Smith: A book on embezzlement; donated books for the Rose Parade; and Sol guests

A nice note arrived from Lorraine Aho. She’d read the column on the dismaying case of a respected combat veteran who’s joined the ranks of those who handle others’ money and surrender to the temptation to steal it.

I’d suggested there’s a book in the phenomenon of the intrinsically trusted colleague who’s caught embezzling from a youth team, church, school, business, nonprofit, any organization with a buck in the bank.

“I am writing that book,” Aho said.

She’s a forensics accountant and partner in Sonoma’s Aho & Associates. The firm helps businesses and individuals avoid, or recover from, being illicitly separated from their money.

Aho said she has three books coming out in coming months. One, “Once Upon a Fraud,” seeks to help people protect themselves from being ripped off, whether by unknown and distant crooks or by an associate you’ve forever regarded as a friend, if not a member of the family.

Embezzlement “is always sad for everyone involved,” Aho said, and its also preventable and “very hard to recover from.

“Full restitution is rare, as many funds are spent on lifestyle upgrades and gambling.”

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BOOKIN’ IN ROSE TOWN: All this week, right up to and including Saturday’s Luther Burbank Rose Parade & Festival, we can donate books that will become gifts to local children and adults.

Keeping with and expanding the parade’s “Out of a Storybook” theme, organizers are collecting new and gently used books in bins placed at 13 businesses and government offices.

For a complete list of them, see roseparadefestival.com.

What sorts of books are parade organizers and their partners in literacy hoping to receive? Any sorts, though ideal would be storybooks for kids in about the 3rd and 4th grades.

Donated books will go to the summer reading program by the Volunteer Center, the Friends of the Santa Rosa Libraries Book Sale and the county bookmobile.

While we’re on the topic, you won’t want to miss radio station KZST’s entry in the Rose Parade. It’s unlikely you could miss it, even from blocks away.

Morning DJ and community rock star Brent Farris will ride in a highrise hot rod of a motorized grocery shopping card (youtu.be/XnWaY_Lt3aQ).

Accompanying him will be fairytale princesses who’ll push regular-sized shopping carts full of books - in English and Spanish - that will be handed to kids all along the parade route.

Afterwards at the festival in Old Courthouse Square, lovers of literacy can pick up a book at the booth KZST and its partners will operate, or drop off books at the Rose Parade & Festival info booth, also on the Square.

How great if first-times to our parade wonder, “What’s up with all the books?”

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HEAR THE CHEERS? They boomed Saturday from the stadium at Rancho Cotate High all through the pro soccer game pitting Sonoma County Sol and the San Francisco Stompers.

The Sol won 3-2. But the biggest thrill came when players with the Rising Stars of Santa Rosa’s Sports City arena took to the pitch to boot the ball and pose for keepsake photos with the players. The Rising Stars, all children and young adults with disabilities, were there as guests of the first-place Sol.

What a kick.

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @CJSPD.