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I have been curious about Chris Guillebeau's book $100 Startup since I first saw it on the Nook months ago, so when I saw it was available through my library's eBook lending program, I decided to check it out.  $100 Startup is all about how entrepreneurs make business ideas successful, without having to invest a lot of money.

One of the main things the book does that I really like is to simplify the business plan: Basically, if you have a product and a customer base, you have a business.  Otherwise, you don't.  It sounds so much easier than writing an elaborate business plan with many sections, doesn't it?  It puts everything into perspective, and shows you how to quickly assess the viability of any business idea.

The book also helps you to make a decision on which business (or businesses) to pursue if you have more than one idea.  The author lays out a system for rating each business idea using factors such as a business's potential for success versus how much work it will involve.

After showing you how to establish whether a business idea is viable or not, he explains how to make it successful via marketing.  For instance, he lays out a plan for a successful launch, with lots of marketing leading up to the launch.  He also promotes the "fire sale" idea, where something is sold for a limited amount of time in order to encourage buyers to get it while they still can.

Peppered throughout the book are anecdotes about wildly successful business owners.  They range from people who have published eBook guides, to owners of more traditional businesses such as a bridal accessories shop.  Obviously not every small business, no matter how good it is, will enjoy the five and six figure income that many of these success stories illustrate, but it is encouraging to read about other entrepreneurs' success stories.

Finally, don't feel that if you are already making it as a small business owner, you don't need to read this book.  As a freelance writer, I consider myself an entrepreneur, and I still found plenty to take away from it.  Part of continuing to grow professionally is continuing to learn from the books you read, the classes you take and the people you meet -- knowing what to take away from each encounter in order to get a little closer to the success you want to ultimately achieve!

Pumpkin is a key ingredient for Thanksgiving recipes and there are many great pumpkin recipes. If you are looking for a recipe for a pumpkin dessert to try instead of making pumpkin pie, this is a great alternative. Pumpkin pie squares are very similar to pumpkin pie, but yet they are slightly different.

The ingredients you will need to make these are:

• 1 c. flour
• ½ c. quick oats
• ½ c. brown sugar, packed
• ½ c. butter
• 2 c. pumpkin
• 1 (12 ½ ounce) can evaporated milk
• 2 eggs
• ¾ c. sugar
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. ginger
• ¼ tsp. cloves
• ½ c. pecans
• ½ c. brown sugar, packed
• 2 T. butter

To make pumpkin pie squares, you will need to preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Next, place the flour, oats, ½ c. brown sugar and ½ c. butter in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer. Spread this mixture into an ungreased 9 x 13 pan and push down evenly. Bake this crust in the oven for around 15 to 20 minutes.

Then you will need to combine the pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, salt and spices in a large bowl. Mix really well and pour this into the baked crust. Bake for around 20 more minutes.

Finally, combine the pecans, ½ c. brown sugar and 2 T. butter and mix well. This will be a crunchy topping for the bars. Spread this over the bars and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes.

James Bond has been missing and presumed dead for over a year when the latest caller claiming to be him phones MI6 and asks to speak to M. After undergoing a battery of questions and, later, an interview, it is determined that this indeed is Agent 007 alive and well.

M’s chief of staff, however, smells trouble. Why is Bond staying at a fancy hotel and not his flat? Why did he not check in with either station B (West Berlin) or station G (West Germany) before returning to London? The last stamp on his passport shows West Germany, after all. But the passport itself is a standard-issue KGB forgery. And why is he carrying a mysterious pistol that has no grip? 

M however consents to see Bond, albeit while on his guard and ready for anything.  

At their meeting, Bond pleas for MI6 to cease its activities, claiming their opposite number the KGB will do the same if they did. This only angers M, who, naturally, refuses. At that, Bond attempts to douse his old boss with cyanide with the mystery weapon he is carrying. M, however, quickly drops a protective shield that prevents the assassination attempt by his now-brainwashed agent who promptly faints when the chief of staff and head of security burst in and seize him by the arms.

M, however, is more than willing to forgive Bond for falling into enemy hands as an indirect result of the amnesia suffered during his climactic battle in Japan with S.P.E.C.T.R.E head Ernest Starvo Blofeld, which in turn saw Bond assume the persona of a Japanese fisherman which led him to visit Vladivostok, Russia, innocently enough, only to be recognized and taken in by the KGB.

As Bond is brought back around to his normal self, M picks 007s next assignment: the assassination of Paco “Pistols” Scaramanga, aka “The Man with the Golden Gun”; an American assassin for-hire whose weapon of choice is a long-barreled gold-plated Colt .45 firing custom-made silver-jacketed golden bullets.

Once Bond has healed from his ordeal, it is off to the Caribbean in search of his quarry whom he meets quite by chance at a café/brothel in Jamaica. Pretending to be a security expert named “Mark Hazzard,” Bond accepts a job Scaramanga promises $1,000.00 for: that of security at a meeting Scaramanga is having at a nearby unfinished resort designed to woo investors to put up money to see the project through.

Bond goes along, smelling something fishy all the while. Sure enough, the “investors” are mostly hoods from the United States along with a “Norwegian businessman” named “Hendriks” who smacks of the KGB.

Bond at first thinks he will have to go it alone; not even his old secretary Mary Goodnight knows where he has gone off to after meeting him at the airport and driving him to the café. Luck is with him, however, when he soon finds his old friend Felix Leiter of the CIA is present along with another Company man for the purpose of getting the goods on the group and busting them.  

As Bond eavesdrops on Scaramanga’s first meeting with his unsavory clients while pretending to be outside the room on guard, he soon discovers he is on the cusp of an intelligence bonanza. At the same time, he learns he has his work cut out for him when he overhears “Hendriks” warn Scaramanga that the KGB has gotten wind of a scheme by MI6 to assassinate him with their agent named James Bond!

Thus the stage is set for a battle of wits between the Man with the Golden Gun and the man with the License to Kill.

As many Bond fans have already divined, the plot of Fleming’s original novel is the polar opposite of the movie version starring Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, and Britt Eklund. In fact, they scarcely resemble each other in plot save for the presence of characters Bond, M, Goodnight, and Scaramanga. Nor does the novel contain the film characters Knick Knack, Hai Fat, Sheriff J.W. Pepper, etc.   Even the fabled golden gun is different in the movie, being a single-shot, small caliber weapon Scaramanga can assemble and disassemble out of a gold cigarette case, cuff link, and cigarette holder as opposed to a slightly modified Colt. 45.  

Nevertheless, Fleming’s novel is a must read for Bond aficionados and not a bad choice for the general reader seeking something different.

NOTE: An updated strategy guide has been posted here. This article is obsolete.

This quirky little game is taking the world by storm. Brought to you by Hasbro in conjunction with Gameloft, the My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic game has some significant differences from the usual "click then wait eight hours" game genre.