The Locust and the Bird by Hanan Al-Shaykh

This story is about Hanan's (the author) mother's life. This book was originally written in Arabic which was later translated into English. It tells of the story of the sacrifices that her Lebanese mother , Kamila, had to make for love.

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

This story is about Ronnie, a troubled teenage girl whose parents are divorced goes to spend the summer with her father. Her father, a former concert pianist is now living in a house on the beach. While there, she falls in love with William, an unlikely match for her, who changes her. This is a story about first love as well as love between parents and children.

Me and Mr Darcy by Alexandra Potter

Mr Darcy, of Pride and Prejudice, the ideal man... but does he really exist? Well, Emily Albright has had meetings with Mr Darcy himself while she was on tour to England with the Jane Austen Book Club (which, by the way, is made up of little old ladies and an old man! Just as there is the perfect man, there is also the anti-Mr Darcy in this book whose name is Spike Hargreaves. A nice humourous read. 

you need this book to get what you want by mark palmer & scott solder

Interesting title...that was what I was thinking when I picked up this book at the Big Bad Wold Warehouse sale. This book is about using psychology to get into other people's heads in order to get what you want.

How to be a Property Goddess by Smita Talati

This is a guide for women who want to be home owners. It covers all aspects of home ownership from buying and home maintenance to selling, investing and renting homes. 

Put More Cash in Your Pocket by Loral Langemeier

This book is about making more money by doing things that you already are doing (but most probably aren't charging for). It lists possible money making ventures and goes about showing you the steps that you have to consider such as the resources that you have or will need for your venture, your personality, deciding how much money you need to make in a month, how much time it will take for you to receive your first payment, testing the market, replicating and duplicating a business model that is already out there (as this implies that there is a ready market out there wanting what you have to offer), five key distinctions about your venture that makes you stand out in the market, your talk track where you describe your venture in a sentence or two and even the ask-for-the-cash talk track when you need to ask for payment.

This is a fantastic book for anyone thinking of doing some freelance work on the side to generate more income.   

The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach

I've been reading a load of books ever since carting back loads of books from the most recent Big Bad Wolf Sale. I haven't been doing a great job at updating my blog with reviews of the books that I've read though...

So, I hope to play catch up with my book reviews within the next few weeks. So here goes...

The Automatic Millionaire presents you with the idea of a financial plan that is automated, one that you can forget about once you have set it in place.

I like the idea how this book presents the idea that you can even make giving to charity (something that is often overlooked when making financial plans) automatic (apart from the other obvious aspects of financial planning that you should automate such as you retirement plan, savings cushion for a rainy day, home ownership and paying off debts).

The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier

Truth be told, I read this book a few months ago but I guess I never got around to blogging about it until now (yeah, that's the procrastinator in me!).

Anyway.... this book, written by Sidney Poitier, is a memoir of his life. Written in the first person's voice, he looks back on his life and career.

He was born and raised in a small island named Cat Island. He had an idyllic life as a child growing up on the island. By thirteen, he had dropped out of school and was working on construction sites. Worried that he would end up in jail, similar to his friend who stole a bicycle for fun, his father sent him off to Miami to live with his elder brother.

He started in his acting career when there weren't any black actors working along side white actors. It is about him breaking barriers and never accepting limits that were presented to him. He has certainly come a long way from his hard beginnings and has made it big. It is most definitely a story of the American Dream. It's an inspiring read.

A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler

This is another one of my many bookcrossing finds. The book begins and ends with the same line, "I am a man you can trust". The story is about Barnaby Gaitlin, an average and ordinary man. He is sort of the family black sheep with a successful dad and older brother who are both doing financially well.

Barnaby works in a company owned by Mrs. Virginia Dibble called Rent-a-Back that helps the elderly or disabled move things around their homes and other sorts of chores that they need help with. When Barnaby was younger, he used to break into houses with his friends but once they were in the homes, he was more interested in looking at the photo albums and personal belongings of the people who lived there rather than steal. On one of these occasions, he was caught and his father had to pay $8700 for the things that he had stolen. This $8700 has always been a point of contention not with his dad, but with his mom who would bring it up ever so often.

Tired of having to put up with his mom's constant reminder of the $8700 that they wasted on him, Barnaby decides to pay her back. He starts to save money by asking for extra hours at work. On one day, one of his clients who happens to be his girlfriend's elderly aunt lost the cash that she was saving in the flour bin and accused Barnaby of theft. His girlfriend Sophia decides to replace the money back without the aunt's or Barnaby's knowledge as she wanted to "clear" his name. To Barnaby this only indicated to him that Sophia too thought that he was guilty of having taken the money from the bread bin. The aunt later finds her money and remembers that it was she who had changed the place where she hid the money earlier on.

Sophia then keeps reminding Barnaby that she had used her own savings to replace the "stolen" money and that she has no money to buy what she wants. Tired, Barnaby then goes to Mrs Glynn's house with his colleague, Martine, and takes the money from the bread bin and returns it to Sophia in an envelope with a note that says,"Sophia, you never did realize. I am a man you can trust".

There are a lot of real life observations in A Patchwork Planet. Society is so quick to judge you by your past and will always remind you of your past even though you have moved on and have changed your ways. Status is also very important to many people in life. In this book, Barnaby's mother seem to love Barnaby's best friend, Len, better than she does him. She doesn't let Barnaby cut his own birthday cake before Len arrives. Again, you are not really loved if you aren't as successful as your siblings. Such is the case between Barnaby and his brother whom his mother seem to prefer since he is successful.

Parallel Play by Thomas Rayfiel

This is one of my bookcrossing finds. This book examines the idea of motherhood, you know, how moms are supposed to be so into their babies and kids. In walks Eve, the main character in this story, a girl who used to party who suddenly woke up one morning to find herself not wife to a stable doctor,Harvey, but also mom to a baby, Ann! How did it all that happen???

Eve sits in the park with her baby with other mothers and wonders how they are so into their kids as she often doesn't feel all the sickly sweet things that other moms do towards their kids. In fact, Eve has a love hate relationship not with her baby but with the whole idea of motherhood as she seems to lack the maternal instinct that is supposed to kick in the minute you have a child.

I think that this book looks at the whole idea of motherhood honestly. I'm not a mother but I'm sure that there are times that mothers look at their babies and wonder what they have gotten themselves into and that it's perfectly normal to feel that way. Written in a humourous manner, I enjoyed reading this book.

Cleaning and the Meaning of Life by Paula Jhung

I purchased this book from BookXcess in April, I think. Well, what can I say, I just love Personal Finance and Organizing books.

This book is written in short bullets and easy to read and refer to. Paula writes the book in a humorous manner making reading about cleaning and decluttering your space a fun read. There are lots of ideas on how to organize, declutter and simplify your life in this book.

The New Frugality by Chris Farrell

This is another book which I purchased in order to educate myself on personal financing. Some things I learned from this book about how to be frugal with regards to investing:

• Keep fees razor thin
• Use dollar cost averaging which basically means putting the same amount of money into an investment regularly over a long period
• Rebalance your portfolio regularly
• You have to realise you can't consistently beat the market.
• Invest in index funds; don't bother with actively managed mutual funds.

Past Secrets by Cathy Kelly

Past Secrets is about the lives that we lead and the secrets that we keep. The story centers around the women who live on the same street. Yes, it is kind of like Desperate Housewives and Wisteria Lane where everybody appears normal but actually has secrets.

There's Faye, a single mom, and who appears to be serious and boring to her daughter Amber but is she really serious and boring or is she keeping a secret away from Amber?

There's Maggie who came home to look after her ill mom but did she really go home to look after her mom and help her dad around the home? She'd been putting up with the wrong man and accepting less for herself for years due to her lack of self confidence. Will she be able to change her circumstances?

And then there's Christie, who possesses the gift to see the future and who everybody seems to go to with their troubles...only that Christie too has her share of secrets to keep and as secrets go, she is afraid of what others would think of her when they find out about them.

This was one of my many bookcrossing finds :)

Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny by Suze Orman

This is one of the many books that I read two months ago but failed to blog about until now.

I went out specifically searching for this book at my favorite discount bookstore, BookXcess, in Amcorp Mall. I guess it was my lucky day 'cause they had it in stock! In case you're wondering, the original price of the hardcover book which I purchased was RM99.90 but I got it for RM19.90 at BookXcess.

This is my very first Suze Orman book although I have watched her giving financial advice to women on Oprah numerous times in the past.

Women & Money contains loads of helpful financial advice. Suze wrote this book especially for women because many women are clueless when it comes to financial matters. She explains, for example, the difference between good debt and bad debt.  We hear people talking about good debt and bad debt often but do you know what they really are? Good debt is money that you borrow to buy an asset which will appreciate in value over time. Bad debt is money that you borrow not used to buy an asset. The ultimate example of bad debt is credit card debt. Going by this definition of bad debt, borrowing money to pay for a car loan constitutes as bad debt because a car doesn't appreciate in value! Now, isn't that an eye opener!

She covers a lot of areas in this book such as retirement investing, must-have documents, protecting your family and your home and the financial aspects of commitment which includes relationships/ marriage/ kids.

No doubt that many of the advice written in this book is for the American woman, but I found many of the advice useful as I only have to adapt the same concepts into my local context. It is about how to think about finances is what I take away. After acquiring the bigger idea, I can adapt what I learned to my day-to-day living.

In short, Suze asks women to imagine what's possible --- to imagine what life would be like when we make the choice to take control of our finances and not remain clueless. Power to women!

Or Rau by Kuan Guat Choo

This is another one of my BookCrossing finds.

This story was set in Penang. Or Rau, a girl who came from China with her family, worked for a Chinese family which consisted of only women. The Chinese family members treated her badly to the point of her wanting to commit suicide with her two young children. Lucky for her, she was saved by a teacher as she was walking into the sea with her children.  The portrayal of the first Chinese family is believable as there are still Chinese families today who abuse their maids.

I personally found this book depressing. Although I know that there are people out there who treat others badly, and that the writer's portrayal is accurate, I just feel that it's not right for any one of us to treat others so badly. What right have we got to treat others so badly that their only choice of finding freedom is in committing suicide? 

Make Money Not Excuses by Jean Chatzky

This is another book which I picked up at the last Big Bad Wolf warehouse sale.

This is a personal finance book written by a woman for women. Most women make excuses as to why they are not actively involved in the management of their money and what this book does is tell women to stop being passive and start taking an active interest in managing their money.

This book is full of financial advice that are do-able. She gives a breakdown on how you should funnel your expenses according to the various expense categories:
Housing               35%
Saving                 10%
Living                  25%
Transportation     15%
Debt Repayment   15%

Housing includes not just the mortgage payment for your home but also the cost of living there such as taxes, insurance, utilities and repairs.

Living expenses include things like clothing, food, donations, entertainment, gifts, travel, etc.

Transportation includes not just payment for your wheels but also gas, insurance and maintenance.

Debt Repayment are payments for debt which don't include payment for your home or your car.

There are also maps to a million throughout this book that illustrates how much you'd earn if you put in a certain amount of money away to invest each month and shows what the amount will be in 10, 20, 30 and 40 years' time.

For example, if you could save $10 a day, which is $70 a week, and you put it away to invest at 8 percent, it would be 55,615 in 10 years, 179,062 in 20 years, $453,069 in 30 years and $1,061,266 in 40 years. Amazing, huh?

I'm inspired to save!!!

And oh, by the way, she has a website (click on the link) where you'll be able to find more money advice.

I Will Teach You to be Rich by Ramit Sethi

To be honest, I had absolutely NO idea who Ramit Sethi was when I purchased this book. I only discovered that he's big in the US when I visited his website and youtube and found a bunch of his video clips which were aired on TV in the US.

This is a book which I stumbled upon in the last Big Bad Wolf Warehouse sale. I'm really glad I purchased it.

Okay, the title of the book is kinda corny, but the RICH in the title has more to do about having enough $$$ to lead a rich life doing what you love instead to being RICH in just the monetary sense.

This personal finance book explains in simple terms many things I didn't know before reading the book --- the difference between mutual funds, index funds, lifecycle funds, stocks and bonds, the importance of diversification, asset allocation, dollar cost averaging, etc.

He also offers a lot of common sense advice (but as you and I both know, common sense is not so common anymore) such as why you should have a credit card (it's not all bad, as many people think), the importance of having your investment portfolio diversified and typical asset allocations by age.

He even gives you a script for what to say when you call up your credit card company to negotiate with them for a late fee waiver (note: this is only if you've been paying your bills on time and have missed a due date once and not for repeat offenders!).

He also asks, "How you're going to spend your next $100?" --- now that's a question that forces me to think about how I've been spending my money and how I would like to change my spending habits to include my plans for my future.

I particularly loved the way all the information was presented in the book which made it enjoyable to read and not dry like most of the other personal finance books out there. This is a must have personal finance book if you're clueless.

Here's the first chapter of this book which is entitled Optimize Your Credit Cards (click on the link) which you can download FREE!!! My guess is that you'll be hooked once you've read the first chapter and will want to purchase the book.

this is another book which i purchased at the last big bad wolf warehouse sale.  it's another werewolf/ human love story (kinda along the same lines as the twilight series).

the outcast by sadie jones

i bought this book in the last big bad wolf warehouse sale (last year).  it's a sad story about a boy who grew up in a small town being the outcast.  it is about perception that people have of each other and how they don't want to see things for what they are as the truth is often not pretty.  

the money secret by rob parsons

i purchased this book in the last big bad wolf sale (last year --- yup, i'm still plowing through my purchases from that sale and fishing out something to read from that lot when i feel like something of a certain genre to read).

it's a simple enough book to read about money management.