Tuesday, December 29, 2009

“Book Reviews - Green Valley News and Sun” plus 3 more

“Book Reviews - Green Valley News and Sun” plus 3 more

Book Reviews - Green Valley News and Sun

Posted: 28 Dec 2009 07:39 AM PST

When God Winks

By Squire Rushnell

Atria

184 pages, hardcover $16

"When God Winks" is a small, but powerful book about the power of coincidence. All of us have been struck by the profoundness of a "coincidence" and wondered if there wasn't something more to it than meets the eye. Squire Rushnell suggests that these "coincidences" are what he calls "god winks." He draws this analogy: "Think back to when you were a child, sitting at a dinner table with the grownups. You looked up and saw a parent or grandparent smiling at you. And then they winked. That wink was a message of loving reassurance saying, 'Hey kid, I'm thinking about you. You're OK. Hang in there.' A god wink is also a message of reassurance coming when you most need it."

While the title of this book contains the word god, this is not a religious book. Rushnell is merely trying to convey a sense of a higher power or creative force. It is, however, an inspirational book. Passages and stories in the book will make one laugh, others will bring tears to the reader's eyes.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

A decade in books: From Web to wizards - Daily News Journal

Posted: 29 Dec 2009 04:25 AM PST

(2 of 3)

In 2007, Meyer, a Mormon stay-at-home mom, began an unprecedented dominance of the best-seller list with her Twilight series about a chaste teen romance starring a vampire. Last year, she sold 22 million books.

Brown hit it big in 2003 with Da Vinci, a thriller mixing fact and fiction. It made best sellers out of Brown's three earlier novels. His latest, "The Lost Symbol," has sold 4 million copies since September.

Rowling, Meyer and Brown had help from Hollywood, but their books were blockbusters in their own right: "They opened as big or bigger than the most anticipated movies, with pre-orders and opening-night parties, which spilled over to other books," says Michael Cader, founder of Publishers Lunch, a digital newsletter. Each sold "quantities of hardcovers once unimaginable."

But publishers complain of flat sales overall — even before the recession. E-books, the fastest-growing segment, are in their infancy, 3 percent of sales. Prices, rights and delaying e-books to protect hardcover sales are in dispute.

"Hard bargains will have to be struck," says Sara Nelson, books editor of O magazine, "but in the end, readers will win. Over time, the more readers you can create and nurture, the better ... no matter what the format."

Memoirs

It was a decade for memoirs, including Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, "Pray, Love" (No. 25). But after James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces" (No. 45) turned out to be part fiction, he was publicly scolded by Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah's Book Club turned 34 titles into best sellers, but waned, making only one selection this year. Her show ends in 2011. But authors found outlets on cable shows hosted by Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Glenn Beck, who wrote their own best sellers.

Metropolitan newspapers reduced book reviews or moved them online. After 76 years, Kirkus Reviews closes next week.

But countless blogs and Web sites are now devoted to books. "More books are getting attention, but at the same time, enthusiasm for one title is tougher to cultivate," says Carol Fitzgerald, president of the Book Report Network of Web sites.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Skonieczny's 'Why Are We So Clueless About the Stock Market?' - Seekingalpha.com

Posted: 29 Dec 2009 12:29 AM PST

Although I normally do not write book reviews, I agreed to read and review Mariusz Skonieczny's book, Why Are We So Clueless About The Stock Market. Since I would have a few days off around the holidays and the new year, I suppose I was asked to review the book at an opportune time.

I believe this book is best suited for new, or somewhat new, investors in the stock market. Mariusz does a nice job leading his readers from the beginning or inception of a stock, a company's capital structure and through the time one should consider selling a stock. The book includes a chapter on the economy including a brief discussion on the economic cycle. Mariusz's investment style seems more of a contrarian or value one. He rhetorically ask a couple of questions,

  • "When is it best to own a great company--in good times or bad times?"

  • "When is one more likely to buy a great company at a reasonable price--in good times or bad times?"

Both are important questions investors need to answer as they buy and evaluate stocks. He does provide answers to the questions in his book.

Buying stocks is not too different from buying real estate. That is, one makes money in real estate not when they sell it, but when they buy it. In other words, what one makes is based on how much they paid for it. Real estate investors have been finding that out over the last year to year and a half. But I digress.

The book covers topics on valuing stocks based on the dividend discount model. Additionally, he shows how company leverage can add value to a company's earnings. He shows how the value that is created (or not created) is based on the financing cost and the company's return on equity or ROE. In the chapter on "Basic Capital Structure" he provides investors with a way to evaluate a company's earnings growth and whether reinvested earnings are being reinvested "efficiently" as he states.

And finally, beyond the financial numbers, he discusses what comprises a good business. Does the company have a "wide moat" around its products and market. If so, this type of company tends to have higher ROEs and thus potentially higher sustainable returns.

At the end of the book Mariusz provides several case studies or real examples that utilize the topics he covers in his book in order to evaluate specific companies.

In conclusion, I found the book an easy read that was not mired in technical details. Having said this, Mariusz provides his readers with spreadsheets useful in valuing a company's stock. Additionally, I do believe this book will provide its readers with a good starting foundation upon which to build their investment knowledge.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Decade in book: Writers still work their magic - Shreveport Times

Posted: 28 Dec 2009 11:53 PM PST

(2 of 2)

Brown hit it big in 2003 with Da Vinci, a thriller mixing fact and fiction. It made best sellers out of Brown's three earlier novels. His latest, The Lost Symbol, has sold 4 million copies since September.

Rowling, Meyer and Brown had help from Hollywood, but their books were blockbusters in their own right: "They opened as big or bigger than the most anticipated movies, with pre-orders and opening-night parties, which spilled over to other books," says Michael Cader, founder of Publishers Lunch, a digital newsletter. Each sold "quantities of hardcovers once unimaginable."

But publishers complain of flat sales overall - even before the recession. E-books, the fastest-growing segment, are in their infancy, 3(PERCENT) of sales. Prices, rights and delaying e-books to protect hardcover sales are in dispute.

"Hard bargains will have to be struck," says Sara Nelson, books editor of O magazine, "but in the end, readers will win. Over time, the more readers you can create and nurture, the better . . . no matter what the format."

It was a decade for memoirs, including Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love (No. 25). But after James Frey's A Million Little Pieces (No. 45) turned out to be part fiction, he was publicly scolded by Oprah Winfrey.

Oprah's Book Club turned 34 titles into best sellers, but waned, making only one selection this year. Her show ends in 2011. But authors found outlets on cable shows hosted by Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Glenn Beck, who wrote their own best sellers.

Metropolitan newspapers reduced book reviews or moved them online. After 76 years, Kirkus Reviews closes next week.

But countless blogs and websites are now devoted to books. "More books are getting attention, but at the same time, enthusiasm for one title is tougher to cultivate," says Carol Fitzgerald, president of the Book Report Network of websites.

The number of bookstores peaked and is in "irreversible decline," Cader says. That troubles publishers such as Grove/Atlantic's Morgan Entrekin, who says, "Bookstores are such wonderful places. We need them. They offer community in a world that is becoming more fragmented."

Fitzgerald worries about the implications of a recent price war between Amazon and Wal-Mart: "Books as loss leaders, priced like bulk paper towels, says something about what we think of culture in this country."

Still, as the National Endowment for the Arts' David Kipen puts it, "Any decade with two new Thomas Pynchon novels and an uptick in national reading numbers can't be all bad."

A 2004 report warned that literary reading was fading away, but a 2009 update found reading on the rise for the first time in 25 years; the biggest increase was among readers 18 to 24.

Asked about 2019, King sees 40(PERCENT) of fiction and 25(PERCENT) of non-fiction sales as e-books, but their "essentially ephemeral nature will probably keep them from biting any deeper, even when delivery quality improves." Overall book sales "will decline slightly or remain steady." These days, that sounds like good news.

--

Contributing: Anthony DeBarros, USA TODAY

--

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Posted by at

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)