I chose to read Easy Money: How to Simplify Your Life and Get What You Want Out of Life because it had been a while since I read a financial book and it was free for my kindle! In this book, the author focuses on more big picture ways to save your money. She does not talk about how to slash your grocery or electricity expenditures. Instead, she talks about shopping around for auto insurance and what specific coverage you need or do not need. She talks about who needs life insurance and what kind and for how long. She talks about how much homeowner's insurance you should have and the kind of coverage you should carry. She also talks about putting aside money early and at regular intervals for retirement and college. She discusses the different kinds of savings plans out there and the pros and cons of them. She also includes a calculator to help you figure out how much you should be setting aside annually for retirement. I really benefited from the practical advice in this book, especially concerning retirement savings and insurance coverage. However, there were parts of this book that I did not benefit from. The budgeting chapters seem to be addressed to the person who decides how much to spend by what's in the bank account on any given day. That's just not how I think about finances. I'm more of a planner. Also, I guess to be honest, I didn't technically finish this book. I skipped the chapter on buying a house because, well, we already own a house.
Dare I admit that I read this book: Surrender the Wind? That's not to say that it was not a good book. Actually, I enjoyed it. It is just not the type of book that I typically choose to read. Why did I choose it? Well, again, it was free for my kindle. I am not much for fiction usually, but my husband introduced me to Jeff Shaara on one of our road trips and I found that I really enjoy historical fiction. I like learning about history through the dramatization of actual historical events and people. I thought this was in the historical fiction genre, but I would really classify it as historical romance, not a steamy harlequin romance, but romance in the sense of a love story. It is about an English man, who had settled in America and fought for America in the American Revolution, but then inherits his grandfather's estate in England. He falls in love and marries and then there are just lots of twists and turns, which I can't divulge without totally destroying the book for you. It was definitely a book that kept my interest and was full of suspense. It was actually a perfect book to read when I was sick and trying to rest. Interesting but not mentally taxing.
Have you ever wondered if a chicken could survive with its head cut off and, if so, how? Have you ever wondered if man could make rain? Have you ever wondered who invented cat litter or vaseline? Did you know that we once had an emperor? Did you know that we once considered using bat bombs? Have you read the one novel that is e-less? Would you enter a contest to have the most babies in ten years? Find all this out and more in Einstein's Refrigerator and Other Stories from the Flip Side of History. This book is written by a high school science teacher, who first tests the stories out on his students to see whether they would be of interest to people. He has done intense research to verify that the stories are indeed true. This is just a funny, funny book, and I enjoyed it a lot. I also don't usually choose to read funny books, but this was also free on my kindle. This new world of kindle is not only encouraging me to read more but to read things that I wouldn't have otherwise picked up!
The girls and I read Pollyanna and Pollyanna Grows Up during our read aloud time recently. (I had never read either as a child, but they were recommended in Hand That Rocks the Cradle: 400 Classic Books for Children.) They are about a little girl, who is orphaned, and moves in with her wealthy and dutiful aunt. Pollyanna plays a game, called the glad game, in which she tries to find something to be glad about in every situation. She just softens the hearts and minds of everyone she meets, including Aunt Polly, and gets them to join in playing the glad game with her. She has such an impact on people that one of the doctors considers her to be medicinal! Wz were just in stitches reading these books!
And I'm still working on:
Muscular Christianity Learning Endurance from the Book of Hebrews by P.G. Mathew
The Quest for Character by John MacArthur
When I Lay My Isaac Down: Unshakable Faith in Unthinkable Circumstances by Carol J. Kent
The Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
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