A potentially valuable guidebook, derailed by the author’s all-too-random musings.
A noted investment adviser shares his wisdom in this scattershot personal-finance primer.
Rosso, a Houston-based wealth manager and occasional media commentator, embeds his money-management lessons in off-color anecdotes, pop-culture riffs and nuggets of cracker-barrel philosophy. His tone and worldview are resolutely unrestrained; for example, he introduces the subject of how to talk with aging parents about finances with a recollection of walking in on his dad during a hot-tub frolic with three women. His critical appraisal of walking-dead movies segues into an account of “zombie” banks and mutual funds; he prefaces a section on vetting investment professionals with an appreciation of the TV detective Columbo; and he makes an observation that “women and girls with small feet can demand pretty much whatever they want” as an introduction to time-saving tips. He also includes darkly comic reminiscences on family dysfunctions, such as his violent confrontation with his mother’s boyfriend in a psych ward. Buried in this miscellany, however, are incisive, iconoclastic analyses of common financial conundrums. Rosso’s savvy, plainspoken advice voices a healthy skepticism about overhyped stock-market forecasts and focuses on the basics of good money discipline—saving assiduously, cutting unnecessary expenses, avoiding excessive debt. He also lays out precise recommendations on everything from how to get a handle on your mortgage to funding college and retirement expenses. Unfortunately, Rosso apparently doesn’t trust this material to stand on its own, and buries it in a jumble of confessional memoir and free-associative color commentary; he even surrounds his illuminating statistical graphics with many gratuitous photos of women in various stages of undress—and even in bondage. The result feels like a haphazard picaresque that sometimes conveys way too much information (“After several barium tests and no organic disease present, it was clear even to me [that] my stress settled regularly in my bowels.”). Rosso’s self-indulgent rambles and drollery distract more than they entertain or enlighten.
A potentially valuable guidebook, derailed by the author’s all-too-random musings.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2012
ISBN: 978-1466360136
Page Count: 294
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
In more ways than one, a tale about young creatures testing their wings; a moving, entertaining winner.
A fifth-grade New Orleans girl discovers a mysterious chrysalis containing an unexpected creature in this middle-grade novel.
Jacquelyn Marie Johnson, called Jackie, is a 10-year-old African-American girl, the second oldest and the only girl of six siblings. She’s responsible, smart, and enjoys being in charge; she likes “paper dolls and long division and imagining things she had never seen.” Normally, Jackie has no trouble obeying her strict but loving parents. But when her potted snapdragon acquires a peculiar egg or maybe a chrysalis (she dubs it a chrysalegg), Jackie’s strong desire to protect it runs up against her mother’s rule against plants in the house. Jackie doesn’t exactly mean to lie, but she tells her mother she needs to keep the snapdragon in her room for a science project and gets permission. Jackie draws the chrysalegg daily, waiting for something to happen as it gets larger. When the amazing creature inside breaks free, Jackie is more determined than ever to protect it, but this leads her further into secrets and lies. The results when her parents find out are painful, and resolving the problem will take courage, honesty, and trust. Dumas (Jaden Toussaint, the Greatest: Episode 5, 2017, etc.) presents a very likable character in Jackie. At 10, she’s young enough to enjoy playing with paper dolls but has a maturity that even older kids can lack. She’s resourceful, as when she wants to measure a red spot on the chrysalegg; lacking calipers, she fashions one from her hairpin. Jackie’s inward struggle about what to obey—her dearest wishes or the parents she loves—is one many readers will understand. The book complicates this question by making Jackie’s parents, especially her mother, strict (as one might expect to keep order in a large family) but undeniably loving and protective as well—it’s not just a question of outwitting clueless adults. Jackie’s feelings about the creature (tender and responsible but also more than a little obsessive) are similarly shaded rather than black-and-white. The ending suggests that an intriguing sequel is to come.
In more ways than one, a tale about young creatures testing their wings; a moving, entertaining winner.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943169-32-0
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Plum Street Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A YA novel that treats its subject and its readers with respect while delivering an engaging story.
In the ninth book in the Bluford young-adult series, a young Latino man walks away from violence—but at great personal cost.
In a large Southern California city, 16-year-old Martin Luna hangs out on the fringes of gang life. He’s disaffected, fatherless and increasingly drawn into the orbit of the older, rougher Frankie. When a stray bullet kills Martin’s adored 8-year-old brother, Huero, Martin seems to be heading into a life of crime. But Martin’s mother, determined not to lose another son, moves him to another neighborhood—the fictional town of Bluford, where he attends the racially diverse Bluford High. At his new school, the still-grieving Martin quickly makes enemies and gets into trouble. But he also makes friends with a kind English teacher and catches the eye of Vicky, a smart, pretty and outgoing Bluford student. Martin’s first-person narration supplies much of the book’s power. His dialogue is plain, but realistic and believable, and the authors wisely avoid the temptation to lard his speech with dated and potentially embarrassing slang. The author draws a vivid and affecting picture of Martin’s pain and confusion, bringing a tight-lipped teenager to life. In fact, Martin’s character is so well drawn that when he realizes the truth about his friend Frankie, readers won’t feel as if they are watching an after-school special, but as though they are observing the natural progression of Martin’s personal growth. This short novel appears to be aimed at urban teens who don’t often see their neighborhoods portrayed in young-adult fiction, but its sophisticated characters and affecting story will likely have much wider appeal.
A YA novel that treats its subject and its readers with respect while delivering an engaging story.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2004
ISBN: 978-1591940173
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Townsend Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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