An essential read for those looking to buy a home.
A guide to buying a first property from a real estate broker and HGTV Canada host.
Rinomato offers personal-development advice that draws on her many years of real estate broker wisdom, along with frequent references to Napoleon Hill’s 1937 self-help classic Think and Grow Rich. She says that single women—who, she says, comprise 1 in 4 home buyers—are her favorite demographic to work with, though her book will be readily useful to any person hunting for their first property. The author’s approach is right on the money, as one’s living space is a deeply emotional topic, and naturally, purchasing your first involves more than budgets and spreadsheets. Buyers are juggling personal agendas, parents, societal expectations, potential partners, and lifestyle changes. As a result, Rinomato advises readers to ask themselves what they really want. The book alternates among three main sources: the author’s own life, case studies of her clients, and the self-improvement genre. What makes this book worth a read is its delightfully dressed-down style; the voice is forthright, plain, no-nonsense, with a touch of self-admitted snark. What comes through again and again are Rinomato’s profound empathy and fierce advocacy for people wanting to build wealth and independence through real estate. The self-help–speak becomes a bit repetitive, but readers will forgive this foible, as goal setting, focused visualization, and positive thinking are genuinely indispensable when undertaking such a monumental and personal project. Dipping into psychology and sociology, Rinomato shows how often people create their own obstacles, and she offers practical strategies and suggestions for overcoming and bypassing fears and hang-ups. The handy final chapter provides a useful summary of pointers, fine-tuned to each step in the property-buying process.
An essential read for those looking to buy a home.Pub Date: May 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5255-5532-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Combining brilliant scholarship with a novelist’s feel for human drama, Orey recounts how a determined group of lawyers and whistle-blowers brought the tobacco industry to its knees. Wall Street Journal editor Orey opens his odyssey in rural Mississippi, where in 1986 attorney Don Barrett began a decade-long holy war against Big Tobacco. Confronting an undefeated foe with seemingly limitless resources, Barrett was in for a long but ultimately successful struggle. He faced two major obstacles: first, the delaying, war-of-attrition tactics used by the tobacco companies to wear down plaintiffs, and, second, the tendency of juries to blame smokers for their own predicaments. Orey lucidly explains the complex legal and medical issues involved in tobacco litigation, but he’s even better at describing the maddeningly complex personalities involved. Barrett, a former segregationist, built his reputation representing African-Americans in front of Mississippi juries. Like Captain Ahab, the Bible-pounding Barrett viewed his foes as “truly forces of evil to be vanquished.” Merrell Williams, an ex-actor who stole documents proving that the tobacco industry had systematically deceived the public about smoking, is a fascinating blend of hippie idealism and self-promoting opportunism. Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore is a smart politician who knows a good issue when he sees one. Just as public sentiment was turning against Big Tobacco in the early 1990s, Moore (and other state attorneys general) decided to sue the industry to recoup Medicaid funds spent on smokers. In 1996, Moore, Barrett, and other antitobacco advocates won a historic victory when Liggett became the first cigarette maker to settle a smoking-related lawsuit. Within a year, the whole industry had cut a deal, agreeing to pay $368.5 billion to smokers and their lawyers. Unfortunately, Congress rejected the settlement, and the tobacco wars continue. A tale of breathtaking, even Homeric, scope, filled with greed, good intentions, and a collection of deeply flawed “heroes”; scholars and the general reader will find ample reasons to rejoice.
Pub Date: Sept. 7, 1999
ISBN: 0-316-66489-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1999
Taking issue with intellectual Francis Fukayama, who posits the end of history, business strategist Ohmae (The Borderless World, 1990) more plausibly prophesies the eventual demise of the nation-state, because it has become ``an unnatural, even dysfunctional, unit in terms of which to think about or organize economic activity.'' Writing with his customary brio and clarity, the Tokyo-based, MIT-educated consultant makes a persuasive case for the arresting proposition that sovereignty is increasingly irrelevant. Characterizing borders as a cartographic illusion, he observes that what he calls ``the four I's''—industry, investment, individuals, and information—now flow across frontiers with little hindrance. As commercial enterprises capitalize on market opportunities at the ends of the earth or closer to their home bases, however, traditional governments remain in thrall to outdated notions of national interest and to the importunate demands of parasitic constituencies seeking shelter from economic rivalry. While central governments are still major players on the world stage, Ohmae insists that they have lost the capacity to adapt to change, let alone respond effectively to its challenges. He documents the significant extent to which nation-states remain focused on parochial issues during an age when real-time information is the common coin of industry and distance has become economically immaterial. The resulting power vacuum has been filled by what the author dubs region states, geographic territories oriented toward the global economy, not their host countries. Cases in point range from Baden-WÅrtemberg, San Diego/Tijuana, and Wales through Korea's Pusan perimeter and Hollywood, which has profited greatly from the warm welcome it extended foreign capital, whether from the Japanese or Rupert Murdoch. Elegant perspectives on what the socioeconomic future might hold from a past master of the geopolitical game. The engrossing text has helpful tabular material and graphics throughout.
Pub Date: July 3, 1995
ISBN: 0-02-923341-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1995
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
