Two more good books - How Starbucks Saved My Life and They Did it With Love
December 27, 2007
Seeing as I've been bed-ridden for the past few days except for a few jaunts here and there, I went to the library and checked out a few books to pass the time away. Haven't had the time to read for pleasure lately and thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in these two very different stories.
How Starbucks Saved My Life, by Michael Gates Gill is a very interesting tale of a man of privilege who loses everything only to find his soul. (Or at least that's how I read it!) Here's the official book reviews from Amazon:
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
"The son of New Yorker
writer Brendan Gill grew up meeting the likes of Ezra Pound and Ernest
Hemingway. A Yale education led to a job at prestigious J. Walter
Thompson Advertising. But at 63, the younger Gill's sweet life has gone
sour. Long fired from JWT, his own business is collapsing and an
ill-advised affair has resulted in a new son and a divorce.
At this low point, and in need of health insurance for a just diagnosed brain tumor, Gill fills out an application for Starbucks and is assigned to the store on 93rd and Broadway in New York City, staffed primarily by African-Americans. Working as a barista, Gill, who is white, gets an education in race relations and the life of a working class Joe . Gill certainly has a story to tell, but his narrative is flooded with saccharine flashbacks, when it could have detailed how his very different, much younger colleagues, especially his endearing 28-year-old manager, Crystal Thompson, came to accept him.
The book
reads too much like an employee handbook, as Gill details his duties or
explains how the company chooses its coffee. Gill's devotion to the
superchain has obviously changed his life for the better, but that same
devotion makes for a repetitive, unsatisfying read. Photos not seen by PW. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Yale graduate, prosperous ad exec: Gill has it all. Then he turns 60 and finds himself precipitously bounced from his job and saddled with the triple threats of a ruined marriage, an unexpected newborn, and a brain tumor. Despairing at the prospect of looming poverty, he stops at a Manhattan Starbucks to comfort himself with a latte.
By chance he sits down next to Crystal, a young African American woman recruiting new workers for the coffee giant, and she offers him a job. Almost as an act of desperation, he accepts, and he dons the uniform of a barista-in-training at an Upper West Side Starbucks.
This son of privilege who had hobnobbed with Queen Elizabeth, T. S. Eliot, and Jackie Onassis, now keeps daily company with a diverse crew of brash young New Yorkers for whom Starbucks' progressive employee benefits and demanding, inspiring standards of public service offer hope.
Gill starts at the bottom, cleaning the bathroom, and he has trouble mastering the cash register. Over the months he learns to deeply respect Crystal, to appreciate the mutual support of his coworkers, and to genuinely cherish the passing parade of customers, each unique. To his own astonishment, he realizes that he actually looks forward joyfully to every hectic, exhausting workday. Other corporate giants can only envy the sheer goodwill that this memoir will inevitably generate for Starbucks. What a read." Knoblauch, Mark
I obviously agree with the 2nd reviewer since I didn't find it an employee handbook at all, but a man's journey to find himself when he'd lost it all. I loved the stories of his previous life of privilege inter-laced with his current Starbucks job. The characters he worked with made it interesting to read too.
I'm not the only one to think so because apparently Shari Smiley of Creative Artists Agency thought enough of his story to attach Tom Hanks and Gus Van Sant to the potential film project and she's supposed to have the Midas touch. Very cool.
I wonder though how well this book will translate into film. Reminds me too much of The Terminal, Hanks other film about a man stuck in one environment too that didn't do too well if I remember correctly. However, screenwriters can do miracles so I'll just wait and see what they come up with.
Just know the book is very good and worth a read. Especially for men.
The other book, They Did It With Love, by Kate Morgenroth, makes me never want to move to the suburbs since there's so much betrayal, murder and mayhem that ensues when one couple leaves the city to move to Greenwich, CT I didn't know it existed!
Here's Amazon's review of the book:
Sofie and her husband have left Manhattan in search of a more tranquil life in the suburbs. But when a member of Sofie’s new neighborhood book club turns up dead, things get messy. She discovers that everybody has something to hide, including her own husband. Her neighbor Priscilla has been married to Gordon for fifteen years, but the love left their marriage a long time ago. Susan is Priscilla’s biggest supporter until she has to choose between loyalty to her friend and telling the truth. Ashley is eager to fit in, but her youth and status as a second wife keep her on the outside. She may know more than they think she does, though. Julia seems to have it all—the perfect house, job and husband. But her untimely death has people questioning how perfect her life really was. Through this swamp of suburban secrets, Sofie must wade to find the truth behind Julia’s murder and the state of her own marriage. They Did It with Love is a delightful, twisty, and twisted exploration of the things we’ll do for love.
About the Author
Kate Morgenroth is the author of Kill Me First and Saved, and two YA novels, Jude and Echo."
This one kept me guessing right until the end! The characters were entertaining, the mystery book club a great setting for murder mischief, the deteriorating wealthy marriages, and everything else this little community unravels rivals Desperate Housewives!
It was very enjoyable and a nice escape from my life in CA to their lives in CT. Great for women to read and relax to. Men too, if you care to learn how to kill your wife. JUST KIDDING. Not that kind of book at all. Just checking to see if you're still reading.
Okay, that's all for now. Nice to finally feel like I can breath a bit. Now to stop coughing up a lung. OY!
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