Llew's Reviews

I don’t think I blogged about Dave Ramsey’s ‘Total Money Makeover’. Perhaps, I did. It certainly seems to be many people’s personal finance bible and contains good advice – especially for those mired in debt. However, it made me twitchy. I had all these questions and felt slightly uncomfortable with some of Ramsey’s instructions so I turned to this book which seems more complete in it’s information. It’s less of an personal instruction to finance and more informational, although it certainly offers some advice. I found it incredibly helpful and really liked it. I’ve already made a couple of changes that should have been obvious to me that I hadn’t thought of (example: I switched the emergency fund to a high interest savings account.)

Plus it is a really good overview of things I always hear about but I don’t know exactly what they are. You know annuities and whatnots. I keep trying to get Ben to read this one too because I think it has a lot of information that *all* adults should know — whether they’re ready to implement them or not.

This was recommended to me as the Russian version of Neil Gaiman’s “Neverwhere”. In fact, it even has a quote by Gaiman on the cover of the book saying the same thing. The quote makes Neil seem a little cocky.

“A lovely, disconcerting book that does for Moscow what I hope my own Neverwhere may have done to London.”

While I was a little meh about Neverwhere, I really enjoyed this book. In fact, I’ve been thinking that it’s only fantasy on a young adult level that I like, but I think it’s really this sub-genre known as Urban Fantasy that tickles my fantasy. I can relate and get into that kind of story more so than a full out unbelievable fantasy land. Although with all of the Russian fairy and folktale characters which I was completely unfamiliar with, it might as well been an unbelievable fantasy land for me.

I quite liked the characters, the writing, and the storyline in this one. The ending WAS disconcerting and unhappy which sealed the deal for me.

Spooks, boggarts, and witches – oh my!

This is the fourth in the Last Apprentice series which is a middle school level fantasy/horror series. I can’t handle scary things so a fifth grade horror book is about as much as I can handle. This is a good series that I’ve been fond of suggestion to that age of readers.

With this new addition, I’m a little weary to recommend it because it deals a lot with believing in God. I think it’s good for children this age, but I don’t think every child’s parents would agree with me.