How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else
Registered by dancing-dog of Cordova, Tennessee USA on 5/13/2010
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
from amazon.com:
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.
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I thought this was a quick and fairly interesting read. He can't help thinking about his former life and career and contrasting them to his present situation ... in time, lessons are learned and his resignation and acceptance turns into happiness and contentment. There is rather a lot of name-dropping in this book as he hangs on to memories from the past. Found the part about Starbucks' corporate culture interesting and sometimes surprising - my own experience as a customer (they call us Guests) has been mixed from low (long line, no smiles, no napkins and once I even got a cold coffee!) to high (free coffee, free flavor shots, free samples, fast & friendly service). I didn't know they had such great benefits and wonder if that is still true in light of their store closings/downsizing in recent years.
This will be going to candy-is-dandy for the May YBS on Bookobsessed.com.
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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I thought this was a quick and fairly interesting read. He can't help thinking about his former life and career and contrasting them to his present situation ... in time, lessons are learned and his resignation and acceptance turns into happiness and contentment. There is rather a lot of name-dropping in this book as he hangs on to memories from the past. Found the part about Starbucks' corporate culture interesting and sometimes surprising - my own experience as a customer (they call us Guests) has been mixed from low (long line, no smiles, no napkins and once I even got a cold coffee!) to high (free coffee, free flavor shots, free samples, fast & friendly service). I didn't know they had such great benefits and wonder if that is still true in light of their store closings/downsizing in recent years.
This will be going to candy-is-dandy for the May YBS on Bookobsessed.com.
in the mail to candy-is-dandy - June 3, 2010.
That was quick! I like the look of this. Thanks, dancing-dog.
Journal Entry 4 by candy-is-dandy at Great Bardfield, Essex United Kingdom on Thursday, October 4, 2018
I’ve had this for too long. Time to pass it on.
Journal Entry 5 by candy-is-dandy at Ipswich BC Unconvention 2018 in Ipswich, Suffolk United Kingdom on Thursday, October 4, 2018
Released 5 yrs ago (10/5/2018 UTC) at Ipswich BC Unconvention 2018 in Ipswich, Suffolk United Kingdom
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
For the mega-book table at the UK Unconvention 2018. Where will it go next?
