2 comments about A Passion for Winning: Fifty Years of Promoting Legendary People and Products.

1. A Passion For Winning: Fifty Years Of Promoting Legendary People And Products offers the personal and professional wisdom of experienced Public Relations career man and author Aaron Cushman. Now retired, Cushman shares anecdotes drawn from his lively working years and directly addresses matters important and specific to public relations work. From his insight into, and definitions of, the practice of "spinning"; to tips, tricks, and techniques to earn positive media relations; to reacting to unexpected crises, and much, much more, A Passion For Winning is very highly recommended reading -- especially for anyone interested in a PR career for themselves.



2. It is one thing to be successful. Quite another to be truly passionate about one's work. And yet another to have the ability to share that enthusiasm with others. In "A Passion for Winning" Aaron Cushman has done all three. He teaches by the example of his fine work and by his strong desire to have others follow in his footsteps. This book is great for anyone who desires a career in communications - or who needs a boost of confidence to jump-start a stalled career. (Review by Marion E. Gold - author of "Personal Publicity Planner: A Guide to Marketing YOU" and "TOP COPS: Profiles of Women in Command)

No comments about The Master of Seventh Avenue: David Dubinsky and the American Labor Movement.

5 comments about The Cliff Walk: A Memoir of a Job Lost and a Life Found.

1. My husband and I both read this book a few years ago and agreed that it was one of the most profound memoirs we'd ever read. Snyder was born to write and we are blessed to have his thoughts recorded for posterity.



2. This is the ultimate victory story...with a twist. Unlike most autobiographical profiles, this one doesn't stand tall and tell you how great it is to be great. The thing is, it doesn't wrap itself up neatly either; the ending doesn't suddenly justify everything that has happened along the way. It's a formula all it's own, one that carries you up and down through the vulnerable channels this man had to endure.
   What's so refreshing about this book is kind of what I liked about the movie "Fargo"--the realization that a good story is as much the cumulitive value of the bits and pieces as it is the linear value--of this happening, then this, then this. Moments like his talking to a stranger while chipping golf balls capture the true feeling, the mixed combination of killing time with his genuine fear of being unemployed for even one more day. It's a strange loneliness that we all feel from time to time, even when we're not truly alone. Again, most writers need to have scaled great mountains before they'll write a story where they hang themselves out like this. Don Snyder makes an exception. In today's world, most nonfiction books succeed based on what they emphasize, leave in, or leave out. Snyder tells it all--even the bits that aren't exactly flattering.
   And in the end, he shows his true grit: not with eagles or birdies, but simply by making the pars he's supposed to make. And don't let my analogies fool you: it's not about golf. It's just your typical combination of fear and pride and confusion that somehow lead us to where we are today. And it's that kind of simplicity that makes a book like this stand the test of time, whether it be now or 50 years down the road.



3. I just read this book while still mired in a job search going on three years. The emotional tailspin the author displays is heart-wrenching and familiar; the tone of the first 200 pages felt like reading my own journals. I did not identify with the author's deceptions and strange behaviors, however, such as lying to his wife or to an insurance company, or considering selling a new baby. But everyone has their own threshold for going haywire, and the point of this book is that Don Snyder got through it and learned something about life, work, and family.
   
   THE CLIFF WALK, beyond the author's personal journey, raises excellent questions about the "American Dream" and what it means in our modern age. It also looks at the meaning of work, and how we draw self-esteem -- even identity -- from what we do for pay. This is a courageous book, even if you don't always approve of how the author responds to his plight, and it offers a strong dose of perspective on what really matters.



4. This is about the hard-hitting reality of losing a job you love and not ever being able to get back into the field ever again no matter how hard you try. Overall the writing was well-done and it was interesting, but I was hoping to feel more enlightened about how to reconcile this type of life experience. However, the writer conveys the sense that part of his identity was lost with the teaching job, and though he did learn the benefits of a different kind of life, he still seemed broken in some ways at the end of the story. I was hoping the ending would be more uplifting. But overall, good writing and very interesting.



5. I so wanted to like this book. The blurb and cover promise a paean to craftsmanship--to the honest pleasures of creative manual labor, carefully and lovingly done. Perhaps the most misleading blurb reads: "The housebuilding section contains some of the best writing about work in American literature."
   
   First of all, the "housebuilding section" takes up the last 62 pages of this 265-page book, so praising that section is faint praise for the book as a whole. Second of all: "some of the best writing about work in American literature"--is this reviewer kidding? (Has he ever read any American literature?)
   
   Look, Snyder's a capable stylist (though nothing more). But he's also a dismal excuse for a human being. This is a problem for a memoirist: it's hard to like a memoir by an unlikable person.
   
   I tolerated Snyder's selfish, self-pitying ways ("Poor me, I lost my job") in the early part of the book because he mocks himself enough that I gave him the benefit of the doubt. "Hmm," I thought, "he seems like a complete asshat, but he also seems to know this--so surely he has a transformative epiphany later." In fact, Snyder has adopted a pose of self-mockery, but it's only a pose. By the book's end, he's the same selfish twit he was at the beginning, only he's a handyman and author rather than an English professor.
   
   Consider: In September 1993, Snyder had been unemployed for about four months, living off of his family's savings in a rented house in Maine. He had been told almost 18 months earlier (in March 1992) that the 1992-1993 school year would be his last as an English professor at Colgate. He applied for lots of teaching jobs but struck out. He didn't seriously try to find any other work and, after he finished teaching at Colgate in the spring of 1993, he spent most of his time feeling sorry for himself, lying to his family, drinking too much, and generally being useless.
   
   His wife, meanwhile, was keeping the family together and taking care of their four young children. By September, the family had $1700 in the bank, and Snyder still had no prospects (he spent his days--I kid you not--stealing golf balls with his son). Snyder had also been volunteering at a homeless shelter, reading Raymond Carver stories aloud to the men there. One of the residents had recently left his cancer-ridden wife to wander the streets depressed. Snyder "became obsessed" with this man and his family and learned "that the father had hit bottom when he was unable to take his family to Disney World. It was the only thing his wife asked for, a family trip to Disney World before she no longer had the strength for such a journey." [188]
   
   So Snyder, obsessed with this other family and heedless of his own, emptied his checking account and gave the money to a priest to give to the abandoned cancer-ridden wife so she could go to Disney World. And Snyder did this without saying a word to his wife.
   
   This is pretty bad: Snyder, to give himself a momentary self-congratulatory high, impoverishes his family behind the back of his wife (the only grown-up in the marriage). But it gets better.
   
   Snyder gets a job as a groundskeeper. Meanwhile, Snyder's wife, like any sensible person whose husband has thrown away the family's money on some masturbatory fantasy, applies for food stamps. The first time his wife goes shopping with them, something humiliating apparently happens, because their youngest daughter, Erin--who accompanied her mother to the store--has a weeping fit when they get home and tells Snyder, "You made us use those stupid tickets." [196]
   
   Snyder doesn't like the cheap groceries his wife brought back. So he invites his oldest daughter, Nell, to go shopping for "real food" so they can "throw a party or something." [196] (Because that's what you should do when your sensible wife got food stamps after you gave away your family's money without consulting her.) At the store, he buys shrimp. He gets a dirty look from a well-dressed couple behind him and, turning to the couple, says to Nell: "You know why this man is groaning? If we were buying boxes of macaroni and cheese with our food stamps it would be all right with him, but we're buying shrimp, and he's groaning about it because that's the kind of food he eats." [197] Nell must have appreciated this.
   
   Later that night, Snyder makes up a bedtime story for his kids. The story is about a poor woman, and at the end of the story, Erin (the daughter who cried about the food stamps) says, "So she had to use those food tickets then?" Snyder is dumbfounded ("I couldn't believe that she was still angry about this") but his wife steps in and says, "Yes. She used them and she held her head up anyway because she was doing the best that she could and she respected herself." [199]
   
   Good message, mom. But you can count on Snyder to undermine it. As soon as he gets his construction job, he comes home and conspicuously burns the family's food stamps in the fireplace, making sure that Erin is watching. Erin asks who bought them the food stamps. Snyder: "I told her that people who had jobs bought them. She wanted to know why. 'Because they're earning money, and it's only fair that they should help people who aren't earning money.'. . . I continued on awhile longer, trying to impress upon my daughter that the notion of a lucky person helping an unlucky person was the only thing that held civilization together." [206]
   
   Say what? Snyder burns the food stamps in front of his daughter to prove that he's a man, thereby validating his daughter's shame about relying on them (if they're not shameful, why burn them?) and undermining his wife's sensible and self-respecting message (people who use food stamps are doing the best they can and should respect themselves), and then Snyder tries to convince her that charity makes the world go round? Which message should Erin believe, the one Snyder sends by his actions or the one he puts into words?
   
   This last scene, and Snyder's narration of it, captures what I hate about this book: by his actions, Snyder shows us that he's selfish and self-absorbed; by his words, Snyder tries to persuade us that he's virtuous and self-aware. The worst part, of course, is that he has fooled himself (and, apparently, a lot of readers, most of whom review this book very highly).
   
   This book is available used for about a penny. It's not worth it.

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5 comments about Privileged Son: Otis Chandler and the Rise and Fall of the L.A. Times Dynasty.

1. In several of our major metropolitan areas (e.g. Boston, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles), a daily newspaper played a major role during the 20th century. From my perspective, the area and the paper had a symbiotic relationship which must be understood in all its complexity if we are to understand either the area's culture or the unique role the newspaper has played within that culture. In this book, McDougal functions as a journalist and an historian, of course, but also as an anthropologist. As the book's subtitle indicates, his primary purpose is to examine Otis Chandler during "the rise and fall of the L.A. dynasty." (It is worth noting that the Boston Globe is now owned by the parent company of the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times is now owned by the parent company of the Chicago Tribune. Perhaps McDougal or someone else will examine those recent developments in a book yet to be written. And perhaps examine, also, recent mergers which have created media conglomerates such as AOL Time Warner.) For much of this book, the Times's various publishers dominate the narrative. Specifically, first Harrison Otis, then Harry Chandler, then Harry's son Norman, and finally Norman's son Otis. Of equal interest to me were the roles played by various women, notably Norman's wife Buff and Otis' two wives, Missy and then Bettina. In California throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, the Chandlers established and solidified a "dynasty" but also what McDougal more correctly describes as an "oligarchy."

   These are among the important questions addressed in this book:

   1. How and why did the Los Angles Times become so influential?

   2. How and why did it later lose so much of that influence?

   3. Precisely what role did Otis Chandler play throughout that process?

   McDougal is especially effective when explaining the culture within which three generations of Chandlers served as publisher. For example: "Like Harry, Norman understood early that the business of the Times was conducted as much in the private clubs and exclusive retreats of Los Angeles as it was inside the Times Mirror Building....With his chiseled good looks, cleft chin, and Stanford polish, Norman also rose naturally to a leadership among the newest generations of L.A. Brahmins. As the older patricians with whom Harry once did business began dying off, a new wave of young tycoons came to populate the exclusive mahogany-paneled grandeur" of the city's most exclusive cultural and social organizations. The young "brahmins" also called themselves "the Economic Roundtable" and founded their own organization bearing that name.

   It was into such a culture that Otis was born and within which he was raised to assume, eventually, his own position of immense wealth, power, status, and prestige. He and others in his generation "behaved in much the same fashion as their East Coast counterparts with their insulated neighborhoods, leisure time activities (e.g. membership at the Los Angeles Country Club with its "no-Jews/Negroes/Mexicans allowed clubhouse"), and social inbreeding. Otis was perhaps the most privileged of sons but, interestingly enough, his father required him to begin at the lowest level in each of the newspaper's departments; after completing one apprenticeship, he was assigned to a different department and again began at the bottom, including salary level. By the time he became publisher, Otis was well-prepared in terms of understanding literally every facet of the newspaper's operations.

   There are only a few recently published biographies and cultural histories which read like a well-written novel. This is one of them. I'm not suggesting that McDougal is an heir to Balzac or Barzun but I do commend him on the liveliness of his narrative as well as on the substantial content produced by his extensive research. McDougal helps his reader to understand why the Chandlers and the Los Angeles Times have been central to the evolution of a city, indeed of an entire region.




2. This is a wonderfully entertaining and informative book -- I have a waiting list of friends waiting to borrow it based on my recommendation.

   The book has a problem, however. The author has chosen a posture of ridicule and pejorative disapproval of many characters -- he calls some of them "neanderthals," for example -- so he has a special burden to be correct in his facts. Unfortunately, Mr. McDougal has been careless and many of his facts are wrong -- small things, but they do tend to impeach the larger work.

   There is no such thing as a "Las Padrinas" ball at the Valley Hunt Club (p. 116). Cate School students have never been called "Caties" (p. 168). Harold Brown was not a cause celebre at the California Club in the 1950's (p.477). (In late 1976, while still president of Cal Tech, Brown became the club's first contemporary Jewish member. Ironically, he almost had to resign from the "segregated" club to join the nascent Carter administration as Secretary of Defense.)

   Enjoy the story, but don't take Mr. McDougal at his word.




3. I really liked this book. As a fan of LA where I travel often for business and pleasure, this book fills in the history of how LA was built and the role played by the driving family of the LA Times. But as interesting as this history is, there are so many subplots to follow that are also fun. For example, as the family is accepted in the Pasadena "blue-blooded" culture, it's interesting how most become so snobbish about accepting anyone in their culture. My favorite stories on this subject are his second wife's training to develop social graces to travel in the Chandler's circles that was somewhat required. Also, when he divorces at 50, his Mom starts investigating which of her friends have unmarried daughters that would be acceptable marriage bait for this 50 year old bachelor. Like he can't take care of himself.

   But enough of the small stuff, this book is about the Times and LA and starts with the Otis family and its purchase of the Times. The General and his Son-in-law ran this paper as a Republican tour guide of LA. And it worked. Maybe too good as LA is way too crowded. Along the way is great history of the need for water and the shady ways it was obtained as well as real estate development stories including a foray in Mexico.

   Harry Chandler's son Norman ran it much the same way but his son Otis Chandler who took over around 1960 was much more liberal and open to debate and other opinions which did not endear him with his pompous family. This break seemed to eventually lead to his ouster in 1985 even though he had grown the earnings strength of the paper. I believe the book did not adequately explain the buildup to his ouster. His Chairman comes in and it's over. Clearly, Otis was partially to blame as his hobbies of hunting, cars and lifting weights took away his attention.

   The replacements proceed to tear down the paper leading to its eventual sale to the Chicago Tribune. It's a very interesting business story although from that perspective it could have done a better job by financially describing the significance of the paper's net worth at different points in history.

   But the book also overlaid the history of Otis' family, as he clearly was where most of the information for this book came from. Interestingly, Otis grew up in an exclusive family attending Andover and Stanford. But while two of his sons attended prep school and top colleges, one did not. And many of his offspring did not marry inside their social set and did not rise to the same levels as captains of industry. Otis Chandler did not place large pressure on his family to live the same social life he was forced to live and it's interesting how they grew up and the relationships they had with their parents. With so many transplanted Southern Californians all enjoying the beautiful weather, it was inevitable that many in his family would marry outside the Pasadena blue-blooded set.

   I enjoyed this book immensely but it is a time commitment at over 450 pages of small print. I recommend this book for someone interested in journalism, the history of LA and Southern California, or a history of a wealthy influential family that helped shape the future of LA.




4. As a history buff, this book was fascinating as both a history of LA and Times Mirror. As an employee of the LA Times I found it even more interesting and intriguing.



5. _Priveleged Son_ manages to hit that sweet spot that so many biographies of business figures fail to capture-- it manages to be a very good look at a business and industry and at the same time be readable and enjoyable on the level of a novel.

   While ostensibly a biography of Otis Chandler, it gives a fascinating look at the rise of a newspaper as local empire and the same newspaper's (largely unsuccessful) efforts to translate that into a truly national business.

   Without any industry focus, the story of the Chandlers and their relationship to LA is the stuff of novels (pulp fiction and true romance)-- LA grows up with its paper in this book.

   I was particularly fascinated to read what happened at the paper under the direction of Mark "Cereal Killer" Willes. His ill-starred management is a cautionary tale for would-be media moguls who fail to understand the core values that make up the news industry.

   A great read for people interested in the media industry. A just-as-great read for people who like a good story.

No comments about Bugatti: The Man and the Marque.

4 comments about The Innkeeper Tales - Modern-Day Canterbury Tales to Entertain, Enlighten & Empower.

1. "The Innkeeper Tales is a compendium of true stories about a group of strangers who are snowed in at The Abacrombie (a bed-and-breakfast located in the cultural district of Baltimore, Maryland). These are stories told by the guests as they candidly share their life experiences with another - experiences that range from the heartbreaking to the heartwarming. It should be noted that entrepreneur John L. Herman, Jr. Owns and manages the Abacrombie Bed & Breakfast and so brings a great deal of personal experience and expertise to "The Innkeeper Tales", which is highly recommended for both personal reading lists and community library collections as being an entertaining collection of stories that reveal life lessons for obtaining true success and happiness in our lives.



2. Reviewed by Beverly Pechin for Reader View (12/06)
   
   One look at the book, "The Innkeeper Tales," and you know that you've come upon an establishment that offers nothing but class. The hunter green hardcover, etched with gold lettering seems a shame to cover up; but, the beautiful sleeve that takes the wear and tear reiterates the classiness of the book itself.
   
   Open the pages and enter a life of complete relaxation as you meet the guests of the Abarcrombie Bed & Breakfast, while stranded in a winter storm that insists upon you staying one night longer.
   
   Presented in a fashion that makes the reader truly feel like a guest in the B&B itself, you are gently introduced to many of the characters that have frequented the B&B over the years all while tucked away safely inside the walls of the Abarcrombie and served a continuous flow of spectacular food and drink. The many characters you meet will show the absolute diversity of characters the house itself serves. Starting with Enzo, the man who encompasses what work ethics once truly were and ending with the author himself, giving you an inside look of his own world.
   
   Characters gather around the table to share their stories, some much more flamboyant than others. You learn some often very well-kept secrets as the characters open up to each other, knowing that this once-in-a-lifetime moment will never happen again and they will never have to truly ever save face with any of the other guests so why not tell it all. Nothing is held back as they easily let the stories of their life and dreams flow from their lips sometimes without care as to if it's being told properly and with taste. After all, this is the real world and their real life they're talking about and sometimes proper things don't really happen.
   
   I found myself ready to shoot Randy, the very long winded businessman but every time I thought I was going to lose my mind he came up with yet another twist in his long but interesting story. Randy becomes the butt of a few jokes as he continues his life long history, making you somehow appreciate him as much as the guests he's with seem to learn to do. The touching and romantic story of the innkeeper's step-son and his newlywed wife will end the story with a smile. You will quickly appreciate their young love and determination as they work together to make the B&B a success. Laugh with Burt and sympathize with his wife as you hear about his escapades as a baseball team "owner," realizing that truth be told, nobody could make up these stories!
   
   Each story's character finds a place in your heart as you cheer him on to win this race called life. Hardly a life situation seems to have been missed as the characters share their story. You'll find a womanizer, a businessman, a romantic couple, an aging builder and so much more as you open the pages of this wonderfully written book. Canterbury Tales move over, you have a more modern and just as classy competitor at your tail! Kudos to Mr. Herman, for a job well done, in his book "The Innkeeper Tales." And did I mention the ending? Let's just say it takes a little twist you weren't exactly expecting!



3. In my world of reviewing, I find some authors that just have that certain touch in their words that grabs hold of you and won't let go. Our author John Herman posses such and I am glad that I have had a chance to taste of his words.
   
   In his book, "The InnKeeper Tales," we become one of the guests at Abarcrombie Bed and Breakfast. Stranded by a last minute winter snow, we settle in and begin to enjoy good food, good drink, and hours of storytelling from our fellow travelers. Our peers of isolation at first maybe reluctant to open up, but after a while it is as if their hearts become bare with perhaps deep seeded long lost emotions of their life coming forth, almost relieved to have a chance to share their heart;and with each story we hunger for more.
   
   Listening to these stories we sit in awe, share some laughter and joy, shake our heads in understanding of certain situations and happenings, wonder if others are true, and often feel the tear of perhaps a long lost hurt that for a brief moment was allowed to surface. The stories of each traveler are both entertaining and enlightening in so many ways. Life issues and moral values are discussed as we share victories and defeats and come away perhaps a little wiser by listening to our fellow man.
   
   However, what our author says at the end of the book was a total surprise and one I am not going to reveal; truly the icing on the cake, if you will. If you like storytelling at its best, that promises to be truth told, get this book and settle back for an enjoyable reading and life experience.



4. As an avid reader, B & B lover and traveler, this book appealed to me on many levels. Herman is truly a modern-day Chaucer who weaves such an artful tale that you feel like you're at the table with him. I only wish I had gotten to stay at the now famous Abacrombie before it left his hands! Anyone who enjoys a great story will love this book!

2 comments about The Helmsleys: The Rise and Fall of Harry and Leona Helmsley.

1. The book brings you through his start as a rent collector in the Hells Kitchen section of Manhattan through his phenomenal growth as a deal making legend.
   
   Read this book for inspiration, insight, information, intrigue and of course entertainment!
   
   In, "The Helmsleys; The Rise and Fall of Harry & Leona" by Richard Hammer a great section is when they talk about putting together the purchase of the Empire State Building in 1961. Using their tried and true formula of the syndicate with 3,300 investors buying share for $10,000 each with a 9% return, they raised $33 million towards the purchase. Helmsley did not put up a penny, and him and Martin Wein split half the profit after paying the investors their 9%.
   
   By Kevin Kingston author of, "A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate"
   
   http://www.bloglines.com/blog/KevinKingston



2. If you enjoy the accounts of business tycoons, particularly in the real estate industry, you should anticipate a very enjoyable read from The Helmsleys. From beginning to end, this book, comprised of both Harry's rise to billionaire status and Leona's near equally compelling climb to success, creates an extraordinarily interesting narrative. While I would hesitate to put this book in the 5 star category, that would only be a result of it not likely garnering the same level of interest for those whose interests lie outside of the commercial real estate realm. Otherwise, this is a terrific book that I definitively advocate.

1 comments about The Epitome of Desire.

1. How do you create a museum? People collect. Collections evolve and are admired by others. Properly nurtured a collection may take up a life of its own. At some point it becomes a stand alone entity. Humankind has always desired to keep desirable collections of objects together in perpetuity to study and admire. And because "all this must be left behind" museums are created. Wilson's book Epitome of Desire wonderfully chronicles the life of Patsy and Raymond Nasher as they first begin their collection to the construction of magnificent new Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas. Nasher then becomes a artist when he uses his art to create a center worthy of their collection. Brought to life by such warm insights such as daughter Joanie remembering, "It was kind of fantasy and whimsical. I can remember doing my homework leaning on a Henry Moore. We were encouraged by our parents to touch the sculpture" but had to remember "don't spill anything on the carpet." Just as the collection is worthy of the Nashers, and the new Sculpture Center is worthy of the collection, Wilson's book Epitome of Desire is worthy of the story of the collection. A must read for museum professionals.

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