Boulder Book Store periodically holds these nifty “Evenings of Recommendations for Book Clubs” events, and they sell out every time. I will be attending the upcoming one (my first) because Zen Money Blues is one of the titles included. Cheerful!

Here’s the link (it’s $5 to attend, but you get $5 off any purchase, and book clubs receive a 10% discount if they buy their books at BBS).

Boulder Bookstore “Book Club Event”

Seeing as how the ZMB model emphasizes personal finance as a social experience, it seems to me that pursuing this fine read in the context of a book club is an excellent idea. Folks could have a lot of fun trying on the ZM Types for size (no need to reveal personal financial details), and the discussion would be rich – and filled with humor.

If you’re in a book club, and think this could be up your group’s alley, please do give ZMB a try. Mark’s warm, easy style makes for fabulous reading.  And, the takeaway is ridiculously useful for life.

- Maria

Here’s an exciting little tidbit: Zen Money Blues is listed in the Top 5 Business Books sold in the month of October at our very own Boulder Book Store. Nice! Our friend, Kristi, read this news in last weekend’s Daily Camera…

I’ve been running into people who have found out about this gem of a book from a friend of a friend, etc. So, it’s moving along. ZMB seems happiest on display at cool, indie book stores. Let me know if you have one in mind where you live, and I’ll get it there.

- Maria

Our friend, Allen Clark, of Rye NY, has kindly written a most thoughtful, thorough review of Zen Money Blues for The Rye Record. Here is the link for this terrific read:

http://digital.turn-page.com/issue/15734/15

Obviously, writing book reviews is a special talent that many don’t have. Allen has it in spades, because the reader comes away with a personal and honest assessment, not to mention a real feel for the book. Clearly, Allen is well-practiced in this art. For this, we are ever so grateful.

As mentioned, the book is available at Patrick Corcoran’s Arcade Book Sellers on Purchase Street in Rye, for any locals who are thus moved upon reading this cheerful first review.

– Maria

We’re excited to be entering Zen Money Blues in the 2011 Nautilus Book Awards! This particular award is geared toward books that “promote…conscious living and positive social change, while…stimulat(ing) the imagination and offer(ing) the reader new possibilities for a better life and a better world.”

Isn’t this a good fit? To be sure, the ZMB paradigm opens up all kinds of possibility, since we are freed of the hassling inner voice that has always told us “You really should be excellent in every aspect of your Hearth Money life.”  Pshaw!

Here is the link to our friends at Nautilus: www.nautilusbookawards.com.

Wish us luck; we’ll keep you posted in 2011.

– Maria 

Hello Zen Money Blueserians –

Just a note to let you know that we’re getting the book out there to fun spots. Boulder Book Store is now carrying ZMB, and sales have been steady! We’re in process with The Tattered Cover stores in Denver, of which there are three. ZMB should be there before too long. And, starting mid-June, Arcade Booksellers of Rye, NY will be carrying our book.

Folks continue to purchase through Amazon.com, where there are now eleven 5-star reviews.

Please do be in touch with us if you’ve got an idea for another cool, independent book store, or if you have a ZM Type story to share! My email address is: mwhbutler@yahoo.com.

Thanks for all your terrific support.

– Maria

The Maven and The Architect are perfect shopping partners.  When our daughter, Celestial Architect, shops for clothes, she is NOT interested in looking at the price tag. She looks at the clothes! How novel!

As The Maven, I walk through shops looking at price tags before making the decision to try something on. It’s very unromantic. Practical, but not really fun.

When we’re together, she encourages me to purchase something, not just because the price is right, but because I like it. She also thinks bigger (as a planner), and tells me what’s already in my closet. I end up buying fewer useless (cheap) items, and instead have nice clothes that I enjoy.

My encouragement for her, on the other hand, is about noticing the price and making sure said item fits into her budget.  She is perfectly able to prioritize, as long as I prompt her to do so. So, she ends up cheerfully within her budget, and, of course, she likes her purchases.

It’s a good little partnership. Money Mandala in action, I would say.

–Maria

There’s must be an infallible way to find out if my friend Jen is an Archer; a way that’s a lot easier than getting her to agree that she obsesses about price tags (which she doesn’t) or makes planning a frighteningly frequent hobby (which she doesn’t). Somehow, she’s just not as extreme in her planning/implementing behaviors as the Architect or Maven, respectively.

Then, bam, the key question pops into my mind. I ask: Aside from all this focus on whether you’re a planner or an implementer or both, don’t you secretly think everyone’s a fool? To which she screams: “YES!! And, frankly, I’d rather just do everything in my Hearth Money world myself. Everyone else just makes a mess of things!”

I had my answer: Jen is an Archer. Only an Archer harbors this less than admiring opinion of the rest of the world. Now her job is to have fondness for the rest of us – we who don’t possess the full package. Easier said than done!

– Maria

Here’s a funny thing: On the reality TV show called “Extreme Makover: Home Edition” (perhaps you’ve seen it), families are given a newly remodeled house. But, according to a recent article in Yahoo News (NOT my usual news source, I promise), there’s no guarantee that these nice folks can keep their new homes. In fact, a growing number of them are forced into foreclosure upon not being able to carry the staggering, new mortgage.

Does this sound like all implementing and no planning, I wonder? Does no one check into the long term financial pictures of these families to see if they match up with the heavily increased mortgages?

Clearly, the emphasis is on doing, without planning. The result, as we see here, is catastrophic. Even if implementation is done smartly, in terms of cost, there is nothing smart going on if the larger plan has been ignored.

I guess the show’s producers are all Mavens! Here is the article link:

http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/another-extreme-makeover-home-edition-family-facing-foreclosure–834

As I quizzed my sweetheart for the umpteenth time about the exact cost of his short upcoming writing retreat, and he thanked me for my “Maven-ness” (not something he always thanks me for), I pondered the image of a world made of only Mavens.

Such a world would come to a grinding halt in no time.

What would we be missing? In a phrase: money spent on senseless acts of beauty. Impulsivity in the marketplace. No one would be willing to pay full retail–ever. Folks would only purchase things  they needed, “make do” with what they had, and negotiate for all the rest.

Things would feel pretty sparse. And we’d be missing the vision, the view, the planning part. The stuff that informs the purchase.

While Mavens are lovable, we need our other half. We think all those Architects and Creatives are nothing but big wasters of money, but if we take a closer look, they actually make our Maven prowess meaningful. It is they who give us a purpose.