My Journal
The Hunger Games Trilogy Book Review
I read The Hunger Games trilogy from two perspectives: that of senior citizen... and also a 1960s hippie. I was impressed on both counts. I may be a senior citizen now, but I'm also a counterculture hippie-type person from the 60s. So I read and then...
The Crash of 2016 by Thom Hartmann
Thom Hartmann reviews the "cycles of crisis" in the U.S. since the American Revolution In The Crash of 2016, Thom Hartmann documents why it is no longer wise to put faith in most elected politicians, or in our once-trusted institutions, especially the public media,...
Profoundly Disconnected by Mike Rowe
Why would Mike Rowe write a "fake" book? Mike Rowe calls Profoundly Disconnected a “fake book” containing just one single paragraph. Well, that’s true...and it isn’t. If you've seen Mike Rowe’s television show “Dirty Jobs,” you’ll know he has a quirky sense of humor,...
Zen Driving: Relax Behind the Wheel
The book Zen Driving taught me to enjoy driving a car again Zen Driving by K. T. Berger is a remarkable book that can change your driving habits, your attitude toward other drivers on the road and, maybe even, your life. The authors are two brothers Kevin, a freelance...
The Cowbell Principle – Book Review
What you need for your dream job or business is... MORE cowbell! The authors of The Cowbell Principle were inspired by - you guessed it - the Saturday Night Live sketch called “More Cowbell,” (YouTube link) featuring Christopher Walken and Will Farrell. In the skit,...
The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
Why I like The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau I appreciate books that push my buttons, making me look at things in new and slightly offbeat ways. The case studies Chris Guillebeau showcases in The $100 Startup are of regular people, mostly in jobs, who unexpectedly...
Silent E Plus Suffix Rules
Judging or Judgeing? Desirable or Desireable? Argument or Arguement? A word that ends with a silent "e" can present a challenge when you try to make a new word by adding a suffix after it (letters added to the end of a word). Do you keep the "e" or drop it? For...
A Few More Spelling and Grammar Tips
Her Style Was Most Unique... NOT! A common usage mistake in English is to use the word "unique" in a way that makes the noun it modifies seem not unique. When we say "most unique" or "very unique" about something, what we're really saying is the thing isn't unique at...
Placing Punctuation with Quotation Marks
Do commas, periods, colons, semi-colons, exclamation points and question marks go before or after quotation marks? There are many different ways to use quotation marks and, in this tutorial, we'll look at sentence punctuation in relationship to quotations. In other...