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Friday, May 11, 2012

Book Review - The Summer Days Never End...Until They Do - Robert James Waller

The Summer Nights Never End
Title:  The Summer Nights Never End…Until They Do:  Life, Liberty and the Lure of the Short-Run.

Author: Robert James Waller

Review:  Well I have to say that I liked what this book said; I feel that our government has gotten out of control.  Size of the staff, size of budgets for different branches and programs for every little thing has blown up government control of everything in our lives.  In my small town our social services has doubled in size in less than 15 years.  We have a free lunch program for all children 1-18 all summer long-funded by the government.  Kids go home with backpacks full of food for the weekend or they don’t eat-where are these parents and what are they doing?  Also when we buy school supplies for our children we know they don’t need 6 dozen pencils for the year-but the teacher needs them for the amount of students who don’t bring anything.

When will we stand up and say enough?  A flat tax would eliminate the need for the IRS, at least most of it, think of the savings that would be.  More personal responsibility and less reliance on the government for everything we get would lead to less needed programming and more money to pay off the debt.   US debt is growing at an alarming rate every minute and we keep spending…someone needs to put on the breaks.  More programs and more handouts mean less freedom for every one of us.  Think about it…free this free that and boom they have control of us.  I prefer to take care of myself and have a smaller more manageable government. 

Look at your life and you will see that the way we live is going downhill fast.  More government control in every aspect, less personal choice means less personal freedom.  Throw money at the problem and someone is paying…you by the way when you pay your taxes.  This is a book everyone should read so they can see what we are all losing by letting the government make laws and rules and even give us things.  Stimulus package is another name for more government control of us and our lives.  Freedom as we know it will cease to exist soon if we don’t stop the rules, regulations and pointless laws.  ‘No Child Left Behind’ was ridiculous and still ties the hands of most teachers.  Those who excel are forced to become mediocre and those who fall behind are eventually lost anyway(it may take a few more years but everyone hits 21 eventually and is tossed out of school.)

So what can you do?  Vote for those who want what you want.  Run for office, raise money for those you think best meet your values and vision for our country.  Look to the future instead of just tomorrow, short-term thinking is what got us here in the first place.  The more idiots we elect the more idiotic ideas we have to live with.  It is our personal responsibly to take care of ourselves, what that entails is different for everyone, but it is not a handout from the government( who by the way thinks you’re too stupid to take care of yourself) that any of us should be after.  Take the leap and start to care about the future of this country and think about what the heck we are leaving to our children and grandchildren.

Publisher:  W&APublishing

ISBN: 9781934354254

Copyright: 2011

Pages: 233

Quick Review: 41/2  stars (out of 5)

Where Did I Get the Book:  Sent by the publisher for review.

Synopsis:  You may know Robert James Waller as the man who brought the world to Iowa’s storied covered bridges. What you may not realize is that before and since becoming an internationally acclaimed novelist, Waller has grappled with a very real puzzle: How can an individual, a group, and/or a society cut through the confusion of everyday life to successfully navigate its pitfalls and traps? Through intense reflection, shrewd reasoning, and not a little trial and error, the reclusive author has developed a unique and inventive paradigm for thinking clearly and logically. In The Summer Nights Never End … Until they Do, Waller shares a methodology that can be applied to everything from governmental gaffs and immigration reform to losing weight and financial freedom.

Like so many things that make sense, Waller’s words are complex in their simplicity, turn from the madness of short-term, quick fixes and toward time-tested, reasonable goals. The devil is in the details. So, too, are the answers.
  

Author Biography: Robert James Waller (b. August 1, 1939, Rockford, Iowa) is an American author, also known for his work as a photographer and musician.

FYI:  CEDAR FALLS, Iowa --- Robert James Waller believes he's written his last novel.
At 72, former University of Northern Iowa College of Business Administration dean and best-selling author of "The Bridges of Madison County" and six other novels, has returned to his roots.

His new manuscript merges his first love, economics, with decision-making and cognitive psychology. Still, he hasn't lost his sense of romance and gift for prose, calling the piece, "The Summer Nights Never End Until They Do: Social Traps, Vicious Circles and the Lure of the Short-Run."

"How's that for being ponderous," Waller said, laughing. "Writing fiction is not especially difficult and it's kind of fun, but it started to feel self-indulgent. This is a good project for a gentleman my age. I wanted to answer the question, ‘Do I know what I think I know, and if so, how well do I know it?' Were there gaps in my thinking? Sure enough, there were gaps, not major ones, but it took me months to think it through and three years of work to write the manuscript."

Waller, who makes his home in the Texas Hill country, returned to his old stomping grounds Wednesday as part of UNI's Presidential Lecture Series at Lang Hall. He gave a public lecture, "What the Rivers Taught Me," an epilogue to the new manuscript, sharing his personal view of life and the influence of Iowa's rivers on his life.

"I keep coming back to the theme of humility in existence and solving problems. I learned some major life lessons along Iowa's rivers," Waller said.
He recalled an 11-year-old's epiphany while fishing at the confluence of two rivers in his hometown, Rockford, Iowa.

"A river rat's Valhalla. I was sitting with a fishing rod and got to thinking, ‘Minnows eat algae, bass eat minnows, and I eat bass. Then what?' At 11, your mind isn't developed to the point it can deal with abstractions, but my conclusion at the time was, ‘I'm not at the top of the food chain.'"

The author distilled that notion in a sentence he wrote in "Border Music" (1996), when Bobby McGregor asks Texas Jack Carmine (Waller's alter ego) to explain his view of life. "We come, we do, we go ... nothin' more, and that's about as serious as we ought to take ourselves."

Waller still savors the sentence, his real-life prescription to a happy and productive life. "The minute I wrote it I thought, ‘there it is,' and immediately flashed back to that boyhood experience, sitting by the river and thinking that. It took me all those years to express it in simple terms."

Read the complete Article here.

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