What I'm Reading Now:

Showing posts with label F. Show all posts
Showing posts with label F. Show all posts

Monday, March 5, 2018

The Unpossessed


Title: The Unpossessed

Author: Tess Slesinger

Pages: 306

Genre: Fiction

Grade: F

Synopsis: This book, published in 1934, is about a group of left-wing communist supporters in New York City in the 30's.  They want a revolution, but their best idea for getting one going was to start a magazine.

My Review:  I made it 2/3 of the way through this book before I finally decided that life is too short to spend so much time reading a book that I was simply not interested in and not enjoying. The prose was hard to follow and the characters all blended together and I had a difficult time telling them apart.

Friday, March 17, 2017

Dimanche and Other Stories


Title: Dimanche & Other Stories

Author: Irene Nemirovsky

Pages: 8 discs?

Genre: Short Stories

Grade: F

Synopsis: This is a collection of 10 short stories written generally in the 1930s and set in Paris.

My Review: I made it through a couple of the stories when I realized that I had no interest in making it through any more of them.  They just did not pique my interest.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Olive Kitteridge


Title: Olive Kitteridge

Author: Elizabeth Strout

Pages: 270

Genre: Fiction, Pulitzer Prize

Grade: F

Synopsis: Olive Kitteridge is a retired schoolteacher in a small town in Maine.  She deplores the changes that she observes in the town without noticing the changes taking place in herself.

My Review: Full disclosure: I only completed about 25% of this book.  My life is too short for me to spend more time reading books that I don't enjoy.  I just couldn't get into this one.  It was dry, boring and completely uninteresting.

Friday, October 11, 2013

Never Eat Alone

Title: never eat alone

Author: Keith Ferrazzi

Pages: 6 discs?

Genre: Self-help

Grade: F

Synopsis: Ferrazi postulates that the key to success in both life and work is building solid relationships that you can fall back on in the future for favors and help.You must maintain constant contact with all of your friends and associates who matter to you so that you can rely on them for help in a pinch.

My Review: First off, I've got to come clean and admit that I didn't actually finish this book.  It's been a long time since I haven't finished a book that I've started, but I simply couldn't stand this one.  I made it about 1/3 of the way through before I decided not to suffer through anymore of this rubbish.  My biggest complaint is not necessarily with the material (although I'm not swooning over the ideas in this book like many readers) but my complaint is with the self-righteous writing style and over-the-top braggadocio that was just too much for me to handle.If you want to hear about how cool Mr. Ferrazzi is, then I've got the book for you...

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Automatic Wealth for Grads

Title: Automatic Wealth for Grads

Author: Michael Masterson

Pages: 6 discs?

Genre: Self-help, Personal Finance

Grade: F

Synopsis: Michael Masterson is a self-made millionaire who shares his secrets in this book on how new graduates can also become self-made millionaires by the time they are thirty.  The secret is to have your income increase exponentially, start your own business and sell it for millions and buy and sell real estate until you are rich.

My Review:  I like to think that I would have been a skeptical reader of this book in 2007/2008, but in today's economy and marketplace, the instructions and estimates in this book are laughable.  As an example (These aren't direct quotes, but my interpretation): "we'll be conservative and assume that you will only profit 12% per year in the stock market, but really you should be able to make around 25%."  Or another, "Real estate investing will allow you to profit between 25 and 50%, while the best option of all is to start your own business (not a restaurant) where you can profit 50%!"  I found Masterson's tone annoying, his list after list of what you should be doing ridiculous and most of all, I felt that the entire book was based upon unsustainable tenets.  All you millionaires by thirty out there will disagree with my review, but I haven't come across too many lately (ps. even if your starting salary is only $20,000 you should be making $150-$250,000 in a few years if you are diligent!).