The Overtaxed Investor

Unfortunately, many of the details in DeMuth's The Overtaxed Investor will be irrelevant if the currently proposed tax bill passes.

The concepts, however, remain. I'm sure he will adjust his recommendations with a new edition once a new tax bill passes.

Overall, this is an easy read written in a punchy style. Many of the concepts are not new relative to years of reading the blogosphere, but they are succinctly and clearly delivered.

I have three take-home lessons from the book:
1. A tax deferred is a tax not paid (yet). Minimize taxes to maximize the gains you keep.
2. Minimizing taxes is a strategic process. The book's value derives in large part from DeMuth's clearly elucidated approach to strategy.
3. Dividend-free stocks are essential for minimizing taxes on investments that cannot be tax-protected in another way.

The fourth lesson, which I will admit I incompletely understand, is to maximize tax-loss harvesting. Somehow this feels incredibly counterintuitive.

Common Sense on Mutual Funds

 Bogle's book is the second recommendation in Bernstein's Bernstein's If You Can...., as a basic introduction to investing.

This book is a slog.

21 hours by audio book. Next time I might stick with a paper copy.

Regardless, I will highly recommend this book as worthy of great perseverance. My experience of the first dozen chapters is shaded by years of reading the opinions, experiences, philosophy and calculations of Bogleheads. I reached a turning point, learned something new and exciting, and by the end was utterly delighted by the clarity and determination of Bogle's ethical underpinnings. The nuggets of wisdom and clarity throughout culminate in a straightforward commentary on leadership, humanity and philosophy. 

After 3 hours of listening, I was convinced that the focus of the book is the investor's inability to predict the market, with the associated importance of long-term investment. Bogle includes example after example to hammer these points home.

Transitioning via the Talmud's recommendation to "...always keep... wealth in three forms: one third in real estate, another in merchandise, and the remainder in liquid assets," Bogle addresses asset allocation. He first argues that investment policy is the key factor in explaining variation among investment portfolios (research: pension funds, variation over quarters). However, costs and fees significantly affect the investor's long-term yields. "Investors owning all stocks in a given market will achieve the market's gross return before the deduction of the costs of investing." Once those costs are deducted, proceeds lag behind the gross return.

Much of the book reads as an argument for indexing, minimization of costs and thoughtful consideration of the balance between risk and return with the key caveat that increased risk does not actually produce consistently greater return. After a thorough review of bonds and almost 9 hours of listening, I gave up on the audio book. Those 21 hours were damming my flow of books and hindering both my reading and study time.

In the midst of the comparisons of returns, analysis of academic studies, and demonstrations of the "tyranny" of fees, Bogle describes target date retirement funds as "funds of funds", which are apparently generally less risk-averse than most rule-of-thumb investors. This is new and interesting, and I will have to look at the target date fund options that I have used (and mainly discarded) in the past. They seemed like they should be a good idea, yet were somewhat complex and opaque compared to sector-focused index funds.

Despite my overall frustration with the length of the book, which continued to blockade reading list progress, I was happy to see that Bogle addressed portfolio size. Within this section, he pithily inserts highly generalizable wisdom:

(1) short-term strategies are more costly to implement than long-term strategies; (2) momentum trades are more costly than trades based on fundamentals; (3) information-sensitive trades (based on purported market knowledge) are more costly than informationless trades (i.e., index fund transactions); and (4) aggressive trades made with speedy execution as the goal are more costly than opportunistic (contrarian) trades. 

Chapter 13 was particularly high-yield. This chapter reviews the effect of taxes on investment yields. I had not realized that tax-efficient, long-term funds exist. This chapter is worth reviewing and researching.

To close the book, Bogle focuses on personal experience. He describes the inception and trajectory of his career and of Vanguard. I do note his admission that he founded Vanguard in the midst of one depression and recognizes growth commensurate with the market. He delves into his perspective on leadership, arguing the importance of readiness, foresight, purpose, passion, service, failure, persistence, patience and courage. From Chapter 21:
"I too have come to regard passion, the fourth trait that I cite, as one of the central characteristics of leadership. A flamboyant display of passion is hardly necessary; a quiet passion that brooks no doubt about its intensity is equally adequate, perhaps even better."

Bogle's final chapters on humanity and on the effects of good governance are frankly inspirational and highly rewarding. The book is worth reading just to be able to appreciate these chapters in context, and then probably worth rereading with these chapters as background. It will be a while before I read it again, but this book may end up in paper on my wooden shelves so I have the opportunity. 

Lykke Needles: The Smooth Wood... and cosmetics and longevity

Finally, it's time to upload some more Lykke Driftwood pictures! I have a US#7 straight needle, which I haven't been using much, and a US #5 short 16" circular needle that I have been keeping busy.

These feel a touch slicker and harder to me than the Knitter's Pride wooden needles. By comparison, KP feels almost grippy. I think the Driftwood are slightly blunter than KP, though the tip taper is almost the same length. The Driftwood are made of resin-infused birch, sourced in the USA, manufactured and packaged in India. The joins do not swivel. The join is my favorite part of the Driftwood, largely because it is so smooth. It may not be fair to compare my fixed circular Driftwood to an interchangeable KP, but I've found myself preferring the Driftwood, in part because of that smooth join. Admittedly, I knit very tightly when knitting English. Most of the projects below were knit Continental.

Here's what I've been knitting with the Driftwood:
The superwash fingering weight swatch using Western Sky Knits' Aspen Sock yarn. We know I like this one, and that it knits smoothly.
Dish cotton, an experience I do not intend to repeat.
Brown sheep moth proofed wool, an easy knit. Perhaps the ultimate conclusion of my experiments is that the Driftwood pairs perfectly with wool and similar fibers. This was one of my few knits with straight needles, and I liked them. I just don't knit much with straights.


Cascade 220 superwash, in the round, for a Real Hat. The reddish needle in the first shot is a US 5 (same size) Knitter's Pride for tip comparison.
This was overall a satisfactory experience. I love the fluid join, especially when knitting with a needle that is too small. The tight stitches would otherwise have caught and tortured me, but the join let me get away with abusing the yarn with a too-small needle. Still, the needle almost split the yarn several times. I think this is my fault for knitting Cascade 220 with a US 5, though my experience with my larger Colonial needles was far less pleasant in general. The needle is simply too small, and I found the stitches too tight... even for me. It just didn't match the yarn's desired gauge. This project did finally convince me of the utility of short circular needles, though. When I received this needle, I didn't know how on earth I was going to use it, but after knitting several hats on short circs, I may never go back to magic loop with the stiff cables of larger needles.

 A linen/hemp circular wash rag, or washandje. This was pleasant to knit, though the needle felt almost too slick. I cast on too many stitches and ultimately frogged it.
Lastly, this was a wonderful and quick knit. This is a new yarn from a Canadian company called Sugarbush, and I absolutely love it. I also love it on these needles. This was a cabled headband. The yarn and needles matched perfectly, with just the right slip, just the right tip and just the right drag to keep the yarn from flying off the needles. I may have marched back to my LYS to show this off and bought enough yarn for a black headband, purple cap, and purple cowl. Just maybe.

A couple comments on my original blog post describe breaks in the interchangeable cables. There was one similar comment on Ravelry, which may or may not have been posted by the author of one of my comments. I don't know. The company directed those posters to the return/quality control section of the website, so at least they seem to be replacing problematic sets. Otherwise, I don't know what to make of these scattered reports. Are they a minor setback? Chiaogoo intermittently replaces needles for breaks and cable issues, and they've sold enough needles to be reasonably certain that these are infrequent events.

Unfortunately, I should detour back to the Flight needles. I have personally confirmed the cosmetic cause for the recall of the aluminum (Flight) needles. The black anodized coating, which I do rather like, scrapes off. I didn't expect it to happen to me because I don't hear much clicking when I knit. However, the progressive scraping has bared the tips of my needles. It doesn't seem to affect their function. I've progressively knit faster with these needles, and I suspect that this increase in speed has increased clicking and increased scraping. Hopefully the new and improved Flight will still be beautiful with their new sheen, whatever it may be.

For now, when I have the option, I choose my little circular Driftwood needles over my Knitters Pride interchangeable equivalent, both because of the point, the slightly harder and slicker feel to the needle, and that wonderful join. If the Driftwood have no consistent major quality issues in a few months, I may buy an interchangeable set. My LYS owner just told me that Lykke is releasing a set of 3.5in tips for the interchangeable needles, and if I can test drive them, that may be my compromise. Otherwise... well, I might have to sell the Knitter's Pride interchangeables, which would make me feel a little silly.

That was very long. And very chatty. I would still love to hear comments and experiences with the Lykke, especially as I continue to knit with mine while considering a large set purchase. It took about 3 years for me to decide to buy a KP set, so I have some time to ponder!

Rest, by Alex Pang

This is another library find, courtesy of the staff selections area. Rest will not live on my bookshelf right now, but I certainly may pull it off the library shelves in a year or two to re-read it.

Alex Pang describes the importance of leisure, dedicated hobbies, sabbaticals, and independent creativity that he calls "deep play" to excellence. He uses a mix of examples and studies, varying his approach to maintain variety across the book. This is an easy book to read and holds lessons that American culture often seems to have forgotten.

Lykke Needles Update (1)

In November, I wrote a review of the new Lykke needles. I really liked them, though I will admit a personal preference for the aluminum Flight needles over the birch Driftwood needles. It's hard not to focus on the needle that I now want to use to knit every. future. dishcloth. ever.

However, I may have scribed the Driftwood needles a short shrift. Some beta testers found a cosmetic flaw in the initial/beta release of the aluminum Flight needles, so they have been sent back to the factory. This unfortunately means that my review is far less helpful than I would like it to be.

I've been knitting with the Driftwood needles to fill in the gaps. I do actually like them quite a bit. They are very smooth and very easy to knit with. So coming soon, a dedicated Driftwood review.

The Millionaire Next Door

This easy-to-read book is the first reading assignment in William Bernstein's If you can: How millennials can get rich slowly. Of note, the latter book is currently free on Kindle, though not expensive in paperback.

The Millionaire Next Door offers a behavioral commentary on the habits of millionaire's based on the authors' research. It is highly anectodal by necessity, as the research seems to have involved retrospective interviews with millionaires. Stanley and Dankos divide earners into Prodigious Accumulators of Wealth (PAW) and the other people (UAW, or Under Accumulator of Wealth). Throughout the book, they compare and contrast the behaviors and stories of these two groups.

The essential message, to consume far less than you earn and make value-based purchases in order to accumulate vs expend money, is not surprising to those who read consumer or behavioral finance even intermittently. The book's anecdotal style delivers deeper impact than a simple summary conveys. The authors delve into the education and training of their subjects, and I appreciated this deeper approach to the psychology of millionaires.

Just before the end of the book, the authors dive into business and occupations of self-employed millionaires. These are, likely, the true merchant class of our country. Their risk is insightfully addressed:

What is risk? Having a single source of income.

Actually, there is considerable financial risk in being a business owner. But business owners have a set of beliefs that helps them reduce their risk or at least their perceived risk:...

• Risk is working for a ruthless employer.

This book will not provide specific investing recommendations. It does address underlying behavioral tendencies that allow the investor to build capital to invest.

Lykke Needle Review

To Be Updated:
Update Part 1/Introduction

The folks at Knitting Fever kindly sent me a few Lykke needles to review. Lykke's moniker borrows from Norwegian, and means "happiness". It's an apt name.

The Lykke Flight needles are made of aluminum. They do not contain nickel. The Driftwood needles are birch. They arrived in contrasted packaging: the black Flight needles against a light tan background, the grayish Driftwood against a black background. Aren't the packaging/design elements great?  As shown in the picture above, I have two 10" straight needles (both US 7), one short Driftwood circular (US 5) and one 24" Flight circular (US 6). The straight needles reveal another spot of contrast, as the Flight have bright silver ends while the Driftwood have black ends. Each needle has its size printed on it, on the side of the circular needles and at the head of the straights.
Can you see the sizes on the circ's?

They look and feel very well made. The Driftwood 10" straights are very light. The 10" Flights were surprisingly heavy, and I would describe them as having a good heft without feeling heavy while knitting. For comparison, they feel heavier than my Knitter's pride 10" US 3 needles and lighter than the corresponding US 10 needles.

The tips are slightly shorter, and I think slightly blunter, than my beloved Chiaogoos. They are barely shorter than the Knitter's Pride needles, and slightly longer and pointier than my Clover/Takumi needles.
Left to right: US 5, US 6, US 7; A = Addi, Cl = Clover, Ch = Chiaogoo, KP = Knitter's Pride, L = Lykke

For some inexplicable reason, I started my Lykke trial with the yarn I hate most: dishcloth cotton. The aluminum Flight work perfectly for dishcloth cotton, and I have a new favorite cotton needle. They slide so easily that I found myself knitting faster without feeling that tight tension that I usually have to fight when using Chiaogoo for the same task. The Driftwood felt like knitting dishcloth cotton with wooden needles, i.e., awful, so I switched back to the Flight to finish the cloth.

I was a little concerned that the tips might not be quite pointy enough for lace, so I grabbed my herringbone swatch and slipped the Driftwood US 5 into my stitches. The yarn is a fingering weight 75% merino/25% nylon from Western Sky Knits. The Lykke knit my K2TBL and P2T stitches smoothly, and the tip slipped into the pairs of stitches ever so sweetly. I'm not going to be convinced that these are perfect for all lace until I try them, but that smooth glide has me wondering whether I will like these more than my pairs of Knitters Pride.

For the last batch of tests, I dug into my stash for a ball of worsted Brown Sheep Nature Spun yarn. The mothproofing makes the yarn feel a little tackier than most of my other wools, especially the slick superwash, and I wanted to see what it would do on the needles. I was happy with the Flight US 6 circulars. Again, they knit easily and steadily without dropping or splitting stitches. I intentionally cast on enough stitches to force the yarn to glide over the join, and that too is smooth. Finally, because I do like wool on wood, I transferred the swatch to the Driftwood #7. The Driftwood was perfect with the wool.

Importantly, the joins and cable are excellent. The cable doesn't seem to want to twist, bend, shimmy or tangle. It just is. The join doesn't snag or drag. For comparison, the cables are not as loose or flexible as Addi cables but not nearly as stiff as the Chiaogoo. I think they are a little firmer than Knitter's Pride cables, and probably most comparable to the Knitter's Pride cables.

It's hard to see the join - black on black - but it is smooth!















The cable keeps its own gentle loop. I didn't sit on it to straighten it (yet).













If there is a downside to these needles, it's probably the slightly blunter tips in the context of knitting complex lace. Ok, and the availability. Hopefully that will improve once both sets have started shipping.

Overall, I think these are really solid contenders for favorite needles. I may not be emotionally ready to admit that anything could beat Chiaogoos (except on dishcloth cotton!), but the Flight deserves to compete. I would be happy to recommend them to either a beginner or an experienced knitter. I am hoping to buy an interchangeable set of the Flight (sizes 2-15, pricing seems to run $99-109), and was disappointed to hear that they won't be shipping till after the holidays. My LYS does have a full set of the interchangeable Driftwood (pricing closer to $125-130, I think), so one of my knitting friends was happily knitting along with her new Driftwood needle last knit night. The circular cables are excellent, and the interchangeable joins are very smooth. In fact, as much as I enjoyed knitting with these, I think the cables and joins are the most dramatic technical advantage of these needles. They don't drag. They don't catch. They knit, smoothly and quickly. I Lykke them.

Have you tried them? What do you think? Do you have additional questions that I might be able to answer? Leave a comment if so!

Adding diversity: Knitting needles

A friend recently asked about the difference between knitting needles: "I feel like in my experience a #4 needle is much like other #4 needles." When questioned, she admitted that yarns move differently on the needle. Some seem to flow just right. Some feel so slippery that they almost fall off the needle.

Those differences create a technical benefit for different knitting needles. This blog is going to grow a little bit and add thoughts on needles as well as books. Yarn may eventually join the fun.

It's time for Audible!!

After three years of mining the library's supply of Terry Pratchett audiobooks, during which time we have listened to some of the audiobooks multiple times, we are about ready to expand our audiobook collection. These are really expensive if bought outright.

It's time go to to Audible. We are thinking of starting with a subscription to Audible Gold because, as above, we have completely exhausted the library's supply of Terry Pratchett books. We thought about starting with an Audible free trial, but that was two years ago. Before we listened to Going Postal eight times. (Of note, there is an excellent movie version of Going Postal.)

Oh-hoh! Let's see if this works:

Heart Healers

James Forrester's book, Heart Healers, is one of the best medical books I've read in a long time. The author is a cardiologist whose career spanned and contributed to dramatic developments in the field of cardiology. He writes an engaging, thorough, informative, and often personal history of this era. This is a superb read, so good that I may have to buy my own copy instead of re-borrowing it from the library!

Out of fiction, and into finance

Over the last year, I've graduated from reading about finance online to real books. At a cousin's recommendation, I'm working through Ben Graham's The Intelligent Investor. It's superb. Graham's practical evaluation of investing is tremendous, and his handling of the underlying issues of risk and decision-making are masterful. For those who want to dig a little deeper into historical background and concepts of risk, I highly, highly recommend Peter Bernstein's Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk. It's on my re-reading list, and it may deserve its own dedicated post once I get back to it.

Graham's tome is really a long-term reading project. I can usually take about 1-2 chapters at a time, but I find it needs some time to soak in.

For reading on the lighter side, I borrowed a copy of Jeff Yeager's The Cheapskate Next Door. It's great. Yeager's humorous take on the stranger habits of cheapskates (or frugal folk, as I may choose to call them) balances a very pragmatic summary of frugal tips and tricks.

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A new NC find: Kaye Gibbons' Ellen Foster

This short gem tugs at the heart with a same gritty focus on the messed-up human condition, and it wasn't until I flipped through the author information at the end that I realized why it felt so familiar. Kaye Gibbons is from Chapel Hill, NC, and her writing shares regional similarities with some of my favorite modern Carolinian writers (for example, Clyde Edgerton).

Unlike some of my far less favorite Southern writers (William Faulkner), Gibbons' writing is infused with a sense of hope. It's also comprehensible. But the hope is what really stands out. Young Ellen Foster starts life with a dying mother, a deadbeat, abusive dad, a demented grandmother, and very little support of any type. She persistently solves problems, and each obstacle teaches her a little bit more.

There seems to be a new genre of Female Under the Odds. Way back when, there was a Rags to Riches genre of hardworking, morally straight young men who prospered despite all odds. The current genre is far more depressing, and often rather hopeless. Ellen Foster makes this group a little better, a little more positive, and definitely more defiant.

Worth a read. I will eventually grab more of Gibbons' books.

More on Wendell Berry: growing the wishlist.

My last post mentioned Wendell Berry as a recent discovery.

  From this review of Bonzo's and Stevens' guide to Berry, this quote:

The authors begin with the claim, "If we were asked to name one person to whom contemporary Christians need to listen, it would be this unlikely source, a man with no important connections to ecclesial or political corporate power." I would say this applies for all Americans today: Berry is the great prophet of our time and place.
And I doubt Messrs. Bonzo and Stevens would mind if I recommend that those new to Berry begin with his own books. Get a copy of his collected essays, or the poetry volume A Timbered Choir, or his sweeping novel Jayber Crow. Go someplace quiet and settle in. Prepare to have your worldview—whatever it is—upset. That's what prophets do.

Wendell Berry

Nathan Coulter deserves a full book review, though I may read more of the Port Royal series before eulogizing the initial offering. But briefly, I greatly enjoyed the book. I've paraphrased the quote below to a number of friends already, and was happy to find it requoted online since I thought the book was so good that I gave it away soon after reading it. Really, can you find a better recommendation than that???

Uncle Burley said hills always looked blue when you were far away from them. That was a pretty color for hills; the little houses and barns and fields looked so neat and quiet tucked against them. It made you want to be close to them. But he said that when you got close they were like the hills you’d left, and when you looked back your own hills were blue and you wanted to go back again. He said he reckoned a man could wear himself out going back and forth.

E.B. White

This is just a quote, stolen from Esther ("from E. B. White, who is commenting on the centralization of schools and transportation to school via bus, in 1940"). I recently visited the Maritime Museum in Bath, Maine, where one of their more frequently referenced exhibits is a 20-minute video on lobstermen narrated by E.B. White. It was a unique treat to hear his narration of the day in the life of a lobsterman. There is something so practical and simple in appreciating our daily work even though the work of others can seem exotic by virtue of unfamiliarity, habitat or culture.

"Whether the improvement is general nobody knows. Certainly there is something lost. One thing that is lost is the mere business of walking to school, which is something in itself. In my community scholars still get round on the hoof. They pass our house at seven in the morning, clicking along in a ground-eating stride. Some of them make a four-mile trip to school--eight miles in all....In all the time I've been driving these roads I've never been asked for a ride, which is almost unbelievable considering the distances that must be covered, often in zero weather or in storm. Walking is natural for these children, just as motoring is for most others....I enjoy living among pedestrians who have an instinctive and habitual realization that there is more to a journey than the mere fact of the arrival. If the consolidated school served by busses destroys that in our children I don't know that we are ahead of the game after all."

E.B. White, One Man's Meat, pp. 110-111

Book recommendations from the Jobbing Doctor's wife

Somewhat unusual choices, and a number of books I haven't read. From a sidebar, found via a Leap'n link:

MRS J D'S RECOMMENDED READS.
Mrs JD is a teacher (and a very good one at that). Here is a list of her recommended reads for her pupils.

I do, of course, agree with her.

To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee
1984 by George Orwell
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngosi Adichie
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you - Harold Bloom

A thousand splendid suns by Khaled Hosseini
The reluctant fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The House of the spirits by Isabel Allende
Paula by Isabel Allende
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own - William Hazlitt

The History of the World in 10 and a half chapters by Julian Barnes
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
An Ice Cream War by William Boyd
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
Snow falling on Cedars by David Guterson
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon
Notes on a scandal by Zoe Heller
A pale view of hills by Kazuo Ishiguro
The unbearable lightness of being by Milan Kundera
A short history of tractors in the Ukraine by Marina Lewycka

Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labelled "This could change your life". Helen Exley

Small island by Andrea Levy
Eight months on Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
The god of small things by Arundhati Roy
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
A suitable boy by Vikram Seth

We read to know that we are not on our own. C S Lewis


We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The bonesetter's daughter by Amy Tan
Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe
The boy in the striped pyjamas by John Boyne
The ragged trousered philanthropists by Robert Tressell

Recommendation from Kim

Best ipad accessory case ever.

Young Mandela

David Smith introduces Nelson Mandela with the news of his arrest in 1952, and spends the first chapter describing the ensuing trial. He then jumps back to Mandela's birth and childhood, and from there he generally proceeds in an approximately linear order. His prose is very pleasant to read. He writes in short, clear sentences that smooth the flow of ideas and events. However, the overall order of events can seem jumbled and unsettled as the linearity is muddled by apparent digressions. Smith has escaped the biographer's trap of writing a hagiography, and he seems to deal fairly with the mystery and denial surrounding Mandela's love life. He provides an insightful picture of Mandela's ideological and pragmatic assessments. Overall, I would recommend this book to historically minded readers.

Rain Song (and How Sweet It Is)

Alice Wisler is one of the few living authors I know as a real, human person. She introduced me to her novel How Sweet It Is a couple years ago, and I've been meaning to get a copy of Rain Song ever since. How Sweet It Is was lovely, light reading free of the cloying soppiness that generally engulfs books in the Christian romance genre. Maybe it was a little bit saccharine, but then the title is honest.

Rain Song, similarly, was easy to read. Wisler's amusing surprises and quirky characters kept me laughing. I kept wishing I knew Alice better, because the character-development-through-periodic-revelations kept me wondering how Alice fit this all together. Perhaps this is the challenge of knowing an author: one wants to see her reflected in her work, however inappropriate that may be. Take the wonderful Monet the Terror, a wee lassie whose antics prompt persistent (and probably unnecessary) medical evaluation. Was Monet based on an actual acquaintance or an active imagination? Either way, Monet contributes to the story and the protagonist's character development. She also features in the subtle introduction of "food for thought" material, given that her behavioral pathologies could be explained more easily by circumstances than by medical causes. Wisler's plot and character development grow steadily through the book. The end is almost anti-climactic, but Wisler draws a satisfying conclusion by answering questions raised earlier.

Overall, this is a lovely book. It's a great read for relaxation on a rainy day or a beach trip. I would recommend snapping it up before it goes out of print in the midst of the new ebook revolution. I have to catch my copy of Hatteras Girl before it disappears into electronic land.