Book of the Month

Book Review: Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success by Russ Buettner
Russ Buettner’s Lucky Loser is a detailed look at the machinations of Donald Trump and the factors that helped him achieve fame and fortune through inherited wealth, media manipulation, and dubious business tactics. The title itself hints at the overarching thesis of the book: This is where Trump was able to leverage his father’s money to build his own empire while at the same time recasting the narrative as one of personal achievement. Buettner, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, applies his keen insight and thorough research to this vital and engaging account of one of the most polarizing figures in American history.
By William Walkerabout a year ago in BookClub
THE VANISHING TOWN
The smell of stale coffee and bacon grease clung to the air in the diner, but Rachel could barely taste her food. She sat stiffly in the booth, her mind racing over the waitress’s words: *Crescent Falls ain’t finished with you.* The group had escaped the eerie town, but it felt as though a shadow still loomed over them, creeping closer with every moment of silence.
By Tar damilareabout a year ago in BookClub
VANISHING TOWN
The morning sun rose higher in the sky, but the cold fear lingering in the SUV made it feel as if it were still the dead of night. Rachel kept her eyes fixed on the road ahead, her hands trembling slightly in her lap. In the rearview mirror, the faint green glow that had consumed Crescent Falls was nothing more than a sliver on the horizon now. But her gut told her it was far from over.
By Tar damilareabout a year ago in BookClub
THE VANISHING TOWN
It was supposed to be just another routine stop on their cross-country road trip. No one in the car expected anything unusual as they pulled into the small, sleepy town of Crescent Falls. The GPS had said it was the perfect place to rest for the night — a quaint spot nestled between rolling hills and dense forests. But by the next morning, they’d be running for their lives.
By Tar damilareabout a year ago in BookClub
Review of Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey. AI-Generated.
Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights is a self-searching book, which is quite different from the traditional celebrity’s life story. Unknown, it was officially released in October 2020 and focuses on the actor’s life, and the reflections on how to appreciate life with its highs and lows and how to look for the so-called ‘greenlights’. While Greenlights can be described as a memoir, it is much more – it is a reflection on how one can live and celebrate life’s triumphs and losses fully, on the idea of being true to oneself.
By TAPHAabout a year ago in BookClub
Book Review: Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty is a memoir that documents her life experiences, main areas of concern being triumph over adversity, learning, and the struggle for liberty. Clinton, a powerful woman in the American politics and world politics, offers not only the thoughts from the public life but also her personal reflections, and especially the story of love and loss and the idea of freedom in the contemporary world. The book is as much about the philosophy that the Clintons hold, the social issues that they have witnessed and the strategies that they would like to implement in the future.
By William Walkerabout a year ago in BookClub
Book Review: Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
Liane Moriarty’s latest novel Here One Moment is another piece of contemporary fiction that is perfectly built and where the author combines the themes of relationships, family and personal struggles. Moriarty is famed for humor and realism in portraying contemporary life and once more she gives an impressive performance in this book. In Here One Moment, Moriarty has presented her readers with the issues of memory, identity, as well as the transient nature of joy.
By William Walkerabout a year ago in BookClub
Review of Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence (Fully Revised and Updated for 2018) by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. AI-Generated.
There has been an enormous discussion around the notion of financial freedom in the last decade, including the FIRE movement. This clearrawing of money and the relationship we have with it is evident in one of the most popular books on the subject: Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. The book was first published in 1992 and this edition was updated in 2018 with present-day financial structures in mind. The essence of the book, however, remains the same: it’s a life-changing guide to reprogramming the way we approach money, consumption and happiness.
By TAPHAabout a year ago in BookClub
Review of Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty. AI-Generated.
Now Liane Moriarty is known for domestic dramas and in the majority of her novels there is always a twist. If there is anything that stands out about Moriarty is LM’s ability to capture the secrets, enmities and loves that underpin the otherwise mundane lives of her characters… LM’s books appeal to readers who would love to read between the lines and into the hearts of men. Thus, in Here One Moment, Moriarty creates yet another engrossing read, which is filled with suspense, emotion and a handful of twists, when the external picture of seemingly ideal lives turns out to be rather grim and becomes exposed to other people’s view.
By TAPHAabout a year ago in BookClub
SOME TRUTHS ABOUT HARD TIMES!
SOME TRUTHS ABOUT HARD TIMES! 1. If you accept that hard times are a part of life, it will help you avoid depression 2. Maintain a healthy perspective. Going through hard times doesn't mean you're unlucky, it actually means you're preparing for something great. Preparation is often not easy but it's the foundation of better things to come 3. Hard times will let you find your true friends and expose the liars 4. Hard times will introduce you to real friends who are attracted to your goals 5. Read biographies of great people. No great story was ever written without a difficult period 6. There will be something better, more carefree waiting for you after you conquer the difficult times 7. Difficult times may make you take a step back to re-strategize or change your presentation but you will soon move forward with more strength than ever 8. Great people have learned the art of turning difficult times into a path to becoming a master of something 9. There are some lessons that difficult times will teach you that good times cannot 10. Difficult times will open your eyes to see opportunities and doors that you cannot be complacent about 11. Some of us lack the courage to go beyond our current level and lack the initiative to take the next step ourselves, difficult times will bring you to the next stage of life that you are afraid to take 12. Difficult times will make you naked bare so you have realized your true self. Difficult times will force you to be honest with yourself, what are you really made of? Because when you go through difficult times, no one impresses you, you have to be yourself 13. Most couples enter the most beautiful stage after hitting rock bottom. That is when their true love is tested and they become stronger together 14. Instead of whining about difficult times, ask yourself "What am I being taught and how can I ride this wave to become better?" 15. Once you have solved the problems of difficult times, try asking others for lessons learned. Don't be stingy with your worries. Greatness is not selfish.
By TULY989storeabout a year ago in BookClub
Book Review: The Vineyard Remains: A Novel by Addison McKnight
The Vineyard Remains by Addison McKnight gives the readers a multi-leveled story that is filled with passion, emotion, and suspense. This novel is set in the vineyard and tells the story of complicated relationships, the secrets that people keep, and the subtleties of grief. McKnight’s storytelling blended with the description of the environment come out as a wonderful story that conveys the message about the hardships of life and the necessity of confronting one’s past.
By William Walkerabout a year ago in BookClub
Review of Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis. AI-Generated.
Introduction: The Halloween Gala; A Walk-in into the World of the Gothic and the Macabre The author of the debut narrative Dreadful, Caitlin Rozakis plunges her readers into the hypnotizing narrative, which is quite appropriately filled with horror, gothic, thriller, and suspense notes. This grim and ominous context of this novel overrides the traditional conventions of the genre and brings together an introspective journey of the protagonist and an unlaying, gradual construction of a mystery. From the title, Dreadful itself gives a feeling of fear, a form of fear which in this book creeps up the characters and the tale as a whole peer into the horrific and the mysterious.
By TAPHAabout a year ago in BookClub