Going Broke: Why Americans can't hold on to their money by Stuart Vyse

Mostly statistics and some slightly interesting psychology. Some blaming of advertising and the ease of credit card use and some studies about it. Eh, but totally glosses over the fact that wages have stagnated a the cost of living continues to rise. When your paycheck is two dollars less than your mortgage amount, how are you going to contribute to a 401K?

Utopia by Thomas More

I never thought something so old could be so enjoyable, even funny. I loved his tone of "I'm not SUGGESTING anything, I'm just tellin' ya what I heard." As for the actual description of Utopia, I remember thinking a lot of "hellz yeah, we need that" and "no way, that would suck" and "would never work". Once again I find myself wishing I could figure out the third option. Capitalism obviously doesn't work in its current form (or maybe it does and what is actually not working is what we have which is an oligarchy.) And communism didn't work. Each has their points, but neither one appeals to me in its entirety. There's gotta be something in the middle that would work. Hmmm...Anyway, Utopia did sound pretty sweet but the lack of room for artists and fashion I found disappointing.

How to Live Well Without Owning a Car: Save money, breathe easier, and get more mileage ot of life by Chris Balish

Mostly and advertisement for the lifestyle. He had me at "How". The rest is just details and testimonials that anyone could easily figure out for themselves if they'd take the time to think about it. I'm so ready to give up my car, but without the fam on board, no dice =(

The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches: A practical (and fun) guide to enjoying life more by spending less by Jeff Yeager

This guy has a lot of great ideas if you're not already living on the brink. I'm sure it feels great to save so much money when you're actually making some. But when you have to be this cheap because you don't make much money, scrimping pennies is less satisfying when there's still nothing left over. Living under your means is great advice, but when you are making less than what the government considers poverty, it's just not possible. These tips are not new if you've had to figure it all out from necessity.

Outliers: The story of success by Malcolm Gladwell

I don't even know where to begin, how to describe just how enlightening this is. I have to say there wasn't a whole lot for me to take to improve my life at this point. I am too old and job enslaved to enact the 10,000 hour rule (explain in a sec). But it will help me with Sid. For one, I will make sure I send him to school the year he will be oldest in his class. 9 months can make a huge developmental difference at a young age and apparently teachers aren't taking this difference into consideration when they are choosing the talented students to poor their attention into and which "slower" ones to ignore and make feel stupid. What results is that over the years it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy based on an originally false pretense. The 10,000 hour rule says that it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to master it. The thing is, who has 10,000 hours? No one with a job that's for sure. I intend to make damn sure Sid does not have to work as a teenager and make sure we find out what he's good at and likes and can get a fair shot at opportunities to work his ass off. Yes, success require astronomical amounts of effort, concentration, and hard work. But it's not as simple as that. A lot of hard work is the result of an opportunity to do that work, like things that require rink time, access to certain equipment and technology, coaching, etc. Anyway, what it all boils down to is that I've always said that all hard work is not rewarded equally and this book is the proof. I haven't learned this much truly original (new to me) stuff from a book in long time. He talks about cultural legacy and how where we are from dictates more of our behavior than we know. I just wish there was a way to look up my own cultural heritage and read about what it means for me. Anyway, I take issue with people who would argue that if one is not a success in life then the ONLY thing they were missing was work ethic. Work ethic is a must, but having it doesn't mean one will be a success. This book is a must for those people.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

I don't normally read fiction. Sometimes I think it's a waste of time when there is so much to learn. Not true with this one. It is beautiful, tragically sad and blissfully uplifting. I do need a good novel once in awhile. Now I can't wait to see the movie. OH yeah and I did learn some stuff about bees, but for the most part I was just taken with the courageous honesty of the main character in the writing. She was so real. This may sound weird but other things I've read have main characters that aren't conflicted enough to be real. Anyway, this isn't meant to be helpful, I just wanted to record for myself that I read it and that I loved it.

Economic Apartheid in America: A primer on economic inequality and security by Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel

Ok, I don't know if I should really be writing about a book I didn't even finish, or even read half. But I just got bored with all the statistics and graphs. I know the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the gap is getting wider. The number of people with more is shrinking, the number of people with less is growing. This is common knowledge any more. I know this and that's why I picked up this book. The cartoons did elicit the occasional smile. There were suggestions and the end for action, but I could tell as I flipped through that they weren't for me. I'm not looking to start a grassroots movement. The system is pretty irreversibly rigged at this point. I'm more interested in ways to live my life in a way that makes me happy in spite of this. I guess this is why I enjoyed Commonsense Rebellion more. I'm not going to waste any more of my emotional energy trying to change the unchangeable. The only thing I can change is myself. I don't need a bigger piece of the monetary pie to be happy.