Money 911

The author's latest money management guide is a no-frills 130-question reference work. Organized into categories like credit, taxes, marriage, retirement, and real estate, the questions have practical urgency and cover cradle-to-grave issues that almost every individual faces. Chatzky's friendly speaking style invites engagement, and her straightforward tone is a good vehicle for the practicality of her ideas. She outlines financial choices and makes clear recommendations with no personal judgments. An encyclopedic guide like this is difficult to navigate as a lengthy MP3, which, unlike the CD edition, sends listeners to a Web site to print the documents she references. But as an audio lesson on life's major money challenges, this could not be more comprehensive and easy to hear. T.W. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine