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