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"Keeping Faith"
Jodi Picoult
Harper Perennial, $13.95
Jodi Picoult says when she was doing research for this book, many people wouldn't talk to her, would push her away without answering her questions. It's no surprise, considering one of the book's characters talks with God, experiences stigmata and heals the hurt and sick — even resurrects someone from the dead.
And that character is a 7-year-old girl, born of a Jew into a mixed family who decided against teaching any sort of religion because the parents couldn't even figure out what they wanted to be.
So if the idea that a Jewish girl without any religious background speaks to God and performs miracles is offensive, you probably shouldn't pick up this book. Oh yeah, and God is a She.
Mariah catches husband Colin having an affair, and Faith is standing there to witness her parents fight and fall out. They get divorced.
Faith begins talking about someone whom her mom assumes is an imaginary friend, but after taking her to a psychologist, Faith is seen as psychologically balanced and Mom shouldn't worry. Until Faith starts performing miracles.
Then droves of the believers and nonbelievers fill the front yard and street of Mariah and Faith's home. Faith is pulled out of school, and Mariah does whatever she can to ensure that Faith lives a normal life — whatever that is.
During their journey to attempted normalcy, Mariah is harrassed by Ian Fletcher, the anti-Billy Graham teleathiest, whose life goal is to disprove all supposed miracles from God by giving scientific explanations. But he's not sure if he can disprove Faith.
Colin tires of the fact that his daughter has become the center of all media attention and decides he wants custody. Mariah and Colin and their lawyers battle while Faith just tries to keep on being Faith, although the definition of what she is seems to have changed since she first started talking to God.
"Keeping Faith" is the perfect name for this book. What most people will think of when they hear the phrase "keeping faith" has the strong religious connotations, which obviously tie into the inexplicable miracles laced throughout the novel. And "keeping Faith" is all Mariah is trying to do the entire book. Keeping Faith normal, keeping Faith happy, keeping Faith safe, keeping Faith home.
Picoult, as usual, thoroughly develops every character. However, she might have overdone it in this book. It is difficult to tell which plot and which characters are supposed to be dominant. Faith seems to be the obvious, but then there is Mariah and the way she grows psychologically and emotionally, and Ian Fletcher, who begins to question his atheistic beliefs after not being able to figure out Faith.
After so much build up throughout the book, the climax levels out, and the story ends. But so many questions are still unanswered. Perhaps Picoult is allowing the reader to fill in the blanks and figure out what happens next. There isn't really anything left for her to say at the end of the book, but I don't get the feeling that it ended. I didn't get any closure from the ending, and I want to know what happens next.
I guess that's a strength of Picoult's — to keep the readers wanting more, long after they have put down her books. People can continue questioning what happened and what will happen to these characters after this particularly conflict has passed through their lives.
Whether Faith is actually seeing God and performing Her miracles are secondary in this story. The most important thing Picoult addresses in this book is believing in something or someone, in what will make you happy and comfortable. That was all the characters in this book needed, and God was able to give them that through faith. And Faith.
"Automatic Wealth for Grads ... and Anyone Else Just Starting Out"
Michael Masterson
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., $22.95
Michael Masterson makes it sound like it is SO EASY to become a millionaire and retire by the time you are 30.
If only he were right.
In "Automatic Wealth for Grads ... and Anyone Else Just Starting Out," Masterson explains the different ways you can make money with little effort — basically by putting a little more effort into everything you already do.
Masterson makes some good points, such as attempting to save at least 15 percent of your income and buying off-brand to save money. Find a job that you love, and your career (and paycheck) will blossom with your enthusiasm for work. Those are pretty simple ideas, and I'm guessing most grads already are buying off-brand and still living with the romantic notion that what they have studied for four (or five, or six) years will help them achieve a job they love.
But he also talks about the benefits of owning real estate, starting your own multi-million dollar business and investing in the stock market. And how many recent grads posess the knowledge to do all of those successfully?
Wealth just doesn't come as easily to everyone.
Maybe I am just bitter because my salary is significantly lower than the average of recent grads, and the average is what Masterson uses when showing how much one would need to invest at what percentage to achieve a certain amount by a certain date. I am already starting out behind in every one of his examples.
Maybe I am just bitter because his suggestions to help increase salary can't really apply to me because of the type of job I have and the type of place I work. The nature of jobs I am interested in doing will never allow me to suggest to my supervisor that he or she double my salary — to make an investment in me — because I will make the company more productive and ultimately make a higher profit.
Instead of seeing Masterson's book as a way to get rich, I see it as a guide to everything one could do to get rich. There is another element of actually going out and doing it for any of his advice to be significantly helpful, and even then, unless you already are educated about any of these areas, you probably will need to go somewhere else — a professional, a specialized book, a Web site, Mom and Dad — to make the smart decisions to help you accomplish something such as successfully investing in real estate or the stock market.
Masterson is very eager to share how he gained wealth and how it has affected his life, and that is motivation for anyone to try to do the same. He doesn't forget where he came from and everything he did to get where he is now.
And in the last chapter, Masterson really tries to illustrate how wealth has changed his life. But it gets annoying. He dedicates an entire section to explaining how to taste wine and throwing dinner parties. The point of the chapter is to show that even if you don't have wealth yet doesn't mean you can't start feeling like a million dollars now. But he loses focus. He tries to cover too many topics in detail instead of giving a general overview. The detail was necessary in his earlier chapters because he was talking about specialized topics. But to explain what wine to put with what meal? Overkill. If I want to learn about putting together wine and food, I'm going to find a different book in the library.
Masterson has some good ideas, but it's all just guidelines. Reading the book will give you ideas for what you can do to improve your financial status, but it won't make you any richer.
"Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side Of Everything"
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
William Morrow, $25.95
Be prepared to be thrown off balance from what you have generally accepted to be the norm. Economist Steven D. Levitt uses his reasoning to show that swimming pools are more dangerous than guns and the legalization of abortion was a reason for decreased crime in the early 1990s. More people die in car accidents than in airplane crashes, but is that because cars are more dangerous or because people spend more time in cars?
Are you thinking yet?
This book isn't for someone who is set in his ways, but it is for the person who is interested in expanding his mind and way of thinking. Levitt uses examples of everyday life to illustrate that what seems to be doesn't have to be.
Levitt shows that teachers and sumo wrestlers have similarities in the sense that they will cheat if it seems to help out others. That is, if they have a motive, they will do it, regardless of how unethical society has made cheating seem in their respective fields. And he has analyzed data and put the facts in simple language to show why. It's hard to accept something opposite of what you have been taught, but his reasoning shows it could be true.
Perhaps the best thing about "Freakonomics" is that it isn't written for economists or students of economics. Although it includes charts, those are merely for illustration and not for the understanding of the book overall. It is written in layman's terms using examples anyone can relate to. And if you don't understand the example he used, don't worry, he is about to explain it in a different way.
Levitt's intention isn't necessarily to make you change what you believe in and the things you know as "fact," but it will make you think. He doesn't say that others are wrong for the conclusions they have come to, but he says that it could be looked at in another way.
And that is just what our country needs. In a time where there is distrust in public figures and media outlets, people need to be taught to look at everything in a different way without just accepting what those in power say "just because." Those who are in agreement with The Powers That Be won't get much from this book, and that's a shame.
I'm not saying that "Freakonomics" is a new Bible, but it is worth a read. It might not change your mind, but it will at least open it.
