The Bag Lady Papers The Priceless Experience of Losing It All edition by Alexandra Penney SelfHelp eBooks
Download As PDF : The Bag Lady Papers The Priceless Experience of Losing It All edition by Alexandra Penney SelfHelp eBooks 
In December 2008, my worst nightmare came true . . . How do you pick yourself up after the one thing you most feared happens to you? Alexandra Penney's revealing, spirited, and ultimately redemptive true story shows us how. Throughout her life, Alexandra Penney's worst fear was of becoming a bag lady. Even as she worked several jobs while raising a son as a single mother, wrote a bestselling advice book, and became editor in chief of Self magazine, she was haunted by the image of herself alone, bankrupt, and living on the street. She even went to therapy in an attempt to alleviate the worry that all she had worked for could crumble. And then, one day, that's exactly what happened. Penney had taken a friend's advice and invested nearly everything she had ever earned--all of her savings--with Bernie Madoff. One day she was successful and wealthy; the next she had almost nothing. Suddenly, at an age when many Americans retire, Penney saw her worst nightmares coming true. Based on her popular blog posts on The Daily Beast, this memoir chronicles Penney's struggle to cope with the devastating financial and emotional fallout of being cheated out of her life savings and illuminates her journey back to sanity, solvency, and security. "I will work harder than I ever have before--which was pretty hard indeed--and see what happens. I have the feeling something good will come of it tough, challenging work and laserlike focus have always paid off for me. . . . Was it better to have it and then lose it? Yes, yes, yes! Even though I lived with horrible bag lady fears of losing it all, now that those financial fears have materialized, I'm in pretty good shape and looking to what's next. Experiences--good and bad, exciting and boring, tragic and absurd--make up a life. Not to have lived to the fullest is the saddest, most irresponsible life I can think of."
--- from The Bag Lady Papers
The Bag Lady Papers The Priceless Experience of Losing It All edition by Alexandra Penney SelfHelp eBooks
The author could have been benefited greatly from the apparently intense editorial help she received with her Daily Beast blog posts which, alas, were much better written than this eventual book. That said, anything with "bag lady" in the title is going to attract adult female readers, because bag lady dread is pretty much universal.The author, who was financially eviscerated by Bernard Madoff's fraud, nonetheless will seem a little jaunty for many readers' tastes. She still has friends, multiple homes, nice clothes, and the ability to network like a demon, despite sudden, shocking cash flow problems. She seems to still be a little dazed as she jollies herself along with wobbly pluck, and the story often meanders back in on itself, which dulls the narrative force. Again, a stronger editor could have helped, because overwriting nearly derails a key plot point that, when the reader finally gets it, is breathtaking.
I don't think I'm spoiling an ending by saying that most observers thought that what Madoff victims should have done is diversify their investments and been much more proactive in checking out what they were supposedly "invested" in. As readers may recall, Madoff's returns were mysteriously much more steady and lucrative than the "regular" markets. The exclusivity and secrecy that Madoff demanded of his marks shows them all to have been, themselves, almost criminally foolish, though no one deserves the betrayal they got from an "investment adviser" who turned out to be a sociopath. Such a humiliating experience seems even worse if lessons aren't learned about diligence and judgment. Disappointingly, the author doesn't hit these financial verities very hard at all.
For all that, though, this book is a fast, engrossing read. Much non-fiction has been, and will be, written about our changed material world in the US, but the personal memoir is still a strong genre to tell a sad story.
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The Bag Lady Papers The Priceless Experience of Losing It All edition by Alexandra Penney SelfHelp eBooks Reviews
This book hit me where it helped. Anyone who knows the often female fear and confusion surrounding finances can choose to find comfort in this woman's honesty. If you ignore her message merely because she had "top shelf" problems, you are missing out on a well-written, honest account.
A good read made all the more interesting since it documents the experiences of someone who was used to the finer things in life and now faces the reality of "losing it all". We follow Ms. Penny as she is tenacious in her determination to reinvent herself after she loses her life savings to "The MF", otherwise known as Bernie Madoff.
There is just one caveat I wish the book had been a little longer.
This is not even a coherent book. It's just pages and pages of lists. Pages and pages about her past wealthy life (who cares). Pages and pages about her rich fabulous friends who buy her pity lunches. Plus a lot of weirdness about loving to photograph plastic blow-up sex dolls. SKIP IT & SAVE YOUR MONEY!!! Then you won't have to try and make bucks by writing a whiny boring book about yourself.
After reading this book I felt as ripped off as she may have felt when Bernie Madoff scammed her. It is a book simply filled with fluff and no substance. The bottom line of her book and a more appropriate title would have been..."Keep Moving." That was her solution. I have little empathy for a person who is so self-centered, self-focused and void of character. There was absolutely nothing of value in this book.
Thank you, Alex Penney, for sharing your MF stories with us all. Your overall life experiences are valuable learning for all of us trying to make it in this world. Thank you!
I read the blog during the Madoff years and thought the book might offer some deeper and more thoughtful first-hand insights. I was wrong. Save your $$$ and your time.
I enjoyed the book. It is well written and held myinterest. It reads like a novel introduction, crisis, shock, recovery. Yes, Alexandra lost her entire life savings. However she did not lose her Manhattan apartment and did not lose her income. She did not have to sell her jewelry to survive. She is healthy. Of course she was devastated at the loss of her money, who wouldn't be. She learned a hard lesson, that is to pay attention to her investments. She had ignored the monthly statements because they looked okay. It wasn't until she received the news about Madoff's arrest that she even noticed that across the bottom of the statement was the notation her money was in treasury bonds that turned out to be fictional.
I understand her feelings of shock, anger, and panic. Yet she is resourceful and an entrepreneur who has built her business and is continuing to do so. By the end of the book she is working and busily saving her money to replace her lost retirement savings. Alexandra is relatively young therefore has time to rebuild. As I read about her situation I kept thinking about the people in their 70's and 80's who also lost their life savings and had no way to rebuild. Their situation is much more calamitous than Alexandra's.
The author could have been benefited greatly from the apparently intense editorial help she received with her Daily Beast blog posts which, alas, were much better written than this eventual book. That said, anything with "bag lady" in the title is going to attract adult female readers, because bag lady dread is pretty much universal.
The author, who was financially eviscerated by Bernard Madoff's fraud, nonetheless will seem a little jaunty for many readers' tastes. She still has friends, multiple homes, nice clothes, and the ability to network like a demon, despite sudden, shocking cash flow problems. She seems to still be a little dazed as she jollies herself along with wobbly pluck, and the story often meanders back in on itself, which dulls the narrative force. Again, a stronger editor could have helped, because overwriting nearly derails a key plot point that, when the reader finally gets it, is breathtaking.
I don't think I'm spoiling an ending by saying that most observers thought that what Madoff victims should have done is diversify their investments and been much more proactive in checking out what they were supposedly "invested" in. As readers may recall, Madoff's returns were mysteriously much more steady and lucrative than the "regular" markets. The exclusivity and secrecy that Madoff demanded of his marks shows them all to have been, themselves, almost criminally foolish, though no one deserves the betrayal they got from an "investment adviser" who turned out to be a sociopath. Such a humiliating experience seems even worse if lessons aren't learned about diligence and judgment. Disappointingly, the author doesn't hit these financial verities very hard at all.
For all that, though, this book is a fast, engrossing read. Much non-fiction has been, and will be, written about our changed material world in the US, but the personal memoir is still a strong genre to tell a sad story.
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