Silvio Berlusconi is the conservative Prime Minister of Italy, as well as its richest man. He recently had some sage advice for the poor people in his country. He said they should stop feeling sorry for themselves and "Try to earn more."
Wonder why they never thought of that. Hmmm...maybe they're poor and lazy! Gawd.
Well, if you're trying to figure out how to handle the little (or 'lot) of $$$ you have, you need to make a good plan. A local woman who's a Certified Financial Planner has penned a practical and easy to read and understand guide to money management for unwed couples. I have such a hard time slogging through things like that, but I actually enjoyed reading this one! It's called Money Without Matrimony: The Unmarried Couple's Guide to Financial Security. Have a look!
Friday, March 31, 2006
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
What to Do...
Here are my local author event picks for this week. Sorry they're late!
Thursday, March 30 in the Books & Brews series, we host Mike Heppner for a reading from his latest novel, Pike's Folly. This is described as a hilarious, scathing, and ultimately endearing account of a multigenerational search for the fully, perhaps overly, examined life and the pandemonium that ensues. Heppner is the author of the award-winning debut novel, The Egg Code. Come out for a great reading and after-party as part of Books & Brews.
Thursday, March 30, 2006 7:00 PM at Brookline Booksmith's Readers and Writers Room, Mameve Medwed will talk about her newest book, How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life. Antiquing - obsession, panacea, aphrodisiac. Romantic comedy meets Antiques Roadshow in Mameve’s big-hearted and whimsical new novel about Abby, a Harvard drop-out antiques buff whose life is forever altered by a chamber pot with a colorful and poetic past. The lessons Abby learns about love, money, and the value of memory will make you want to believe in love again and buy really old desks. Boston Magazine’s book club pick for March!
Harvard Bookstore is hosting John Banville on Thursday, also, but his reading is sold out. Nonetheless, his new novel, The Sea, was the winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize and has had praise heaped on it like shells on the beaches of Sanibel Island. So even though you might have to miss this event, you can still get a copy of the book at your favorite independent bookstore. If you call and ask nicely, you can probably even have a book signed for you in your absence!
Thursday, March 30 in the Books & Brews series, we host Mike Heppner for a reading from his latest novel, Pike's Folly. This is described as a hilarious, scathing, and ultimately endearing account of a multigenerational search for the fully, perhaps overly, examined life and the pandemonium that ensues. Heppner is the author of the award-winning debut novel, The Egg Code. Come out for a great reading and after-party as part of Books & Brews.
Thursday, March 30, 2006 7:00 PM at Brookline Booksmith's Readers and Writers Room, Mameve Medwed will talk about her newest book, How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life. Antiquing - obsession, panacea, aphrodisiac. Romantic comedy meets Antiques Roadshow in Mameve’s big-hearted and whimsical new novel about Abby, a Harvard drop-out antiques buff whose life is forever altered by a chamber pot with a colorful and poetic past. The lessons Abby learns about love, money, and the value of memory will make you want to believe in love again and buy really old desks. Boston Magazine’s book club pick for March!
Harvard Bookstore is hosting John Banville on Thursday, also, but his reading is sold out. Nonetheless, his new novel, The Sea, was the winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize and has had praise heaped on it like shells on the beaches of Sanibel Island. So even though you might have to miss this event, you can still get a copy of the book at your favorite independent bookstore. If you call and ask nicely, you can probably even have a book signed for you in your absence!
Whatta Waste of Trees...
This from the New York Observer...
"More than 30 books have already been written about Hillary Clinton, and at least a dozen more will hit the stores before the 2008 presidential campaign. Most are highly critical, with titles such as Can She Be Stopped: Hillary Clinton Will Be the Next President of the United States Unless... and The Shadow Party: How Hillary Clinton, George Soros, and the Sixties Took Over the Democratic Party.
...talk about your long-ass titles! Well, before she breaks her arm patting herself on the back, she would do well to ponder this quote by Essayist William Hazlitt: "No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves." If you ask me, a woman President would be great for the U.S., but I'm just not sure I want her to be our first. Then again, what are the non-conservative alternatives, man or woman? Whatta Mess!
"More than 30 books have already been written about Hillary Clinton, and at least a dozen more will hit the stores before the 2008 presidential campaign. Most are highly critical, with titles such as Can She Be Stopped: Hillary Clinton Will Be the Next President of the United States Unless... and The Shadow Party: How Hillary Clinton, George Soros, and the Sixties Took Over the Democratic Party.
...talk about your long-ass titles! Well, before she breaks her arm patting herself on the back, she would do well to ponder this quote by Essayist William Hazlitt: "No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves." If you ask me, a woman President would be great for the U.S., but I'm just not sure I want her to be our first. Then again, what are the non-conservative alternatives, man or woman? Whatta Mess!
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
What to do...
Event picks this week...
For great authors, fun readings and atmosphere, you can't be Tim Huggins' Newtonville Books, Books and Brews series. Cutest bookstore around? Booksmith can't be beat and their authors read in the cozy confines of their Used Book Cellar. Harvard Bookstore uses different Harvard Square locales for its wonderful and usually high-brow readings. By going to these events, you not only enrich your life, but you insure that the institution of the indie bookstore remains alive and well in Boston!
At Newtonville Books, 296 Walnut Street, Newtonville 617-244-6619
I LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU KNOW by Jonathan Ames
Tuesday, March 21, 7:30PM
Books & Brews Event
In his latest collection, I Love You More Than You Know, Ames proves once again his immense talent for turning his own adventures, neuroses, joys, heartaches, and insights into profound and hilarious tales.
Harvard Bookstore, 1256 Mass Ave, Cambridge 800-542-read
Wednesday March 22, 7:30PM
at First Parish Church, 3 Church Street
KEVIN PHILLIPS discusses American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st CenturyIn his recent New York Times bestselling book, American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush, Kevin Phillips established himself as a powerful critic of the political and economic forces that are ruling—and imperiling—the United States. Now, Phillips takes an uncompromising view of the political coalition, led by radical religion, that is driving America to the brink of disaster. From Ancient Rome to the British Empire, Phillips demonstrates that every world-dominating power has been brought down by a related set of causes: a lethal combination of global over-reach, militant religion, resource problems, and ballooning debt. With an eye on the past and a searing vision of the future, Phillips has written a book that no American can afford to ignore.
At Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline 617-566-6660
Thursday March 23, 7PM
WORD FUGITIVES by Barbara Wallraff
Brookline resident and Senior Editor at Atlantic Monthly, Barbara Wallraff is turning Word Fugitive, her popular weekly column, into a book. According to Barbara, a word fugitive is a meaning for which a word has yet to be assigned. For instance, why isn’t there a word for the state of intellectual and emotional euphoria that encompasses you when you attend a Booksmith reading? These and other pressing questions will be answered by Barbara’s delightful book and its wisdom on etymology, word-coinage, and the fascinating way we use language.
Parking is pretty easy in Brookline and Newtonville, but if you're going to Harvard Square, take the T.
~Fischlipps
For great authors, fun readings and atmosphere, you can't be Tim Huggins' Newtonville Books, Books and Brews series. Cutest bookstore around? Booksmith can't be beat and their authors read in the cozy confines of their Used Book Cellar. Harvard Bookstore uses different Harvard Square locales for its wonderful and usually high-brow readings. By going to these events, you not only enrich your life, but you insure that the institution of the indie bookstore remains alive and well in Boston!
At Newtonville Books, 296 Walnut Street, Newtonville 617-244-6619
I LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU KNOW by Jonathan Ames
Tuesday, March 21, 7:30PM
Books & Brews Event
In his latest collection, I Love You More Than You Know, Ames proves once again his immense talent for turning his own adventures, neuroses, joys, heartaches, and insights into profound and hilarious tales.
Harvard Bookstore, 1256 Mass Ave, Cambridge 800-542-read
Wednesday March 22, 7:30PM
at First Parish Church, 3 Church Street
KEVIN PHILLIPS discusses American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st CenturyIn his recent New York Times bestselling book, American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush, Kevin Phillips established himself as a powerful critic of the political and economic forces that are ruling—and imperiling—the United States. Now, Phillips takes an uncompromising view of the political coalition, led by radical religion, that is driving America to the brink of disaster. From Ancient Rome to the British Empire, Phillips demonstrates that every world-dominating power has been brought down by a related set of causes: a lethal combination of global over-reach, militant religion, resource problems, and ballooning debt. With an eye on the past and a searing vision of the future, Phillips has written a book that no American can afford to ignore.
At Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline 617-566-6660
Thursday March 23, 7PM
WORD FUGITIVES by Barbara Wallraff
Brookline resident and Senior Editor at Atlantic Monthly, Barbara Wallraff is turning Word Fugitive, her popular weekly column, into a book. According to Barbara, a word fugitive is a meaning for which a word has yet to be assigned. For instance, why isn’t there a word for the state of intellectual and emotional euphoria that encompasses you when you attend a Booksmith reading? These and other pressing questions will be answered by Barbara’s delightful book and its wisdom on etymology, word-coinage, and the fascinating way we use language.
Parking is pretty easy in Brookline and Newtonville, but if you're going to Harvard Square, take the T.
~Fischlipps
Monday, March 20, 2006
Sylvanus Soon
Donna Morrissey is one of the most expressive, vibrant, newish writers to come down from Canada...Newfoundland, originally. Yes, there are lots of fish in the sea (sticking to the theme): young, hip writers who've come from the best programs, whose prose is word perfect. But most of them, I've found, don't really have much to say! They don't have the life experience or the insight to make really sympathetic characters swim on the page. Donna does. Fished from her own life, the people who come so alive in her books will drive you crazy with their stubborn behavior and awkward ways. Some of the turns they take make you want to jump in and wring their necks! And yet--and here's the sign of a well-drawn character--you love them, you agonize with them, and you cheer for them until the bittersweet end. And as if her stories weren't compelling enough, they're written in the most delightfully musical Newfoundlandish dialect, which I think helps the reader get into the right mindset even more easily. One danger: you might want to start reading out loud, just for the fun of hearing yourself talk this way.
Donna's newest novel, Sylvanus Now, will be in American bookstores in April of this year. It came out in Canada and Europe last year to tremenous acclaim, and I'm going to do my best to get it off to a similar start here in the states. If you haven't read her previous two books, start now. Kit's Law and Downhill Chance are available at your local, independent bookstore right now. In short, Donna's storytelling is structured like an iceberg: at first, you only see the tip, but eventually, everything is revealed, and it takes your breath away. Your only quandry will be finding another book good enough to follow one of these.
~Fischlipps
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