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Rating: 
Summary: A Clever and Extremely Useful Book
Review: Checklists for Life should be on everyone's shelf. I have bought several copies of the book for members of my family. I found it witty and extremely useful. The author clearly knows her subjects -- and an amazing array of subjects they are. This book will always be on my shelf as a reference guide and an amusing read. I'm making sure it's on my niece's shelf as well, as she's going off to college next year and will need the advice on household chores, and important legal, medical, and financial managment matters. All of the important subjects in life are included. The book provided a wealth of useful, original and always practical information.
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Summary: A Good Reference for a Range of Situations
Review: I bought this book years ago and still enjoy referencing it for the occasions that I had yet to encounter. The author's style is simple and concise, yet friendly. No one book, without being incredibly bulky, will cover every possible checklist, but this one proves itself to be extremely helpful.
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Summary: A Good Reference for a Range of Situations
Review: I consider this book very useful. I am glad that I bought it. I found many useful checklists in it. I was able to use these checklists as a starting point to organizing many aspects of my life. I particularly found the checklists regarding safety deposti boxes, first aid kits, and finances very important to have.I also appreciated that she provided extra resources for more information.I had two complaints about this book which is why I rated it a four instead of a five.
-The checklists cover too broad a range of information- from How to unclog your sink to how to pick a lawyer to first aid kits. I think this book would have been stronger if it had zeroed in on two or three types of checklists (finances and survival for example) and left the others out.
- The author felt the need to explain many of the items on her checklist. Sometimes these explanations were necessary and important and provided more information about something. However, many of these explanations were unneccesary. I would suggest that this is a good book to have if you are trying to organize your life and your environment.
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Summary: Great Reference Book
Review: I found this book to be full of useful information, presented in an accessable, fun format. The author refrains from giving the reader too much information, thereby increasing the reader's confusion or feelings of ignorance. Many of the lists deal with topics that not everyone has experience with or knows where to go to get the needed information. This book is the perfectl resource to have on hand whenever you're faced with a new experience or something you have to deal with infrequently. It makes an especially welcome gift for someone graduating from high school or college, or for someone getting married or moving out on his/her own for the first time.
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Summary: Useful and fun!
Review: I gave this book to ten friends this Christmas and I have never received such heartfelt thank you notes. It just struck me as a useful but fun (and well-written) reference book, so I thought it would make a great gift and apparently I was right. Several of my recipients reported putting the book to work almost immediatley. One used the guidelines provided to stock his bar for his New Year's party, and another referred to the list about buying a computer in her post-holiday shopping. I know I've enjoyed my copy. It allows me to become an "instant expert" on a variety of subjects after reading only a few pages at a time!
Rating: 
Summary: Simplify your life
Review: I like to run my life as simply as possible and love having all kinds of information in one place. The other day a friend of mine had a death in the family and called me up for help with making arrangements. I took this book down from the shelf and read her the advice about shopping for a funeral. Last night I took the book to Target and used it to shop for linens and kitchen equipment for my new apartment. This is what I call an amazingly useful book!
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Summary: What's their problem?
Review: I really appreciate the wide variety of lists here. Sure there are some no-brainers like how to clean up quickly or how do laundry (I wish my husband would read these!), but there are many much less obvious choices. How to shop for a funeral -- a real eye opener! -- is my favorite. The ones I've found particularly useful: 1) Which kinds of stationery to buy so I'll always be prepared to dash off a "correct" note. 2) How to choose a charity to donate to; 3) How to write various kinds of letters -- I recently had to write a condolence note to a friend and leaned gratefully on that "how-to" list.
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Summary: A wonderful household organizer
Review: Kirsten Lagatree is a wonderful writer, and in this handy little book she has put her writing talents to work again, compiling a highly useful household resource that can help anyone who's a pack rat like me get better organized around the house. I found her lists on getting organized around home, how to guarantee hassle-free travel, and on how to organize your social life to be particularly useful. This is also a fun book to read, nicely formatted, written in an easy, conversational style. Nice job! Rick Koonce Arlington Virginia
Rating:
Summary: Portable Dad
Review: The advice in this book is the kind of thing you would formerly turn to your mom or dad for or other wise souls with a lot of living under their collective belt. The checklists offer a "how-to" guide to handling the kinds of situations that everyone runs into at one time or another. These minor dilemas -- choosing a health club, writing a thank you note, a complaint letter, planting a garden, etc. -- can generally be taken care of without too much aggravation, but it's sure nice to avoid the trial-and-error that can turn a simple task into a mess. Most of the checklists offer pretty basic advice and may seem simplistic and obvious, but a careful perusal and you'll find yourself saying, "Why didn't I think of that? " I plan to pack this book off with our college-age son when he leaves home next fall and gets himself settled into his first apartment; this will be his reference book. My wife and I recently moved back to California from Washington D.C. and I wish we would have had this book beforehand; the move would have gone more smoothly if we had had Lagatree's moving checklist! One caveat: on page 115, Lagatree writes in "The Well-Stocked Bar Section" that "unless you're making margaritas, there isn't much call for Tequila." She doesn't know OUR friends who always ask for margaritas, but then, this is California. All in all, my wife and I found it to be a great, handy book to have around. We read sections to one another over coffee one morning. She called it "a hip version of Heloise."
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Summary: Hmmmmmm---I should have bought a mop
Review: The only danger of this info-packed little treasure is that you could easily misplace it. I regret to say I've already made use of the section on traffic court, and as I prepare to move into an ancient house I suspect I'll need all the others, possibly including tips on dealing with a dead body. These lists would be indespensable if scrawled on a blackboard, so it's a bonus that Lagatree's clever writing also makes for fun reading. Just don't lose it. I'm thinking of nailing up a copy in a prominent spot in each room of my home.
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