Reading Recommendations:The Money Class, Learn to Create Your New American Dream, Suze OrmanWhat does it take to create your New American Dream?Suze Orman, the woman millions of Americans have turned to for financial advice, says it's time for a serious reconsideration of the American Dream, what promise it still holds, what aspects are in need of revision, and how it may be refashioned to fit our lives so that we can once again have faith that our hard work will pay off and that a secure and hopeful future is within our reach.In nine electrifying chapters, Orman delivers a master class on personal finance for this pivotal moment in time. She addresses every aspect of the American Dream: home, family, career, and retirement. She teaches us that in order to create lasting security we must learn to stand in our truth. We must recognize, embrace and be honest about what is real for us today and allow that understanding to inform the choices we make. The New American Dream is not about the things we accumulate, says Orman, but about the confidence that comes from knowing that what we've worked so hard for cannot be taken away from us. In The Money Class, Orman teaches us how to take control of our present, right here, right now, in order to build the future of our dreams.Worth Fighting For, Love, Loss and Moving Forward, Lisa Niema SwayzeLisa Niema and Patrick Swayze were married for thirty-four years. They first met as teenagers at his mother's dance studio - he was older and just a bit cocky, she was the beautiful waif who refused to worship the ground he walked on. Through the years their marriage strained under the pressures that many do, but it was always a uniquely passionate and creative partnership.When they first exchanged vows, Lisa promised to be with her husband, "till death do us part." But how many couples stop and think about what that truly means? Worth Fighting For is a remarkably candid look at what losing a partner really entails, how to care for him or her, how to make it through each day without falling into despair and how to move forward in the second half of your life, when the person you spent the first half with is gone.For the first time, Lisa Niema Swayze shares the details of Patrick's twenty-one month battle with Stage IV pancreatic cancer and she describes his last days, when she simply tries to make him comfortable. She writes with heart breaking honesty about her grief in the aftermath of Patirck's death, and she openly discusses the challenges that the years without him have posed.While this is an emotionally honest and unflinching depiction of illness and loss, it is also a hopeful and life-affirming exploration of the power of the human spirit. Lisa shows that no matter how dark the prospect of another day may seem, there are always reserves of strength to call upon. She writes, "I tell you I am a different person now. One who has been thrown into the fire and forged." This book is both a tribute to a marriage and a celebration of the healing power that each day holds, even in the most difficult of circumstances.Every year or so, I've mentioned a book of interest to all of us here in San Saba County. The book is Surviving on the Texas Frontier, Personal Recollections of Life in Nineteenth Century Texas, Sarah Harkey Hall, Introduction by Paula Mitchell Marks"I was born in this perilous time and by nature, I inherited all caution and care. My first recollection is of fear of Indians: sitting up at night listening to the whistle of the Comanches all around and shivering with fear and trembling. We were taught never to go but a short distance from our little hut, for it was no uncommon thing to get news of some family being massacred in the most horrible and cruel manner, with the capture of the women and perhaps little innocent girls being carried off with them. At the same time, they would have the scalp of father and brothers to present to the captives and if they showed any grief, their torture was only increased until relieved by death. We would often venture out to the old vacated wigwams to gather trinkets left by the Indians: beads and the like. We always had strand after strand of them, which our childish hearts enjoyed. Although once we were missed by our parents, we would hear the call, "Come here, children, you will be picked up by the Indians," then we would take to our heels."Sarah Harkey Hall.