Archive for the ‘Non Fiction Reviewed’ Category
Posted on November 15, 2008 - by admin
Plunder
Plunder:
Investigative Insight into a Financial Meltdown
Reviewed by Stuart Nachbar
These days I have to ask myself if book publishers and Wall Street make connected decisions on the release of business profile books. Is it mere coincidence that stories about AIG and Bear Stearns have appeared scant weeks after their failures were fait accompli with the business press?
{mosimage}Investigative journalist and television producer Danny Schechter asked that very same question in a new book: Plunder, Investigating our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal. He explained that only a small press was willing to take on the title because Plunder did not fit the template for traditional business books where, in his own words, story telling trumps analysis. While Schecter has been part of news establishment himself—he produced ABC News’ 20/20 for seven years, part of an extremely long resume of credits—he prides himself on being an independent thinker.
Schechter’s experience shines throughout Plunder. He takes you step-by-step not only through the debt crisis that brought on the most recent federally-backed bailout, but also shows how the regulators and the national business news media were tacit collaborators with Wall Street and the Bush Administration. He does a better job at posing the pointed questions than someone like Michael Moore, who does not have either the education or professional journalistic experience. Nor does he take sides with the Democratic Party, as Moore does. Schechter holds them equally to blame, though he shows some hope for Barack Obama in this story. He does, however, show materials from academic allies, the CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition as well as the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who calls Schecter a “human rights activist.” And his writing style is less dry than Al Gore’s.
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Posted on November 15, 2008 - by admin
Militarist Millionaire Peacenik
The Memoir of a Militarist Millionaire Peacenik
This is a story of Alan F. Kay, a man who dared to do. Kay, 82, developed the idea for a shared information exchange for the financial services industry in 1968, well before the Internet and the Bloomsburg news services made it commonplace. His name might be confused with another man; Alan Curtis Kay who conceived the Dynabook, a 1970’s predecessor to today’s laptops, notebook computers and E-books as well as the graphical user interface that we use to work in a Mac or Windows environment. Alan F. Kay is no less inventive, nor his scientific contributions less important. But his contributions to the public interest may be more noteworthy.
{mosimage}In the early 1980’s after, leaving AutEx, a company he had co-founded and led for sixteen years, Kay became one of the national leaders in the nuclear arms freeze movement. While at odds with the Reagan Administration, Kay joined with billionaire Armand Hammer, among others, to found a non-profit institute for U.S.-Soviet relations. His more recent accomplishments are in public interest polling; those had the most interest to me. (Full disclosure: my wife is a programmer for a market research company that conducts public interest polls.)
Kay was trained as a theoretical mathematician, earning a bachelor’s degree from MIT and a doctorate from Harvard. From reading this memoir, Militant Millionaire Peacenik, Memoir of a Serial Entrepreneur, I got the impression that Kay tried to take a rational approach to survey research, at least to the point where questions were carefully designed, as not to be politically biased.
One of his surveys, conducted in 1991 through an entity he created called America Talks Issues (ATI), was quite relevant to today; it was a survey on solutions that could lead to energy independence. This survey asked respondents to consider eighteen proposals for improving the U.S. energy supply. These ranged from expanding fossil fuels to renewable energy sources to conservation measures. Each respondent was asked to determine if each proposal had the potential to improve the economy as well as the environment.
Posted on September 10, 2008 - by admin
Considering SomeplacElse
Armageddon Meets Carl Hiaasen
By Stuart Nachbar
After finishing this story, I was reminded of a line from All in the Family: people who live in communes are communists (the small c is mine—not Archie Bunker’s). It’s not that people who choose communal living want to overthrow the government; they prefer a society where everyone shares equally in the fun and the work, and no one person prospers more than the others. And everyone must join in to protect the commune when it is attacked by outsiders who don’t understand it or consider the place to be too different to be “acceptable.” Too many wars and vocal sparring matches have been fought over communities who desired to be different and left alone to be different.
{mosimage}SomeplacElse is a communal place in Arizona, founded by Michael Allen, a formerly homeless person who was allowed to win a $200 million lottery. The community is guided by a Biblical verse, First Timothy which says: “Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophetic utterance when the elders laid their hands upon you.” After 12 years, SomeplacElse has garnered incredible wealth, not only money, but in scientific knowledge. But the community has also reached critical mass, employing 12,000 people.
Norm Larson, the main character, is a computer systems engineer who has been down on his luck in the job market for some time. He comes onto a Web site: ConsiderSE.com and is invited to take part in an extremely unique interview process. He not only gets a lift to the interview in a Prius stretch limousine, he gets to interview the company. SomeplacElse guarantees life-long employment and health care, freedom to choose projects, paid relocation, an interest-free loan, and free food and housing. This all comes at a price—a fixed salary of $20,000 a year per family member and a requirement to change tasks every 10 years. Larson not only gets hired on at SomeplacElse, he gets the top job as Advocate—because 253 people in the commune know he’ll always do the right thing!
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Posted on April 30, 2008 - by admin
101 Accessible Vacations
An Interview with author, Candy Harrington
another exclusive interview with the Virtual Book Review Network
The Virtual Book Review Network is pleased to interview Candy Harrington, author of 101 Accessible Vacations; Travel ideas for Wheelers and Slow Walkers, which is the first guidebook dedicated exclusively to wheelchair-accessible destinations, lodgings and recreational opportunities. Organized by activity and interest, the chapters help illustrate the wide variety of accessible vacation choices for over 101 cities, lodging options, national parks, tourist attractions and recreational activities around the world.
{mosimage}About the author: Candy Harrington is the editor of Emerging Horizons, and the award-winning author of several accessible travel books who has been covering accessible travel exclusively for 14 years. For more information visit http://www.101AccessibleVacations.com. Candy also blogs regularly on accessible travel issues at http://www.BarrierFreeTravels.com.
LAUREN SMITH: What inspired you to focus on accessible travel?
Candy Harrington: Well, I’ve been a travel writer all of my life, but 14 years ago I decided to change my focus a bit. Looking back, I was tired of writing what I considered “fluff” and I wanted to do something that was more of a challenge. A friend suggested accessible travel. Nobody was doing it at the time so I definitely saw it as a challenge. To be honest, I had to spend a few years just learning the laws and the realities of accessible travel, before I ever wrote a word about it. Shortly thereafter I founded Emerging Horizons, a magazine about accessible travel. And today I write columns for other publications, provide internet content, pen books, host a radio show, and even write features for other magazines — all on the subject of accessible travel. I guess you could say things kind of snowballed (in a good way) for me.
LAUREN SMITH: Can you tell us about a couple of your favorite accessible vacation spots?
Candy Harrington: Well personally, I love Yosemite. I’m a mountain girl and I grew up not far from there, so it’s just a favorite place of mine. It’s changed a lot over the years, and part of those changes include improved accessibility. Just a few years ago they unveiled a great new accessible trail to the base of Yosemite Falls. The trail they had before was a bit dicey for wheelchair-users, but some folks could do it with a lot of assistance. The new trail is beautiful, and not only is it very accessible, but it also blends in with the natural environment. It was designed by the same landscape architect who did the FDR Memorial in Washington DC, and he did a great job.
Posted on November 5, 2007 - by admin
Cullotta
Lauren Smith: How did you end up writing this story?
{mosimage}Denny Griffin: In my book The Battle for Las Vegas – The Law vs. the Mob (Huntington Press, July 2006), I told the story of Chicago Outfit enforcer Tony Spilotro’s Las Vegas reign. This is the era dramatized in the hit 1995 movie Casino, in which actor Joe Pesci plays a character based on Spilotro. That book was told primarily from the side of law enforcement. So when I had the opportunity to meet Frank Cullotta — the last living and available member of Spilotro’s crew — I was enthused about the possibility of getting a look at that same time period from the perspective of the bad guys. Frank had already been thinking about doing a book, making the timing perfect.
During my initial meeting with Frank, he committed to discussing his life of crime starting with his days as a juvenile thief and tough guy in Chicago, through his time as Tony Spilotro’s lieutenant in Vegas, and his stint in the federal Witness Protection Program. He also agreed to talk about his role as an adviser to Casino, in which he appeared in several scenes as a hit man. Frank promised to talk candidly about the myriad crimes he’d been involved in for which he’d received immunity or the statue of limitations had long since run. They included murder.
Shortly after the meeting I approached Huntington Press with a proposal outlining what Frank’s story would contain and the amount of detail he would provide. As an illustration, the proposal included Frank’s description of the facts behind the so-called M&M murders. They were the basis for one of the most memorable scenes in Casino, the one in which Pesci’s character places a man’s head in a vise and squeezes until the guy’s eyeball pops out. Huntington saw the book’s potential and signed on to the project.
Posted on November 5, 2007 - by admin
Cullotta
Lauren Smith: How did you end up writing this story?
{mosimage}Denny Griffin: In my book The Battle for Las Vegas – The Law vs. the Mob (Huntington Press, July 2006), I told the story of Chicago Outfit enforcer Tony Spilotro’s Las Vegas reign. This is the era dramatized in the hit 1995 movie Casino, in which actor Joe Pesci plays a character based on Spilotro. That book was told primarily from the side of law enforcement. So when I had the opportunity to meet Frank Cullotta — the last living and available member of Spilotro’s crew — I was enthused about the possibility of getting a look at that same time period from the perspective of the bad guys. Frank had already been thinking about doing a book, making the timing perfect.
During my initial meeting with Frank, he committed to discussing his life of crime starting with his days as a juvenile thief and tough guy in Chicago, through his time as Tony Spilotro’s lieutenant in Vegas, and his stint in the federal Witness Protection Program. He also agreed to talk about his role as an adviser to Casino, in which he appeared in several scenes as a hit man. Frank promised to talk candidly about the myriad crimes he’d been involved in for which he’d received immunity or the statue of limitations had long since run. They included murder.
Shortly after the meeting I approached Huntington Press with a proposal outlining what Frank’s story would contain and the amount of detail he would provide. As an illustration, the proposal included Frank’s description of the facts behind the so-called M&M murders. They were the basis for one of the most memorable scenes in Casino, the one in which Pesci’s character places a man’s head in a vise and squeezes until the guy’s eyeball pops out. Huntington saw the book’s potential and signed on to the project.
Posted on August 11, 2007 - by admin
The Power of Mentorship
An Interview with one of the Co-Authors, Dr. Letitia Wright
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Lauren Smith: Why did you write this book?
Dr. Letitia Wright: I became a co-author because it provided me an opportunity to talk to women entrepreneurs about the one thing I see them do that causes failure. Business schools do not really talk about it and time management people act like it's something you can just time manage away. I wanted to share what successful women were really doing.
Lauren Smith: Why do you think it's important that women get mentoring?
Dr. Letitia Wright: Mentoring is the fast track to Mastery. A mentor can show you how to do it, hold you accountable and show you the tools that you need. The relationship will cause you to grow faster. More importantly, you do not have to re-invent the wheel.
Lauren Smith: Why don't women get mentored as often as men?
Dr. Letitia Wright: Women do not ask for mentoring and when they do, they do not really have an idea of what the parameters will be. So they wind up in relationships that become inappropriate or actually cause them a setback
Lauren Smith: How can someone find a mentor?
Dr. Letitia Wright: First determine what you are seeking from a mentor. Then when you meet with that person, you can address your expectations in terms of time and performance. Then look for people who excel in the areas you need to excel in. astly, ask!
Lauren Smith: What tips can you offer to women hoping to start a business?
Dr. Letitia Wright: Understand who your market is. I have too many conversations with people who believe their product is for everyone. Unless you are selling air, its not. Pick a market and work that market, do not take on the entire world.
Lauren Smith: Can you tell us about your work?
Dr. Letitia Wright: I am the host of the Wright Place TV show, a weekly 30 minute broadcast television show for the woman entrepreneur. My guests talk about what is working now, not stories of success from 20 years ago. I host people like Mark Victor Hansen, Dottie Walters ( when she was alive), Stedman Graham, Robert G. Allen, T. Harv Eker and many others.
This summer I am producing and directing a movie called The Power of Mentorship. t's due out December 6, 2007. My hope is that it will give people everywhere real examples and encouragement to create success in every area of their lives.
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Posted on April 26, 2007 - by admin
From Book to Bestseller
Non-Ficton Review: From Book to Bestseller
Author: Penny Sansevieri
ISBN: 1600370896
Every profession has some semblance of a manual to flip through for reference. Writers have an array of resources at their disposal from magazines, Internet and books, such as this one from Penny Sansevieri. From Book to Bookseller is a great resource for anyone who is breaking into the writing profession.
When you have created your work of art, the real work is in promoting and selling your book. In the wake of self-publishing, this book holds a vast number of ideas an author can use to ensure their masterpiece hits the eyes of appropriate readers.
The information in this non-fiction book comes from an experienced person in her craft. Penny Sansevieri is a book marketing and media relations specialist who coaches authors on projects, manuscripts and marketing plans. She has a website you can visit entitled www.amarketingexpert.com that also has a storehouse of information ranging from more books available, suitable publicity and creative blogs, as well as a biweekly newsletter for media tips in the industry.
From Book to Bookseller does not tell you how to write your novel but aids you when your creation of your book has been completed. Penny Sansevieri knows how a piece of art can be overlooked if the right promotional materials aren’t used. She shows an author, step-by-step how he or she can make a book into a bestseller. With proper marketing, writers can get the chance to make their creation outstanding to their target readers.
The book is outlined in sections and in section one; the author gives you a lesson in book marketing. There are secrets in budgeting and in writing a book that sells, for example launching your book when it coincides with a major world event. She has sections in marketing strategies, book reviews, book signings and much more.
The author gives innovative ideas for a press kit, the proper way to write a bio, the different types of book reviews and the lingo that goes with the territory. With information being inundated on the Internet, she gives helpful websites targeted to where you should be visiting instead of wasting your time surfing the net.
If you have created the next bestseller, From Book to Bookseller is a necessary reference book to have in your writing library. Having Penny Sansevieri guide you through the marketing process will alleviate many of the worries that go into getting your book into the public eye.
The above review was contributed by: Jennifer Andrew
