Money & Finance #58: Banking, Budgeting, and Spending

1)Yes our bank does offer online services, which we principally use to transfer funds. It seems to have very good security, showing special preselected screens and of course, passwords. We do not use it for online payments, as we have automatic withdrawals. We do need to be careful about passwords - that we are not writing them down, and not using the same password for sensitive money matters as \ we do other reasons/sites.

2)I did take a look at the budgeting tools and they look fine, but we really feel we have done a good job ourselves. I have to admit I am reluctant to put personal info on yet another website, which brings us back to the security issue. And Rippleplay, are you kidding me? That seems like a really bizarre concept, but I guess it must work for some people!

3)I already do almost all of the savings tips from Consumer Reports , but am interested in checking out InsWeb for competetive insurance rates and might try out taking clothes out of the dryer while still damp (hmm, that might be issue as where to put them until they dry out completely without wrinkling.)

Apologies!

My blogs for the Books, Readers, and Beyond are out of sequence because for various reasons, technical difficulties, etc., I did them out of sequence!

Books, Readers, and Beyond: #53 Finding Books Online Exercise 3

I downloaded the book, About my Sisters by Debra Ginsberg from Overdrive. For entertainment, I still at this point would prefer reading a paper copy, but perhaps that is because I do not own a device that I can download to. I certainly can not see myself reading on a desk computer a book for pleasure. I can certainly see, however, doing this for perhaps, a cookbook, or some other nonfiction title that I wish to refer to quickly. Which brings me to the advantages of the online format - being able to find words or terms quickly (handy if you want to go back and reread something) and being able to bookmark.

Books, Readers and Beyond: #54 Social Networking Through Books

Exercise 1: I have never been a member of a book club – finding the time to read books is enough of a challenge, much less finding the time to be in a club. If I did have the time, however, I would prefer one that would be in-person. It seems that the social interaction would be so much more meaningful if it were face on. And it would seem that that would be what joining a club would be all about, the sharing and the social interaction…

Exercise 2: Actually we already have an existing book club “Who Dun it @ the Library?” but we are implementing a few changes in terms of book selection. When it is my turn to facilitate, being a non-fiction reader, I decided to choose a true crime title by a local author, Kathryn Casey. This author spoke at a mystery program here and there was great interest in her true crime writing, hence the choice, Evil Beside Her. I was surprised to note that Shelfari did list this title with 2 reviews. In the future, if the club enjoys reading a true crime title once in a while, I will definitely go to ReadingGroupGuides.com to choose other titles. I was very interested to see that The Innocent Man was on that list, a possibility for next time. As a best seller, it is on the other sites, too.

Exercise 3: I searched for Into Thin Air on both Readerville.com and Shelfari.com. Not surprisingly, being nonfiction titles, there were not gobs of comments, but there were a few on both sites. The comments were similar. No surprises.

Books, Readers, and Beyond #52 What to Read, Exercise 4

I used NovelistPlus and also MidContinent Public Library as a comparison to find the series and titles for the book by Tamora Pierce. They are:

Series: Song of the Lioness

1. Alanna: The First Adventure
2. In the Hand of the Goddess
3. The Woman who Rides like a Man
4. Lioness Rampant

Books, Readers, and Beyond #52, What to Read, Exercise 3

Using NovelistPlus, I found Greg Bear, Dan Simmons, and John Saul as alternative authors to Dean Kootz.

I also went to Allreaders.com, in which you get suggestions after you have specified a title. Authors suggested were Anne Bishop, Tim Powers, and Christopher Tregus.

I prefer the Novelist site, as you can narrow according the the things you liked about the book/writing.

Books, Readers, and Beyond #52 What to Read Exercise 2

I decided to use Library Booklists and Bibliographies, since I use NovelistPlus fairly often. For the 4ht grade girl, I selected Dillon, Dillon, by Kate Banks and Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate Dicamillo. It came under the heading, "Booklists: Children's Fiction Index: Books Featuring Animals/Pets. The website went to Novi Public Library, Mi, which lists titles by grade level.

This site also had suggestions for older children. For the 13 year old brother I found Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz and A Foot in the Grave by Joan Aiken. These might be a bit on the tame side, but without more input about the brother, it might be best to make conservative choices.