40 Days to Power Living by Teresa Kay-Aba Kennedy

Power Living is a 40 Day intense look at your self. It took me 80 days to finish the book because I had to spend 2 weeks on every chapter. I highly recommend 40 Days to everyone. The book helps you to think about your dreams, helps you focus and asks 3 important questions that I keep close to my heart. The book delivers what it states on the cover “Transform your Mind, Body & Spirit and Think, Eat & Live on Purpose”.

Teresa writes: “Power is not defined by how much control you have over others, but how much control you have over your self”.

Christopher Columbus and the Afrikan Holocaust by John Henrik Clarke

Afrikan Holocaust takes you on a historical journey. A real eye opener and a must read. There is a lot of information about Africa before slavery by the Europeans. It’s a different perspective then what my generation was taught in school.

Dr. Leonard Jeffries wrote: Professor Clarke’s analysis provides us with a perspective that lets us understand that slavery and genocide were institutionalized and systematized into a global system of domination, destruction and death which not only control land, labor and resources but colonialized information.

Un Monsieur Bien Mis - Jean Vautrin

Une ville de banlieue avec sa gare de banlieue, ses barres de béton, ses éboueurs noirs dans leurs uniformes fluo, ses ahènepéistes et ses trois-huit, ses bandes de bric et de broc et ses crânes trop rasés.

Un monsieur bien sous tous rapports file un balayeur des rues jusque dans l'ascenseur de sa cité-dortoir. Montent avec eux un camionneur balèze, un couple en bisbille, un petit rouquin avec son jeu japonais, un électeur de Le Pen, une jeunesse maghrébine...

Panne entre deux étages. Un cadavre de nègre découvert un peu plus haut quand les portes se rouvrent... Qui a joué du couteau dans le noir de la cabine?

Translation

A suburban town with its railway station of the suburbs, its concrete bars, the black garbage collectors in their fluorescent uniforms, and the too many shaved skulls.

A man follows a sweeper of streets to the elevator of his dormitory suburb. A couple in tiff, a small redhead with his Japanese game, a voter of Pen, a teenage girl takes up a truck driver are also in the elevator.

The elevator breaks down between two floors. The body of a Negro is discovered when the doors open again... Who played the knife in the black of the cabin?

Une Héritière en danger - Debbi Rawlins

An Heiress in danger - I haven’t touched a Harlequin Romance since I was 17 or 18, but I needed something easy to read in French. No matter what language, a Harlequin is a Harlequin. If you are learning a new language I recommend a Harlequin in that language. You will absolutely understand what they are talking about.

Strong gorgeous hunk saves beautiful damsel (albeit always dumb) in distress. During which they have sex (oh sorry make love), fall madly in love and live happily ever after.

He: Qu'est-ce que tu veux de moi? - What do you want of me?
She: Est-ce que tu m'aimes? - Do you love me?
He: Oui, répondit-il, incapable de lui mentir. - Yes, he answered, unable to lie to her.
She: C'est tout ce que je veux. - That’s all that I want.

We The Living by Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand wrote “We The Living” to tell the story of Communist Russia- The Revolution. She wanted to show the rest of the world what was really happening in Russia.

The story is extremely depressing. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. She argues that under the extreme control of a government that tries to bring about the idealism of Marxism, a country and its people will die. Everybody loses the rich and the poor. The Marxist ideal of everyone living on equal ground can never come true. The Revolution never lived up to the fair and equal society it promised. Before the revolution only the poor were exploited, now both the poor and the rich were exploited.

Man has to want to help his fellow man. He cannot be forced into it. People want to give what they want to give, not what they are told to give.

As I mentioned earlier the story is really dark, I had a difficult time completing the book, but I wished Rand showed a lot more of life before the revolution.

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

This book did not leave me feeling warm and fuzzy for the Gods. Like all the other books The Last Olympian has many positive messages for its young audience. The one that stood out the most for me is Achilles’ advice to Percy (page 134) “no man may be completely invulnerable”. Lose sight of what makes you human and you will cease to exist.


I only have one bone to pick with the Rick; why does he write Annabeth so girly dumb when it comes to Percy.

Money Business, Playing the Market, Be Your Own Boss from Heinemann

Reading level: grades 3-5

These books are great for anyone who wants to learn a little about economics.

Be Your Own Boss -Describes simple characteristics of small businesses and how to start and manage a small business.

Money Business - Focuses on the fundamental forces that drive the economy, as well as history and economic principles. It touches on the laws of supply and demand and a quick history of the first bankers.

Playing the Market -There is a brief definition of the economy, savings and investments and how companies raise money. It explains the differences between stocks and bonds, interest rates, the role of government and the Federal Reserve. The book ends with instructions for reading newspaper stock reports.

The Country Wife by William Wycherley

The Country Wife is a controversial sexually explicit play written in 1675. It is complicated and difficult to read.

There are three plots in the play:

1. Horner pretends to be impotent in order to sleep with as many married women as possible. He spreads the rumor of his impotence, in order to convince married men that he can be trusted to socialize with their wives.

2. Pinchwife -a middle-aged man who marries a naive country girl hoping that he will not be cuckolded (a man being cuckolded is the last to know of his wife's infidelity). Until Horner gets a hold of her.

3. The love story of Harcourt and Alithea - Harcourt wins the hand of Alithea from the hands of the Upper-class town snob after she discovered he only loves her for her money.

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Percy does not get a break. Soon to be 15, Percy has girl problems and must save the world from the Titan lord Kronos. Annabeth is the leader of this quest with Percy, Grover and Rachel (a mortal). They must go through the Labyrinth to find Daedalus before Luke’s army storms Camp Half-blood. The Labyrinth is a confusing maze and they soon encounter gods and creatures, some friendly but most are out for blood.

Like the first three, this is fun, full of adventure and I enjoy how Riordan goes back and forth between reality and fantasy.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Is murder acceptable in pursuit of a higher purpose? Dostoyevsky presents this argument brilliantly. Taking us through Raskolnikov’s daily activities and thought pattern.

Raskolnikov thinks of himself as “extraordinary” and believes that extraordinary men have the right to commit a crime if it is for the good of humanity. He commits a murder, killing a despicable pawnbroker and her sister, to prove his point.

I remember thinking “he is so isolated and self absorbed” and completely out of touch with reality. I understood his anguish, he did everything right, he is extremely smart, good looking and hardworking. Why was he in this predicament; so poor that he couldn’t afford to eat or pay his rent? Why should an extraordinary man have to live this way while mean horrible awful people were allowed to have better lives and make the lives of decent people miserable? In his mind killing such horrible people is justifiable.