Book Review: Help I Can't Pay My Bills by Sally Herigstad

Help! I Can't Pay My Bills: Surviving a Financial Crisis by Sally Herigstad

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I decided to read this book on a whim. We were passing the financial section in the library. I thought maybe I should read one and get some tips and ideas for cutting our expenses in this upcoming fincancial trial we are about to face. I chose this book over the many others because it seemed to be most appropriate and honestly, the title was the most catchy.



The author is a CPA and really knows her stuff, especially when it comes to taxes. But very few ideas for cutting expenses were brand new to me and few could we apply to our situation (we already have cut cable and stopped eating out and.........).



The section on taxes was great, but because we aren't poverty according to the IRS, the ideas don't apply to us.



I liked that she understood people who couldn't make ends meet. She didnt have a "you are an idiot because you're in debt" attitude or tone to her and she had ideas for how to talk to creditors if the situation gets that bad. Additionally, she had suggestions that i think most financial advisors say are taboo; she presented them with some big qualifiers though.



All in all it wasn't a bad read, just didn't have much to offer to me at our current stage in the game.



She listed several resources on her website that could be helpful to some ... I have not looked at them though, so I reallt do not know if they are still there.



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Book Review: Beautiful Lies, by Lisa Unger

I'm reading again. Finally have time and found a book that held my interest.

Beautiful Lies: A Novel by Lisa Unger


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love books that keep you guessing. Ridley Jones had a good life. She had good parents, a good job, a dead rich uncle who left her an inheritance..... Then one day she made a series of choices that changed everything and left her wondering about everything she had known to be true.

I was captivated at the first page. I kept trying to figure out if Jake, Ridley's neighbor turned lover, was the good guy or bad guy. I answered the main question of the book pretty quickly, but I think that's the intention of the author. But I was taken back at the end by the final twist.

There are questions left unanswered. Not sure if that means there will be a sequel, or if it just means there are questions unanswered.

I was left with a feeling of privilege for the life and upbringing that I had. I was left with a feeling of safety.

This was a good book, and for more than just the story. The backstory to the story was important and made me appreciate my baby girl and the laws that have come to be for cases of abuse and abandonment, etc.

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Book Review: Blindness by Jose Saramago

Blindness by José Saramago

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought this book as a "I need a book to read" book and really enjoyed it. I couldn't put it down. It was one of those stories that made me think, "What if this really happened?"


An eye doctor, his wife, a man and his wife, a young woman with dark glasses, a boy with a squint, an old man with an eye-patch and a woman with insomnia tell the story.

A White Blindness (all that is seen is white, not black) becomes an epidemic. To try to contain the spread, the government created a quarantine in an old mental hospital for anyone who was blind or came in contact with someone who was blind.

There is no contact with the outside world. All chaos breaks loose and there is nobody to keep order.

One person can see and becomes their guide, but doesn't let on that she can see.

What struck me about this story was the writing. Saramago has an extensive vocabulary and a very unique writing style. The dialogue is not broken up by paragraphs or quoted. Instead, it's written as one long paragraph at a time. The paragraphs take on a page and a half or more. The characters don't have names, just descriptions. It adds to the mystery and the chaos and the unknown. The characters don't know anyone's name.

This book is not fluff. It is not horror. It is not light. It has no political agenda. It just tells a story. A story that made my brain think, "What if?" Is this realistic? Is this how life would be? How would I react?

This book won the Nobel Prize for Literature

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Book Review: Harvesting the Heart, by Jodi Picoult

Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another Picoult book that kept me from sleeping and on the edge of my seat, although not as much of a socially controversial topic as the other two I've read.


At 18, Paige has run away from home to escape her past, hoping to find herself in her future. She meets Nicholas, a surgical resident from Harvard. They are engaged by their 4th date and cut off from his parents.


A relationship that starts out as romantic and fairy-taleish as possible gets harder and more realistic as life goes on. After 8 years of marriage, Nicholas working to be the chief of cardiothoracic surgery, and Paige working 2 jobs just to make ends meet, she gets pregnant.


Paige never had a mom growing up. She doesn't know anything about babies. Nicholas is away all the time. They have no family who they can call for help. Paige has no idea what she is doing and Nicholas comes home every night exhausted and seemingly unwilling to help. Then she just breaks. A quick trip to the store turns into a 3-month excursion to find her mom and connect the pieces of her present with the brokennes of her past.


Meanwhile Nicholas is trying to be a doctor and a single father of a 3-months old.


Paige eventually comes home, but not to what she left. Her heart is different, his heart is different, and the truth starts to make its way to the open.


I really loved this book. I couldn't put it down. I could see the rolling hills of North Carolina, I could hear the sounds of the hospital, I could smell the smells of a baby, I could see the look in Paige's eyes. Picoult does a phenomenal job holding my attention and of course making me think of any of my future babies, my own mom, and how I will be as a mom.


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