DIE WITH ZERO by Bill Perkins

 Finished Th 5/15/25

This is one of the books that I bought from Amazon. I heard about the book on the podcast 'MODERN WISDOM'. I heard a one sentence description and I knew that I had to have the book even though it meant paying retail ($15). 

The theme is that many people spend their lives 'over working'. That is they spend a large part of their working lives staying on the job far longer than necessary. This fit my financial profile to a 'T'. 

Also, a new way to look at inheritence. People should give away their money while they can still feel and see what their largess has produced. Also, most people receive money from inheritences when they are about 60. However, they really need the money decades sooner. One person donated early to their child early and this allowed the parents to buy a home and this enriched all of their lives. If they had waited until they died, the children couldn't have afforded the home.  

I loved the book and will see if Janny might like to read it.

From 'Marriage kids and money.com': This is a good 'snapshot' of the major themes. 

"Takeaway #1: Check Out Die With Zero!

If you find yourself in the camp of “I’ve been doing the right things financially and I’ve been saving as much as I can”, check out this book. 

You don’t have to like every word that Bill Perkins says. Take the bits and pieces you need to reframe your money mindset and leave the rest behind. 

Takeaway #2: Don’t Push Off What You May Be Able to Do Now

Consider experiences as being worthy of your time, money, and attention now and not something to be continually kicked down the road. While skiing in Aspen sounds wonderful when you’re 55, what if your knees can’t handle it anymore? 

Go skiing now but stay at a less expensive hotel. Do the vacation in an age-appropriate and budget-appropriate way. It won’t always be better later.

Done is better than perfect. Start crossing off those bucket list items now. If you can do it again later in life, great! Stay at a nicer hotel or do it in a different way. 

Takeaway #3: Practice Die With Zero When You Feel Comfortable

If you are in credit card debt or not living on a budget (i.e. don’t know where your money is going), this is not for you. 

Once you’ve checked off all of the boxes where you’re investing enough, know where all of the dollars are, and become more comfortable with your financial situation, check out Die With Zero. 

Loosen the purse strings when you feel comfortable.

Takeaway #4: Give Your Kids Experiences Instead of An Estate

Consider what it would be like to spend everything you’ve saved while you’re still here and can watch your children enjoy it. 

Rather than inheriting a lump sum of cash when you pass, what if you paid to build their dream home? The home that they’ll make memories in for decades to come. The home that your grandchildren will become adults in. Wouldn’t you rather be a witness to the joy than dead with a check?

Who Is Die With Zero Appropriate For? 

Die With Zero is appropriate for the super savers who still think that the only way out of a job they hate is to chase the FIRE movement. 

It’s for the people who are doing everything right, throwing everything they can at their 401k, and saving every extra dollar so that in 30 or 40 years they can be happy then. 

It is not appropriate for those who are still in debt, do not have sizable savings, or have not yet begun to invest in their retirement funds. Do those first.

Don’t Forget to Have Balance

As with everything, there must be a balance. You can find a happy medium between the FIRE super saver and a YOLO super spender. 

Secure your future early but don’t forget to enjoy your efforts and family while you’re still here."

THE CONFESSION by John Grisham

 Finished Mo 5/12/25

This was a hardback that Janny loaned to me.

The premise is that a man confesses to the rape and murder of a girl, however a man is on death row for the same crime. The wrong man is put to death. This is the first time that this has happened. The wrong man has been executed for a crime that he didn't commit. 

I found this hard to believe. You would think that since so many have been executed, that it's almost impossible that they haven't made this mistake before. I couldn't find a definitive case on the internet. 

I was surprised at all of the negative reviews of this book. Many felt that it was not really a novel, but more of a plea to end the barbaric practice of state sponsered execution. It seemed that if you were against the death penalty, you liked the book, and if you were 'pro death penalty', you disliked the book.

From Publishers Weekly.com"

"Grisham's recent slump continues with another subpar effort whose plot and characters, none of whom are painted in shades of gray, aren't able to support an earnest protest against the death penalty. In 2007, almost on the eve of the execution of Donté Drumm, an African-American college football star, for the 1998 murder of a white cheerleader whose body was never found, Travis Boyette, a creepy multiple sex offender, confesses that he's guilty of the crime to Kansas minister Keith Schroeder. With Drumm's legal options dwindling fast and with the threat of civil unrest in his Texas hometown if the execution proceeds, Schroeder battles to convince Boyette to go public with the truth—and to persuade the condemned man's attorney that Boyette's story needs to be taken seriously. While the action progresses with a certain grim realism, Schroeder's superficial responses to the issues raised undercut the impact. As with The Appeal, the author's passionate views on serious flaws in the justice system don't translate well into fiction."

THE BIG MONEY by John Dos Passos

 Finished We 5/7/25

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I had never read, and I'm so glad that I kept it around. This was not an easy read, but well worth the effort.

This is the third and final part of a trilogy, but it is fine as a 'stand alone'. 

From AI Mode:

""The Big Money" is the third and final novel in John Dos Passos's U.S.A. trilogy, published in 1936. It completes the trilogy's sweeping portrait of American society in the early 20th century, focusing on the Roaring Twenties and the events leading up to the Great Depression. 

Here's a review of the key aspects of "The Big Money":

1. Narrative Style and Structure:

Experimental Modernist: Like the other novels in the trilogy, "The Big Money" utilizes a distinctive modernist style, incorporating techniques like stream of consciousness, montage, and collage.

Fragmented Narrative: Dos Passos interweaves fictional character narratives with "Newsreels" (collections of headlines, popular song lyrics, and snippets of news), "Camera Eye" sections (autobiographical passages), and biographies of prominent figures of the era.

Panoramic View: This fragmented, multi-layered approach creates a panoramic and dynamic picture of American society, reflecting the rapid changes and cultural clashes of the time. 

2. Themes and Social Commentary:

The American Dream: The novel explores the pursuit and disillusionment of the American Dream in the 1920s, revealing the destructive effects of unchecked ambition and materialism.

Social Injustice and Inequality: Dos Passos critiques the vast disparities between the rich and the poor, and the social injustices prevalent in the era of industrialization and economic boom.

The Rise of Consumer Culture and Mass Media: The novel depicts the growing influence of mass media and consumer culture on American society, highlighting the changing values and priorities of the time.

Loss of Individuality: Some critics argue that the novel portrays how individuals can be lost or subsumed within the larger forces of capitalism and societal pressures. 

3. Characters:

Diverse Cast: Dos Passos presents a wide array of characters from different social classes and backgrounds, including ambitious entrepreneurs, struggling workers, artists, and political activists.

Character Studies: The novel delves into the lives and experiences of these characters, revealing their personal struggles, ambitions, and disillusionments as they navigate a rapidly changing America.

Representative Figures: Some characters can be seen as representative figures embodying different aspects of the American experience during the 1920s, such as the pursuit of wealth, the struggle for social justice, or the allure of fame. 

4. Historical Context:

The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression: The novel vividly depicts the economic boom and social changes of the Roaring Twenties, followed by the stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression.

Political and Social Turmoil: The book captures the political and social tensions of the era, including labor unrest, the rise of radical movements, and the anxieties surrounding social change. 

5. Critical Reception:

Praised for Scope and Ambition: "The Big Money" and the U.S.A. trilogy as a whole have been lauded for their sweeping portrayal of American society and their innovative narrative techniques.

Critiques of Style: Some readers and critics have found Dos Passos's fragmented style challenging or even confusing, according to one customer review on Amazon.com.

Enduring Relevance: Despite some criticisms, "The Big Money" remains a significant work of American literature, offering valuable insights into the complexities of the American experience and the enduring tensions between individual aspirations and societal forces. 

In conclusion, "The Big Money" is a complex and ambitious novel that provides a multifaceted and critical look at American society during a pivotal period in its history. Its innovative narrative style and its exploration of enduring themes make it a compelling and thought-provoking read."

From Wikipedia 'Main Characters'

" Mac (Fainy McCreary) – A wandering printer, train-hopping newspaperman, and crusader for the working man

Janey Williams – A young stenographer from Washington, D.C. (assistant to Moorehouse)

Eleanor Stoddard – A cold, haughty young social climber

J. Ward Moorehouse – A slick, influential public relations man

Charley Anderson – A gullible, good-natured mechanic and flying ace

Joe Williams – A rugged, slow-witted sailor, brother of Janey Williams

Richard Ellsworth Savage – A Harvard graduate, employee of Moorehouse

Daughter (Anne Elizabeth Trent) – A spirited Texas belle and volunteer nurse

Eveline Hutchins – Artist and designer, Eleanor's long-time friend and rival

Ben Compton – A law student and labor activist/revolutionary

Mary French – Dedicated labor activist and journalist

Margo Dowling – Attractive, cagey and adventurous, eventually a Hollywood actress"

VALIS by PK Dick

 Refinished Su 4/27/25

I think I have read this novel a few times over the years and in this edition of the book I 'Refamiliarized' myself with the novel on Mo 11/9/09. 

It's a classic and I'll always come back to it. There's always something different to wonder about. 

A link to an excellent description of the novel:

https://philipdick.com/literary-criticism/reviews/review-by-ian-mathers-valis-1981/

From 'readingproject.neocities.org'

"By the time I finished reading this book I wasn’t sure what kind of ‘reality’ was meant to lay beneath the narrative. Valis is a mess, a hybrid book that is philosophical, religious and science fiction, all happening at once. And make no mistake. The problem here isn’t a desire to pin a genre tag to this book. By the end, all you can really be sure is that the narrator doesn’t have a firm grip on reality.

This realisation is heightened by the knowledge that the narrator is a fictionalised version of Philip K. Dick, himself. Although not too fictional. Dick makes references to several of his own books throughout the text, his character friends refer to his books and people he knows in Hollywood. And it appears, from the author information at the back of my copy, that this novel was one of several novels Dick wrote as he tried to cope with a ‘breakdown’ he suffered in March 1974; the exact month Dick’s narrator suffers a breakdown.

The narrative voice is further complicated by the fact that Philip K. Dick narrates much of the novel through his alter ego, Horselover Fat, a man who appears to be a figment of his deranged imagination, yet seems to work independently of him in the real world in different parts of the book.

What caused this mental collapse? Several reasons are given: the breakup with his wife; the attempted suicide of a friend; the death of another friend to cancer. But most curious, and most relevant to the story, is the pink beam of light Horselover/Phil has fired in to his eyes in March 1974, giving him access to all sorts of information he couldn’t possibly have known. Where did it come from? What was it exactly? He doesn’t know. But the event sets off a philosophical and religious search as he writes a 300,000 word exegeses on God and Gnosticism, tied together through interfaith references and mythical allusions. Horselover’s (Phil’s) theorising is a messy hodgepodge of beliefs, suppositions and theorising.

For this reason the book seemed to be more a product of the counter culture of the sixties and seventies than inspired by traditional science fiction concerns. This is a book related to the drug experimentations of the period, the hallucinations that that engendered, as well as the willingness to embrace alternative systems of thought in a blend of east and west, modern and ancient, that at least made some sense of the assertion in the novel, more reminiscent of sci-fi writing, that time doesn’t exist.

At this point I was thinking that this was a very different kind of book than any other Dick book I have read. This didn’t feel like Science Fiction. It was about mental illness and a religious search.

Then, enter VALIS. Valis is an acronym for ‘Vast Active Living Intelligence System’. It’s at this point that the plot takes a turn via a most unlikely means, a Hollywood film. Horselover’s complex system of beliefs seem to be confirmed through the likely presence of Valis, and his friends begin to believe as well, leading them on a quest that might just bring them face to face with the meaning of everything.

It’s hard to say much more about the book beyond this without risking giving things away to anyone who is interested. All I can say is that I found the book very uneven. At times I was fascinated, at other times bored. The story takes quite a while to get going, and I would count myself as a fairly patient reader. Sometimes the narrative flows well, but then it gets bogged down in religious exegesis. As someone who finds religious proselytising a little creepy, this was a bit tedious, and made more so because I felt Dick never really revealed the true significance he placed on this aspect of the story. As someone a religious person would call an atheist, I had no choice but to accept some of this for the sake of the story, and any dismissal Dick/Horselover makes of the system of belief he advocates is small and questionable.

In the end, the one thing I felt I could be sure of, was the constant refrain of the book; that the universe is irrational, as much as the characters and much of the narrative in the book is. I would recommend much of Philip K. Dick’s writing to anyone looking for older science fiction, but I feel that this book would try the patience of many people."

POLYMATH by John Brunner

 Refinished We 4/23/25

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I first finished on Mo 2/15/16. I liked it then, and the second time around I liked it even more.

It's really about two different styles of managing people. One faction believes in 'the military way' and the other is a more relaxed and reflective way of governing. 

A 'polymath' is a person of wide-ranging knowledge or learning. In the novel there is a character who is a 'polymath on steroids'. He has been scientifically altered to become a hybrid human who has an unbelievable array of abilities. 

From the book's description at Amazon: "Colonising a new planet requires much more than just settling on a newly discovered island of Old Earth. New planets were different in thousands of ways, different from Earth and from each other. Any of those differences could mean death and disaster to a human settlement. When a ship filled with refugees from a cosmic catastrophe crash-landed on such an unmapped world, their outlook was precarious. Their ship was lost, salvage had been minor, and everything came to depend on one bright young man accidentally among them. He was a trainee planet-builder. It would have been his job to foresee all the problems necessary to set up a safe home for humanity. But the problem was that he was a mere student - and he had been studying the wrong planet. (First published 1974)". 

From 'strangerthanf.com'

"Without warning, the sun of the planet Zarathustra goes nova. There is no time to evacuate, but a few spaceships on the night side of the planet are able to lift off and--by driving at maximum speed--outrun the shock wave of the explosion. Driven far beyond charted space, beyond communication range with civilization, they have no hope of rescue. Each ship puts down on the first habitable planet it can find, hoping to make a life there.

On one inviting planet, two ships make crash landings. One lands on the coast near a river delta; the other sets down in the interior highlands. During the bitter winter, the group on the coast lose their radio antenna and lose contact with the other survivors. When spring begins, they give the others up for dead and settle down to the task of building a permanent community on their new world.

The Zarathustra refugees are unqualified, though. Zarathustra was an advanced, automated planet, and the people have no experience with the outdoors or with manual labor. The two people who reveal themselves as most qualified are an amateur historian who has some book knowledge of old machines, and a hobbyist who figures out how to turn that knowledge into practice.

On the leadership side of things, the situation is even worse. Captain Arbogast acted as ruler during the winter, but the distress at losing his ship eventually overwhelms him; he has a mental breakdown. Nanseltine, a continental manager back on Zarathustra, has no useful skills whatsoever, but is intent on succeeding Arbogast. The best qualified leader is a young man named Lex, whose polymath training gives him special insight. Among the women, no qualified leaders emerge. Worse, the interpersonal issues come to a head when the youngest refugee, a girl named Naline, develops an unhealthy sexual fixation on Delvia. The other women turn against Delvia because of the callous way she appears to toy with Naline.

Lex, with his polymath training, is the only hope the survivors have. As a polymath, he is specifically trained--and augmented physically--to coordinate the terraforming and colonization of a virgin planet. However, this planet is not the planet he has trained for; further, he has not finished polymath training. Nevertheless, he must adapt to the planet, hone his leadership skills, and forge a lasting community.

And he must fight a war against the survivors from the interior, whose captain has instituted a military dictatorship, enslaved his crew and passengers, and is now eyeing the resources of the coastal survivor group."

TRAPPED by Greg Iles

 Finished Su 4/20/25

A paperback that Janny loaned to me.

 From Google AI:

""Trapped" by Greg Iles is generally considered a thrilling but ultimately unsatisfying novel. It starts strong with a captivating premise about a seemingly perfect family facing a nightmare kidnapping, but many reviewers find the ending contrived and implausible, diminishing the overall impact. 

Strengths:

Intriguing premise:

The novel begins with a compelling scenario of a family targeted by a con man and psychopath, creating suspense and a sense of impending doom.

Suspenseful atmosphere:

Iles builds a tense atmosphere and keeps readers on the edge of their seats with the escalating threats and twists.

Character development:

While the main focus is on the suspense, the characters of Will, Karen, and their daughter are well-developed and relatable. 

Weaknesses:

Contrived and implausible ending:

Many reviewers criticize the ending as being too far-fetched and lacking in realism, which ruins the overall effect. 

Deus ex machina resolution:

The ending relies heavily on a deus ex machina, a sudden and unexpected resolution, which feels forced and unsatisfying. 

Potentially boring in parts:

While the beginning is engaging, some reviewers found the story to become tedious and less captivating as it progressed, according to an Amazon review." 

THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling

 Finished Th 4/17/25

This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I had never read and I bought it on Su 10/31/04. This was a highly rated novel and very important within the 'Steam Punk' movement. 

I really liked the book, but it was no easy read. Sections of the novel were like a trip to the nineteenth century and some of it was just too hard to follow. The scenes where men are on the Thames river during 'The Big Stink' were very memorable. 

Charles Babbage was a real person who 'invented' computer science {The Analytic Engine} in the early 1800's.  

From a review by Robert Sawyer:

"The Difference Engine belongs to that sub-genre of Science Fiction known as the alternative-history story. It assumes a divergence in the past between the way things did go and the way things might have gone.

In this case, the hinge is the work of Charles Babbage (1792-1871). In our history, Babbage, a British mathematician, came up with the idea for a "difference engine" — a mechanical computer — but died without ever having built one. In Gibson's and Sterling's world, Babbage does build his computer, and England sees the industrial revolution and the information revolution simultaneously.

Gibson, who lives in Vancouver, won the Hugo and Nebula awards for his 1984 novel Neuromancer. That novel firmly established the "cyberpunk" school of SF — gritty, technophillic, slang-rich tales of the near-future. Sterling, a Texan, although not as big a name in SF, was a natural collaborator for Gibson, having written the cyberpunk novel Islands in the Net and edited Mirrorshades, the definitive anthology of cyberpunk short stories.

We should laud them for not pooling their talents to simply do another iteration of cyberpunk. What they've produced here is something completely new for both of them, and a work, I suspect, that neither could have done on his own.

That said, in significant ways, the final product is flawed. It posits a series of mysteries, none of which are resolved to the reader's satisfaction. First, we're led a merry chase after a deck of stolen French computer cards. But about halfway through this plot line peters out without the cards ever really amounting to much.

Next, we keep hearing of a mysterious antagonist who goes by the code-name "Captain Swing." One naturally assumes that Swing's true identity will be a key revelation, but we never find out who he is.

Finally, in an intriguing device, portions of the book are narrated by an unidentified omniscience, apparently looking over data from the year 1855. One guesses early on that this might be an intelligent computer — perhaps the often-referred-to, but never-seen Grand Napoleon, a super-powerful French ordinateur. But Gibson and Sterling leave the mystery of the storyteller's identity as an exercise for the reader.

In fact, the reader can get lots of exercise with this book. An enormous familiarity with things Victorian is assumed, making for frequent trips to the encyclopedia to decipher where the novel's timeline diverges from our own (quickly now: was the real London paralyzed by a smog inversion layer in the summer of 1855?).

Almost every character in the book is a real person, or is taken from Victorian pop literature. Dandy Mick, who figures prominently in the book's opening, is borrowed from a Disraeli novel, and Byron, Darwin, and Disraeli himself all play roles — although roles different from those they had in our timeline. Byron is prime minister, Darwin a member of the House of Lords, and Disraeli remains a seedy pulp writer throughout his days.

Those willing to grant two master writers a large dollop of poetic license will enjoy the hauntingly strange landscape, filled with steam-propelled cars, 19th-century credit cards, and "clackers" — the computer hackers of the day (taking their name from the sound made by paper cards moving through the brasswork of the steam-driven computers).

Gibson and Sterling range over a surprising variety of topics, including British Columbia's Burgess Shale and its fantastic array of fossil life forms; a debate between the uniformitarian and catastrophic schools of geology; the rise of communism in New York; Japanese robot women with springs made of whalebone; and fascinating "kinotrope" shows, the steam-computer-driven 19th-century equivalent of the big animated display boards found in today's sporting arenas. (In the world of The Difference Engine, poet John Keats has found his niche as a master programmer of kinotrope displays.)

The book's plot, of which there's surprisingly little, is muddled, but then this is not a story about getting from point A to point B. Rather, it's an immersion in a fascinating, wholly realized milieu.

The authors do indulge themselves at times. There's a drawn-out sex interlude that reads like a letter to some 19th century edition of Penthouse. And the final chapter is stuffed with random historical notes and ersatz press clippings, filling in background details that should more appropriately have been woven into the body of the text.

Still, the depth of imagining is magnificent. No one would call The Difference Engine a fun book, but it is a challenging work, and bound to generate much controversy."

I think the book is challenging, however it was well worth the effort. Although the final section I just skimmed because it dealt with the fictional historical timeline within the novel. Shouldn't that have come first?