Because of A Book with Stuart Lutz

This week I have Stuart Lutz on the blog talking about the most influential book that he has read.

Stuart Lutz has always been fascinated by the stories told by older people. Perhaps it started when he was a boy and heard his great-grandparents recount their immigrant voyage to America, their first airplane sighting, and the first time his great-grandmother could legally vote (even though she had been married four years). Also, when he was young, he was intrigued during a family trip to Charleston, South Carolina, when the tour guide pointed out the building that still housed some Confederate widows, even though the Civil War had been over for 125 years. He could not understand how that could be, until the guide explained that some young ladies married much older men who had fought in the Civil War.

Lutz’s interests in history and writing come together in The Last Leaf, an oral history book featuring the stories of almost forty survivors and eyewitnesses to historically important events. Lutz is the only person to have interviewed the last three Civil War widows (the last one died in 2008), but The Last Leaf also features the last American World War I soldier, the final living person to have flown with Amelia Earhart, the final pitcher to give up a home run to Babe Ruth in his historic 1927 season (when Ruth hit sixty home runs), the last suffragette, the final Medal of Honor winner for heroism on Pearl Harbor Day, the last person to have made design contributions to the ENIAC (the first electronic, programmable computer), the final Iwo Jima flag raiser, the last survivor of the sunken Lusitania, the final Harry Houdini stage hand, and the last employees of Thomas Edison and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Each chapter blends the narrative of the “Last Leaves” with historical background so readers can understand what occurred and the long-term importance of each event.

Lutz owns Stuart Lutz Historic Documents, Inc., a firm that sells rare letters and manuscripts (www.HistoryDocs.com). He has written for American Heritage and Civil War Times Illustrated, and appeared on National Public Radio. He has a B.A. in American History from Johns Hopkins.

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My Most Influential Book

By Stuart Lutz

About fifteen years ago, I lived in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Not only is it one of the country’s wealthiest counties, it is one of the showiest too. Everyone, it seemed to me, owned a luxury car, took exotic vacations, and shopped at the local boutiques. And frugal me was driving an old Mitsubishi Colt with 140,000 miles that required bi-monthly repairs, and living in a small apartment in a woman’s subdivided house. It was easy to wonder what I was doing wrong.
I mentioned this conundrum to my uncle, who was then a top executive for one of the country’s most prestigious financial firms. “Most Americans,” he explained to me, “are so far in credit card debt that they will never get out, or they two weeks away from living on the street [his forecast is being proven by today’s foreclosure crisis].” I was momentarily puzzled by what he said, and I responded with, “Perhaps for the little guy, but these people who drive Mercedes, they can’t be two weeks away from foreclosure.” “They frequently are,” he replied. “People who make big money usually spend big money. Or they skip contributing to their retirement funds so that they have no accumulated wealth. I read recently that the average luxury car buyer only makes something like forty or fifty thousand dollars a year. It’s hard to get ahead financially when the price of your car equals your annual salary.”
Soon thereafter, I received a package from my uncle containing The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William D. Danko. The book is an academic, yet easily readable, study of people who have at least a million dollars in wealth, excluding the value of their homes. The people profiled include business owners worth seven figures, or others who have frugally saved over a million dollars in their retirement accounts. Stanley and Danko emphasize several characteristics the millionaires generally share, including frugality, a desire for financial independence, self-employment, and an emphasis on saving, investing, and budgeting. The authors define “underaccumulators of wealth” and “prodigious accumulators of wealth,” and introduced me to one of my favorite phrases, “big hat, no cattle.”
The Millionaire Next Door is the most influential book I have read in the past two decades for a few reasons. First, it is my desire to be financially independent. Recent news stories state that the Social Security trust will be exhausted in 2037, about the time I can first collect. If there is not going to be Social Security, then I need to be a “prodigious accumulator of wealth” to retire.
Second, the book showed that the frugality that I learned from my parents is the lifestyle that I want to have. I am just not a Mercedes or BMW person. Instead, I am delighted to drive my seven-year old Toyota with 146,000 miles or my fifteen year old Acura with 206,000 clicks; I prefer them to the slavery of new car payments or a lease. Yet my frugality does not mean all self-denial; my wife and I have twice traveled to Hawaii and Ireland; we just do it in the off-season when rates are cheaper.
I re-read The Millionaire Next Door at least once a year for continued inspiration. But my page-flipping is only the theoretical. As for the actual practice of becoming financially independent, I think of the book once a month when I deposit my hard-earned, hard-saved check into my retirement accounts.
To conclude, I own a business that buys and sells historic documents and letters. I have a client who made a fortune on Wall Street and collects papers related to early financial history. About fifteen years ago, he bought at auction one of the first known American stock certificates for almost $40,000. Subsequently, I bought the letter that should accompany the aforementioned stock, and I sold it to him for nearly $10,000. I met this gentleman at a New England hotel to show him the letter. When we finished our business, we walked out to the parking lot, and he got into a beat-up Buick that looked like it belonged in the local demolition derby. Yet he had spent nearly $50,000 on two sheets of paper. He was living proof of the millionaire next door.

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About The Millionaire Next Door:  The bestselling The Millionaire Next Door identifies seven common traits that show up again and again among those who have accumulated wealth. Most of the truly wealthy in this country don't live in Beverly Hills or on Park Avenue-they live next door. This new edition, the first since 1998, includes a new foreword for the twenty-first century by Dr. Thomas J. Stanley.



Buy it at Amazon
Buy it at IndieBound
Buy it at Powells

About The Last Leaf:  When we read about famous historical events, we may wonder about the firsthand experiences of the people directly involved. What insights could be gained if we could talk to someone who remembered the Civil War, or the battle to win the vote for women, or Thomas Edison's struggles to create the first electric light bulb? Amazingly, many of these experiences are still preserved in living memory by the final survivors of important, world-changing events.
In this unique oral history book, author and historic document specialist Stuart Lutz records the stories told to him personally by people who witnessed many of history's most famous events. Among many others, Lutz interviewed:

-the final three Civil War widows (one Union and two Confederate)
-the final pitcher to surrender a home run to Babe Ruth
-the last suffragette
-the last living person to fly with Amelia Earhart
-the final American World War I soldier
-the last surviving employees of Thomas Edison, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Harry Houdini.

The wide-ranging stories involve humor (the 1920 Olympic medalist who stole the original Olympic flag), tragedy (the last survivor of the 1915 Lusitania sinking), heroism (the final Medal of Honor recipient for actions on Pearl Harbor Day), and eyewitnesses to great events (one of the last scientists at the first nuclear chain reaction, and the final Iwo Jima flag raiser).
In more than three-dozen chapters, Lutz blends background information in a lively narrative with the words of the interviewees, so that readers not familiar with the historical episodes described can understand what occurred and the long-term significance of the events.

Buy it at Amazon
Buy it at IndieBound
But it at Powells
 

Blog Tour - The Sons of Liberty

Today, I am pleased to be one of the stops on the blog tour for a new graphic novel from Random House, The Sons of Liberty!  I am a huge fan of historical fiction and love to learn about our country's history, so when I heard about this book for kids, I had to jump on board the tour.  History is fascinating to me, but it seems that more and more, the kids today, don't share that same fascination, and many of them don't know the history of our country.  What better way to teach them, than through a graphic novel, which we all know is the rage with kids right now.

The Sons of Liberty is written by The Lagos Brothers, who have graciously stopped by today, to share their thoughts with you.  Let's hear what they have to say, and then I'll share the book with you.

New Jersey in the 70’s was a unique place and time. We were the first to get the spill over and hype on all the big new comic books coming out of New York. Marvel was riding high and the creators made public appearances to which our parents happily delivered us.
I remember when they took us to St. Petersburg Park in Elizabeth. I was about five; Joseph was about nine. Stan Lee was there giving away free “Power Records”. These were comic books that you read along with a 45 rpm record. Joseph, being the older brother, had the luck of weaving his way through the throng of excited kids to engage this amazing creator. Mr. Lee shook his hand and yelled out “Excelsior!” I, unfortunately, was held back by our mother’s hand and had to watch the whole thing from the sidelines with big jealous eyes. Joseph came back from the crowd beaming and carrying about a dozen comics.
Back home we played the records and I sat next to my brother as he turned the page when the record would ding at the end of every scene. We were on cloud nine. The stories of good versus evil, masked vigilantes, secret identities and super powers swept us away. When we finished, I ran over and smashed my superhero action figures together. Joseph, on the other hand, was off on a flight of imagination, writing in his notebooks. Exhausted from beating the hell out of my toys, I jumped onto my bed and under my Spider-Man blankets and listened to my brother read his stories. And I was right back on cloud nine.
Joseph stuck with it and blossomed as a writer always sharing his incredible stories with me. Idolizing him, I tried to keep up; stapling notebook paper together and writing and drawing my own comic book adventures. Little did we know that all those years of sharing our imagination with each other would culminate into our writing of The Sons of Liberty. Funny thing is, I am still trying to keep up with him. I should have spent less time smashing my toys.

About the Book:  Forget everything you thought you knew about America's early days-history packs a punch in this full-color, two-fisted, edge-of-your-seat adventure!

Graphic novels are a revolution in literature, and The Sons of Liberty is a graphic novel like no other. Visual and visceral, fusing historical fiction and superhero action, this is a tale with broad appeal-for younger readers who enjoy an exciting war story, for teenagers asking hard questions about American history, for adult fans of comic books, for anyone seeking stories of African American interest, and for reluctant readers young and old.

In Colonial America, Graham and Brody are slaves on the run-until they gain extraordinary powers. At first they keep a low profile. But their mentor has another idea-one that involves the African martial art dambe . . . and masks.

With its vile villains, electrifying action, and riveting suspense, The Sons of Liberty casts new light on the faces and events of pre-Revolution America, including Ben Franklin and the French and Indian War. American history has rarely been this compelling-and it's never looked this good.

You can follow the Lagos Brothers as they tour the blogosphere.  Yesterday they stopped at Trouble with Comics, and tomorrow they will be at Largehearted Boy.  You can also find them and everything you wanted to know about the book at their website, The Sons of Liberty.

Look for a review of this book later this week, but I do have an extra copy for giveaway.  Please comment on this post about why you think you would like this book, and you'll be entered to win.  If you tweet about it, post it on Facebook, or let me know you are a follower of this blog, you will gain an extra entry for each.  You have until Thursday, June 3 at midnight, to enter.

Clara Gillow Clark Drops By

Clara Gillow Clark has stopped by this afternoon to talk about writing historical fiction for young children.  As a lover of historical fiction myself, I am fascinated by what she has to say and anxious to read some of her works.  I hope you enjoy her as well.  She introduces herself:

I’m the youngest child in a family who came from a long line of farmers and readers. I began school in a one-room schoolhouse and wanted to be an inventor, archaeologist, geologist, missionary, solo violinist until I realized that writers were real people who really existed and weren’t like Santa Claus. After marrying and having a son, I read a magazine article on children's author Judy Blume, who, like me, was a stay-at-home wife who sold my own crafts before starting my writing career. Inspired, I began commuting to writing classes in New York City, while juggling jobs ranging from teacher's aide to store manager.


Now I work at home. When I’m not writing--or reading, or teaching writing, or talking shop with other writers in person or on-line—I enjoy baking, gardening, sewing, and walking the dirt roads that border our country cottage surrounded by meadows and woods. Walking is a love I learned from my father, who took his sprawling brood on nature walks and taught us to stop long enough to really see things. I live in Pennsylvania with my husband, Stephen Jennings.

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Clara Gillow Clark ~ The Country of My Heart

The beauty of historical fiction is that the more you research, the more the story develops. It's sort of like decorating, picking the things that work well together, throwing in something a little offbeat or wild for contrast, something unexpected. My novel, Hill Hawk Hattie, set in the late nineteenth century rides the rapids of a tumultuous father-daughter relationship that takes readers on a river-rafting adventure.

Researching Hill Hawk Hattie was a labor of love. The setting of the book takes place in the country of my heart, the Upper Delaware, where for many years I gathered materials to write a book about the old-time rafting era. Serendipitously, mysteriously, the story came flooding together one day when I was out walking on the dirt roads that border my property, and Hattie's voice rushed like a torrent into my head. Discovering the character of Hattie felt like a gift, this little girl with the powerful voice. Some days I had to pinch myself, so happy that she kept showing up to work with me.

Writing Hill Hawk Hattie was a slight change for me. My earlier historical novels were based on real people--my mother in Annie’s Choice, my great-grandmother in Nellie Bishop, and my great-great uncle in Willie and the Rattlesnake King. I loved discovering my family stories, researching the time period, and then writing about it, but letting go of family stories was a liberating experience for me. It was important for me to write those stories, but it was more fun writing about Hattie who sprang from my imagination.

Hattie is a feisty, 11-year-old girl whose mother has died and her father dresses her as a boy so she can join him on a perilous rafting journey. It’s a story of tough love and healing. I hope kids take away comfort and strength from Hattie's story, an understanding that sometimes the people closest to us have a hard time saying in words, 'I love you'. I want kids to know that everybody has tough times, but the only way to get through them is to keep on going.

Hattie’s story continues in Hattie on Her Way, a story that moves her from the dangerous river to her prim grandmother's house. Like Hattie, I lived in a very rural area. Shortly after my father died, we moved to a town that seemed cold and frightening at first. I faced the challenge of being a tall misfit alongside petite girls who wore nice dresses and shiny shoes and knew the proper etiquette of birthday treats and valentines. Hattie's story is much tougher than my own, but we share many of the same emotional struggles, experiencing both loss and healing, and searching for sense and meaning in a topsy-turvy world.

In the final book of the series, Secrets of Greymoor, Hattie longs for a friend, but goes about it all wrong. She makes a lot of mistakes, including hiding a letter from her grandmother that has TAX COLLECTION—PAYMENT OVERDUE stamped on it. Like Hattie, I did change schools (several times) and often felt bewildered about how to make friends. I didn’t make up stories, and I didn’t have Hattie’s fiery tongue even though I often wished to be feisty and tell elaborately embellished stories like a girl did in my second grade class. I’m afraid I was much more like the character of Effie in the book Secrets of Greymoor who wants to be friends with Hattie, but simply isn’t brave enough.

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Clara has offered a set of her Hattie books to one of my readers.  All you have to do is comment on this post.  Which Hattie book are you most looking forward to?  Enter by midnight Monday, May 17th.  The winner will be drawn at random and posted on Tuesday, May 18th.  Spread the word for extra entries.

About Secrets of Greymoor:  In this nineteenth-century mystery, a spunky girl strives to decipher a code in order to recover her family’s lost fortune.

No one ever talks about Hattie’s grandfather, who’s been hidden in the Utica Insane Asylum ever since he squandered Grandmother’s fortune and started hearing voices in the walls. When a telegram arrives with news of Grandfather’s death, old wounds are reopened and financial ruin looms once again. But it’s not until Hattie intercepts a threatening notice from the tax collector that she realizes they’re in danger of losing everything — including the family estate. A mysterious book containing a code written by Grandfather leads Hattie to believe that Grandmother’s fortune may not be lost after all, however, and though she works feverishly to crack the code, every step forward leads to another riddle. Are the contents of the book simply the ravings of a madman, or is it possible that there was more to Grandfather than met the eye?

Blog Tour - Medina Hill

Let’s Tour Medina Hill

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Welcome! Thank you for joining us from Stop, Drop, and Read

Hello! I'm so glad that you have stopped by today on the "Let's Tour Medina Hill" blog tour.  I am excited to shared my thougts about this book with you today and hope that you will take the time to check out some of the other stops on the tour as well.

Synopsis of the Book:  (from Amazon) 
In the grimy London of 1935, eleven-year-old Dominic Walker has lost his voice. His mother is sick and his father’s unemployed. Rescue comes in the form of his Uncle Roo, who arrives to take him and his young sister, Marlo, to Cornwall. There, in a boarding house populated by eccentric residents, Marlo, who keeps a death grip on her copy of The New Art of Cooking, and Dominic, armed with Incredible Adventures for Boys: Colonel Lawrence and the Revolt in the Desert, find a way of life unlike any they have known. Dominic’s passion for Lawrence of Arabia is tested when he finds himself embroiled in a village uprising against a band of travelers who face expulsion. In defending the vulnerable, Dominic learns what it truly means to have a voice.

My Review:  Medina Hill is a great piece of historical fiction for middle-school aged readers.  It's hard to find quality historical fiction for this age group, so I'm excited to see this one fromTrilby Kent.  I think it will appeal to boys and girls alike who are interested in history.  It may even convert some non historical fiction readers!

Some of the themes in this book are: friendship, family and leadership.  All of these are topics that young readers, in my opinion, should be reading and/or learning about.  Many times are role models are not the best, so if they are reading about it and seeing examples in books, maybe they will take something away from that to apply to their lives.

At times, the story seemed to jump around a bit, not really focusing on or developing many of the plots and characters fully.  That being said, I did enjoy the book.  I just wish that I could have gotten to know some of the characters better.

Lots of topics are taken on in this book and I think that middle schoolers will enjoy the historical setting, the friendships, and the way Dominic finds his voice.

About the Author: 
Trilby Kent was born in Toronto, Ontario, and grew up in cities on both sides of the Atlantic. After completing degrees at Oxford University and The London School of Economics, she worked in the rare books department at a prominent auction house before turning to writing feature articles for publication in Europe and North America. She now lives in London, England. Medina Hill is Trilby Kent’s first novel.

For more information, please visit the Tundra Books website or get your own copy here: at Amazon, at Barnes and Noble, or at Chapters.

Please follow the tour to: Bookalicio.us.
 
You can also visit these other sites:
Bloody Bookaholic
A Patchwork of Books
Frenetic Reader