»The Brainwashing of the American Investor by Steve Selengut

1) Super Investing Book: I've read a bunch of books on investing and money management, and this is the best, BY FAR!!!!! It's so good, and refreshing, that I've read it twice. (R. Q. A., Bryan, Texas)

2) Back to Basics: This is an eye-opening and intelligent book, which at once offers an analysis of the investment industry and a practical guide for non-professional investors--- a clear set of economic principles mixed with clear commonsensical advice. The author--- describes how to benefit from the ups and downs. Great book. (Professor P. W., Jerusalem, Israel)

3) The Best Investment Book I Have Ever Read: For skittish investors such as me, [the] unique Working Capital Model reduces the emotional factor by taking the emphasis off market value and focusing on growth of working capital. I implemented and followed the trading strategy myself. You would do well to buy this book and read it two or three times. It will save you [from] a lifetime of mistakes that come from following conventional wisdom. (D. J. F., Peoria, IL)

4) Easy to Understand, Even for Non-Investors: This book seems to be much easier to understand than the stock market trading systems advertised on TV. (P. L., Manchester, CT)

5) Happy User: You can take this system to heart--- and to the bank. It works for me. (L. J., Phoenix, AZ)

6) Unique Advice that Stands Out From the Crowd: This is one of two [books] that stand out. Besides being written in an entertaining and irreverent style, it has immensely practical advice. Focus on making money on the market's inherent volatility vs. trying to guess what's next. Saves a lot of time and appears to work. (C. M. Rakes, Annandale, VA)

7) An Enlightened Self-Managed Investor: Not only did I identify many many mistakes that I had made thru the years, but the logical approach outlined [in the book] has to make sense to anybody who has tried to get meaningful portfolio guidelines for future investments tailored to individual needs. Great Book! (A. C., West Palm Beach, FL)

8) Right on the Money: I didn't want to put the book down until I was through. [The] trading strategy is refreshing information that should make a lot of people a lot of money with less risk. (D. M., SC)

9) Investing Made Successful: I heard [the Author] on a talk-radio program and was intrigued by the premise of the book. After reading it, I'm convinced. I'm migrating from mutual funds to individual, high quality equities. [The book] was a slap in the face to make me stop my destructive investing habits. (G. P., Colorado Springs, CO)

10) What a Great Read: This is really an incredible book--- [it] has incorporated very creative insight with some highly original thinking to produce one of the best "investing manuals" ever written. I wholeheartedly endorse this book! ("Jointhefreedom", NM)

Submitted by Unknown

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»Household Guide to Dying by Debra Adelaide

Author of 'how to do' books & domestic columnist Delia Bennett is dying of cancer. Before she dies, Delia wants to put her household together by compiling a guide book on it. Before she can complete her list, Delia needs to go back to the small country town in the Queensland where she went to as a pregnant teenager and fled from 8 years later after a tragic accident. This story partly blends facts and fiction. Debra's own son suffered from Leukemia while she was writing this book. She has drawn from those experiences in her description of Delia's illness and the grief of helplessly watching your loved one's last grips to life. I recommend this book to those who have enjoyed 'The Memory keepers daughter' and 'My sister's keeper'.

Submitted by Bonnie

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»Broken by Daniel Clay

Skunk is 11 and in a coma. From her hospital bed she guides the reader through the events in her neighbourhood. Across the street to Skunk, live the Buckleys, a mild mannered couple with their akward son Rick. In the same square live the Oswalds, a family of foul-mouth bullies. Saksia Oswald, out of a bet with her older sister, went for a drive with Rick Buckley, seduced him and then proceeded to humiliate him throughout the neighborhood. Later in the day, Saksia's younger sister was caught with the contraceptive pills she had stolen from her teacher. To save herself from a brutal punishment, she lied to her father. Skunk was playing outside when Bob Oswald strode across the square and brutally assulted Rick, accusing him of raping his daughter. After that Rick was never the same... he had become 'Broken'. He spent his days locked inside his bedroom for the fear he may be attacked again. As Broken's paranoia and madness grows, events around the neighbourhood slowly spirals out of control to a devastating conclusion. Its hard to believe with a book this good, it took 8 years for the author to be published.

Submitted by Bonnie

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»The art of racing in the rain by Garth Stein

If dogs could talk, how would they tell their stories? Stein takes a fresh approach to the popular genre of dogs and their owners. Instead of yet another story of an owner droning over how their dog changed their life, we are told the story straight from Enzo - a smart cross who thinks dogs, not monkeys are humans closest relative. Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: he enjoys watching documentaries and video tapes of car races - a passion he has acquired from his master Denny, an up and coming race car driver. The two share everything including the racing philosophy that 'the car goes where the eyes go', a philosophy they use in their day to day life. Denny soon meets and falls in love with Eve despite her parents' disapproval of him. A year later when they marry and have Zoe, life seems ideal. Until the day Enzo smells the illness that was growing inside Eve's brain yet feels powerless to warn them of it. The chain of events that follows Eve's illness unravels their happiness and lead to circumstances that threaten all that is dear to Denny and Enzo. I was a little disappointed with the predictable ending to the book. However this tale of love, families and determination is so well told, one could easily forgive the author for his small indulgence.

Submitted by Bonnie

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»Outcast by Sadie Smith

Your book review: This book is about life, love, grief and the consequences of a child denied the love and assurance of a father. 1957 and 19 year old Lewis is going back to his home in South England after 2 years in jail. He is returning to a community of 50's middle-class England whose church going, stiff mannered appearance hides darker secretly abusive lives. Smith is a fresh and evocative new literary voice. She deals with very dark topics with great insight and sensitivity. I found myself thinking and worrying about the characters long after I had finished the last page.

Submitted by Bonnie

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»Under a Starless Sky by Banafsheh Serov

Your book review: I tend to shy away from the Middle Eastern memoirs mainly due to their dark themes and dry writing. I was drawn to this story when I read a review of it in the SMH spectrum and I was not disappointed. The story begins in 1978 and the start of Iran's revolution. The author's parent's are initially supportive, with the belief Iran will become a democracy. Four years after the revolution, with their hopes dashed and in the midst of Iran/Iraq war they decide to leave Iran by the only option available to them - the dangerous route across the mountain seporating Iran & Turkey. Banafsheh has weaved in to the story parts of her culture and history which was facinating considering Iran is currently in the media focus due to its nuclear weapon ambitions. The relationship between the characters (especially the author's and her grandmother) gave the story warmth. During the family's escape I was glued to the book. I recommend this gripping tale to anyone seeking a good read.

Submitted by Gloria

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»A Wedding in December by Anita Shreve

Has anyone heard of the Halifax Explosion? Well my answer is no until I read "A Wedding in December". So as well as reading a good novel, I am studying history. Anita Shreve published her first book in 1989. I had read another novel by her called 'The Pilot's Wife", which I enjoyed as well. She was a journalist but found much more freedom when she started to write novels. More details on the of Internet of course.

Back to a wedding in December. It has two story lines running at the same time, something I don't really like, but this book I found hard to put down. It is really the story of a few people who attend a wedding which is also a reunion of people who when to college together years ago. But also another story about the Halifax Explosion, very interesting for me. Although the same theme is played out in both stories. A love story.

Highly recommend this book.

Submitted by Margaret

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»Ella Princess Saint and Martyr by Christopher Warwick

Proof that fact can be more intense and absolutely engrossing than fiction this sympathetic biography of 'Ella', Elizabeth of Hesse, granddaughter of Queen Victoria and sister of the last Russian Empress has got everything: a huge cast of European royals, extreme wealth, affairs, intrigues, diseases, assignations, wars and ultimate tragedy with the end of a dynastic era.

Ella, ill at ese with privilege after her Romanov husband's gory demise, founds a religious order to work amongst Moscow's teeming poor, yet sadly too becomes a victim of the Revolution.

A thoroughly good read but a royal family tree would help!

Submitted by Chris

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»On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

This novella's apparent simplicity offers the reader a sort of blank slate onto which we can project our views. It is a snapshot of emotional, communicative and cultural complexities acted out on a wedding evening. It is also a social history of 1962 (before oral contraceptive availablity); and an implied commentary on the interpersonal stunting of single - sex schools, colleges and accommodation.

McEwan tells the tale of the son of a disabled mother and the daughter of an undermining father creating realistic ambivalences about the opposite sex. On Cesil Beach sets out the danger of the fantasy/hope that marriage provides a portal to freedom or maturity.

Submitted by Jan

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»Vanity Fair by W. M. Thackeray

In 1847, Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray was published the book was subtitled 'A Novel without a Hero', so beware dear reader in assuming that there is a hero or a heroine. Set in the period during the battle of Waterloo (1815) and the period after it, Vanity Fair is awash with people who live beyound their means, whose relationships with one another are all to often deceitful and those with any sense of decency appear all to often to be totally inadequate.

Yet dear reader you will care for many of those people, as they are caught in this English circus that is Vanity Fair. Meet the orphan Becky Sharp both resourceful and socially ambitious, her friend Amelia Sedley as they make their way through a world substantially peopled where the only decent men are slightly less than adequate.

Submitted by Robert

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»Sorry by Gail Jones

The protagonist Perdita is named after a Shakespearian princess, daughter of a murderous father and dead mother, raised by shepherds. This Perdita is initially cared for by Aboriginals.

A Broome property in the 1930s-1940s is where Perdita's parents (Stella and Nicholas) self-centredness and neglectfulness culiminate in horror. Stella, Perdita, and her friend Billy are larger-than-life figures in a dust-blown landscape.

Jones ensures that the reader inhabits Perdita's losses and her connections with Billy, Mary and local Aboriginals. Mary offers love, protection and sistership until she is removed. Later in Perth kindeness and unconditional love from Mrs Brodie, Flora and Ted Ramsay and Dr Oblov provide respite and self reclamation for traumatised Perdita.

This is a parable beautifully told.

Submitted by Jan

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