Category Archives: Non-Fiction

Review: The Missing Keys to Thriving in Any Real Estate Market by Eddie Godshalk, MBA

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The Missing Keys to Thriving in Any Real Estate Market: How to Create Wealth in Any Community Using Street Analysis Technology
Eddie Godshalk, MBA
Get it at Amazon

If you’ve never working in any aspect of the real estate market, you may not think Eddie Godshalk’s book, The Missing Keys to Thriving in Any Real Estate Market, is for you. You’d be wrong, because while the last part of the book, which explains his Home Value Predictor, is aimed at real estate professionals, the first part is a thorough explanation of why the housing market has tanked, why there are so many foreclosures, and how some of the financial strife related to real estate finance could have been averted.

Even better, Godshalk explains the history of housing bubbles, how they work, why they work, and what’s happening now, in accessible language that anyone can understand, even if they’ve never taken a single finance course.

After reading his book, you’ll have a better understanding not just of the big picture, but also of the smaller sections – like why your own home is worth what it is, and why you may not be able to refinance any time soon.

If, on the other hand, you are a real estate professional, whether you’re a Realtor, broker, lender, or appraiser, you’ll finish The Missing Keys… with a better understanding of the industry in which you work, and you’ll also be armed with powerful tools that will help both you and your client.

Once such tool is Godshalk’s Home Value Predictor, which you can learn about in-depth at HomeValuePredictor.com.

As someone who worked as a mortgage loan processor and underwriter for half her life, I can honestly say that while I was asked to review Mr. Godshalk’s book, I wish I’d had it to offer every client I worked with – especially those taking subprime loans, because it should be required reading for homeowners and real estate professionals alike.

Review: Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl by Susan McCorkindale

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Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl
Susan McCorkindale
Get it from Amazon >>

I picked up Susan McCorkindale’s humorous memoir on a whim, largely because the blurb on the back cover mentioned something about living miles away from any Starbucks. As someone who has had that experience, and who considers “roughing it” to be a hotel that has neither wifi nor room service, I thought it would be something I’d enjoy.

I was not disappointed.

This book is McCorkindale’s snarky spin on what happens when a girl from New Jersey leaves her cushy job as the head of marketing for a well-known magazine, and moves, with her testosterone-laden husband and sons, to a farm in West Virginia. From her comments on local couture (or lack thereof) to her tales of catalog shopping – not for Dansko womens shoes, but for beauty aids, bikinis, and (later) chickens, everything is hilarious, but it’s hilarity tempered by her obvious love of her family.

While this book is probably best enjoyed by women with children, or women who regularly read Family Circle, there’s enough in it for those of us who only have dogs to enjoy.

Review: Pretty in Plaid, by Jen Lancaster

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Pretty in Plaid
Jen Lancaster
Get it at Amazon

If reading Jen Lancaster’s last book, Such a Pretty Fat resulted in the loss of three pounds, without the use of weight loss pills, her most recent offering, Pretty in Plaid, led me to clean out my closet.

Or at least, it would have, if I could have put the book down, and if I wasn’t so easily distracted.

In this book, Jen gives us a pre-quel, of sorts, for it begins with Jen as a little kid, and ends just before the publication of her very first book, Bitter is the New Black, and every chapter centers around her favorite outfit or fashion trend of the era in question.

She also gives us the truth of the world, at least for many women: It’s not “you are what you eat.” It’s “you are what you wear.”

As funny, acerbic, and brilliantly observant as always, this book will have you reaching for your high school picture to show people that yes, you really dressed that way, too.

Teaser Tuesdays: Funny in Farsi, by Firoozeh Dumas

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On Teaser Tuesdays readers are asked to:

  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between 7 and 12 lines.
  • You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.

My teasers are:

In 1977, the Shah and his wife were scheduled to come to America to meet the newly elected president, Jimmy Carter. Very few Iranians lifed in America then, and those of us who did were invited to go to Washington, D.C., to welcome the Shah. The Iranian government would cover all expenses.

My father accepted the invitation. My brothers reacted with a few choice words.
— from Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America, p. 111, by Firoozeh Dumas

Review: Such a Pretty Fat, by Jen Lancaster

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Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist’s Quest to Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big
by Jen Lancaster
Get it from Amazon >>

Jen Lancaster is never not funny, but part of the reason I always enjoy her books is that even though I suspect our politics are wildly divergent, her exaggerated version of herself is completely relate-able. That was the case with her first memoir, Bitter is the New Black, and it remains the case with her most recent, originally published last year, Such a Pretty Fat, in which she tackles self esteem, body image, and her own physical prowess – or lack thereof.

In this book, Lancaster gets a bit meta on us – spending about a third of the 375 (trade paperback version) pages talking about the novel she’s supposed to be writing, before deciding that a funny, frank look at her weight and attempts to lose it would be more saleable. Apparently, she was right, because I laughed with her, cried with her, and felt guilty about everything I put in my mouth while I was reading it that was less than healthy.

In fact, I lost three pounds while reading it, which I’m sure Jen would appreciate if she knew.

If you want a weight loss book that tells you to starve yourself, and shows pictures of cute size-four models on the cover, and supplies a diet, go read something else. If you want to find inspiration in the funny, real story of a snarky, real woman – read Such a Pretty Fat.

You may not lose three pounds, but you’ll definitely have a smile on your face when the book is over.

Reviewed Elsewhere: The Mighty Queens of Freeville, by Amy Dickinson

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The Mighty Queens of Freeville: a Mother, A Daughter, and the Town that Raised Them
by Amy Dickinson
Get it from Amazon >>

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From time to time, I review books for other blogs, ezines and podcasts, but I still want to track what I’ve read. I recently reviewed True Colors for ALL THINGS GIRL. Here’s the first paragraph:

If you never thought a story that begins with a divorce could be uplifting, you clearly haven’t read Amy Dickinson’s new book, The Mighty Queens of Freeville: a Mother, a Daughter, and the Town that Raised Them.

The rest of the review can be found here.

Book Review: Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas, by John Baxter

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Immoveable Feast: A Paris ChristmasImmoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas
John Baxter
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John Baxter has long been one of my favorite essayists, and not just because he writes about life as an ex-pat living in Paris.

In his most recent offering, An Immoveable Feast, (and yes, the title is a reference to a certain Hemingway publication) Baxter is his usual charming self, as he writes of his adventures in planning the Christmas Feasts to end all Christmas Feasts, for his wife’s very picky, very French family.

While the entire book is incredibly amusing, my favorite chapters involve the hunt for a whole pig, still in its own skin, to be roasted for dinner. Apparently, it is not the custom to serve pork in its skin, in France, and only something extremely un-French will be able to really impress the family. Baxter relays the expressions of butchers and other vendors so well that you can hear the accents and see their gesticulations.

The flaw in this book? It made me so hungry I had to keep putting it down so I wouldn’t drool on the pages.

Goes well with: Bacon. Lots and lots of bacon. And a slice of mince pie.

Reviewed Elsewhere:The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg

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The Flavor BibleThe Flavor Bible
by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg
Get it from Amazon

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From time to time, I review books for other blogs, ezines and podcasts, but I still want to track what I’ve read. I recently reviewed The Flavor Bible for ALL THINGS GIRL. Here’s the first paragraph:

Although it does contain several recipes, The Flavor Bible, by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, is not a cookbook. It isn’t really a bible either, for that matter. If I had to classify this book it would be half dictionary, half encyclopedia, and all wonderful.

The rest of the review can be found here.

Review: The Zookeeper’s Wife, by Diane Ackerman

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The Zookeeper's Wife The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story
by Diane Ackerman
Get it from Amazon.

The Zookeeper’s Wife sounds rather grim on the surface: it’s about the keepers at the Warsaw Zoo hiding Jews during the holocaust. As the blurbs on the back say, it’s a rough subject to find in such a beautiful book, and yet, beautiful is what this story is.

Antonina and Jan live in a modern glass house inside the zoo. When the Nazis arrive in Poland, many of their animals are sent to German zoo’s, while others are slaughtered for sport, and yet, because one of the ranking officers is a zoologist, of sorts, the pair are allowed to remain in residence for most of the war, and eventually the zoo houses both a munitions station, and a fox farm.

At the same time, Jan and Antonina are smuggling Jewish people out of the ghetto, using their zoo as an initial stop on a sort of “underground railroad.” Some of these Guests are housed in the old aviary, in the rabbit house, in the pheasant house, and are referred to by the names of the animals whose cages they occupy. Others are hidden in closets, walls, tunnels, etc. around the the house, and still others move in, hiding in plain site.

Throughout this book, which reads like a novel though it is not fiction, even when things are at their worst, Antonina holds her strange family together, and a thread of hope runs through it all.

Goes well with: a bowl of hearty soup, artisan bread, and a cold gray day.