A husband-and-wife team offers straightforward financial advice and biblically inspired guidance to help readers change their thinking about money.
The Johnsons know from personal experience that many Americans are deep in debt and living paycheck-to-paycheck, with poor budgeting skills and little ability to plan for a secure future. With this book, they provide a simple, actionable plan to address those issues and help readers achieve financial freedom. Drawing inspiration from well-known self-help and personal finance gurus like Dave Ramsey and Napoleon Hill, the authors outline a four-step approach to eliminating debt, building savings and achieving the “true abundance” of sharing wealth with others. The tone is friendly and engaging throughout, and the authors effectively use personal anecdotes to illustrate their points; Adrian explains how perseverance, hard work and smart budgeting allowed him to repay a $125,000 debt in just a few years, while Quaneshala relates her experiences with credit cards. Charts help illustrate concepts such as the benefits of investing early for retirement, while inspirational quotes from Deuteronomy to Oprah Winfrey dot the text. The religious tone will likely make the book most relatable to Christians, but the core financial principles are universal. While certain experts might take issue with some of the Johnsons’ advice (they suggest buying identity theft insurance, for example, which some might argue is a waste of money), the vast majority of the proffered tips are sound if somewhat basic. The sections on how couples can work together to manage their finances and advice on developing strategies for charitable giving are particularly insightful. While savvy investors won’t discover much new information, those who are seeking both encouragement and specific techniques to achieve financial success will find it here. Useful tips and inspiring advice for those taking the first steps to gaining control over their personal finances.
Pub Date: Dec. 23, 2011
ISBN: 978-0615423302
Page Count: 252
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Feb. 27, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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