February
8
2010
by plappen
The Looting of America: How Wall Street’s Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our Jobs, Pensions and Property, Les Leopold, 2009, ISBN 9781603582056
With America in the economic doldrums, a lot of attention has been paid to artificial financial instruments, called derivatives, created by Wall Street. No one has tried to explain them in plain English, until now.
Your local bank puts together a financial security pooling 10,000 debts (mortgages, credit card debt, car loans, etc.). That is a collateralized debt obligation, or CDO. An investor would get a portion of the interest owed by those 10,000 borrowers. There is always a risk that some borrowers will default on their loans, supposedly reduced by bundling together so many loans. The amount of interest an investor gets is based on the amount of risk they are willing to accept.
Of course, the bank has sold that security, or pieces of it, to other banks, municipalities, pension funds; anyone it could seduce with promises of high profits, with little or no risk. The security had been given a high rating by one of the major credit rating agencies, in exchange for huge fees, when such a rating was totally unjustified. Large numbers of borrowers start defaulting on their loans, because the local economy is in big trouble, and the bank is on the hook to pay off the security based on all that debt (not to mention being on the hook for the original debts). Unfortunately, the bank does not know the size of their obligation, because there is no public listing of derivative prices. They can’t sell the security at any price, because the other banks are also in trouble.
Move that bank to Wall Street, and multiply the problem by trillions of dollars per day, and you get some idea of the size of the problem. Those who still worship the free market say that government intervention is the cause of all this. All that credit card debt, and all those homebuyers who defaulted on their mortgages, knowing that they could not afford them, are what drove the economy into the ditch, not Wall Street. Simply cut taxes on the rich, reduce or eliminate government regulations on business, and the market will take care of itself. Nonsense, the author says.
He advocates greater transparency in derivatives, including a publicly accessible list of prices, and keeping them on an institution’s regular books, not “off the books.” He also calls for salary limits, and a consumer watchdog agency with teeth.
Finally, someone explains how the economy almost collapsed (in plain English). This is an excellent and eye-opening book that is very much worth reading.
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Paul Lappen is a freelance book reviewer whose website, www.deadtreesreview.com, has over 700 reviews on all subjects, with an emphasis on small press books.
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Investigate the dark underside of society with Les Leopold at Barnes & Noble
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February
7
2010
by Tonia Jordan
I recently read A Wrinkle in Time for the second time in my life. Meg Murray’s father is a scientist, and he’s missing. Along with the help of her brother (Charles), a school friend (Calvin) and some other-worldly friends (including Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which and Mrs. Whatsit), they’re seeking to find and retrieve the missing scientist.
The three children must travel through time and space and confront many opposing forces, including one another.
Children will love this book, especially those with interests in science fiction. I read this book when I was young, and to this day I can remember exactly where it sat on the library’s shelves. I re-read it as an adult, and I can still feel its magic!
I like the very basic introductions to physics ideas in this book. Time travel is just one of the ideas touched upon here, and it’s explained in a way that children can begin to understand some of the larger forces in the universe. A Wrinkle in Time presents an interesting story with complex vocabulary and ideas in such a way as to introduce them to children.
Meg Murray is an outcast with a strong will, a child who feels like she doesn’t belong. She does have a very supportive family that encourages curiosity and intelligence and one that sticks together no matter what. A Wrinkle in Time can be a great book for any child (especially a girl) who feels like they aren’t quite “normal” or the perfect fit for mainstream society.
A Wrinkle in Time is just the first book in this interesting universe. The saga continues with A Wind in the Door, then A Swiftly Tilting Planet and finally Many Waters (which follows the adventures of Meg’s younger twin brothers). It’s obvious that the first novel in the series was a successful one. It’s a classic amongst children’s literature and is re-read by many adults who wish to recapture the magic of their childhood reading.
When I read A Wrinkle in Time as a child, I remember feeling its magic, thinking the book was fantastic. Reading it again as an adult, the book seemed very simple. I found the story to be lacking just a little, but I still enjoyed it. If you’re reading this for the first time as an adult, remember that it is a book intended for a younger audience. If you can stay in touch with that magical feeling of being a child, you’ll see the magic of this book.
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Tonia Jordan is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Writers. Her portfolio can be found at http://www.Writing.Com/authors/spidergirl so stop by and read for a while.
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Travel through Space and Time with Madeleine L’Engle at Barnes & Noble
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February
6
2010
The mid-nineteenth century dystopian novel Erewhon ‘caused a sensation’ (Erewhon, Wordsworth Classics, pbk1996, back page) when it was first published annonymously by its then little known author, Samuel Butler. It had taken him more than a decade to complete (1860 – 1871) with finally its publication in March 1872. Some of the later chapters on ‘Machines’ had been written and published elsewhere in the form of essays or articles. The book is now regarded as a classic of English literature.
Butler drew upon his experience as a sheep farmer in New Zealand during his youth to set the scene of the story in an undiscovered (by Europeans) and isolated land he called Erewhon. Erewhon is an anagram of ‘nowhere’. This in itself signifies the intended satirical nature of his work. Indeed, Erewhon is, except for the transposition of the two letters ‘w’ and ‘h’, the English word ‘nowhere’ spelt backwords.
In similar vein, Butler gives some of the Erwhonians common English names spelt backwards. For example, Mary becomes Yram and Robinson Nosnibor, with Jones becoming Senoj. Smith however, becomes Thims, with ‘t’ and ‘h’ transposed while Ydgrun is an anagram of Grundy. However, Nosnibors’ two daughters, Zulora and Arowhena with Mahaina, a lady friend of the Nosnibors, do not appear to be anagrams of common names. Yet they sound unusual enough for English ears which underlines the exotic nature of the setting.
Erewhonians are defined mainly by their antipathy to machines. Butler allows the reader to deduce that the Erewhonians had developed technology paralleling that of the 19th century Western Europe, but had deliberately decided to halt, indeed reverse, the advance of science and technology, for fear that machines would completely take over from humans. This antipathy towards machinery is not exactly Luddite in nature, but a more profound or fundamental anxiety about humanity becoming subservient to a regime of what today may be considered a form of Artificial Intelligence.
However, coins, money, paper, building materials and means of building construction appear to exist. Butler speaks of fine houses, and business enterprises. How these happen to exist without recourse to machinery is not made explicit. With watches and clocks becoming museum pieces, how did the Erewhonians conduct their day to day affairs? They must have possessed some concept of time. Did they resort to the age-old method of an hourglass filled with sand? Butler does not elaborate.
Unlike other subsequent writers of dystopian novels such as Huxley in ‘Brave New World’ and Orwell in ‘1984′, Butler’s ‘Erewhon’ is not set in the future. Erewhon is supposed to be an undiscovered part of the then contemporary world. In this sense it is similar to Swift’s satire ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ than to the previously mentioned two novels. To readers of the time this would have been an acceptable contrivance since there were still geographical areas on the planet that had not been ‘discovered’ by European explorers.
In Erewhon, it is illness that is regarded as a punishable crime, while criminal activity as we know it, is regarded as a sickness warranting attention from the equivalent of modern day psychiatrists or psychotherapists. These worthies appointed by the state are called ‘straightners’, and treatment mainly consists of physical chastisement, or to put it crudely, flogging. Illness merits confinement in prisons, and indeed at the extreme, the death penalty. As in the case of Mahaina, there is reason to conceal physical symptoms and pretend them to be a result of delinquent behaviour rather than an illness, allowing her condition to be viewed more indulgently.
Butler’s depiction of ‘Musical Banks’- impressive architecturally and prestigious as cathedrals with their own useless coinage, as against the ordinary monetary system of the land trnasacted via ordinary banks – is likely to have been a satirical reference to an ecclesiastical activity prevalent at the time. Butler, however, does not go into details, but appears merely to dwell on the apparent hypocrisy of Erwhonians openly displaying the Musical Bank’s coinage for prestige alone, while conducting their mercantile affairs by other means.
Throughout Erewhonian society the narrator discovers subterfuges through which they conceal their true intentions even when they are palpably obvious to the outside observer. ‘No Erewhonian believes that the world is as black as it has been here painted, but it is one of their peculiarities that they very often do not believe or mean things which they profess to regard as indisputable’ (p.123). Butler parodies the English educational system of the time when he speaks of the Colleges of Unreason where ‘hypothetics’ are taught. The system prefers not to prepare students for real life. In similar vein, the relationship between children and their parents is also treated in a far-fetched and fanciful manner.
Throughout the book, there is direct description and comment by the author/narrator and very little characterization or dialogue. In his Preface to the Revised Edition, Butler admits that in the book ‘Erewhon, there was hardly any story, and little attempt to give life and individuality to the characters’ (p.13). Some of his circumlocutary observations are mere asides and do not advance the story or action at all. Today’s literary critics may even see them as irrelevant. Take for example how he begins this paragraph: ‘People oppose money to culture, and imply that if a man has spent his time making money he will not be cultivated – fallacy of fallacies!’, while ending it with: ‘It has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as truly’ (p.127). More often than not, Butler here is a pamphleteer, rather than a novelist or story teller.
The narrator is quite fortuitously thrown in with the two sisters Zulora and Arowhena. He fancies the latter, the younger of the two. As is the custom, the elder has to be married off first, but there is no suitor for Zulora. This creates some tension but no drama. The protagonist elopes with Arowhena in a hot-air balloon – which in the context of Erewhonian antipathy to such contraptions – is resorting to deus ex machina quite literally. While the couple is united in wedlock on board a cargo ship, the story ends with Erewhonians being earmarked for shipment to the British colonies in the Pacific as no more than slaves but not before being converted to Christianity.
Samuel Butler’s idiosyncratic, satirical tale Erewhon, continues to appeal to the literati of today.
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Migel Jayasinghe
http://outskirtspress.com/AMiscellany
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Rediscover the Fact and Fiction works of Samuel Butler at Barnes & Noble
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February
5
2010
by Paul Thomson
When Steven Crane wrote The Red Badge of Courage in 1895, he had never even been in a battle, let alone the American Civil War. Nevertheless, it’s now considered one of the most accurate portrayals of war in literature – a characteristic that initially ticked a lot of Americans off as being “unpatriotic.” Only when British critics praised the novel could Americans forgive Crane’s suggestion that war is no picnic in the park.
The novel centers on Henry Fleming, a.k.a. the Youth, who enters the war expecting poetry, grandeur, courage, and, above all, action – when the ladies welcome him home, that is. What he doesn’t figure into his plans is the fact that war is tedious when nothing happens and terrifying anytime anything does. During only his second round of battle, the Youth rekindles his relationship with the will to live and runs for the hills.
While chucking a pine cone at a squirrel in the forest, the Youth has an epiphany: the squirrel doesn’t stand there unflinching to meet an honorable death, so why should he? This revelation makes him feel pretty clever but, as with most squirrel-based life decisions, the sentiment only lasts a few minutes. The Youth then stumbles across a corpse that’s practically riverdancing with ants and has another epiphany: the world really doesn’t care who lives or dies. Horrifying though this may be, it’s also kind of liberating, and he heads back to battle.
Only by A) realizing that his life isn’t all that important in the grand scheme of things, and B) deciding to sacrifice his individuality to a larger concept (like the Union, the flag, camaraderie, or US History) is the Youth able to join and influence the battle. That’s right: taking the “self” out of the picture really makes the whole “save yourself!” thing less of an issue. It’s the same logic that makes you dive for the ball as a 300-lb guy named Buck carves a path through your teammates: you’d better either really want that ball or really like your team.
With that in mind, it’s no wonder that all the main characters in The Red Badge of Courage have both real names like Henry, Jim, or Wilson and generic names like the Youth, the Tall Soldier, or the Loud Soldier. Actually, Stephen Crane was way ahead of his time when he decided to write a war novel that explored soldiers’ personal struggles instead of the overall movement of Civil War battles or the causes of the Civil War; only by showing the individual experience could he portray the process of becoming a cog in “the war machine.” Not bad for a 20-year old literary type who’d probably never even been in a fistfight.
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Return to the Classic Literature of Stephan Crane at Barnes & Noble
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February
5
2010
Ngaio Marsh is one of the best examples of a great mystery author. Her books span from the early 1930s to the early 1980s, with all of them being exceptionally good. Too many times, an author loses steam after writing several books in a series, but still continues to publish books almost on automatic pilot. Not so with Ngaio Marsh!
Who Was Ngaio Marsh?
Ngaio Marsh’s mother was a New Zealander and her father came from London. She was born in 1895 as Edith Ngaio Marsh and had aspirations of a theatrical life. She was described as being very tall (5′10″) which might have been one of the factors that contributed to her not becoming a leading lady. Lucky for us that she became a leading mystery author instead!
Ngaio Marsh’s Early Life
Marsh was an only child and described herself as having been introverted. She was a great lover of books, and her family was very interested in the theater. She went to college to study painting but later found that she was more suited to writing.
She joined a theater troupe but had to resign when they went overseas. Ngaio’s mother didn’t think it would be fitting for a single woman to travel without a chaperon. It was then that Marsh focused on her painting, tutoring, and writing plays. She became a regular of high society. (Ngaio Marsh never married nor had children.)
Chief Superintendent Roderick Alleyn
In 1931 she took a stab at writing a mystery. Her first novel in the series “A Man Lay Dead” introduced the world to London’s Chief Superintendent Roderick Alleyn. Alleyn comes from the very upper crust of England’s society. His brother (obviously older brother) is a Lord.
Ngaio Marsh is Timeless
Ngaio Marsh’s books truly do seem quite timeless. She wrote mysteries that are consistently good, with characters that seem real. Even when reading one of Marsh’s books in the early 21st century, you find that you can connect with the action. The characters do not seem faded with time.
Her mysteries are true puzzles. She didn’t spring last minute details into her plots, making it possible for the reader to play detective while reading the books.
Ngaio Marsh’s Attention to the Reader
Chief Superintendent Alleyn and his sergeant (Detective Fox) discuss theories using facts that the reader is aware of, rather than hiding important facts from the reader. How many times can you recall when an author has action taking place outside of the mystery reader’s realm of facts? That is quite frustrating for the mystery reader. That does not happen in Ngaio Marsh’s mysteries. The reader is aware of all of the facts.
Inspector Alleyn’s love interest is Agatha Troy. Troy is a very modern-thinking woman who happens to be an artist. (No small coincidence that Marsh was also an artist!) Marsh used some of her favorite subjects in her novels: the theater and painting.
Location of Ngaio Marsh’s Mysteries
Marsh set most of her novels in England. A few of her novels, however, had Inspector Alleyn traveling to New Zealand. Very fitting locales since Marsh spent her life traveling back and forth between England and New Zealand.
Ngaio Marsh’s Accomplishments
Marsh established a theater company that traveled throughout the British Commonwealth in the 1950s. In 1966 she was made a Dame in Great Britain. She continued writing her mystery novels all of her life. In 1978 the Mystery Writers of America made her a Grand Master for her contribution to the mystery genre.
Ngaio Marsh is touted as one of the Queens of Crime from the Golden Age. The other three are Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Margery Allingham. Not bad company!
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Discover a chronological list of mystery authors’ books at the Cozy Mystery Book List. The Cozy Mystery Book List provides books in series order for hundreds of mystery book authors, including Ngaio Marsh.
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Solve the Mysteries of Ngaio Marsh at Barnes & Noble
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February
4
2010
by James Holan
Copyright (c) 2010 James Holan
Throughout the novel, The Story of Avis by Elizabeth Phelps, the author shows the reader her own opinion on being a woman in the eighteenth century. To do this she creates a character that holds the opinion that she would never want to become a married woman, because married women are not allowed to pursue their own dreams or endeavors. The main character, Avis who is an inspiring painter, marries in the novel and by marrying shows the decline of her other loves in lives, just as she predicted before marriage. Thus, the writer is showing the reader a pretty blunt hypothesis; marriage destroys women by trapping them. She shows this even further by constantly giving the reader the image of a caged bird.
The main character, Avis, is one that is simply against being the typical female stereotype, which is seen in the very beginning of the novel when she was a little girl. When she ask her father if she can attend a lecture he replies, “It is proper that little girls should learn to sew and cook,” and she is clearly defiant to her aunt telling her it is un-lady like to hate by saying, “If it is, then I’d rather not be a lady. There are other people in this world than ladies.” As the story progresses, however, this view of Avis is slowly destroyed by the bird imagery.
Although, she does not want to be a proper lady, she is still forced into the role. The reader sees this through the use of bird imagery by the author. “We are apt to think of a bird as rather an open-hearted, impetuous creature, telling all she knows, pouring out her private affairs to the whole world’s hearing by simple force of her nature. In fact, perhaps no creature is more capable of concealment,” this quote shows that the bird is the symbol of freedom, and since it is almost always associated with Avis, she is the center of freedom. This freedom is destroyed, however, by a man, the man whom she marries. The reader learns that this freedom is destroyed when her future husband kills a little bird she was trying to protect as he convinces her to marry him. This shows the Avis, the bird, being destroyed.
Upon marring the reader realizes Avis herself has been destroyed, when the reader sees the Avis the wife come to be instead of the Avis who paints and uses her talents, “Her thought stepped out like a disembodied spirit, and took a survey of herself, as she sat there on that boat, -a hollow-eyed woman, past her first youth, economically dressed, come thirteen hundred miles to nurse a consumptive husband—as was clearly her duty—through the winter.” Avis is not allowed to be what she wanted to be, she is now officially the caged bird, caged by her husband’s wants and needs.
In the novel by Elizabeth Phelps, The Story of Avis, the writer makes the beautiful connection between a woman and a bird to show her own hypothesis about marriage and what it does to women. Phelps believed that marriage destroyed a woman’s freedom and ambition, which she shows through the bird imagery used in The Story of Avis.
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Rediscover the Time-Tested Knowledge and more of Elizabeth Stuart Phelps at Barnes & Noble
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February
3
2010
If you are looking for a great series to engage your teen reader, give the Percy Jackson series of books by Rick Riordan a try. Here are 5 reasons why this series of books have both kids and parents stamp of approval.
1. An Engaging and Fulfilling Read for Teens and Parents
Foremost the Percy Jackson books are engaging-not only for teens but for adults. I’m in my mid thirties and the series had me hooked so that I had to read one after the other until I crossed the finish line with The Last Olympian. The last two were particularly hard to put down as the series came closer to its ultimate conclusion.
2. Wonderful Teen Role Models
Percy and his friends are great role models for adventurous teens who are somewhat rebellious but who retain a sense of ethics and responsibility. They protect each other and have their eye on a greater goal-like saving the world!
3. Wonderful Parent-Teen Relationship
Percy’s only parent is his single mother (as his father is the God, Poseidon) and she has faith in Percy to do what he feels is right. Percy contacts her when facing a challenge and she offers advice but trusts he knows the right thing to do. This kind of mother-son relationship is a welcome contribution to popular teen literature.
4. Powerful Storytelling That Gets Better With Each Book
There is a point in book three, The Titan’s Curse, when the villain is revealed that hooked me onto the rest of the series and I read the last two books within 48 hours (they just kept getting better). The reveal fit so perfectly into the story and all the clues being left in the first half of the book finally made sense. The ability to do that and not lose either the reader’s interest or the plot threads of the story is indeed the work of a skilled writer.
5. Exposure to Mythological Archetypes
Obviously the series references Greek Mythology, as Percy Jackson and his friends at Camp Half-Blood all have a Greek God as a parent. For the casual reader, these references invariably incite interest in the classic mythological stories of Ancient Greece. The more readers learn about the myths, the more they can read into the story and the characters motivations. By imbuing his story with these ancient archetypes Rick Riordan has given depth to his story and applied these old myths into a modern context, giving both texts a longer life on the shelves.
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Inger loves stories and loves to write. She has been writing words on paper for quite some time so when the Internet came along she started writing online too. You can see her latest website which helps people to choose the best cotton mattress at http://www.cottonmattress.org.
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Find the Titanic Adventures of Percy Jackson here at Barnes & Noble
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February
2
2010
Quincey Morris isn’t your typical private investigator. For one thing, he happens to be a straight descendant of Bram Stoker’s Quincey Morris. He also specializes in supernatural cases involving vampires, werewolves, succubis, and other terrifying beings.
In this first book in the series, Quincey is called to help a family who is being tormented by, supposedly, a ghost. On closer inspection, however, it becomes evident that a simple ghost isn’t the culprit, and that darker, more sinister and eminently dangerous forces are at work: a powerful curse dating back to the time of the infamous Salem witch trials. Together with his partner Libby Chastain, who happens to be a white witch, Quincey sets out to undo the curse in order to save the tormented family.
The investigation takes them to Boston, San Francisco, New Orleans and New York as they try to discover the identity of the black witch who is the root of all the problems. At the same time, innocent children are being abducted for utterly despicable reasons. Are their killings related to the curse? Will Quincey and Libby outwit the evil witch, fight the villains who work for her, and stop the murder of innocent souls?
Black Magic Woman is one of the most enjoyable paranormal suspense novels I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing recently. Black magic, witches, and a thoroughly sympathetic supernatural detective team, together with the plot’s many exciting twists and turns, make this book a thrilling and enjoyable read. The author combines elements of traditional witchcraft with Zulu fetish witchcraft-truly creepy, truly fascinating.
The protagonist possesses just the right amount of boldness and braveness, strength and sensitivity, and has the perfect sense of justice. He’s the good guy next door-except, of course, his job is investigating paranormal events and destroying supernatural fiends. The secondary characters are very well drawn as well: the villains are evil without being stereotypical. Indeed, the characterization of some of the minor characters, and not only the witchcraft, is what makes this novel truly terrifying.
The action doesn’t let up, and the ending is satisfying and will leave readers hungry for more. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into the sequel, Evil Ways. If you’re a fan of paranormal thrillers/mysteries and urban fantasies, you’ll want to add Gustainis to your list of favorite authors.
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Mayra Calvani is an author and book reviewer. Visit her website at http://www.mayracalvani.com
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Thrill to all the Mystery of Justin Gustainis at Barnes & Noble
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February
1
2010
by plappen
The Fifth Sun, Mary Helen Lagasse, 2004, ISBN 1931896054
This novel is about Mercedes Vasconcelos, a young Mexican woman convinced that the road to a better life for her and her growing family passes through the United States.
Set in the early 20th century, Mercedes is used to poverty while growing up in Mexico. Armed with a name and address, she takes a boat to New Orleans, to make a better life for herself. Around this time, she has a child out of wedlock, and is told, in effect, don’t come home.
Life is hard in 1930s New Orleans, but Mercedes becomes a housekeeper at a local rooming house, and she manages (sometimes just barely). She meets Manuela Maldonado, an older woman from the same part of Mexico. Manuela is a strong, proud woman who becomes a sort-of substitute mother to Mercedes.
When the housekeeping job ends, Mercedes and Manuela cook various food items, like tamales, and sell them door-to-door. Mercedes marries Jesus, who changes his name to Jesse, and has several sons. One of them is born with severe digestive problems, and doesn’t live very long.
The family is sent back to Mexico. Letters from Manuela assure Mercedes and Jesus that their three boys will have no problem returning to New Orleans, and can stay with her (they were born in America). Through a bureaucratic snafu, Mercedes and Jesus are not allowed to join them. The reason is the concern that Mercedes and Jesus will immediately go on welfare, despite the total lack of evidence that the two ever used welfare in the past. After months and months of separation, a very pregnant Mercedes enlists a coyote to take her across the Rio Grande River.
This story of the Mexican immigrant experience is a quiet tale from a native of New Orleans, but a really good tale and is well worth reading.
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Paul Lappen is a freelance book reviewer whose website, www.deadtreesreview.com has over 600 reviews on all subjects, with an emphasis on small press books.
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Find the Drama and Pathos of Mary Helen Lagasse at Barnes & Noble
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February
1
2010
Finding a job today presents unique challenges that did not exist five years ago. That is why Richard Nelson Bolles’ acclaimed job hunter’s bible, ” What Color is Your Parachute?” is so relevant. Taking into consideration the impact of the terrorist attacks of September 21, 2001, the subsequent NASDAQ meltdown, and the globalization of the world’s economy, Bolles’ guide encourages the reader to implement time tested as well as new strategies in finding meaningful employment.
With a subtitle of, “A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers”, Parachute emphasizes the necessity of finding one’s “mission” in life in order to obtain meaningful employment. Not to be content with simply drawing a paycheck, Bolles encourages the reader to uncover those areas of personal interest that can be translated into a rewarding as well as relevant career. For example, if you have been a secretary and you also love to write about animals, maybe your desire is to become a contributor to nature magazines instead.
Bolles lists several reasons why a job search might include a change in career. Some key components to consider when deciding a change are:
· We made a bad choice when we first chose our career, and now we’ve decided to set it right.
· We’ve been asked to do the work of three, and we feel stressed out, angry, exhausted, burnt out, and grumpy…
· We’ve decided we want to go into business for ourselves.
· All we wanted in the past for a job was money, now we want a job that has meaning…
In addition, Bolles persuades the job searcher to not rely exclusively on old strategies for finding work, i.e., sending out rè(c)sumè(c)s and waiting for a response, but to utilize what he has determined to be some of the more successful and proactive strategies including:
· Directly targeting those companies you desire to work for.
· Join a job hunter’s group to share leads, receive and give encouragement, to fine tune your resume and search, etc.
· Discipline yourself to make phone calls to companies [determine who has hiring authority and avoid the Human Resources department as they exist solely to screen you out!]
· When sending an e-mail resume, follow it up with a hard copy and cover letter, followed by a telephone call the next week to the contact person.
Concerning job hunting methods, Parachute contains one notable surprise. In his very detailed research Bolles reveals that the Internet, with all of its job search capabilities, may actually provide the least successful method in finding work. Too often, Bolles alledges, job seekers rely exclusively on job boards to post their resume to and then they wait for their employer of choice to call them about an open position. Unfortunately, according to Bolles, the internet alone only offers a 4% success rate in finding a job when it is used as the exclusive job search method.
Bolles also guides the reader through the process of starting a business instead of working for an employer; shares interviewing tips for smarties; lists the seven secrets of salary negotiation; and discloses the secret of finding your dream job.
Bolles folksy and friendly writing style has endeared himself to over seven million readers since the initial publishing of Parachute in 1970. Revised annually, I recommend you read the latest version of his book as it speaks to the current nature of the job market.
Finally, Bolles has a companion web site called the Job Hunter’s Bible [http://www.jobhuntersbible.com]. The site contains a collection of articles written by Bolles and other experts.
Overall, Parachute is an informative and even fun book to read. The reader may want to skip around the different chapters instead of reading the book straight through as it is reads more like a guide, not a novel. Combined together, the two resources should go far in helping the job seeker in his or her quest for their “dream job.”
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Copyright 2005 — Matthew Keegan is the owner of a successful article writing, web design, and marketing business based in North Carolina, USA. He manages several sites including the Corporate Flight Attendant Community and the Aviation Employment Board. Please visit The Article Writer to review selections from his portfolio.
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