Trading Books

Written from first hand experience from a man on the inside of the Reagan Administation. The events of 1980's unfold as whole US Indusrties are wiped from existence by Japan from consumer products, memory chips,etc. Not only is Clyde a brilliant Economist he is an expert on Japan and expains the misunderstanding that occur between the US and Japan. More important he points out how many of those industries could have been saved for example Harley Davidson would not be around today if not for Paul who lobbied for tariffs on Japanese Motorcycles. This Book made me want to become an Economist, which I am at UC Berkeley.

I read this book in 1989, in preparation for a job interview with the author himself. For four years prior to that interview, I had been steeped in the literature on the "competitiveness question" - first as a graduate student at Harvard, and then in Washington, DC, as a Senate staffer. I can say, without hesitation, that this is one of the best books that came out of the debate on what to do about the apparent economic weakness: it is a pure statement on "strategic trade policy," in which political negotiation was called for in addition to economic competence.

Now, nearly 20 years after that time, I can assess this book in a new way. Japan is no longer the juggernaut we imagined it to be: it is now in our eyes, a beleaguered backwater, and many of the advantages we imagined it had are now seen as liabilities, perhaps even fatal ones, i.e. government-business collusion, mutually supporting conglomerate arrangements (Keiretsu), career advancement by seniority, etc.

In a nutshell, Prestowitz argued that Japan has an unstoppable system based on the power of protected cartels. With an inaccessible yet dynamic internal market in which to test new products, it could export the things it developed at a huge discount to it competitors, in effect eroding or destoying their industrial capabilities; Japanese consumers did suffer in the short term, but the cost was compensated for in the growth of industrial power over the long term. As such, the liberal economic system that the US had could not - and would never - be able to compete. The only course, Prestowitz argued, was political negotiation of trade quotas. I still believe that there is much useful in this persepctive and some truth, as evinced in the growth today of India and China.

However, with regard to Japan, subsequent events have proven this wrong on two counts. First, technology evolved that offered the US distinctive advantages: the Japanese could only copy products in relatively static markets, in particular in analogue electronic devices. They lost the digital revolution, decisively, even though they still make great cars. Second, as the system grew very large and rich, its actors became corrupted and began to strive to preserve wealth rather than create it in new markets. So the Japanese economy lost much of its dynamism as priviledge was preserved for the big few at the expense of smaller, hungrier firms that might create jobs and opportunities.

I am glad to say that I did not get the job in Prestowitz's new group, the Economic Strategy Institute. Instead, I went to Japan to learn how it did things and in the process I became a writer and journalist. As events show, Prestowitz's approach was quickly surpassed by new and unforeseeable developments. I learned far more by leaving DC and going to Japan - even if what I found was disppointing, I made my living debunking myths about Japan for several years, and this book is one of the things I tried to debunk, not for its political economy arguments, but for other assumptions it made.

That being said, Prestowitz is a smart guy and latched onto new things to talk about, and has done very well for himself. He is a great DC careerist and typical of the place. This book made him famous and so is an interesting study in DC careerism.

Recommended as a bit of history. Take the ideas with a grain of salt, until the next juggernaut emerges, that is. Then perhaps we can dust it off and employ its ideas once again.

Wish I would have read this book before Sept 11th, 2001 because a strong market move (80% chance to be downward) was likely to occur within 4 days of 9/6/01. Provides a plethora of unbias qualitative observations which are organized & presented from multiple angles, so the reader can quickly integrate celestial factors which currently are and will in the future open the door for the S&P to abruptly move. Glad I bought it.

On a side note - Merriman's annual "Forcasts" series is a steal.
In the 2001 edition (written in fall of 2000) p71 Merriman explores the strong possibility for terrorist tensions rising in August of 2001 with one focal point around Sept 7th 2001. Since I had read his comments prior to, the fateful events of 9/11/01 were not as much a shock to me as they were a "a-ha, so thats how this is going to play out this time..." One should check out the ominous possibilities he explores with Bush.

This book is Merriman's third in a series of encyclopedic tomes on the Ultimate Book on Stock Market Timing series:

Volume I. Cycles and Patterns in Indexes
Volume II. Geocosmic Correlations to Investment Cycles
Volume III. Geocosmic Correlations to Trading Cycles
Volume IV. Geocosmic Correlations to Short-Term Trading (not yet completed)
Volume V. Technical Tools and Trading Cycles (not yet completed)

Unfortunately for the reader (including myself) not familiar with astrology and the terminology, the book was hard to understand in many spots. Many of the astrological terms are neither clearly defined, nor explained as to their importance.
I found the book tough going in a number of spots, but totally fascinating. The amount of material to digest is substantial, but the reward can be great if Merriman's findings are implemented.

For readers that are not familiar with astrology, you are encouraged to read Merriman's basic primer on the subject, titled: "Basic Principles of Geocosmic Studies for Financial Market Timing." It is a small book - about 60 pages ... . That's the entry level book for astrology and finances. Moreover, "Merriman on Market Cycles: The Basics" is the entry level book for the study of cycles applied to financial markets. It too is small, about 70 pages ... .

To say that Merriman is a prolific writer is an understatement. His latest exhaustive book (Volume 3) is a mere 439 pages in its 8.5" x 11" paperback format. In this work, Merriman has analyzed 3,000 geocosmic signatures that he correlated with varying cycles in the DJIA and S&P 500 futures prices.

Merriman begins with a discussion of "critical reversal" dates. He focuses on pinpointing astrology signs that have a high correlation with major stock market turning points, especially primary cycles (occurs approximately every 19.5 weeks (mean)).

The book's hypothesis is that astrologically determined reversal dates (a reversal of at least 4% in price) will accurately time a "major half-primary and/or primary" cycle low or peak within three trading days a large percentage of the time. According to Merriman, trading cycles are those encompassing the primary cycles and sub-cycles. His focus is to help position traders (not day traders) who are in the market a few days or longer improve their overall performance by using his methodology.

There is a short chapter covering the primary cycle and its phases. Another chapter covers geocosmic studies. A key point is that planetary cycles correspond with stock market cycles. Merriman spent a great deal of time and effort in analyzing the massive database and then presenting the data and conclusions to the reader.

As far as I can understand, the findings of using geocosmic signatures as a timing tool indicate that the probability of a major price reversal in stock prices ranges between 74% to 91% when a timing signal is given. There is a minimum probability of 74% that a stock market reversal will occur within 3 days of a geocosmic signature and almost a 60% probability that this signature will be within two trading days.

Merriman provides an interesting 7-page table showing ALL the significant turning points in U.S. stock prices between 8/1/82 through 5/1/01. It showed that 74 turning points are within their cycle times, geocosmic signatures (probability), and critical reversal dates. This data validates Merriman's hypothesis that there is strong correlation between these variables. After all, Merriman objective is to identify the high probability cycle times for position traders.

In summary, this book is a significant contribution in the area of timing the market using astrological signs and cycles in combination. For those readers with a solid understanding of these subject areas, the usefulness of this book is self-evident. For other readers who feel that the material presented is useful, but cannot fully understand it to use it, then consider Merriman's other services that include newsletters, seminars, software, annual forecasts and reports. ... In any case, Merriman has continued to add scholarly works with significant value to the trading arena.

Whether or not you enjoy poetry, Albert Huffstickler's "Why I Write in Coffee Houses and Diners" is a book virtually anyone can enjoy. The poems are simple, honest, and daringly approachable. Most have "blue collar" settings, describing "common" folk like waitresses, an old woman who works at Arbys, homeless people, drunks, the cast-offs of society. Huffstickler too was something of an outcast in his life, living and dying in the small press scene, known only to some fellow poets and a small hard following of lucky readers. But don't think for a moment that his poems are weak, just because they're simple. They tackle issues like death, aging, and loneliness head-on, with a crispness and clarity you don't find in many other poetry books.

Admittedly, there are some poems here that need polishing--Huffstickler was a poet who took big risks, and not all of these poems succeed. I would even say (with all respect) that some are downright bad, but there are many many others that achieve a poignancy that is genuinely breathtaking. I discovered Huffstickler by chance, but reading this book made me glad to be alive.

Albert Huffstickler is a poet whose work should be more widely recognized. In Huffstickler's poems there is an innate understanding of the writers imperative, as described by Emerson in many of his essays. Some of the poems in this collection seem so simple that it's easy to miss Huffstickler's profound understanding of human nature. Huffstickler posseses what fighter pilots call "situational awareness"; this is demonstrated in his keen eye for detail. Almost every poem in this collection succeeds in bringing the godawful muck and stunning purity of everyday living to bear in these humanistic poems.

This was a good occult novel involving the supernatural. I liked it because it is an alternative to someone like Stephen King. With Stephen King I got into him in like 6th grade and I dventually saw every book of his that was turned into a movie. Thinner and Needful Things were his last halfway scary movies. Stephen King just isn't scary anymore because of the uneven quality os his middle to late 1990s period and into the millenium. If King was more obscure other than the best seller he was I would still read him, but he just started churning them out it got boring. Dion Fortune was one of the best and most famous occult authors and these isons usually also have some good occult fiction by real occultists not just shock artists like Stephen King and Anne Rice. O.K. so because of this- Anne Rice and Stephen King are gothic, these must be wannabes. Well Aleister Crowley at times could physically in appearance look gothic, it is pure occult which is its own seperate sub culture. The kids on the cover of the first edition of Teen Witch were occult but could be confused with gothic as I was. The thing about gothic is it has a sense of spiritual and moral ambiguity a Thelemite brother like me is uncomfortable with because while they flirted with the occult with vampires and devils, etc it is even more biased and ambiguous than if was done by someone like Aleister Crowley who was sometimes referred to as the Antichrist. Crowley retains a sense of mystery and intrigue as does Fortune because it is just that- a secret order. While Crowley and Fortune may be occult celebrities, even the mainstream press got it wrong, namely that Crowley worshipped the devil and performed black masses. King and Rice are more mainstream celebrities who can write a good and scary novel but are actually Christians as Rice's new book will show and because of that their depictions of occult activities are in the obvious tone that "Lestat the vampire is an incarnation of pure evil and therefore equals bad." Now in a novel like this by Fortune or Crowley is usually the "happy" ending that white magick which is actually even worse will triumph over black magick. Yes, especially Thelema is even worse than black magic. The title character the winged bull which appears early in the story is a devilish incarnation of pure evil that must be stopped, and by someone even worse. And for that it must be appeciated as something purely occult, something that only devotees of the occult spirituality will truly "get." No matter how tempting the dark side may be, they obviously lack charisma and because of that become the source of evil and good will always prevail in the end because that's the way things are. There is a conflict that must be resolved, and in this book, like Crowley's Moonchild, it is good versus evil while just like in most engaging stories the good guy is usually even worse.

When Ursula is bonded magically to an unscrupulous occultist,Murchison is engaged by her brother to save her.At first there is much tension between Ursula and Murchison, but it is necessary that they fall in love for her to be saved.He rescues her in the nick of time from being the victim in a Black Mass.This is a fast moving story with plenty of excitement set in an occult atmosphere.

I have tried Jenny Craig and Nutrisystems and this is the easiest and quickest way to lose weight. The first two weeks were tough but I was encouraged when I saw that I was losing about one pound a day. It has now been seven weeks and I have lost 13 lbs. I need to lose about 15 lbs. to reach my target. I am always surprised to get on the scale and find that I have lost more weight since I never feel hungry. It is very practical b/c you can eat anywhere which has always been a problem for me on other diets. I love this diet and wish that I could have found it years ago. I would have saved a lot of money and learned how to control my weight before it got out of control.
My only word of caution about consuming low or no carbs (I never did the no carbs) is to take the recommended supplements. I did not take them at first and had terrible foot and leg cramps during the night. Taking calcium and potassium cured that problem and vitamin B helped with the initial feeling of weakness.
I highly recommend this diet to anyone who wants to lose weight quickly and easily.

Within the first day on this diet I was so dizzy I couldn't stand up without assistance. I thought maybe it was a fluke and I had the flu, so I tried again a few months later. The same thing happened. I was so dizzy and pukey feeling it was unbearable! Someone recommended to me to start out with more carbs. So I started with over twice the amount of carbs atkins says to start out on and I was so dizzy and sick again I couldn't get out of bed. I had my husband bring me a piece of fruit, which I ate, then I laid and bed and the feeling went away after 20 minutes. Obviously this diet isn't for everyone. It can't be everyone who feels this way or they wouldn't have been able to sell so many copies of this book, right?

I recommend this book to anyone who is planning to do Atkins. Take the time to sit down and read the book before you start the plan. Once your read the first 150 pages you are pretty good to go. When you follow the plan of Induction the first two weeks can be a challenge but it is so worth it. I have been on the plan know for 3 weeks and have lost 13 lbs. I have tried for years to loose weight and I am so happy that my sister inlaw told me about this. I feel so much better. I have more energy, I have less physical pain, and I eat better than I use to.

Atkins may be ok for some people but I have talked to a lot of people who have had ill effects from this diet, me being one of them.
I was on the diet for 7 days doing the induction phase. For 4 days prior I had difficulty sleeping, muscle cramps and disturbances in my vision. I also suffered from heart palpatations. Something I had never experienced before. And then came the headaches. I am not prone to headaches and had not had one in I don't know how long, but for three days straight on this diet I had headaches.

On day seven I woke up groggy and "foggy brained" this is all supposed to be a so called normal reaction to the diet while you are weening yourself off of carbohydrates and transforming your body into a fat burning machine. I was ill the entire day and could not get up the energy to do anything. I started having other problems too. I decided then and there I was going off this diet. I went to the store and got some whole grain bread and ate it with a salad. Within two hours the fogginess was gone, headache was gone and I felt better.

I don't care what anyone says, this diet is dangerous for some people. If you do the diet and start feeling ill you should stop it right away. Personally I wouldn't even go on it in the first place. There are no long term studies on this diet and it is frightening to think of what you could be doing to you body. When you stop to think about it how normal is it to say eat all the fat, cheese, meat, butter you want but cut down on the vegetables. I know...I know...when you move up the phases in the Atkins diet you get more vegetables, nuts, dairy, etc. But what damage are you doing to your body in the meantime?

I would think a lot before starting this diet.

Is there anyone who has had such a positive impact on American's ability to lose weight as Dr. Atkins? The science has, in fact, caught up with Atkins' assertions that sugar and excess carbohydrates are deadly. For a person who wants to know if they should take this book seriously, simply read through the success stories and testimonials here on Amazon! They really say it all. If we want to shorten our lives and make our final years miserable, a good way is to smoke, eat sugar, and be overweight. I think this book is worth reading. Stay away from red meat and processed meats, though, as they have been shown to cause colon cancer. Great companion books are THE 3:00 PM SECRET: Live Slim and Strong, Live Your Dreams and 2007 Second Expert Report, Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective.

The version with a black & white photo of a boy on the cover (ISBN 1438245416) has the wrong description from Amazon--it doesn't have facsimile pages of the original manuscript. But it's a beautifully designed edition at a very low price for the large size (6"x9"--unlike the small mass market paperbacks). It's also printed on high-quality paper--not newsprint like the other versions. A great bargain at this low price.

This was a required reading for my son's class at school. Although he enjoyed the story line, the use of the local slang (written out phonetically ) was difficult for him to read and distracting to the story, he felt.

I have heard about many of the essays included in this text and was excited to find that I could get them all in one book. I love the footnotes for additional information and the fact that the essays include both sides to teaching this book. I highly recommend for anyone who needs to know more about this classic text.

I was introduced to this book back in high-school (in Australia), where my English Literature teach (who was an American) used this as one of our set texts. Despite this, I really enjoyed it, and now, near 20 years later, I picked it up in some second hand book shop for $1.50 and got engrossed in it all over again.

Mark Twain (not his real name) sailed the Mississippi river as a riverboat pilot early in his career, and the truth of his depiction of people and way of life in this novel shines through, despite the fanciful nature of the adventure. I couldn't help but get caught up in the crazy tale of Huck Finn, hopeless trouble-magnet that he is, as he struggles to get free of his troubles with the less-than-helpful assistance of a large cast of characters.

The language is a joy to read. The characters are fun to follow. And although the plot isn't the most complex, the characters themselves do a fabulous job of making the simple into convoluted mayhem. Several times I had to laugh out loud at the absurdity.

Even though I picked this book up cheap, it's well worth hanging onto. I can easily see myself re-reading this again - hopefully before another 20 years pass!

You'll notice pretty quickly when you pick this up that Huck doesn't spell too good and his grammar isn't so hot either. But if you look a little more closely, you find that he sure knows how to use the semi-colon, and his sentence structure is picture perfect. Mr. Twain may have decided that he was going to have some fun with his charming narrator, but he sure wasn't going to sacrifice good writing to do so.

The novel, as everyone knows, is a masterpiece, and works splendidly on every level. Plot, character development, theme; everything is here. Anybody reading this review has probably read the book several times and moreover has probably read about it a dozen more so it's pretty certain that my little review is not going to add much. I would, however, like to comment on something which struck me while reading it most recently, which is how richly it evokes middle America of the mid-nineteenth century. In other words, as well as being literature of the first rank, Huckleberry Finn also functions as a thorough and fascinating historical document of a time and place that every year sinks deeper and deeper into our collective memory.

Here he is describing Uncle Silas' place in Arkansas upon seeing it for the first time. "It was one of these one-horse cotton plantations and they all look alike. A rail fence round a two-acre yard; a stile made out of logs sawed off and up-ended in steps, like barrels of a different length, to climb over the fence with . . . some sickly grass-patches in the big yard, but mostly it was bare and smooth, like an old hat with the nap rubbed off; big double log house for the white folks--hewed logs with the chinks stopped up with mud or mortar, and these mud stripes been white-washed some time or another; round log-kitchen, with a big, broad open but roofed passage joining it to the house . . . hound asleep there in the sun; more hounds asleep round about . . . outside of the fence a garden and a watermelon patch; then the cottonfields begins, and after the fields the woods."

The first thing that strikes you about this is how . . . impoverished this all is, especially compared to how we live today. And this is a cotton-field owner with a number of slaves! But this was the south: rural, poor, hot, languid. Oh, yes, we are all familiar with the palatial southern mansion from novels like Gone With the Wind; I suspect that most of the South in the 1840s was closer to Huck's description than to Margaret Mitchell's.

Here's Huck's description of the town in which the King and Duke put on their first show: "The stores and houses was most all old, shackly, dried-up frame concerns that hadn't ever been painted; they was set up three or four feet above ground on stilts, so as to be out of reach of the water when the river was overflowed. The houses had little gardens around them, but they didn't seem to raise hardly anything in them but jimpson-weeds, and sunflowers, and ash-piles, and old curled up boots and shoes, and pieces of bottles, and rags, and played-out tinware . . . There was generly hogs in the garden, and people driving them out." Charming, eh? Of course, we in our modern twenty-first century aren't immune to such slovenliness. Sometimes, historical descriptions remind us that things don't change much.

Along with his brilliant observations of humanity and the human habitat the novel also contains breathtaking descriptions of nature, especially the Mississippi River. There's heavy timber on the Missouri side, mountains on the Illinois side, the lights of St. Louis: "We run nights, and laid up and hid daytimes; soon as night was most gone we stopped navigating and tied up--nearly always in the dead water under a towhead . . . Next we slid into the water and had a swim, so as to freshen up and cool off; then we sat down on the sandy bottom where the water was about knee-deep, and watched the daylight come. Not a sound anywhere--perfectly still--just like the whole world was asleep, only sometimes the bullfrogs a cluttering, maybe. The first thing you see, looking away over the water, was a kind of dull line--and that was the woods on t'other side." How wonderfully evocative this is; how it makes one ache to experience such things!

Again, the novel is so much more than this. I'm not going to bother with the theme and the plot and the characters--what else is there to say?--but I can not finish this without giving an example or two of the wonderful humor contained in here. Here's the charming Huck after sneaking into the circus under the tent: "I ain't opposed to spending money on circuses when there ain't no other way, but there ain't no use in wasting it on them." And when the King and the Duke run on hard times: "First they done a lecture on temperance, but they didn't make enough for them both to get drunk on. Then, in another village, they started a dancing-school; but they didn't know no more than how to dance than a kangaroo does, so the first prance they made the general public pranced in and pranced them out of town . . . "

Oh, how rich this is. Rich and funny and lovely and hilarious. Read it for the pure entertainment contained in here, if nothing else.

Probably the dampest book I've ever read--humidity drips off the end of each line like a light mist in a heavy fog. More is left unsaid than is written on the page, and this is truly a classic even though there is too much left unsaid for me to rate it at the very top.

Favorite line: As Marlow cautiously pilots the steamboat up the river toward the inland station and its mysterious keeper Kurtz, his manager says "I authorize you to take all the risks." Marlow curtly snaps back "I refuse to take any."

On page 3, the narrator (not Marlow) tells us that "Marlow was not typical (if his propensity to spin yarns be excepted), and to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine."
This story is not typical. Its meaning isn't inside the text; rather, the text requires its meaning to be explicated outside in the world of symbols and signs. I recently used this text in a expository writing class focused mainly on teaching what, and not how to write (what to write when confronted with your own lack of desire to write). Conrad's text needs to be fitted into 19th century philosophy and especially epistemology. For a great essay see: Decentering "Heart of Darkness" by Perry Meisel. If you're not reading this text for a class (with a teacher versed in 19th century philosophy) or with the intent to look into the historical "narrative" that brings out the meaning of the text like a "glow brings out a haze", then don't bother.
I read this book quicky in about six hours, then spent the next 7 days going through 10 pages a day. That method seemed to work but those 10 pages took nearly 2 hours to read carefully. The result is a story so filled with symbolism that even reading it as a denounciation of colonialism or mperialism seems shallow! Highly recommended for disciplined reading!

Like most people, I was familiar with Heart of Darkness, both as an acclaimed work of literature and as the inspiration for the remarkable movie Apocolypse Now. For some reason, I recently decided to make an attempt at reading it, despite my concern that it was written at a level beyond my capacity to understand.

Upon receipt of the volume from Amazon, I was initially under the impression that I had mistakenly ordered the Cliff's Notes version of the work. I had no idea that the book was essentially a short story, easily readable in 2-3 hours.

Even more surprising, was the ease with which I was able to follow and understand the story, though admittedly written in a slightly dense prose. Perhaps this was due to having seen Apocolypse Now and being familiar with the broad outline of the story and having read other works of history on the Belgian Congo.

In any event, it was a decent story, filled with some beautifully descriptive language and imagery. I must say, however, that I was not bowled over. Steamship Captain pilots a ragged boat up the Congo, accompanied by colonial agents and support staff (cannibals and other natives) in an attempt to relieve a long stranded station agent (Kurtz) who has "gone native" and become the insane source of worship for the local natives. If you've seen Apocolypse Now, you know the story, just replace the Mekong with the Congo.

I go back to my first paragraph in which I related a concern over my ability to understand what is considered a classic work of literature. I fully understood it, but was perhaps not qualified to fully appreciate it.

Most of the lower rated reviews reflect the views of students, compelled to read the novel to pass a class who are proportionately resentful of it. I was one of those students once, but I found this to be a respite from the typical "politically correct"-anemic-emasculated Literat bilge one's forced fed ad nauseum in public schooling. Get the edition with The Secret Sharer and minus all the tartuffe commentaries, ect. Great story, but no one ought to be compelled to read it.

Joseph Conrad's book, "Heart of Darkness" is the ideal choice for any high school student choosing a novel from their class reading list. Being under 200 pages in length this book works with a student's busy loaded schedule, attention span and most of all grabs their attention. Overlooking the blatant racism implemented by most colonial nations during the rush for imperialism this book is accurate to the effects and general events which transpired during this period. The outlook and comments towards the African people by their colonial oppressors is mild compared with other novels written in the early 1900's. With all the description of the surroundings and events in this book, it drags you into its pages and putting it down becomes a struggle.

The amount of symbolism in this book is amazing and refers to all aspects of human life, greed, moral standings, duty and much more. Constant description and detail is the perfect tool to awaken the imagination and the creativity of the reader. Symbolism is dripping from every paragraph along with imagery concerning anything from the unknown, the overwhelming and clamping effect of the river, the dark abyss which represents the jungle, and the natives and their fierce and alien but intriguing actions. This novel, now over 100 years old, can safely be called a classic and an extremely interesting read for any age old enough to understand the effects of early imperialism.

Ok, so the first half was pretty good. A little confusing but I got the idea, but then the ending was just so fast. All the sudden she quit her job then the next thing you know he got her own gallery? And it feels like the movie was mainly focused on steve martin and claire danes while the weird jeremy guy just got left out forgotten. Great acting by Claire Danes however. After all it is just Sad, so the Jeremy guy got her advice of "just do it" and became what she called "successful"? switched from a all banged up volkswagen to a hyundai? because he read some wacky book on some bus?

and the fact that the old dude just wanted to sleep with her? scratch that both the old guy and the weirdo Just wanted to sleep with her and, huh?? she's that desperate? it's a little disturbing.... very disturbing

the plot just sucks, but i think the actors did a good job acting i guess.

The picture on the cover is a little misleading...Mirabelle doesn't, as described in the book, seem as well put together as the woman on the cover depicts, but all in all a very thoughtfully written book about the grandiose concept of good relationships. I have been in Mirabelle's shoes, hence the review being a little jaded, but I thought Steve Martin has eloquence and wit as he writes about the frailty of a woman in her late 20's in a world of pain and discomfort. Anyone who's experienced loss, depression, and the sheer trauma of losing themselves in others, should thoroughly enjoy this book.

This book is written in a detached style, often in a passive voice. You never get inside any characters and get to know or care about them. Steve Martin does way more "telling" than "showing" and you end up feeling like you are reading a summary of a story, not a story itself.

I think the last sentence of the synopsis provided by the publisher is the perfect place to look when discussing this book: "Filled with the kind of witty, discerning observations that have brought Steve Martin critical success, Shopgirl is a work of disarming tenderness."

I agree with the first part of the sentence, but disagree with the second. When I shared my thoughts on Steve Martin's Pure Drivel I said that he was my writing role model. It is the intelligence with which he writes that amazes me and sets the bar (very high) to a level at which I wish to write someday. That intelligence comes through to create those witty and discerning observations.

While I liked Shopgirl, the piece that I thought was missing was feeling. Sure there was emotion written into the characters, but it seemed superficial. I could not feel for the characters because I did not believe they had feelings either. I still would like to stroke the intellectual part of your brain like Steve Martin, but I will have to bring my own passion to my characters.

Shopgirl is short, it's a quick read. It is more beach reading than intellectual stimulation. It was good, but not great.

This book is so horrible there are no words. It's the first time I had to force myself to finish a book. It's crass to say the least. Don't waste your money on this book. I love Steve Martins films but his writing leaves much to be desired.

Every once in a while, someone really intelligent focuses his thoughts on the most valuable skill a human can have--how to think. Nassim Taleb has done an admirable job at just that: not telling us what to think--but showing us how to think in ways we can apply to innumerable life situations. I'm talking about what Charlie Munger refers to as "multiple mental models."

The most important ideas explored are those of Popper--the idea of the open society--one in which no theory is known with certainty--only with probability, and theories continually replace one another as more information comes in. Interestingly Taleb continually cites Soros as a famous investor who utilized Popper's ideas, but Warren Buffett, the ultimate realist, if queried, would no doubt acknowledge Popper in influencing his thinking. In contrast to Soros and Buffett would be Bill Miller, an intensely philosophic investor, who recently has classified himself as an optimist--but not a realist. In any case, the methods of thinking propounded by Taleb fit nicely into what Charlie Munger classifies as "mental models"--doubtlessly useful stuff for the introspective, philosophical investor.

This book reads a lot like a self-absorbed blogger's rant, but it is a rant that is highly satisfying to read. Almost all of us have a distant relative or friend who is allegedly a "stock market genius". Taleb argues that it is usually hard to know whether that person is truly skilled or just lucky. Those of us who tend toward schadenfreude (enjoyment taken from the misfortune of someone else) can take solace in the fact that this person might just be a dolt who is likely to blow up one day. He argues that most often trading success is either the result of ones arbitrary trading style happening to jibe with market conditions or a product of exposure to volatility in a way that allows for small regular gains followed eventually by a spectacular blowup.

One of the most self-congratulatory, didactic books I've ever read. Taleb is a convinced ideologue whose expertise in stock trading has created the conviction that he sees the invisible hand at work.

He constantly reminds the reader that he is writing, restating and recasting sections with a reference to his earlier statements (never trust a writer that quotes himself) while dismissing whole schools of thought by selectively quoting from philosophers to make them look silly and misguided--if you read any philosopher, they will eventually prove themselves silly and misguided. It happens when they take themselves too seriously, which Taleb certainly does.

Overall, his ode to skepticism is well conceived, but very thin. Unfortunately, it seems to be the only idea he ever tested. He makes the frequent mistake of confusing the success of a rigorous analysis for the justification of a philosophy as a guiding system to thought for others.

Ultimately, philosophy is what Taleb suggests science is, taking the ideas of Karl Popper over the top and placing them on an alter, "science is mere speculation, mere formulation of conjecture." Popper was a solid skeptic, while Taleb is a convinced acolyte.

My husband has been struggling in the market for a good 5 or 6 years. Its really opened his eyes though. Of course its all common senses but when you've lived in denial for so long its a real eye opener. He was able to put himself into many of the positions and has stopped living on the if's and could've or should've been position. There's no more hoping for him he's looking for the signs now.

Many concepts in "Fooled by Randomness" can be mentally applied to many areas and circumstances of our lives. This book has a lot of variety both past and present that can help us in the future in how we *think* about things, our environment, and more importantly, ourselves. This review will take a different path because there have been so many written about this book already.

Author Nassim Taleb believes that Randomness and luck is more of a factor regarding people's positions and successes than most folks realize. In politics, business, economics, and a other fields and areas.

We often too quickly make the assumption that because of someone's superb and/or superior circumstances that these superior results are exclusively because of his/her smart mind, brilliant decisions, actions, and skills. Surely they must know something we don't? This isn't always the case. Sometimes it is, but not always. More often than we might think, it isn't. I see the author's repeated points that we as humans, underestimate the odds and occurrences of Randomness. But I do think diligence, planning, and acumen are also highly prevalent in many successful things we do, in life. It you're good, you'll do better than someone who isn't, in anything. Common sense is a critical factor, too. Our choices also obviously affect what happens to us, in what we passively receive.

All of us can recall times when we were given credit for something that was in all honestly, more the result of fortuity than our own doing. Do we often openly admit it? :) I do believe, that most of one's achievements is because of hard work, skill, planning, and yes luck. But for some of us, in certain situations, luck is the key reason, and there's nothing wrong with this. Those of us that have been the beneficiaries of luck should enjoy it, use it to our advantage, and perhaps most importantly, realize that we've received it.

Within the first couple of pages a detailed description lures the reader: the quick-topping Ferrari, screeching to a halt. Underlings immediately jump, scramble, and run to park the car as its owner vacates and bolts to the Trading Floor. Being a former trader, there attention paid to the trading world in FBR (Fooled by Randomness).

One of the many real-life examples and anecdotes Nassim Taleb noted was the topsy-turvy rise and crash of individuals in the world of Bond Trading: A Bond Trader named "Nemo" was envious of his 'more successful' Chicago neighbor "John the high-Yield trader," who lived right across the street. Nemo had a 14 year track record of solid returns based on careful assessments of risk. Nemo was a long-term survivor of the Bond World and had a solid personal financial base he'd built up for him and his family. Across the street, John was boorish, loud, show-offy. He loved to flaunt his toys. His wife was arrogant, and pseudo-high society. John's luck - his stint with randomness eventually ended, and he crashed. Karma....

Over the years as we get older we observe our circumstances, our environment, our peers, and our peers' circumstances in relation to *ourselves.* In the chapter, "If you're so rich why aren't you so smart?" we see the randomness of the social pecking order.

The world has many one hit wonders in politics, business, music, film, etc. And when the Random opportunity or luck of the one-hit wonder appears, people should take advantage of it. (If, they can recognize it.) Because if it's luck or randomness, it won't last forever.


Only a few times (not often) throughout this book, I had to re-read or re-scan a sentence or group of sentences to get the point Taleb was making. But the writing is good enough, to the point, and succinct. Readers should note the author is not a native English speaker and being a Mathematician, the author is likely left-brained. So readers, go easy. I do believe however, this book is decently written.

Taleb lists some of the common traits listed of people who are the beneficiaries of Randomness but don't realize it. Instead, they think their situation is the result of mostly themselves, their decision-making, and actions.

The Confusion Index:

The Confusion Index has several terms for people who assume results are because of "vision," "excellent strategy," and "brilliance." This is often the interpretation of past results. It's pretty easy to interpret past results, isn't it? It's easy to be a Monday Morning Quarterback. This is called "Hindsight Bias." Have you ever heard "It was so obvious" after the fact? Things appear more predictable after the fact. Some concepts below in the index:

Luck vs. Skills
Randomness vs. Determinism
Probability vs. Certainly
Belief, Conjecture vs. Knowledge, Certitude
Theory vs. Reality
Anecdote, Coincidence vs. Causality, Law
Forecast vs. Prophecy

My Favorite Chapter: If you're so smart why aren't you rich?

Some of the many great chapters and sub-chapters:

Gamblers' ticks & pigeons in a Box
You should be dead by now
Placebo Investors
The rare-eve fallacy: the mother of all deceptions
Survivorship Bias (one of my favorite sub-chapters)

Don't be fooled. This is....a great book.

Another good book. Kept me laughing from the first pages till the end just like all the rest of them. Bought it for a friend to see if I can get them interested in reading this humor and talking about it.

No let down on this book. Still the great characters getting in the sames messes. Great fun to read!

Janet Evanovich gives her readers another stellar performance in the eleventh Stephanie Plum novel. Stephanie has already received two threatening notes as has decided to give up in the bounty hunter business. She hands over all of her current FTA's to her former partner LuLu and takes a job at the button factory. She manages to get fired before she even starts ands seeks employment elsewhere, including the Kan Kleaners and Cluck-in-a-Bucket. Of course, her stalker continues to track her down and works on destroying several of her cars along the way. Torn between the crazy life of her old career and her new employment, Stephanie is in a role reversal with LuLu and becomes her sidekick. Riding shotgun with LuLu, Stephanie finds herself in the mix of an old crime where several of the players have mysteriously disappeared. After spotting Spiro, the undertaker's son, Stephanie is convinced that he is her stalker and is tied to the missing men. Unsuccessful at her new career attempts, Stephanie finds herself working for RangeMan, her studly and sexy bounty hunter friend Ranger's company. He current boyfriend, Joe Morelli is not too happy with his girl spending so much time with Ranger, but knows that at least he will protect her. Eleven on Top is a well-scripted mystery and comedy all in one. The suspense hangs in the air till the final pages and the lead up to the finale is amazing. The struggle for Stephanie between the two men in her life will leave reader rooting for their favorite man. Eleven on Top is just as amazing as her first novel; One for the Money and readers will rush through the pages to finish. Our favorite characters like LuLu and Grandma Mazer provide the comic relief necessary between the steamy storyline. Excellent work by Janet Evanovich who gives her readers nothing less than perfection. Valerie Jones mrsvaljones@netzero.net

I'm assuming you've read the previous 10 Janet Evanovich novels to get to this point. You laugh at Stephaine Plum and her love interests as she, the most unlikely bondsman, solves her cases. Yeah, yeah, it's funny and I like the characters. The problem is that it's like all her others. You know what to expect and she delivers, but it feels like its all been done before. I don't know if I'm going to keep reading them. I would like to see it turned into a series -- maybe on HBO. Now that might be interesting.

This was the first Stephenie Plum novel I ever read.
I actually got it from the dollar store. I was a little iffy when I heard of the series, awhile back, but when I caught one in the dollar store I thought, what the hell.

I loved this book. I laughed out loud many times.
After this one i had to buy the whole whole series, and I enjoyed ever single one. Some better than others.
Janet Evanovich is one of my favorite authors.