Money, money honey: Books reviews

I took a few days off for the holidays and I will be taking it easy this week also. I feel so refreshed and recharged ready for an exciting 2009.

To save money or get out of debt are some of the most common new year resolutions. With the talk of the recession and the most painful economic period since the great depression a lot of people want now more than ever to have a safety cushion and to eliminate credit card debt.

Recently I read the two books on this subject. One of them is an old book from the early nineties. The title is "Your money or your life." I read the original book; I have not read the newest version. This is a great book to get perspective on financial issues; I highly recommend this book. I have many of values that the author suggests and I can say they work.

The book highlights the fact that every hour we are making money we are also investing our life; every time we spend money we are spending our "life." So every time we spend, it should justified the cost in "life" hours that we are putting on to make the money.

The book is not solid on investment ideas, but it is on money management and life strategies. I think this is a great read for most people.

The other book I read is "The smart cookies guide to making more dough." This book was written by five friends that years ago followed the Oprah debt diet. They were in one of the Oprah's shows and I found their experience very inspirational.

Well, they wrote a book documenting the changes they made in their lives in order to put their finances in top shape. This is a group of young women who have become solvent and accumulated assets while having a rich, interesting life, they are smart, chic spenders not stingy savers. The first part of the book about their lives is interesting and educative, and I
recommend reading the book.

Some of their investment recommendations including real estate are not sound and need to be taken with a pinch of salt (or a whole pound in some cases). The book discusses at the end some financial principles, this is very basic information and I think there are a lot better books to learn it from. In general a nice book to read.

Books reviews

These are some of the books I have read recently

1- Get Positively beautiful by Carmindy

This is the new book of Carmindy, the popular makeup artist of the TV program What Not To Wear on TLC. This is Carmindy's second makeup book. I liked her first book, but I like this one even more. The book has some interesting makeup looks and clever tips.

I like the first part of the book where Carmindy discusses the importance of self-esteem and loving oneself. She tells her own story as an insecure child and teenager. She is so beautiful that I never would have thought that she may have had insecurity issues at any point of her life.

It is a nice book, specially the first chapter. I suggest you first take a look in the bookstore before buying it.


2- Domino the book of decorating

I like the Domino magazine because it is current, it has real decorating advice for people with reasonable budgets. The book is as the magazine, beautiful, modern and practical. I found the first chapter especially useful, which advises how to start the process of decorating. It has a lot of pictures and examples.


3- The green beauty guide

This is a book by Julie Gabriel. There are a lot of books on this hot topic, I am disappointed by many, but not by this one. It has a lot of research and practical advice. It does not recommend "go buy expensive products" or even worse "buy my product line."

This is a book to read for eco-beauties.

4- The One Hundred
A Guide to the Pieces Every Stylish Woman Must Own
By Nina Garcia

The author is the well-known judge on Project Runway and fashion editor. I liked this book, it has a lot of fun and useful advise. It is a very girly book that discusses the one hundred items of clothes that Nina thinks every woman should own. I like the fact that Nina encourages every woman to develop her own unique style.

Some of the pieces that Nina recommends are expected or classics, but others are surprising such as:

A charms bracelet.
A concert tee shirt
A little white dress
Converse sinkers

Of course the book gives ideas, not every woman can wear or wish to wear all the pieces Nina recommends.

The book has a lot of beautiful illustrations by Ruben Toledo. I love illustration so I will buy the book just to have the illustrations (I read it from the library). I recommend this book; it is a nice, relaxing book.


5- Organic Housekeeping

Organic Housekeeping: In Which the Non-Toxic Avenger Shows You How to Improve Your Health and That of Your Family, While You Save Time, Money, and, Perhaps, Your Sanity by Ellen Sandbeck.

Long name for a very useful book. I read this book a few years ago, but I reread recently to get some recipes for cleaning products. It has a lot of useful advice; I will not try everything but in general, this is a book with tons of useful information.

It has recipes and advice on how to use common products to clean the house and do laundry. I have saved money reading this book, because green cleaning can be expensive if you buy some products that you can easily make at home.

Book review: Simply Delicioso by Ingrid Hoffmann

This is a pretty book with good and simple recipes from Ingrid Hoffman, the host of the TV program of the same name on the Food Network.

Since I am mainly a vegetarian, I have problems with most cooking books. I read them because I like the photography and I prefer to adapt recipes from these books to vegetarian ingredients than the sometimes tasteless recipes in vegetarian books.

I found some easy recipes here, such as her enchiladas recipe. Enchiladas are difficult to make, but Ingrid has an easier version. The cheesecake flan is also good and you can get the recipe in her website

I like the photography and her new take on traditional Latin American cuisine. The book is about Ingrid's interpretation of some traditional recipes mixed with other exotic ingredients and simplified for the modern American kitchen.

My only negative comment is that she uses too many sweet ingredients. To me to mix sweet and savory can be not good for health and
digestion, besides calories and good skin.

Book review Rosa Mexicano cookbook

Rosa Mexicano is one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in New York (they have locations in other cities too). The cuisine manages to be innovative and authentic at the same time. Rosa Mexicano is an upscale Mexican restaurant, the food served here is not the one found in the normal Mexican restaurants that are everywhere.

The food at Rosa Mexicano is definitely Mexican and flavors are well balanced. The cookbook has many of the recipes on the menu and a lot of explanations of chilies and other Mexican ingredients. I found the information on Mexican cuisine ingredients very helpful as well as the tips on making tortillas and quesadillas. The recipes in this book require ingredients that are not so easy to get in many parts of the country.

Rosa Mexicano is famous for its guacamole, which is made at the table in front of the diners. I like their guacamole and I was happy to see the recipe in the book. This is a really good guacamole, and really Mexican without mayonnaise and garlic which are American versions of the dish.

I only have one recommendation on making tortillas. The author recommends to use supermarket plastic bags to line the tortilla press. It is important to understand that the grocery bags are made from the cheapest plastic that is not food-grade (in other words it is not designed to come in direct contact with food and often contains nasty chemicals and additives that should not be ingested). You will be better off using a a sandwich bag (a normal Ziploc bag) that is made from a higher quality plastic.

Book review: Deluxe; How luxury lost its lust

This book has been written by Dana Thomas, a Newsweek correspondent with many years of experience in the fashion and luxury industry. I heard about the book from my husband who listened to the author's interview on NPR and since it is my line of work, I rushed to read the book.

I found the book fascinating from beginning to end. The book includes a short story of luxury and how the industry has evolved from craftsmanship and personalization to mass marketing of manufactured products (now) made in China.

Dana takes the veil away from the luxury industry and reveals how marketing and corporate greed manipulate us to buy overpriced goods that in reality are mass-market products made in China. The book is an investigative report that included visits to many countries and many interviews with people in the industry. Dana talks how fragrances and handbags are the products that are heavily promoted by corporations because they do not need many sizes and there are fewer returns. The handbag has become the most important product to sell for designers; the markups in these products are huge (from 10 to 13 times in the case of Louis Vuitton).

Dana talks about something that we all have noticed. Not long ago the designer houses had classic bags that one bought with the hope that they would be in fashion for years to come. That is not the case anymore. There are very few classic bags; the collections change every season. It is very difficult for most people to keep up with the "It" bag of the moment. The prices, despite mass production and distribution, have gone up in total contrast to all other product categories where products typically go down as companies send productions in cheap countries. So we are paying more money for lower quality and less exclusivity.

Dana also touches on the exploitation of the red carpet as a promotional campaign for designers and how in the beginning the stylists just got money to put the clothes on their clients but now the clients (the celebrities) get money to wear the dresses, jewelry, shoes, etc. and all they have to do is to repeat the name of the designer whenever a television host asks.

The chapter on fake designer bags is very interesting. The bags are mainly made in sweatshops in China, many of them with forced child labor. She also argues that terrorist groups, realizing the potential for huge profits from selling fake goods all over the world, are behind many such counterfeit businesses and use the profits for terrorist activities and it is believed that the money from counterfeit products has been used to support the September 11 attacks in New York.

As I said I really enjoyed this book and it makes me think more about paying all that money for designer goods. I am not saying I will not buy them again, most probably I will, but I will now know what went on before I got hold of a handbag.