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Legal Consumer Tips and Secrets

AVOIDING DEBTORS PRISON IN THE UNITED STATES

A knowledgeable, comprehensive guide to the legal rights of consumers, presented in a format that might have benefited from...

A lawyer offers substantive advice on avoiding financial scams, fighting for rights as a consumer, and managing debt.

In this collection, Ware (The Immigration Paradox, 2008) provides explanations, hints, resources, and cautionary tales on a wide range of issues related to consumer protection law. Each chapter focuses on a single topic, such as the fundamentals of medical malpractice, how to understand and manage a credit score, how to identify red flags when purchasing a business franchise, and the different protections afforded credit and debit cards. Ware, an attorney, is clearly knowledgeable about consumer law, and provides citations of both case law and other resources for a general audience. The book’s advice ranges from the basic and practical (such as urging readers to shred unwanted credit card solicitations and to learn to recognize phishing emails) to more specialized topics (such as the mechanics of the foreclosure process and the legal restrictions on debt collectors). The author also provides a bullet-pointed summary at the end of each chapter. The final chapters specifically address the book’s subtitle, as Ware explains the historical practice of imprisoning debtors and the recently passed laws in several states that make it legal in certain circumstances. Although the book provides a wealth of useful information, its tone is uneven, jumping between folksy, chapter-opening jokes of questionable quality and overly pedantic formatting that’s more appropriate to legal documents, including “supra” and “infra” citations. It also makes excessive, incorrect use of quotation marks for emphasis (“do not just ‘glance’ at these documents”; “the ‘reputation’ of an investment manager”). However, the book’s advice is solid, and readers who look to it for information on the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission, for example, or the difference between debt consolidation and debt settlement will likely be satisfied with its contents.

A knowledgeable, comprehensive guide to the legal rights of consumers, presented in a format that might have benefited from a stronger edit.

Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2007

ISBN: 978-1-4620-5184-7

Page Count: 236

Publisher: iUniverse

Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2016

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NUTCRACKER

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.

Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955

ISBN: 0670717797

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955

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