The End of Laissez-Faire and the Economic Consequences of the Peace
Author: John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) was one of the most influential economists of the first half of the twentieth century. In The End of Laissez-Faire (1926), Keynes presents a brief historical review of laissez-faire economic policy.
Interesting textbook: 100 Foods That Heal Your Body or Nutrition and Sport
The Necklace: Thirteen Women and the Experiment That Transformed Their Lives
Author: Cheryl Jarvis
The true story of thirteen women who took a risk on an expensive diamond necklace and, in the process, changed not only themselves but a community.
Four years ago, in Ventura, California, Jonell McLain saw a diamond necklace in a local jewelry store display window. The necklace aroused desire first, then a provocative question: Why are personal luxuries so plentiful yet accessible to so few? What if we shared what we desired? Several weeks, dozens of phone calls, and a leap of faith later, Jonell bought the necklace with twelve other women, with the goal of sharing it.
Part charm, part metaphor, part mirror, the necklace weaves in and out of each woman’s life, reflecting her past, defining her present, making promises for her future. Lending sparkle in surprising and unexpected ways, the necklace comes to mean something dramatically different to each of the thirteen women.
With vastly dissimilar histories and lives, the women show us how they transcended their individual personalities and politics to join together in an uncommon journey. What started as a quirky social experiment became something far richer and deeper, as the women transformed a symbol of exclusivity into a symbol of inclusiveness. They discovered that sharing the necklace among themselves was only the beginning; The more they shared with others, the more profound this experience–and experiment–became.
Original, resonant, and beautifully told, this book is an inspiring story about a necklace that became greater than the sum of its links, and about thirteen ordinary women who understood the power of possibility, who touched the lives of a community, and whotogether created one extraordinary experience.
Crystal Goldman - Library Journal
Freelance journalist Jarvis (The Marriage Sabbatical: The Journey That Brings You Home) explores the lives of 13 women from Ventura, CA, from diverse social, educational, and political backgrounds who together purchased an expensive diamond necklace that was beyond their means individually. Cost: $37,000. Jonell McLain first saw the 16.25 carat necklace in a jeweler's window and came up with the idea for a group purchase. What began as a social experiment about ownership and American consumerism became much larger as the necklace took on a life of its own. The group of women, all over 50, used the necklace to generate attention for various fund-raising activities and to raise social awareness in their community. While Jarvis's prose is a bit sentimental, she does offer an engaging snapshot of what it means to be a middle-aged woman in contemporary America. Underlying the light treatment applied to each of the 13 narratives and mini-biographies that make up this work are the deeper issues of aging, health care, retirement, relationships, divorce, sex, and child rearing. A highly readable book recommended for public libraries and any library with an interest in women's studies or studies on growing older. [See Prepub Alert, LJ5/1/08.]
Kirkus Reviews
Jarvis (The Marriage Sabbatical, 2000) chronicles the adventures of 13 California women who pooled their money to buy a $37,000 diamond necklace. They named it Jewelia (in honor of Julia Child, who had died two months earlier in 2004) and determined that each of them would have it for 28 days, during her birthday month. Through sharing the necklace, this passionate and diverse group became a charitable and unifying community force as well as a close-knit band of friends. They far outshone their purchase, but the author is so dazzled by the diamonds that she devalues the women who wore them. Rather than examining why a luxury item was necessary to catalyze such nourishing togetherness, Jarvis continually gushes that the necklace is a magical miracle. She bombards us with tales of the transcendent ecstasy the women experienced when donning Jewelia, but she never explores why it inspired such excitement and Buddha-like empathy for others. Although the book is trumpeted as an anti-materialist lesson in the value of collaboration, the author mostly misses what was truly remarkable about the collective: the fact that its founding members looked beyond their usual social circles when recruiting partners, uniting people who seemingly had nothing in common and in several cases alleviating long-standing feelings of loneliness and isolation. Why would diamonds, of all things, inspire this unusual openness? Does modern life have so few vehicles for sisterhood that shopping is the one thing we have left? Jarvis avoids wrestling with such ideas, preferring to fawn and overstate. As frivolous as its centerpiece. Agent: David Kuhn/Kuhn Projects
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