Summer Rental by Mary Kay Andrews will have you wondering if your life is on the right track as you consider whether to have gin or vodka with your orange juice.
Like a day at the beach, this is an easy read that can be read quickly, but it's not all fun and games for the main characters. Andrews writes at a steady pace, taking the right amount of time to build scenes and emotions, giving it a strong sense of place. A veteran of vacation reading, she is the author of other coastal stories, including “Summers at the Saint,” “Weekenders,” and “High Tide Club.” With her intimate knowledge of her surroundings, Andrews knows how to let scenes permeate while building characters with anxiety, guilt, and more questions than answers. Characters are trying to rebuild their lives and set out on new paths before the sand slips through their toes.
Similarly, “Vacation Rental” by veteran author Katie Syce combines romance and suspense in a beach read. A strange connection sees the main characters surprised to discover they have more in common than they thought, but it also highlights the author's insight and insight into their psyches. The characters are delightfully flawed and fully drawn as women who face difficult decisions on what should be a fun outing to the countryside. There's enough drama and ambiguity to keep you turning the pages as the tide comes in, so while you may not find a traditional happy ending, it's ultimately a setting and a play on peace and tranquility that many holidaymakers will identify with.
Turning to the dark side, can buildings and apartments become haunted or somehow tainted by evil? You won't know the answer until you read “The New Couple in 5B” by Lisa Unger, author of “Under My Skin”. Unger describes what happens when you inherit a dream apartment. A young New York couple, Rosie and Chad, inherit a luxury apartment in Manhattan's glamorous Murray Hill neighborhood from a relative and are initially overjoyed. Previously, they were barely making ends meet, but what initially seemed beautiful and sublime on the surface turns into something evil, corrupt and vile. There are cameras everywhere, uniformed doormen keep regular watch, while neighbors are dying one by one. Sprinkled with authentic New York characters, the story is so good you can almost smell the coffee and bagels with every breath. This is a fast-paced, paranoia-inducing tale that will make some people want to sleep with the lights on.
Flip through the pages of non-fiction and you think real estate is a complicated business? Not everyone agrees. Veteran Steve Schur's Real Estate Is Not Rocket Science may help clear up some misconceptions and spark debate. With over 30 years of experience as a real estate sales professional and agent coach, Schur has identified six fundamental areas, known as his Simple Building Blocks, as a guide to getting rich in real estate. He promises to “transform your job from an exhausting, never-ending chase into a scalable, stress-free business.” We've heard this before. Schur offers a step-by-step “playbook,” but following his system may keep you from jumping off the roof of yet another spec house. To others, the promise may seem too good to be true. Real estate, like most other businesses, requires hard work, dedication, and determination to succeed. A system may offer some guidance and answer some questions, but real estate, especially in the Hamptons, is never armchair theory. Some of us thrive on systems that others would rather avoid. For those struggling to find direction in their real estate careers, there is hope at the end of Schall's rainbow.
Speaking of systems, do you need a regular means to build wealth? Do you believe that your money should work at least as hard as you do? Have you ever watched other people's yachts pass by and wondered what you're doing wrong? Then read Brian Preston's Millionaire Mission. Building wealth usually takes time, effort, and sacrifice, but with a “system” you might be able to efficiently move things at least toward the positive side of your balance sheet. As a Certified Financial Planner with over 25 years of financial planning experience, Preston must know a thing or two about what he's writing about.
Preston claims we live in “the most amazing time in the history of the world to build wealth” and believes “anyone can get rich.” If this is true, why do so many struggle? Preston correctly points out that the first step to building wealth is to “change your attitude,” before covering many of the basics of building wealth. Yet Preston himself always leaps off the page with a refreshingly optimistic attitude, even after presenting stark data about how little most Americans save and invest. His YOLO mantra (an acronym for “you only live once”) can skyrocket one's financial outlook.
In fact, “change” is a key word in Preston's vocabulary. He argues that if someone really wants to seriously improve their finances and accumulate real long-term wealth, they must first change their habits and attitudes. Most people procrastinate when it comes to saving and are not taught how to plan or set goals, so they suffer the consequences that are often called financial inertia, which results in the concept of achieving “real wealth” remaining elusive to most people. How do you get started? Think of your life like a business. Eliminate or reduce your debt and manage your emotional risks. A word of warning: don't try to get rich quick. You will probably fail and be even more disappointed. If necessary, get the help of an independent financial advisor.
Moving on to lighter reading, I wish they were all California girls. Nothing beats listening to music on the beach. If you can't sing along, you can at least read about it, or enjoy the numerous photos and historical anecdotes of one of America's most iconic bands, “The Beach Boys.” Genesis Publications has released a limited edition (500 copies) of what they call the only “official” Beach Boys book. The book, almost like an “endless summer,” features perspectives and memories from Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Dennis Wilson, Carl Wilson, Bruce Johnston, and numerous photos. With unlimited access to the Capitol Records archives, the book features handwritten notes, black and white photos of the Beach Boys in their formative years, and snippets of information, trivia, facts, and politics of the time that often parallel the continued growing love affair with American rock and roll. Given the extremely limited print run, this will likely be hard to come by, but for Beach Boys fans, it will be well worth the hunt.