ENOUGH! and THE SECRET Debunked

CEOs nab huge paychecks, even as they apply for bailouts. Hedge fund managers score record bonuses, even as the individual investor suffers record losses. In his book ENOUGH author John C. Bogle decries the recent obsession with speculation on Wall Street. Bogle is founder of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Group, and espouses a return to investing for the long term instead of speculating and day-trading. The latter is what has brought us to the brink of financial meltdown, when a perfect storm amassed to beach the sharks, even amid their feeding frenzy. To return to sanity, we need to realize that when our values are in line, we may discover that we don't need more, regardless of the incessant urgings of get-rich-quick schemes that turn out to be a dead end. Read on audio by Alan Sklar, with additional commentary by the author, ENOUGH presents a reasoned, rational approach to life and business, devoid of the hype which Hollywood promotes as the only way to succeed. He explores the errors of speculation on all levels, from commodities futures to complex derivatives, and concludes that no one can know the future, or see the proverbial and inevitable black swan approaching. Bottom line? Shortcuts are for criminals and other losers. Don't believe them.


If you've watched much TV, no doubt you're addicted to excess. Television, after all, is about more and bigger. You're urged to consume in gluttonous abandon at every turn, never mind the environment or your own health. Even high fat, processed junk foods are touted as "healthy fast food," although the additives and chemicals in them require paragraphs of tiny print to enumerate. So what to do, once you've weaned yourself off the boob tube, and entered the real world in time to save it from crumbling around you? Try GREEN LIVING FOR DUMMIES to start. Editors Yvonne Jeffery, Liz Barclay, and Michael Grosvenor find voice in narrator Brett Barry in compiling a wealth of ideas to pinch pennies while improving your health, and the health of the planet. Covered are the uses and abuses of plastics, CFLs, the reuse of paper, jars, (even birthday cards), plus food selection and packaging impacts related to transportation. Also, why you should avoid eating cod and certain other depressed fish stocks; car sharing; electric bikes; buying new appliances; and exercise. If you put this audiobook on your iPod, and go for a hike while listening, you'll be far enough away from the TV, too, so you won't be ordering that deluxe meat lover's pizza expressly forbidden by your cardiologist.


Have you ever wondered why the most seemingly sedate and innocuous people can suddenly act recklessly demonic behind the wheel? According to Tom Vanderbilt in TRAFFIC--WHY WE DRIVE THE WAY WE DO it's because there's an anonymity inherent to the closed passenger compartment similar to a chat room on the internet. So while John Q. Public might never cut you off in conversation, he hesitates not at all to cut you off in traffic. Safe and anonymous behind tinted glass, many drivers feel a sense of invincibility--especially those whose physical smallness or emotional insecurity is suddenly enhanced by a huge or powerful vehicle. Vanderbilt explores the many ramifications of human nature in driving, as well as our misperceptions in judging how to avoid accidents. How traffic actually works can be both surprising and scary, too. Hundreds of decisions are made every minute on the road, and the chances for one mistake to snowball only increases with speed, distraction, fatigue, and a variety of X factors. Where and when do most accidents happen? On dry, sunny days on rural, two-lane roads. Where a false sense of security pervades. It was where Stephen King was struck by a pickup truck, just over a rise, walking by the side of the road. As read by David Slavin, this audiobook is best listened to while stuck in traffic. It might just save your life.

According to Barbara Ehrenreich, positive thinking has become a worldwide industry, even a religion. Setting off on a lengthy investigation of motivational speakers and TV preachers, she has uncovered some disturbing facts about how pervasive the deceptive practices have become in America, for export to the world. The book THE SECRET was an international bestseller, although claims that the techniques described would invoke the "law of attraction" via quantum mechanics was dismissed by Scientific American magazine as "bunk." Evangelist Joel Osteen has had many mega bestsellers, yet his entire message is a repetitive invocation of positive thoughts as a way to change one's situation, while garnering for himself the riches his followers seldom achieve. "Sin is almost never mentioned," she says of these TV 'preachers' who tailor their 'sermons' for the biggest audiences they can get, and whose 'churches' seldom display traditional Christian religious artifacts. More interested in paradise now (for themselves), they tell their listeners that if they truly believe in themselves they will have everything they want. "If you're in pain, or living on the edge, this is a powerful message," Ehrenreich points out, "unfortunately, the world doesn't work like that." Certainly self confidence is important, Ehrenreich admits, but wish fulfillment is not the job of "the universe" any more than it is the Easter Bunny's. "You have to actually study, learn skills, and develop as a person." To simply think positive thoughts only conjures the phrase, "the road to hell is paved with good intensions," especially for those who continue watching TV while eating junk food and visualizing unsustainable, environmentally toxic status symbol products. The implications of this book are apparent in the subtitle: How The Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. And since all of these prosperity gospel preachers and motivational speakers and life coaches played a part in creating the real estate bubble and amassing the worst consumer debt in history, BRIGHT-SIDED is one of the most eye-and-ear opening books of the year, focused on replacing blind optimism with hopeful realism.