“If you’re in a jam and suddenly realize that my name has vanished from your shopping list… something from your house is fine, preferably if it’s used. Who wouldn’t want mind a little pre-loved bath gel or lotion, or soap that you’ve found a little too fragrant for your tastes.

Shampoo that’s not for you, pour some sugar on me! I understand that you’ve merely pretested it to make sure it lives up to the standards you set for giving gifts. I totally understand that. Kind of like when people would taste food for kings to make sure it’s not poisoned, except in this case, you spit a little back on the plate is all. That’s all. Just a little spit. What’s a little spit in a heartfelt Christmas gift? So little that you almost can’t tell it’s hardly there at all. Hardly. I would also love little sample soaps and tiny bottles of shampoo and conditioner from hotels. Makes me feel like I’ve been on vacation without the expense or the hassle of enjoyment.”

Looking for a fun book this holiday season? I would recommend Laurie Notaro’s  An Idiot Girl’s Christmas: True Tales from the Top of the Naughty List. I was laughing out loud right after the first paragraph. My children thought, “mommy’s lost her mind,’ but I was simply relating Notaro’s story.

Like Notaro, I can think of plenty-o-gifts that I’m sure weren’t meant for me. One time, I received hotel soaps and lotions as a gift. I guess the gifter thought I’d never know my “gifts” were hotel samples because the bottle label was in French. Too bad I’m fluent in French and read, “enjoy this sample courtesy of this hotel.”

When we hung-up our stockings this year, my hubby made a point to make sure Santa left a little something for mommy in her stocking. Last year, the kids questioned if I was on Santa’s naughty list because I was the only one with an empty stocking.

We all have our own holiday horror stories. Notaro’s include going to Kmart on Christmas Eve to purchase lady products. One horror story I lived was from my senior year of high school. I remember being at a New Year’s Eve party and witnessing the entire football team love the reindeer display at the house across the street. I can’t look at lawn decorative reindeer the same way.

Laurie Notaro’s  An Idiot Girl’s Christmas: True Tales from the Top of the Naughty List is a quick, funny read.

Do you have a funny holiday story?

Happy Reading,

Related posts:

1. Naughty or Nice? Last week, my kid’s Coco called to tell me about...
2. Save Time and Send a Digital Holiday Card This Year – For Free I love getting my mail this time of year. Receiving...
3. Burning the Midnight Oil It looks like I’ll be burning the midnight oil on...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

“Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins — or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer

What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. There it is, the opening line from Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals .

I was so excited to read this book. When it finally came from the library I couldn’t open the cover fast enough. What was it in this book that impressed Hillary Clinton and influenced President Barack Obama?

This book took me over one month to read. It’s 200 pages and reading it should have been no more than a week. Even with two kids. Needless to say, the book should really be a pamphlet.

When I finally made it to the rules, guides, and how-to-dos, I was intrigued. Here is my condensed version.

 Rules for Radicals in a Nutshell

Mankind has been and is divided into three parts: the Haves, the Have-Nots, and the Have-a-Little, Want Mores.

Process tells us how. Purpose tells why.

No one can negotiate without the power to compel negotiation.

The first step in community organization is community disorganization. All change means disorganization of the old and organization of the new.

When someone who is prominent in the status quo turn and label you and agitator they are completely correct. Your function to agitate to the point of conflict.

The organizer is reaching to play God.

The ideal elements of an organizer: curiosity, irreverence, imagination, a sense of humor, distrust of dogma, a bit of a blurred vision of a better world, an organized personality, a well-integrated political schizoid, ego, a free and open mind, and political relativity.

New ideas arise out of conflict. 

Does this particular end justify this particular means? Rules of ethics of means and ends:

1. One’s concern with the ethics of means and ends varies inversely with one’s personal interest in the issue.

2.The judgment of the ethics of means is dependent upon the political position of those sitting in judgment.

3. In war the end justifies almost any means.

4. The judgment must be made in the context of the times in which the action occurred and not from any other chronological point.

5. Concern with ethics increases with the number of means available and vice versa.

6. The less important the end to be desired, the more one can afford to engage in ethical evaluation of means.

7. Generally success or failure is a mighty determinant of ethics.

8. The morality of a means depends upon whether the means is being employed at a time of imminent victory.

9. Any effective means is automatically judged by the opposition as being unethical.

10.  You do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments.

11. Goals must be phrased in general terms like “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” “Of the Common Welfare,” “Pursuit of Happiness,” or “Bread and Peace.”

13 Rules for Radicals

1. Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

2. Never go outside the experience of your people.

3. Whenever possible go outside the experience of the enemy.

4. Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.

5. Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.

6. A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.

7. A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.

8. Keep the pressure on.

9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.

10. The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.

11. If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside.

12. The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative

13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.

The radicals cause is 100 positive and the opposition is 100 percent negative.

Don’t forget the middle class. They are the group that needs to be organized and the group where leaders are born.

So is this book a Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals? Sure. I found it insightful, but could have used without the long-drawn out stories. I recommend you read it regardless if you agree with Mr. Alinsky or not. It never hurts to challenge yourself.

Happy Reading,

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’m a small business owner who is always searching for ways to make my company more efficient, effective and prosperous. In my quest for knowledge I read REWORK by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson.

To sum-up the book, I  would use the old acronym K.I.S.S. – keep it simple stupid.

The best advice I took from the book:

• Planning is guessing. Make decisions right before you take action.
• Workaholics are stupid. They waste your time and cause more harm than good. Send people home at 5.
• Don’t ask for money from other people. It’s their money and therefore, they control your business.
• Do a few simple things and do it well.
• Don’t worry about the competition, worry about yourself.
• Learn to love “no.”  Saying “yes” can put you into a position you really don’t want to be in.
• Make a product/service that is good at-home, not just in-store. Take the time while your business is small and new to go through a crash-test phase.
• Stop fretting over an Ivy league education. More CEOs earned their undergraduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin than from Harvard.
• Own your own mistakes. Customers would prefer it comes from you than the rumor mill.

I would recommend the book to those who are worried about pursing their dream of owning his own business.

REWORK is a quick, easy read.  Most of the content of REWORK is common sense, but common sense is something we as a society are sadly lacking.

Happy reading,

SecureOnCampus.com First Annual “Back to the Dorm Special” Get 15% OFF your purchase of dorm safes, pepper sprays, personal alarms and more.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

James Patterson calls The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King – A Nonfiction Thriller. Why did he decide to go the nonfiction route? Patterson claims to have always been curious about the short life of the young Pharaoh Tutankhamen. He wanted to try to solve the mystery surrounding Tut’s death with actual facts. But did he?

Patterson presents his thesis stating King Tutankhamen was murdered by his half-sister and wife Ankhesenpaaten, his vizier Ay and his general Horemheb. Patterson believes Tut was murdered because of the power grab desired by these three individuals. Tut and Ankhesenpaaten had two still-born children with no male heir to the throne leaving Ankesenpaaten, Ay and Horemheb to reign after Tut.

Patterson wrote the novel in three distinctive parts all interwoven with one another. These short, easy-to-read chapters breeze between Tut’s life and death, the discovery of Tut’s tomb by Howard Carter and present day.

By far, my favorite chapters were the actual story of Tut’s life. These chapters pre-date Tut’s life and the follow-up after his untimely death. If you want a simple, very visual version of the history on Tutankhamen, you will enjoy these chapters.

I knew very little about Howard Carter until I read this book. The Carter chapters offer a very short and interesting read about the man consumed by finding the missing tomb of the unknown Pharaoh Tut.

The chapters concerning present day Palm Beach seemed unnecessary. I think the chapters were used to fill space and wasteful.

I enjoy Patterson’s writing style. His chapters are short, intriguing and very easy to read.

I love history and have always wanted to visit Egypt. I’m not sure how much of this fictionalized, but it is an enjoyable fast-paced novel.

The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King – A Nonfiction Thriller is a great semi-fictionalized story on the boy king. It is a great gift for the amateur Egyptologist in your life.

.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I love to read. I have enjoyed the company of a good book ever since I was a young girl. Mystery and thriller novels are my favorite. I am also an avid reader of political books.

I have a young baby, so I am constantly nursing. I have re-found my love of reading during the feedings.

Recently, I read James Patterson’s Swimsuit. I could not put the book down.

I loved that the novel is written as a non-fiction account of contract serial killer Henri Benoit. Several times throughout the book, I had to remind myself that the book is fiction.

The story begins with mysterious abduction of swimsuit model Kim McDaniels.  Ben Hawkins, a former cop turned crime reporter for the L.A. Times, is sent to Hawaii to cover the story.

Hawkins has no idea that while he has been covering the McDaniels’ story, he has been with the killer the entire time.

An interesting twist of fate or did Benoit plan this the entire time?

Giving Hawkins a “deal he can’t refuse,” Benoit forces Hawkins to ghost write his biography.

Throughout their time together. Hawkins discovers the disturbing, numerous murders through the sick mind of psychopath. Benoit shares his story as a contract serial killer for “the peepers”  and his desire for the unimaginable.

The chapters are very short; three to five pages in length. Because it is written in this manner, it has hard to put the book down. It is a very easy, entertaining, quick read (for 416 pages).

Not for the faint of heart, but excitingfor those who love thrillers.

I am looking forward to reading Patterson’s next novel, The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King – A Nonfiction Thriller

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.