My Buy Essay

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Looking for a heartwarming frolic through the life of a dog? John Grogan new bestselling book Marley & Me : Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog delivers. This story of a young family making their way through life with the help of a neurotic dog will have you laughing out loud one moment, and then wiping a tear the next.

Maybe your thinking "I don’t like dogs… why would I want to read an entire book about one?" Let me confide with you: that is exactly what I thought when I picked Marley & Me off the shelf. I have never owned a dog, and don’t especially like my neighbor’s dog. I have no plans to ever own a pet dog… this book definitely served to solidify my determination never to own "man’s best friend".

However, whether or not you are a "dog person", there is still an awful lot to gain and enjoy while reading this book. The memories are so personal and heart-felt, at times you can completely forget Marley has anything to do with the book. But then he comes barreling back in the next paragraph, bringing humorous antics with every step.

The book starts with a young couple, John and Jenny, newly weds in Palm Beach, looking for some new challenge in life. They were deeply in love, with a great house, great careers, and not a care in the world. That lasts about 2 pages… that is until they bring Marley home. Little did they know that their lives would never be the same again.

As a ninety-seven pound Labrador retriever with more energy that an Alaskan oil rig, Marley’s entry into John and Jenny’s life is a whirlwind of disaster. Crashing through screen doors, destroying carpets, gouging drywall, eating jewelry are all in a day’s work for the pup. Yet through it all, the book points out the unconditional love Marley has for his family, and they have for him. Just as his ruinous powers appear endless, his love and loyalty know no bounds.

In this book John Grogan takes us along to some of Marley’s craziest adventures. The story of Marley being thrown out of obedience school is hilarious, mostly because of the hard nosed dog trainer who eventually has her pride fed to her by Marley in a silver doggy bowl. When Marley is cast in a local film production as the "typical family dog", we all cringe at what damage this dog can do. Sure enough, after a full day of filming a 15 second clip, the only thing Marley has accomplished is destroying the set and chewing through his leash.

One of the most memorable stories is that of the Grogan family going out on the town for a family dinner. With Marley in toe, they decide the Florida weather justifies eating outside on the patio of a ritzy restaurant. Marley is secured to the cast iron dining table, and drinks are served. However, when Marley spots another dog strutting down the road, he charges after, dragging the metal table with him, and clearing a wake several yards across. Needless to say, the family didn’t take Marley out on too many family dinners there after.

A big part of Marley & Me : Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog actually has very little to do with the big animal. The book reads like a well written journal, describing the new couples excitement over their first pregnancy, and heartbreak over the subsequent miscarriage. John overcomes deep-rooted family concerns, while Jenny copes with serious depression. While the book is primarily a comical, laugh-a-minute adventure, it is definitely not without its sober moments. However, these honest and intent pages give Marley & Me the sole it needs to rise above other light-hearted tales.

Overall, Marley & Me : Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog is an excellent book that can be enjoyed by all sorts of people (even cat lovers). The stories are funny and meaningful, the drama is heartwarming and sincere, and the dog is a complete mess. In the end, Marley reminds us all that life should be lived to its fullest, that we should love people unconditionally, and that shredded upholstery is a small price to pay for a life-long friend.

Coming on strong after the success of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond’s new book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed is a tome of intriguing insight to the other side of the coin. While Guns, Germs and Steel examined how some societies thrived, due to their respective geographic and environmental endowments, this book examines why ancient societies have collapsed so often in the past, in part for the same reasons. To support this thesis, the book delves into a variety of past civilizations, including the Anasazi of the American Southwest, the Maya and the Viking colonies of Greenland to illustrate that collapse of a society is no respecter of geography. Nor is it a respecter of time. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed also looks at modern-day societies such as Rwanda to explain the catastrophe that recently befell this afflicted nation, as well as it depicts present-day Montana and the fascinating factors rendering this once wealthy state into one of the poorest. Could Montana be a microcosm for the U.S. at large? The book asks how once astute societies that built magnificent monuments testifying of their social and economic prowess, could suddenly vanish or be rendered impotent. Not lost on the reader throughout these case studies is the nagging thought that perhaps this fate might also befall our own wealthy country. In fact, it is the seminal point of this provocative book. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed hopes to stir our collective consciousness to an understanding what lies before us so that we may be saved, as evidenced, from the pitfalls of the past. In essence, we cannot separate the economy from the environment if we hope to avoid devastation.

Perhaps this is best depicted in the book’s treatise of the Anasazi. Their vast ruins in what is now northern New Mexico echo a well-ordered, sophisticated society in a fragile desert environment that lasted over 600 years. To put this into perspective, they lasted longer than any European society in the Americas to date. However, over time the Anasazi of the Chaco Canyon complex became ever more specialized in the tasks of the society. This in turn allowed them to make gains in economies of efficiency while making them equally interdependent as a culture. More and more the main complex at Chaco Canyon depended on outlying communities and outposts for their support, not unlike London or Rome today. These cities served as governmental and religious centers to facilitate the management their respective societies. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed describes how, like many of our cities of today, "Chaco Canyon became a black hole into which goods were imported but from which nothing tangible was exported." As the population grew so did the demands on the surrounding environment. Fuel and other essential resources became ever more distant; coupled with soil depletion and erosion in the surrounding farmlands. In essence, they became increasingly close to living on the margin of what the environment could reasonably support. The final straw was a prolonged drought. No longer able to support or feed themselves, the society suddenly collapsed into open revolt and total civil warfare, culminating in cannibalism and ultimately total abandonment of the site. The moral lesson is that while they "adopted solutions that were brilliantly successful and understandable in the ‘short term’ (they) created fatal problems in the long run." The analogy to our present day situation of overextending ourselves is obvious.

While Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed seems to make a strong connection between collapse of a society and it’s environment, this book is not all about eco-meltdowns. He also measures four other critical factors involving the demise of societies as well; including hostile neighbors; loss of trading partners; climate change and perhaps most importantly, a society’s responses to its challenges. In this vein, this book also looks at several past success stories where societies in Japan and the highlands of New Guinea had the insight to change fundamental, traditional values and restore a positive balance with nature, trading partners etc. and thrive.

In its conclusion, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed presents a cautious optimism for our own future. The book concludes that because we are the creators our own problems, we also have the power to amend the quandaries we have made. This, the book maintains, will not be easy and will require profound courage; but necessary if we are to have hope for the future.

If the thought of a book on economics is about as exciting as watching your toenails grow, or you are under-whelmed with statistics and number crunching theory, then the bestselling book Freakonomics : A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything just might be the book to make you wake up without that extra cup of Starbucks’ best. Actually, Freakonomics is an engaging read because it seems to be more about sociology and psychology than boring numerical analysis. With its well-paced and easy reading style, this book shows how the resulting correlation and causality of data impacts our lives and definitely makes us think differently about facts and figures. The authors, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, contend, "What this book is about is stripping a layer or two from modern life and seeing what is happening underneath," exposing why conventional wisdom is so often wrong. In effect, there are real tangible benefits in thinking laterally. To be sure, their seemingly off-the-wall comparisons are definitely attention grabbers. Who would have ever thought to make the unlikely comparison of teachers and sumo wrestlers to show that economics is, in essence, the study of incentives. But for those of you who desire a smooth flowing book, with multiple concepts building to an ultimate conclusion, you might be disappointed. Actually, the book presents six wholly different topics, with no unifying theme. And while Freakonomics does jump seemingly randomly from question to question, there are some lessons to be learned. For example, the book demonstrates that the most obvious reason why something happens is not always the real reason. To be sure, sometimes the real reason doesn’t even make the list of possibilities. Or, as is often true in the case studies given in Freakonomics, the cause turns out not to be the cause at all, but the effect.

Perhaps the most hard-hitting and controversial riddle tackled by Freakonomics explores the cause of the dramatic drop in the U.S. crime rate in the chapter "Where Have All the Criminals Gone?" The book explains that by the 1990s violent crime had grown to epic proportions in the United States. Experts everywhere, from law enforcement to government agencies could only predict that it would get worse. The American way had somehow produced and coined the term "superpredator." "Death by gunfire", intentional and otherwise, had become commonplace. And then, instead of going up, the crime rate suddenly started to drop profoundly- by over 40 percent in just a few years. By studying crime statistics from all over the country in comparison with abortion statistics in the era after the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, Freakonomics arrives at a startling conclusion. The book submits that the highly publicized drop in America’s violent crime rate since 1990 is due almost entirely to legalized abortion, rather than better police work, new gun laws, or any of a number of other factors put forward by agencies of all stripes eager to take credit for it. Although the authors concede they have "managed to offend just about everyone," from conservatives, (because "abortion could be construed as a crime-fighting tool") to liberals, (because "the poor and black women were singled out"), they stick strictly to the evidence, admitting that this view "should not be misinterpreted as either an endorsement of abortion or a call for intervention by the state in the fertility decisions of women." The book verifies its conclusion by consistently dismantling argument after argument for the other touted factors and keeps returning to the cause and effect of evidence at hand. After all, the "truth" as the authors see it, is not always convenient.

The other topics explored in Freakonomics, while not as controversial, are equally interesting. In fact, some could be considered amusing. If you are looking to spruce up you intellect for the next cocktail party, or widen your eyes to the world around you, then this book is a necessary read. However, what might be considered a turnoff by some is the annoying insertion of quotations from external sources about how innovative or creative the authors are as a precursor to every chapter. That being said, it is refreshing to have an odd economist, or at least an economist who ask odd questions to tease out the most fascinating facts concerning the mysteries of the world around us.

One word of advice: don’t buy this book in paperback. At the list price of $25.00, it rings up at only 95 cents cheaper than the hardback book, which is a much more attractive and sturdy volume. Plus, because the hardback has been available for much longer, you can actually find the hardback for significantly cheaper (more than $7) if you search a few bookstores.

After almost a year in publication, Freakonomics continues to make the bestseller lists, currently holding (at the time of writing this review) the much vaunted Amazon #1 seller position. If nothing else, that is an important statistic to keep in mind.