I don't know anyone who still uses a "live for today" attitude when it comes to finance.

Heck, I even, after mulling it over for about 30 min., put back a cute purse in T.J. Maxx the other day and decided to just go home and use one of the thousand other purses I already have (How's that for thrift?). Why did I have this moment of wallet consciousness? Because the $49.99 I could've laid down on that accessory will buy a few days of meals. And I think more about every single purchase I make now than I did, say, a couple of years ago, before my retirement savings got cut in half just like everyone else's ... But enough about me!

These three books, reviewed in brief by The Associated Press Personal Finance Team, take a look at a new attitude toward wealth.

Bookshelf: Is the richest man in town thrifty?

By The AP Personal Finance Team

The "live for today" attitude that helped run up credit card balances and drive down savings accounts is getting a new look these days as Americans struggle through the recession.
Two new book releases present arguments about how to change that attitude, while one offers insight into the tactics wealthy people across the country used to reach their goals.
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TITLE: Whatever Happened to Thrift: Why Americans Don't Save and What to Do About It
AUTHOR: Ronald T. Wilcox
PUBLISHER: Yale University Press
PRICE: $20 (paperback)
SUMMARY: Wilcox, a business professor at the University of Virginia, examines the rational and irrational reasons underlying Americans' failure to adequately save, particularly among the poor. Coming amid a recession, the book isn't uplifting — it shows how many of us are ill-prepared to support ourselves in retirement. Wilcox also demonstrates that our shortcomings pose national challenges, arguing that savings are essential to economic growth. Rather then dwelling solely on doom and gloom, Wilcox offers public policy proposals to encourage thrift, as well as tips for boosting household savings. He also presents suggestions for corporate executives to improve employee savings plans. And while he argues the credit card industry and corporate America share plenty of blame for our collective savings failures, he advises to look at ourselves first.
QUOTE: "Truthfully, we are at the root of the problem; for the most part, it is not the companies, the government, or some evil spirit that possesses us and causes us to spend too much. We are just fallible human beings operating in the world we live in as Americans."
— Mark Jewell
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TITLE: The Elephant in the Room: Sharing the Secrets for Pursuing Real Financial Success
AUTHOR: Barry Bridger
PUBLISHER: Wiley
PRICE: $19.95 (hardcover)
SUMMARY: Bridger takes an unusual approach by creating a fictional narrative involving a man named Michael Davidson and his wife, Jennifer, talking with his wise, prosperous aunt about their financial troubles. This short book details the characteristics needed for financial security.
Unlike most personal finance books, there are no charts, graphs or worksheets, and no specific advice for budgeting, money management or paying down debt. Rather, the author focuses on the attitudes, values and behaviors needed to transform a financial life from month-to-month anxiety to well-planned security.
Bridger's aim is to get readers thinking beyond the numbers and focusing on their goals, and to understand that the key is not how much they earn, but how they spend it.
QUOTE: "Everything we do affects the way we earn money, save money and spend money. Everything we believe and feel affects the way we act. Those behaviors, the way we act, the things we do, affect our financial future."
— Eileen AJ Connelly
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TITLE: The Richest Man In Town: The Twelve Commandments of Wealth
AUTHOR: W. Randall Jones
PUBLISHER: Business Plus, an imprint of Hatchette Book Group
PRICE: $25.95 (hardcover)
SUMMARY: Worth magazine founder Randy Jones set out to learn the secret to becoming rich. So he interviewed 100 self-made business people prominent in communities large and small across the U.S.
Some, such as Bill Gates, Michael Dell and Carl Icahn, are well known, while others are not quite household names. But Jones found they all share certain traits.
Jones uses an easy-to-read style to present those traits as 12 commandments readers should follow to build their own fortunes. Sprinkling in quotes and insights from his interview subjects, philosophers and famous writers, he directs readers to do things like "Get addicted to ambition" and "Moor yourself to morals," and above all, not to pursue money for the sake of money.
Borrowing his title from the toast at the end of the movie "It's a Wonderful Life," he maintains that a rich life is one that includes personal fulfillment and contributing real value to the world, not just the accumulation of dollars.
QUOTE: "There are people who have loads of money, and there are people who are rich. There is a decided difference between them."
—Eileen AJ Connelly

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
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Anyone who has worked in a "cubicle city" will see the humor and genius in Joshua Ferris’ novel "Then We Came to the End."

In a phrase that mimics the cadence and portent of "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times," Ferris begins his tale with "We were fractious and overpaid. Our mornings lacked promise. At least those of us who smoked had something to look forward to at ten-fifteen. Most of us liked everyone, a few of us hated specific individuals, one or two people loved everyone and everything."

The story is told from the anonymous "we" point of view until, about half-way through the 385-page book, it turns into a first-person account of one of the characters, returning to the collective "we" to finish up.

The "we" speak, meant to imitate the way corporations view themselves in the first-person plural, is effective in communicating the way, in large companies, there is a collective mentality, and also that there are cliques. There are the cool kids and the geeks, those on their way up and those on their way down, the dedicated and the non-caring.

Everpresent to everyone is the constant threat of layoffs.

Not long ago, I worked for a large company where I had my own "cube" in the middle of a large room. In the corners of the room were the offices, complete with coveted windows and doors that could be shut, of the higher-ups. On the edges of the room were the slightly larger cubes of the soon-to-be higher ups. And in the middle, with the shortest and farthest away from the windows cubicles, were the peons like me. Personalities ran the gamut, and with such close quarters we were exposed to each other’s quirks. To my right was a colleague who constantly talked to his wife on the phone, using (quite audible to everyone in the vicinity) wince-causing babytalk and kissing noises. Across the aisle was a guy who spent most of his workday on Jdate. Like most workplaces, it was a group of people with whom you spent a great chunk of your day, but might never choose to associate with otherwise. It was a culture in and of itself.

Ferris had his own experience with corporate culture.

In the reader’s guide at the end of his book, Ferris explains: "I did yeoman’s work in advertising four about three years, and I was fascinated with the behemoth structure in place — the hierarchies, the coded messages, the power struggles. I thought such an awesome, malignant, necessary, pervasive, inscrutable place deserved a novel’s attention."

The "we" of the novel were a group of office buddies whose work had become rather unimportant or overimportant to the point of their inability to act. They are dissolved into the daily grind of coffee breaks, endless meetings, lunch trips, and gossip. And for them, for everyone in their company, layoffs loom large.

The possibility of a layoff is enough to make any worker freak out, as I found in my former cubicle city job. In Ferris’ book, some of the characters go to extremes. A man who feels he’s lost the loyalty of his friends and his grip on reality does something irrevocable. A woman who discovers she has a terminal illness chooses to ignore it and throws herself into her work.

As for the mid-way change in perspective to a first-person narrative, Ferris describes the “interlude” as “the book’s emotional heart. Without it “Then We Came to the End” would have been only an elaborate, if amusing game.” Although it was unexpected and somewhat jarring – all of a sudden you go from the anonymous “we” into someone’s private thoughts and fears - I believe this section was effective in bringing the humanity back to the individual worker. After a bit, the book takes us back to the group perspective, which before had become a bit tedious but now we can view in a new light. And there’s where it “comes to an end.”

Ferris’ book is entertaining, witty, enlightening, observant and true. Recommended for anyone stuck in that cube, with no door and no privacy, under the hum of the fluorescent lights and far from the windows, in the daily grind.






View all my reviews.

While I'm not so sure that anyone ever reads this blog (except Evan and Diane who, bless you, posted comments), I wanted to explain that I was recently away for 9 blissful days of NOT reading anything ... or going near a computer or even a pen. (I brought several books with me to my lake getaway but never quite got past the 1st page of the 1st one...)

So if you're here and are actually looking for new posts (I still doubt you exist. Post a comment and prove me wrong!), please visit again soon. I've ordered a slate of new biz books and have a shelf full of new fiction at home waiting for me.

Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is good beach-reading material for those who like a darker, CSI meets pre-WWII Russia suspense-filled tale. The cold, spare, fast-moving story is a departure from my usual girly wrought-with-feelings-and-emotions lit picks.

The story follows war-hero Leo, a government true-believer under Stalin's regime, through his fall from grace and subsequent scramble to stay alive while trying to crack the case of Russia's first serial killer.

A quick read, but it didn't capture or captivate me.

Written by Tom Rob Smith, whom I want to make fun of for having two monosyllabic first names, it's a first novel and unbelievably detailed as such. Well, he did go to Cambridge after all.

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields, Penguin Books, 1993, 361 pp.

Rating: 4 of 5 stars
I think Carol Shields is genius for the way she wove together this tale of a family with roots in rural 19th century Ottawa.

A bit of a slow starter, this one. I tried reading it years ago, got through about 50 pages then put it down. But the "Winner of a Pulitzer Prize" (1995) sticker on the front got me to give it another go.

Sleepy in spots, rich in detail and complex. Told from several multi-generational viewpoints. Sad and ironic.

In the end, you want to defend Daisy Flett, through whose eyes we view the final chapters (illness and death). You want her to find love again. No such luck.

Another non biz book here. This one is a sweet summer read. More to come.

"Garden Spells" by Sarah Addison Allen, 2007, Bantam Dell, 290 pp.

Rating: 4 of 5 stars
This New York Times bestseller is magical, enchanting and a little dark, a la one of my favorite storytellers, Alice Hoffman. Easily and delightedly read in the space of a weekend. A tale of two sisters who are opposite and each possess different gifts. They come to find, in adulthood, that they need each other and thrive in each other's company. I will say that the moment of ugliness the book leads up to is a little too contrived and is solved much too neatly. I liked the small-town eccentrics and eccentricities and the little human mysteries and meanings for flowers scattered throughout. Hard to believe it's a first novel.

Thanks for the recommendation, Brandie!

Reviewed: “LaserMonks: The Business Story Nine Hundred Years in the Making,” by Sarah Caniglia and Cindy Griffith, McGraw Hill, 2008, $21.95, 180 pages.

When your printer runs out of ink, wouldn’t you feel better buying a replacement cartridge from a business that gives part of your purchase price to good works?

That’s the story behind “LaserMonks: The Business Story Nine Hundred Years in the Making,” by Sarah Caniglia and Cindy Griffith.

It’s about a group of Cistercian monks in Wisconsin who run a mail-order ink- and-toner business so their abbey can be self-sustaining. They also believe in going the extra mile when it comes to customer service and donating to charities.

“In the next 10 years, the trend toward purchasing with a purpose will continue to grow. Consumers will demand that the goods and services they purchase come from companies that are actively involved in doing good works in the community,” write the authors.

The monks choose a “charity of the month” each month and announce it on their Web site. They also allow customers to choose additional charities to receive funds.

That quirky little premise was enough for me to give the book a read. That and the fact that they call their employees “MonkHelpers.” Weird, but cute.

Caniglia and Griffith are these two marketing geniuses who moved to Wisconsin to live with the monks to try to help make the business a success. They run MonkHelper Marketing, Inc., the company that manages LaserMonks.com on the monks’ behalf.

The two women developed a customer-service philosophy, along with their monk friends, that follows the Rule of St. Benedict: “kindness, hospitality, and charity above all.”

Treating customers well and continually seeking to improve the customers’ experience kept them coming back.

“We realized that rather than pat ourselves on the back for satisfying 98 percent of our customers, we needed to dig deeper into the two percent who had a less-than-stellar experience,” Caniglia and Griffith write.

The company now surveys customers quarterly to find ways to improve customer service.

“The more we do to care for our customers, the more they care for LaserMonks, which enables us to do more for the community at large,” the authors write.

Since the concept was developed in 2001, the LaserMonks’ business has grown to a $10 million per year venture, all the while keeping charity at the heart of everything they do.

This kind of story — monks in middle America running a successful online business and sharing their marketing secrets — isn’t published every day. Though it was a little dull and longwinded in parts, the core philosophy is unique and interesting.

The next time my printer needs ink, I’ll look to LaserMonks.com. Not just for the competitive prices and mission of charity, but for the knowledge that if I need customer service, I will be taken care of. That’s a rarity in today’s world, and especially in e-commerce.

Enter to win a gently used copy of “LaserMonks” by emailing your mailing address to mkaras@pottsmerc.com

Reviewed: “New Rules @ Work: 79 Etiquette Tips, Tools and Techniques to Get Ahead and Stay Ahead,” by Barbara Pachter with Ellen Schneid Coleman, Prentice Hall Press, 2006, $13.95, paperback, 258 pages.

Author Barbara Pachter says it’s a good strategy, at a business event where alcohol is served, to order a drink you don’t much like and slowly sip it to make sure you don’t overindulge.
I (sort of) put this theory to the test at a recent after-hours networking event, when the bar had run out of the red wine or beer I would have preferred, and I had to drink (gasp!) light beer. But I don’t think that was exactly what Pachter was getting at. When the drinks are free, I’m not all that picky.
Pachter, author of numerous business books including “New Rules @ Work: 79 Etiquette Tips, Tool, and Techniques to Get Ahead and Stay Ahead,” states that when drinking alcohol in social/business situations, “Have a good time but…don’t forget your behavior always matters. Just because you are out of the office doesn’t mean that your behavior doesn’t count.
“Many workplaces don’t have a lot of rules — or may not enforce a lot of rules — when it comes to etiquette, or prescribed conduct, in or out of the office. “New Rules @ Work,” is practical and helpful in filling in the blanks.
Take the case of professional attire:Years ago, I was a contractor at a mutual funds company. Proper professional attire that included suits with conservative skirt lengths and certain types of shoes (no open toes, sneakers or clogs) worn with “proper hosiery” was required.
A lot of companies, however, opt for a “business casual” dress code. And in the heat and humidity of summer, those already casual rules may become even more relaxed, according to Pachter.
However, the author states, warmer weather doesn’t mean you can suddenly wear tiny skirts, skimpy tops or otherwise inappropriate clothing to your job.
“Sexy is not a corporate look,” warns Pachter.
She suggests, “If your company does not have a written policy, look at what other people wear, especially the more senior people, the more successful ones. They are often good role models.”
There’s also a chapter devoted to “e-mail embarrassments.”
“Of course, it is inappropriate to say negative things to coworkers about colleagues — past or present — whatever technology you are using. However, the risks multiply when you use e-mail,” Pachter writes.
Many of us have been on the receiving end of an inappropriate e-mail that was erroneously sent to “reply all” instead of just to the sender. Pachter advises avoiding potentially embarrassing e-mail situations by beginning a fresh e-mail rather than replying in the heat of the moment.
A chapter I found particularly helpful discussed handshakes.“You should be certain to shake hands when you: Greet someone with more than just a hello and when you say goodbye; are introduced to someone; are visited in your office by someone from outside the company — for example, a customer, client or vendor; encounter a business colleague outside the office; or feel it is appropriate.”
There are times when I first meet someone in a professional capacity and that person does not extend their hand for a handshake. It’s sometimes awkward and feels like a rejection. What I learned from Pachter’s book is that I, as a woman, should not hesitate to extend my hand first — something that I realized that I do sometimes hesitate to do.
The proper etiquette is that “a man should wait for a woman to extend her hand.” Also: “The higher-ranking person should extend his or her hand first.”
Another chapter I found interesting discussed saying hello to people at work. It sounds simple enough — greeting those you see every day or even returning a hello — but not everybody does it, according to Pachter.
“You would not believe how many people tell me they are frequently ignored when they say hello to colleagues they encounter in hallways, elevators, cafeterias and elsewhere in the office,” she writes.
Her guideline: “If you make eye contact with someone who is within 10 feet of you, you must acknowledge the person with a nod or a smile. At five feet you must say something: ‘Hello,’ or ‘Good morning’ will suffice.”
Even a simple greeting can make your boss, coworker or client feel a connection. Like Pachter’s other tips, this one might just help you “get ahead and stay ahead.”

Reviewed: “Stepping Up: 12 Ways to Rev Up, Revitalize, or Renew Your Career,” by S. Gary Snodgrass, Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2007, 87 pages, $13.95

When I have a big decision to make, I consult my personal short list of advisers: My mom, my sister and my best friend. The list widens the bigger the decision is, but those are my “Top 3.”
In career matters, however, sometimes what you really need is more objective advice. That’s where sources like “Stepping Up: 12 Ways to Rev Up, Revitalize, or Renew Your Career,” by S. Gary Snodgrass, come in.
This 87-page book, written by a human resources professional with 35 years of experience, offers a pragmatic approach to career moves.
Snodgrass’ resume includes 10 years as chief human resources officer for Chicago-based Exelon Corp., parent company of Exelon Nuclear, operator of the Limerick Generating Station in our own backyard. At Exelon, one of the nation’s largest energy companies with a work force of roughly 17,000, he led the corporation’s human resources, diversity, labor and employee relations and security functions. He is also the author of a previous book, “When Your Career Means Business.”
By its title alone, “Stepping Up: 12 Ways to Rev Up, Revitalize, or Renew Your Career,“ seemed like it might be an interesting and quick little read. And who doesn’t want to “rev up” their career?
I was a little taken aback, however, when I visited the author’s Web site (www.sgarysnodgrass.com), to find that he titles himself “Thought Leader and Consultant.”
Thought leader? I’m going to let that one pass.
The suggestions offered by Snodgrass could apply to those in their first “real job” as well as seasoned professionals.
“If you are searching for a new position or career, you should pursue an environment where the best employees are recognized and valued. It should be an organization that provides career growth, lifelong learning, and development opportunities. You also want meaningful work, an opportunity to contribute, and an environment that prizes new ideas and fresh perspectives,” Snodgrass writes.
He claims these types of organizations “abound.” (Well, perhaps they’re out there, anyhow.)
Snodgrass proposes taking control of your career path rather than simply going with the flow and letting it happen.
For example, in Guideline 5 — Evaluate Your Career Turning Points, Snodgrass states while a turning point can be something dramatic, such as marriage or a promotion, sometimes it will be “less obvious.”
“You may be disenchanted, or know in your gut that you’re not having fun any longer in your current position, place of employment, or even career field,” he writes.
Those are instances we should view “as a valuable opportunity for recharting the course” of our professional and personal lives, Snodgrass says.
And turning points, according to Snodgrass, are events we should embrace.
“If a turning point doesn’t come along, schedule one, and then reevaluate to determine your next step. For example, choose a memorable date such as your birthday or the anniversary of your employment to evaluate your work situation,” he writes.
In one of the book’s illustrative case studies, Snodgrass spotlights how John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods, knew he would have to compromise his once small vegetarian business and sell animal products in order to grow. Mackey decided to introduce humane animal-treatment standards and also placed a cap on executive compensation. His willingness to change his mindset ultimately helped to make “organic” a household word.
Each chapter has a similar nugget of wisdom for you to apply to your own work situation, with the goal of allowing you to “evolve to your highest level” at work as well as finding the organization that’s going to help take you there.