No comments about A.P. Giannini and the Bank of America (Oklahoma Western Biographies).

5 comments about Her Dream of Dreams: The Rise and Triumph of Madam C. J. Walker.

1. As an avid reader of history and an Indianapolis resident, I had high hopes for learning more about Madame Walker and the choices that led to her extraordinary success. Lowry clearly did a considerable amount of research, but it rarely translated into a story that captured my imagination or motivated me to finish the book. This was one of those few books that I simply couldn't finish because it was so tedious. You quickly realize the challenges a biographer faces in researching a marginalized black woman in the late 1800s when Lowry painstakingly provides information gleaned from marriage licenses, home ownership records and newspapers of the time. Given the paucity of detail around Walker herself, Lowry could have provided more historical perspective on the cities and times that Walker lived in. When she does, this book becomes interesting (the description of how much work it took to do 18th century laundry was exhausting just to read), but she quickly returns to outlining the train rides Walker might have taken to get from city A to city B, the difficulties she might have had with her spoiled daughter, and when she may or may not have lived or married or divorced husband #1/2/3. In short, a disappointment. Admittedly, I didn't make it to the point where perhaps more of Walker's history was known after she became successful, but no reader should have to struggle through 200-300 pages of hypotheses leavened with the occasional dry fact to get to the meat of a book. If you are interested in learning more about Walker, who had to have been an amazing woman, buy this book used or check it out of the library to see whether you agree with my jaundiced opinion. I'm beginning to realize that the number of used books available (and the price range) on Amazon is a vote-with-your-feet measure of what readers really think of a book.



2. I am not surprised at all by the patronizing tone used by such reviewers as the person from "Houston, Texas USA" (probably a relative of Beverly Lowry) who complains that "It is a little bizarre to read reviews complaining that a second book about Madame C. J. Walker has been published. One of the measures of an individual's importance is the number of books they inspire..."

   The Houston reviewer continues in the same condescending tone about Alelia Bundles "whining" and asks, "Is there a rule that white guys can have a hundred books about them but Black women only get one each?" No, but thanks for your concern about black women and our history. The goal for any writer or scholar is to write a book when you have something to add to the information that is already available. It doesn't mean that you pretend that Madam Walker's biographer, her journalist great-great granddaughter Alelia Bundles, doesn't exist.

   The bottom line is that the definitive book on Madam C.J. Walker (On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker) has already been written and Lowry has not contributed to our understanding of this pioneer. Also, to add insult to injury, she manages to cast two other black women pioneers, Ida B. Wells and Mary McLeod Bethune, as women with "skin color like milk with a little tea in it. Their noses are aquiline, and some have soft hair." Mary McLeod Bethune had light skin and soft hair? Oh, okay!

   Lowry finally had to admit that her description of Bethune was "exaggerated", but still insisted that brown-skinned Ida B. Wells was "lightskinned" in the the Sept-Oct 2003 issue of Black Issues Book Reviews where she admitted to other mistakes in her book.

   Bundles book was a bestseller and she has no reason to be "jealous" of Lowry's sloppy scholarship, which is surprising considering her other work. Even though a reviewer in the Wall Street Journal thanked Lowry for "bringing Madam Walker back to us" and marveled that it was "astonishing that her name is all but forgotten today", Madam Walker has NEVER been "forgotten" by African-Americans. The only thing that should be forgotten is this book.




3. There have been other books about Madame C.J. Walker but this one is the best. It's not a romance and it doesn't offer a glossy,worshipful picture either. This solid biography tells the story of one woman who triumphed over incredible adversity. In a time when most black people were miserably poor Madame Walker built a fortune. The book tells what Madame did right and what she did wrong and it's the only one that really gets into what went wrong with her daughter and where the money went after Madame's death. Some people have objected to the book because the author is not black but what does that have to do with the ability to produce good scholarship? If you're interested in this fascinating woman and the turbulent times she lived in, give this book a chance.



4. Think you wouldn't be interested in a book about a woman who got rich selling black hair care products? Guess again. This book does not immerse the reader in cosmetics but is about hard work and its rewards, the attainment of wealth by a woman who had nothing, and the ways she spent her money, showing off as well as trying to help her race. The book traces the career of Madam C.J. Walker, child of former slaves, from Mississippi washerwoman to nationally known businesswoman and philanthropist. The author, Beverly Lowry, locates this life amid the customs, economy, and politics (black and mainstream) of the years between 1874 and 1920. She invites the reader to join her on the trail of her subject, about whom much is known but much is unknown, and in parallel keeps us abreast of the state of race relations from the annual number of lynchings to the attitude of whoever was president at the time to the changing role of black women in business. The book is full of word pictures. Where Walker can be definitively placed at a particular time, Lowry gives us a clear view with enough details to put us at the scene. We see, for example, the week-long laundry process of the 1880s, what the regimen was when she stayed at the Battle Creek Sanatorium (founded by J. Kellogg of cereal fame), her travels in the automobiles of long-gone makes that she drove for hundreds of miles at a time promoting her products, and we stand with her when Booker T. Washington visits, the culmination of years of effort to be recognized by him as an important businessperson and "race woman." These are swift strokes, enough but not too much, and then Lowry moves on. Her Dream of Dreams is a perfect marriage of imagination and research--facts unearthed by painstaking attention to detail, and conclusions drawn in just the right narrative tone. Lowry's is a voice of rich language and metaphor, a voice resonant with appreciation of Walker's character and achievement that does not fail to mark her limitations. Overall, Her Dream of Dreams is a good read--a triumph of biography, history, and just plain storytelling.



5. This beautifully written and researched book is more than a biography of the remarkable Madam C.J. Walker, America's first female millionaire who was born to former slaves, it is also a cultural history of the early twentieth century. It presents an amazingly vivid portrait of the lives of African Americans and their struggles. The detail of the hard work and business accumen of Madam Walker, her ultimate financial success, as well as the political and social landscape this writer presents should make this book a classic. A classic that is an inspiring American story.

4 comments about Shelf Life: How an Unlikely Entrepreneur Turned $500 into $65 Million in the Grocery Industry.

1. Hi Dad, You have two wonderful grandsons that would love to spend some time with you. The values and stories in your book provide great motivation and lessons on diligence and drive for success.
   
   John



2. Shelf Life: How An Unlikely Entrepreneur Turned $500 Into $65 Million In The Grocery Industry is the story behind the amazing life and achievements of A. J. Scribante (Founder and CEO of Majers Corporation, a national marketing information consulting firm). Autobiographically depicting a life of corporate success, Shelf Life tracks Scribante's small businessman's rise to entrepreneurial power and productivity through times often difficult and assaulted with many hardships, which were met with great persistence and an enabling "self-power". An exceptionally well written memoir, Shelf Life is very highly recommended reading, especially for entrepreneurs, as well as the non-specialist general reader, for its instructive, informative account of an entrepreneur who made his fortune in the grocery business.



3. What a terrific read -- excellent textbook on how to build a company. This is a must book for any entrepreneur looking for guidance and direction on how to successfully grow a business.
   Net, net -- selecting talented people is the key to building a dynamic company.
   A.J. Scribante story is an example of what makes our country great. Loyalty to ones self, family, company and country -- hard work and a determation to succeed spells success.



4. This should be a text book for every college business student.It is the most informative and instructional text for anyone starting a business.

5 comments about How They Achieved: Stories of Personal Achievement and Business Success.

1. Lucinda Watson made reality her dream of understanding how very successful people get where they are. The book is lucid and informative. More importantly it is inspirational. The great collection of interviews serves as a learning voyage into the minds of greatness and determination.



2. This book is very well organized, systematic, and most of all very very inspirational. It is a compilation of stories from 20 highly successful people. It is about how they made it, their inspirations, their values and beliefs and how all these factors combine to make them who they are today. These people are divided into 3 categories: CEO's, Entrepreneurs, and Visionaries. This distinction is very useful because there are different traits that are associated with each category. To be successful is to hold firm to your own beliefs, but we all know this is difficult because you will be taking enormous amount of risks and inevitably be facing a lot of insecurities. This book will remind you that you are not alone and many of these highly successful people have gone through the same thing. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to find support in achieving their goals and dreams.



3. This is a great book--full of interesting insights and sound advice, yet fun and spunky--just like the author.



4. I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Watson previously and this book is every bit delightful and enlightening as she is. Her book shows that strength of character, passion and hard work are the most important components to a successful business career and happy life. She brings her subjects to life, and leaves the reader with the impression of really knowing these super-achievers at a very intimate level. How They Achieved is a badly needed antidote to the Internet generation's belief of overnight success.



5. Interesting and helpful, this book has made all the difference in making my business more succesful. I cannot imagine what my life would be like without it, thank you Lucinda.

1 comments about Master of Precision (Great Lakes Books Publication).

1. If you enjoy Automotive History and the underlined history of the true builders of this great industry you'll enjoy this book.
   The detail of the lives and sensitivity of the Lelands (father and son) and the team that they formed is remarkable. The precision that they mastered and required of their employees tells of the standards they held for themselves and what they produced is truly amazing.
   It also speaks of the less than fair business deals that Henry Ford had in buying a faltering Lincoln Motor Car company from the Lelands and their board members shows the ruthless nature of the early auto business.

3 comments about Turn Your Talents into Profits.

1. I should be more disappointed with this book than I am. It's helpful in its own way, but suggestions to seek out further details using suggested Prodigy & CompuServe keywords seem, to be polite, a little quaint, & the publication date of 1998 makes it fairly clear that this is an "updated" version of an older (self-published?) book. One suggested business, for instance, is to start a BBS, a phenomenon that pretty much had gone the way of the mastodon by then.

   The book is also lacking in serious instruction on how to run a business. Since this book is aimed at people who are enough adrift to need these ideas in the first place, the target audience probably needs more than a whirlwind 9-page overview of practical & critical business skills.

   If that's all there is, I would've struggled to give this book a bare 3 stars. However, the majority of the suggested 100+ microbusinesses aren't too bad. Keep in mind that many of them require some sort of preexisting skills; you probably don't want to leap into a mural-painting business if you have absolutely no sense of form or color, for instance.

   More important than the ideas themselves, though, is their range. If you read this book cover-to-cover, or even just flip through it & glean a few ideas that appeal to you, you will definitely be motivated to start concocting your own small-small business. It might be a variant of an idea from the authors, or wholly your own creation, but you'll have been bitten by the bug -- I guarantee it.

   And if you already have an idea, read it anyway! One of the most crushing weights to the entrepreneurial spirit is the feeling that you're the only one crazy enough to try. Reading this book will make you feel a little less lonely. With that to brace you, you'll be a little more encouraged to follow your dream in a sensible & ultimately rewarding manner.




2. If you've been dabbling in a home business or dreaming about starting one, this is a book you've got to have. Turn Your Talents Into Profits will inspire you and encourage you. It's easy to read, gives you lots of great ideas, and has an amazingly complete bibliography.



3. Turn Your Talents into Profits has been in the news quite a bit lately. It was featured on the Montel Williams show in late March, in the March issue of American Baby, and in the May 11th issue of Woman's Day. I think this book has been getting so much attention because it focuses on microbusinesses (very small, part-time, home-based businesses), and microbusinesses are the fastest-growing type of small business in America.

1 comments about The Big Four.

1. Unfortunately this book was written some time ago and it misses our 21st century perspective on the Big 4. If you want to learn about Crocker, Huntington, Stanford and Hopkins this is a great starting point. But the book completely ignores important figures in this history like Stephen Gage, their attorney and mastermind. Gage was the reason that their power extended into Nevada, he controlled Congress and he masterminded the monopoly on transporting coal. How someone like this is not in a Big 4 history is mind-boggling.

1 comments about Ted Turner Speaks: Insights from the World's Greatest Maverick (Speak Series).

1. The last review, sounds exactly like what Turner fought against, control freak zealots. He isn't mental, he is brilliant.
   
   In a media world where people like Rupert Murdock are put on a boat for a photo op, people like Ted Turner actually support the crew and stay onboard for the whole race, all 31,000 miles of it.
   
   Regardless of money my friends, that separates the men from the boys.
   
   Who would you want to be behind in the battle field?

No comments about Bernie's Game: Inside the Formula One World of Bernie Ecclestone.

No comments about Philip D. Armour.