The book is a very capturing read and at only 280 pages it isn’t a very long read. Andy experienced a lot of different adventures during his time in Russia, including buying a car, boiling snow for food, working with a local group of prisoners, and more.

The book has been reviewed four times over at Amazon, all a full five stars. You can purchase it through Amazon here.

Michael Chriton has quite a fascination with science, technology and the consequences and ramifications that advances in those areas have on society. He seems to have a common thread in his novels about what we could be bringing on ourselves by the uncontrolled and monitors pursuit of scientific advancement. From what I have read he is not against the advancement of science, but rather that we need to think through the consequences of them.

The Andromeda Strain is an interesting commentary on the consequences of space travel and research about space. The lack of foreknowledge about what the researchers are studying leads to VERY dire consequences.

The Andromeda Strain is a relatively easy read that looks at some very deep concepts. I would highly recommend this book, although as a parent you might want to read it yourself so that you can determine if you child is ready for it. It would be suitable for teens, but maybe not for pre-teens.

Below is a trailer for the original movie. There has recently been a mini-series made based on the book, but the original movie stays very close to the original, whereas the new series takes a lot of creative liberty with the story line.

To sign up to receive the free mp3 downloads of The World is Flat you have to sign up on an e-mail list that will promote Thomas L. Friedman’s next book “Hot, Flat, and Crowded”. You don’t have to buy anything, only sign onto the mailing list promoting the new book.

After signing up for the free audio book you will receive a confirmation e-mail for your address, then you will be sent instructions for downloading the book. The book is available as three different parts, so far I have received parts 1 and 2, both at about 128MB. I have not yet listened to them, but I look forward to it as The World is Flat Reviews I have read say that it is a pretty one.

You can register to download the free audio book “The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman” here.

The book follows the path of two fictional characters, Ryan and Christine, and they try to “regain control and to successfully manager finances in today’s society”.

This finance book is targeted at people “seeking a blueprint for achieving long-term financial wellness”, which I think is the audience that pretty much every personal finance book ever written is targeted.

Here is a quote from the site about what the book is about:

“Ryan and Christine Richardson once enjoyed a solid relationship. They were educated, had a good income, and were focused on successfully raising a family. Like so many in their situation, they had allowed financial stress and frustration to erode their happiness. Join them on a journey as they transform their lives and begin to understand how to live within their income, stop accumulating debt, and build a solid financial future.”

It looks like the free book is a lead up to, “Money for Life Success Planner”, which “with this companion piece, the Money for Life Success Planner, you too can easily follow the same 12-week financial fitness program to reach your objectives. A program that makes your journey to financial security more manageable, predictable and even enjoyable”.

There also appear to be adds in the actual book for some of the products and tools used to get their financial budget under control, like mvelopes.

Money for Life looks like it should be an interesting read, and since it’s free for download, which you can do here, I’ve got nothing to loose by trying it out ..

I’ve seen some interesting designs using books, and even seen a shelf made from a hollowed out and strengthened book, but really, you imagination is the limit with using books as decorative features.

You can read about a few different ideas of book decoration over at the Home Improvement Blog: Decorating with Books.

The skills talked about in the book are not only relevant for small business owners and entrepreneurs, but can also be applied to non-profits and charitable organisations. It is well worth a read, and will be even better as an audio book to listen to during a long commute.

Technorati Tags: audio book, emyth, e myth

I’ll cut right to the chase and say that I plan to read the rest of the Oregon Files series.

The book Goden Buddha is a real page turner. You are really thrown into the midst of the mission of the crew of the Oregon. After a brief travel through time to set the stage for the book you quickly get introduced to the main characters of the book.

On the Oregon there is a large crew and you never really get to know any of them too deeply. The person that you probably get to know the most is Juan Cabrillo, who is the “Chairman of the Corporation”. This book is mostly about the action, but I can see how over time, and the course of the Oregon Files book series the character development could grow.

The crew of the Oregon are basically a bunch of mercenaries for hire, but they choose their missions based on being able to not only earn a profit, but also make a difference in the world.

So if you want a good action / war movie, the Golden Buddha could be the right book for you.

You can read more reviews over at Amazon, Golden Buddha, and please feel free to leave your own comments about the book below.

One of his latest reviews is of the book The Incredible Secret Money Machine by Don Lancaster. Although the book is now 30-years old, being published in 1978, the book still has some fantastic and relevant tips.

The book is about starting and running a small business. It isn’t a book about earning millions, but rather a book about earning a comfortable income doing something that you enjoy doing.

The book states that to build a “money making machine” is to stay true to four basic principles:

1. You have to be heavily into a technical or craft trip on a total lifestyle basis
2. You must want to stay in control
3. Your income goals should be just enough to keep going
4. Be gentle

There are other tips that he shares for building a money machine:

• Have as many different sources of income as possible
• Have complementary sources of income
• Deal directly with the customer
• Work toward deferred income
• Know the difference between cold cash, imaginary money, and megabucks
• Separate frugality from stupidity
• Avoid psychic energy sinks

J.D. Roth comes to the following conclusion about the book:

Some of the advice in The Incredible Secret Money Machine now seems quaint, 30 years after the book was published. The author’s “hip” language and many of his examples are outdated. But smart readers can extrapolate, and still learn a lot. You have to be able to read Lancaster’s advice on letterhead, for example, and think of it as advice for web sites.

Although Lancaster believes that you must be into your money machine on a total lifestyle basis, I’m not sure that’s true. I think you can have a part-time money machine. A full-time money machine will be more profitable, of course, but a part-time money machine is a great way to start.

You can read his full review on his blog: Get Rich Slowly – personal finance that makes cents – The Incredible Money Making Machine.

Very well presented in a story narrative about a fictional character named Amy who is living with an all consuming amount of debt. Rob Parsons doesn’t preach in this book, but presents life principles in a way that makes it relevant and possible to overcome personal debt.

My personal favourite story was the story of Alice, who used cups to put her money in at the beginning of the month. Each cup represented a category of spending, just as rent, food, etc. At the end of each month she only spent what was in the cup, and nothing more, because there was nothing more to spend.

The story of Alice contrasts quite a lot with our modern world of living of credit card debt. Here in Australia the average credit card debt currently sits around $2200.00. This isn’t a problem if it you can pay it off each month (which we thankfully do), but it is a very large problem if you do not pay if off each month.

So what’s the secret of the “The Money Secret”? Well, put very simply, the secret is to spend less money than you make!

Even though I have told you the secret I would still very highly recommend that you read The Money Secret by Rob Parsons. It has some extremely valuable hints and tips about debt management and how to get out and stay out of debt.

You can read more reviews on Amazon.com about The Money Secret by Rob Parsons over at .

Technorati Tags: the money secret, Rob Parsons, book review, debt book

Bleachers is unlike any other John Grisham novel that I have read. It is a story set in small town USA that is based almost entirely around American Football (or gridiron to those of us not in the USA or Canada).

Your main character in the book is Neely Crenshaw, who is returning to his home town of Messina to bury his high school football coach, Eddie Rake. Both Neely Crenshaw and Eddie Lake are home town icons. Eddie for how he ran the football team and Neely for being probably the best quarterback the town has ever produced.

Given the length of the book the character development is excellent and the story is a lot of fun to read.

I would highly recommend the book to anyone who likes American High School football, and definitely to people who have played it. You will more than likely recognize many of the characters in the book as typical characters that you would have gone to school with.

You can read many other reviews about this book, or even purchase it for yourself, over at Amazon.com.

Technorati Tags: John Grisham, Book Review, Bleachers, travel book