Welcome to Litsy!

This…was not for me. We read this for my IRL book group in March and then watched the movie together—this is a rare case where I liked the movie better!

The whole read kind of low-key annoyed me. Reading about the lavish casual spending of the uber-rich just didn‘t land well with me, especially right now. The characters were largely shallow and/or unlikable—I realize that it was intended as a send-up of a particular segment of society, but… ⤵️

3-30-25: My 21st finished book of 2025! I really didn‘t like this book. As a fan of Palahniuk novels, I had much higher hope but they never came to fruition. I‘m not one to bail on a book so I saw it to the end hoping it would turn around and get better but that did not happen. Cecil and Otto are brothers in the English countryside and they come from a family of murderers. They are spoiled men who act as if they are still children. ⭐️⭐️📖#️⃣2️⃣1️⃣

Um… you‘d think that by the time the movie tie-in edition was published, they‘d have corrected stuff like this. TBH, I‘ve already been low-key annoyed reading this—reading about the massively rich just doesn‘t land well right now—and dumb errors like this aren‘t helping. Can‘t guarantee I‘ll be in a good mood about this one at book club on Sunday. 😬 At least it‘s a quick read!

Bought on a whim. Read in a day. I love a twisty turny political thriller.

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Might get that feeling? That the rich exploit their employees?

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I wish more companies were like Dr. Bronner‘s. They implement a salary cap. The highest paid employee‘s salary is limited to 5x that of the lowest paid employee. Imagine if all companies adopted this model. What a difference that would make in everyone‘s quality of life.

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Authors list several characteristics of millionaires. I laughed when I read this one. The good old days of pension plans. Even when I was teaching and money was deducted from my paycheck for state pension, I never relied on them managing that money well.

Meh. Most recent research was from mid-90s to early 2000s, so examples are outdated. In 2025 the authors & the millionaires come across to this Gen Xer as out-of-touch Boomers. Basic concept is live below your means. Stealth wealth. Lots of pages on car buying habits and how to raise kids to become wealthy w/o relying on cash infusions from parents. Nothing really new here. Some of the anecdotes were amusing. #ReadYourEbooks

I would not recommend this book to a lot of people, even those who loved Fleishman Is In Trouble like I did. If you need likable characters, or atleast unlikable characters to learn a lesson, get their comeuppance, or a twist where you realize maybe the weren‘t so bad as you thought, this book is not for you. But it was for me, the way each child dealt with their generational trauma in wildly different and equally unhealthy ways was fascinating.

Well, what to say... Intriguing and cringey as you watch her choices and decisions that she justifies so easily.
Interesting perspective on race and class, economics and society and what we each perceive as entitlement. Very different in approach and extremely readable!