machine. Rich Dad, as Kiyosaki calls him, took young Robert and his friend under his wing, teaching them Kung Fu-style to make money. Grasshopper, er, Kiyosaki, passes that wisdom to the reader in the pages of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. Maybe “passes” is the wrong word, because he never quiet gets around to telling us how to make money. Presumably the specifics are in the other Rich Dad books, games, and seminars which can be had for some of that money that Rich Dad taught Kiyosaki how to get.
I’m tempted to say that the best thing about the book is that the response in this Web page, which not only shreds Rich Dad’s wisdom, but questions his very existence. But the book is entertaining and it does make a few interesting points. For instance, the rich clearly have a different attitude towards money than do the poor and middle class. My own experience (knowing a couple rich people, not being one) is that the rich think beyond “get a job that pays good”, while the rest of us are locked into that one model of making money. Kiyosaki points touches on this difference in attitude, but his most interesting point is “buy assets, not liabilities”. OK, as financial advice, it’s just barely above “buy low, sell high”, but it does make a person think about the nature of their earning and spending. He also makes a good point about listening non-emotionally to people you disagree with because you might, Grasshopper, learn something in spite of yourself.
“Rich Dad, Poor Dad” is a fun read, mildly motivational, and contains a few grains of wisdom, but a reader will probably learn more about the “secrets of the wealthy”
from “The Millionaire Next Door“.
William Murray
William Murray is an American with an intimate knowledge of Rome. He spent part of his childhood there and lived there many years as an adult. He has a deep affection for the city and it pervades this pleasant little book. His essays aren’t a substitute for a guidebook, and may be better appreciated after a trip to Rome, but anyone who is planning a trip to Rome or who has been there will enjoy them.
