Die with Zero by Bill Perkins

When most middle and upper class people die, they leave tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars for others to inherit. Most Americans believe that saving for retirement is so important that when they get to retirement age, they don't know how to stop saving and start spending.  In this book, Perkins makes a case for trying to live your life intentionally so that you use your money to enrich your life long before you get too old to really enjoy it. He encourages people to think about their lives in "buckets" of time and imagine what they can and cannot do in each bucket.  Then they should decide what they would like to experience in their life and which bucket it would best fit in. That might mean putting less in your 401 k during your 30's and 40's so you can have experiences while you are young you wouldn't be able to have when you are older, or taking a month off in your 30's to hike the Andes. He also encourages readers to think about bestowing inheritance money to family and causes earlier, when they really need it, instead of waiting until you die. He suggests that if we live into our 80's or 90's our kids will be old enough and well established in their careers so that what they inherit from us at death won't have a lot of impact.

My sister recommended to me that I read this book while we were talking about cash flow now that I am no longer working full time.  I told her my husband and I had to be financially conservative until we reach 65 and start collecting pensions and social security.  This book certainly counters that idea and Perkins makes a convincing argument. That said, in the book he over-simplifies things a little too much in places. For example he talks about estimating how much money you will need each year for the rest of your expected life span.  In his example calculation he doesn't adjust for inflation, but inflation is a very important thing to think about.  I may be able to live comfortably on $80,000/year now, but will I be able to in 20 years? Not likely. In order for your money to keep up with inflation most of it needs to be in an account that makes enough interest to keep up with inflation. If you spend it all in your 30's or 40's, there is nothing there to make interest. Still, he gave me something to think about and I think I will be more daring about spending money on experiences now that I have read the book. (240 p. 2021)

The Forever Man, by Eoin Colfer

 In this final episode of the W.A.R.P. series, Chevie Sevano is just getting used to being are in Victorian England with Riley, when they come face to face with Riley's old master, the evil Albert Garrick who has returned from the temporal wormhole with amazing powers.  All three of them are sucked back into the wormhole and are spit out in the 1600's. Garrick has been to this time period before, and had styled himself as a witch hunter.  Upon arrive, Garrick proclaims Chevie as a witch and Riley as her familiar.  The population of the small town are after them, but luckily, or unluckily, they are not the only ones to have traveled in the temporal divide. It takes a lot of skill, wits, and help from new friends, to escape the the transformed Garrick, the Forever Man, and save the world from an increasingly unstable temporal rift. 

I was a little unsure of this series when I read the first one, but Colfer does a great job in this book of tying everything up into a satisfactory ending. I was really impressed. Over the first two books he threw out a lot of threads, and I wondered if he could manage to gather them up again, but he did.  The book has Colfer's characteristic exciting action sequences, and a couple of really good plot twists. I still didn't like the writing style as much as the Artemis Fowl books, but I got used to it by the third book.  Overall it is a great middle grade/YA series, especially for those who like his other novels. (368, 2016)

Rapunzel's Gambit by Mary Mecham

Princess Rapunzel is not happy with the way her father is running the kingdom, or her life.  When he promises her hand in marriage to any nobleman who can kill the dragon, she decides she might be better off with the dragon than with her eager suitors. On the last day before she escapes the castle she plays and loses a game of chess with a handsome and diffident squire.  If only her high-born suitors were as handsome and well mannered as he!  When Rapunzel arrives at the Dragon's lair, she proposes that together they could set up a scam to raise money for the poor in the kingdom. They would kidnap the knights that try to rescue her and then send them back only after they pay a hefty ransom. Their scheme works well, and the dragon and Rapunzel establish a genial raport. But Rapunzel can't get the squire, Griffin out of her mind.  He may just be the only person she would be happy spending her life with, but how could a princess marry a squire?

This is an interesting reimagining of the Rapunzel story, with a heavy dose of Beauty and the Beast added in. Rapunzel has a spunky personality and Mecham writes in a bunch of snappy repartee, which is fun.  The story is clearly aimed at teens, as there is a lot of romantic vacillation and raging hormones, though it doesn't really every wander past a PG rating. The one thing that bothered me about the book is that the magic system isn't very well thought out. Magic objects in the Dragon's castle seem to produce limitless supplies of food and luxury items, but at no cost. I may be spoiled by the likes of Brandon Sanderson, but I think if magic produces something, it has to take something as well. Why steal from the wealthy knights to feed the poor, if you can just give them an enchanted table instead that will provide for them all the food they could eat. Despite that, it is a fun read and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to the fantasy-loving young people I know. (2025, 248 p)

Triumph by Jeremy Schaap

When Jesse Owens was 13 years old the track coach at his new school, Charles Riley, saw his legs and knew he had the potential to be a great runner. He started coaching him and by the time Jesse was in high school he was breaking world records for his age group. This biography tracks Owens running career, with focus on his performance at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.  Schapp spends almost the whole second half of the book talking about the controversies of that event, focusing on Hitler's attempt to use the games to promote his belief in Aryan superiority, which was totally thwarted by the amazing performances of Owens and his teammates. Owen's life after the Olympics is only covered briefly in an afterward. 

Here is another book offered through Libby for the 250th anniversary of the country. It is an interesting and well written biography of a person who broke race barriers just by being mild mannered while also being the best in the world at what he did.  Schaap's writing style is engaging, even as he uses and refers to a lot of sources, like newspaper articles and letters to carefully document Owen's story. Owen's comes across as an admirable and likeable person. Schapp mentions but doesn't dwell too much on the prejudice Owen had to face to achieve what he did.  It seems like the message is that if you are good enough, almost everyone will focus on what you can do rather than on your race. (304 p. 2008)

All the Lost Places by Amanda Dykes

 In 1807 a child is found floating in a basket on the canals of Venice. There is a note attached to the child that names him Sebastian. He is raised by a group of revolutionaries who teach him skills from several guilds. Almost 100 years later, Daniel Goodman is living in San Francisco trying to pay back a debt from earlier bad decisions.  He gets the opportunity to go to Venice to look for the original source for one of his favorite books that his mother sent to him while he was in prison.  In Venice Daniel meats an amazing young woman named Vittoria who is a bookseller.  Together they try to unravel the mystery of Sebastian's story and as they do, they discover that Daniel's life is tied up with it in ways he couldn't have imagined. 

This is lovely story of intergenerational family and the importance of discovering who you really are.  It is written in a very literary style with a lot of ornamental language and enriched description of Venice both in the 1800's and in the early 1900's. Having never traveled to or studied Venice much, I don't know how accurate the descriptions are, but I am guessing the author did her homework.  Her language certainly paints a picture and a mood the permeates the whole book. The characters and setting, both political and physical, are carefully drawn. All the main characters show good development and there are some interesting plot twists.  I think if I had read the story instead of listening to it I would have enjoyed it more.  The reader, Jonathan Ross, reads precisely but lacks the chocolatey smooth delivery one would hope for in a literary novel.  I kept being distracted by it.  I kept thinking, "no, that isn't how that should have been read," and then imaging a good reading in my mind. That being said, the book is good and has a strong message about faith, restitution, and self discovery. Thumbs up for the book, but for the reader, not so much. (2022, 400 p)

A Spelling Mistake by Nancy Warren

In this third installment of the Vampire Book Club, Quinn has agreed to host the launch of newly undead author, Bartholomew Branson's last book. On the day of the launch, a woman claiming to be Branson's wife shows up and tries to steal the spotlight. Then she ends up dead.  Was it Branson, who had been estranged from his wife for 10 years, a rival publisher, agent or someone else.  Quinn and her vampire friends jump into action to try to discover the truth and save the town's reputation. 

This is just like the others in the series.  Its formulaic and the plot isn't very sophisticated. The writing and characterizations are fine. I think the Vampire Knitting Club series by the same author is better, but I always have to put those on hold.  I guess the reasons these are available is because they are solidly B quality.  Still, when I finish one book and the ones I want are still on hold, what is a girl to do? (232 p. 2020)

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

 Emily Wilde is a young Cambridge professor who, at the early age of 26, is one of the world's foremost experts on the Faerie Folk.  She has traveled to the far northern town of Hrafnsvik to study the previously elusive ice faerie folk.  The town people are leery of her because she is an outsider, and she lacks social skills, so she has a rough time getting any cooperation from them, until her academic frenemy, Wendell Brambleby shows up.  His dazzling appearance and charm smooth the ruffled locals, but she is infuriated when he offers to co-author a paper with her, knowing that she will do all the work and he will get all the credit. As they begin to work together to solve some local faerie abduction mysteries, Emily begins to wonder if there is more to Wendell than meets the eye. That suspicion becomes a hope, when she finds herself in a predicament from which only his special special skills, and the help of new village friends, can save her.

I can't remember who recommended this book to me, but I am glad they did.  It is a delight. Emily's personality is super quirky, and the chemistry between her and Brambleby is a lot of fun.  Fawcett has an expansive imagination and her world building is wonderful. She has obviously spent a lot of time studying the faery folklore of the British Isles and she calls on many traditional faerie folk tropes in the book. Since I have been adjacent to the academic world my whole adult life, (my husband is a professor), the banter about getting papers published, and presenting at conferences was just an added bit of fun for me. I am sure I will be recommending this book to my fantasy loving friends and am eager to read the next in the series. (352 p. 2023)