A personal finance how-to book with a bilingual twist Years ago, when I was an editor at Computerworld, I got to know Lynn Jimenez at KGO radio in San Francisco. She would often call me when there was breaking tech news and she needed some quick perspective. Over dozens of interviews, she proved to be a more valuable media trainer than any high-priced consultant I've ever worked with.

Lynn works at warp speed. She's the morning business reporter on the top AM station in the Bay Area and she usually broadcasts from the frantic floor of the Pacific Stock Exchange. You can be having a perfectly normal conversation with Lynn and she will suddenly excuse herself, turn away and deliver a perfectly timed one-minute market update to 100,000 drive-time listeners as casually as if she were answering the phone. Then she'll turn back and pick up the conversation in mid-stream. I don't know how she does it.

Somehow, she's found time to write a book about personal finance, and it's got an interesting twist. ¿Se Habla Dinero? is written in Spanish and English. The Spanish pages are on the left and the English pages are on the right. So the book is both a guide to personal finance and a translation guide. This is important to Spanish-speaking immigrants, who are easily intimidated by the jargon and pressure involved in high-stakes financial decisions. They can take this book with them and easily find the English words they need.

As a practical guide, ¿Se Habla Dinero? is a plain-talk tutorial that's accessible and understandable. Lynn Jimenez isn't a specialist in personal finance, but she knows plenty of people who are. She's taken a journalist's approach by interviewing the experts in all areas and boiling down their advice into plain English - and Spanish. The book is comprehensive and easy to read, and the bilingual format is a bonus for readers who are still climbing the language curve.  ¶ 5:44 AM