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Book bits
Three books about Africa, a review of 'How Starbucks Saved My Life,' and readers' picks.
from the October 2, 2007 edition
Page 1 of 2
How Starbucks Saved My Life
Author: Michael Gates Gill
Americans seem to love drinking coffee from paper cups almost as much as they love stories of redemption. So the true tale of an upper-class man hitting the skids only to discover how much he loves to serve coffee has all the elements of a bestseller. (So confident is the publisher that my review copy included a letter bound inside the cover crowing that the film rights have been bought by "one of Hollywood's biggest stars.")
Which is why I didn't want to like How Starbucks Saved My Life. My defenses were up from the get-go. Here is Michael Gates Gill, son of Brendan Gill of New Yorker fame, who has blown it. He lost his job as an advertising executive, fathered a child outside his marriage, and surrendered the family house in his subsequent divorce. Now living alone in his 60s and trying to make it as a consultant, he can't get clients to call him back. He's done. Until he meets Crystal, an African-American Starbucks manager, at a hiring fair.
Mentioning race is important, because Crystal is half Gill's age and can you see how much creative tension this will produce for a narrative if she offers him a job on the tough side of town? She does. At this point, a skeptical reader, the kind who balks at paying $3.68 for a hot beverage from a trendy place, thinks, "ah ha! Will Gill's next phone call be to a publisher to secure a book contract?"
Then the story takes over. Maybe there was a book contract, maybe there wasn't, but here is a man seriously pushed outside his comfort zone. He scrubs toilets with the right amount of humility and good cheer. The unexpected friendships seem sincere. And those sentences! Delivered pithily with the kind of emotional punch one comes to expect from an ad writer.
If anything, this is an intriguing look behind the counter of one of the world's most recognizable brands cleverly told by someone who understands corporate packaging and success. The Starbucks formula has been refined to perfection, and it is hard not to respect its dedication to its product, its "Partners," and "Guests." And you.
Be prepared to fight the urge to saunter toward Starbucks to find comfort after reading this book, the way sun-dappled Coca-Cola commercials can make you think world peace is possible by sharing a fizzy drink. But in Gill's own words, "They loved it because it was from my own heart." It is true. I drank in his story like a Decaf Pumpkin Spice Latte and then tossed the book aside.
– Kendra Nordin
3 books about Africa
Today he is most often remembered for finding Livingstone, but to do so overlooks both a remarkable life story and an amazing tale of adventure and exploration in Africa. ("Think Lewis and Clark multiplied by four," wrote one reader.) In Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer, Tim Jeal (author of "Livingstone," a biography of David Livingstone,) relies on newly released letters to reveal much that is new about Henry Morton Stanley.
Founded in the 11th century by Tuareg nomads and once a wealthy center of Islamic learning, it is a city of mythic stature. In Timbuktu: The Sahara's Fabled City of Gold, Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle (authors of "Sahara") have created a portrait of the city that explores both its magnificent past and its lesser-known present.
In Africa, writes journalist Stephanie Nolen, "AIDS is not an event, or a series of them; it's a mirror held up to the cultures and societies we build." Twenty-eight million people living in Africa today have been diagnosed with AIDS, so in 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa Nolen offers one story for each of those millions. All stories are based on her own reporting and first-hand observations in Africa and together they create a vivid, hard-hitting, but always compassionate portrait of one of the most devastating human crises of our time.
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