Jeanne Fleming

Meh. A glorified collection of advise columns and boring stats. Some of the advise to me was downright absurd but some was actually usable. Just glad I picked this up from a library's freebie table, no money exchanged for a subpar book on the subject.

Fleming and Schwarz cover every conceivable scenario that can arise with friends and family on the topic of money. They're balanced in their points, but not shy about taking a stance. I didn't agree with them on everything (you don't owe a full muffler replacement if you borrow a friend's beater and the exhaust falls off). Most of their advice is practical, and they back it with summaries from a series of surveys they've conducted.

Humorous true-to-life anecdotes about money problems between friends and family, and the socially acceptable ways of dealing with them. Most of the problems seemed to center on the financially affluent, and not being super-rich myself I found it hard to relate to the specific situations presented.