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The Glass Castle - A Memoir

5 stars (Excellent) - This book was excellent. Recently i have started to get into "memoirs" and Jeannette Walls memoirs was one of the best! Her parents...they give new definition to the word crazy! Jeanette cooked her own hotdogs at the tender age of 3 she was also caught fire by cooking those very same hotdogs at the age of 3...her family was always doing the "ske-daddle" from bill collectors so they were constantly on the move. Jeannete has two sisters and one brother. Her mom is a very eccentric woman who loves to paint and teaches her children to always be "self-sufficient" her father is a drunk but she loves him deeply. They move from town to town all over the mid-west to the west coast. They go from rats being on their kitchen counters and in their sugar bowls to eating "lard sandwiches" at her grandmother Erma's house. This is a book that will keep you interested from start to finish. Never a dull moment. I highly recommend it. 5 stars (Shocking Yet Truly Charming) - I loved this book. The author writes in such a style that enables the reader to absorb the harshness of her tale - without being angry. Her childhood was what it was. As adults, we cannot do anything about a tough or neglectful childhood. I applaud the author for telling it like she remembers it. Best book I have read in a while. 3 stars (Horrifying if True) - There seems to be some doubt as to the veracity of Walls's memoir. It does seem as though certain situations are far too detailed to be credible rememberances of a 3-year-old or even a slightly older child. However, the book is an absorbing read, which is why I gave it three stars. No stars, even as birthday gifts, for the self-absorbed, sick parents who brought their children up in such a lazy, dangerous way (if Walls's account is true). A mother who hides candy from her starving children? Refuses treatment for her burned, blistered daughter? A father who throws the family cat out of a moving car but protests when a mountain lion is...
Scribner :: Biography & Autobiography & Literary :: West Virginia :: Welch :: Walls :: Jeannette :: United States :: Problem families :: Personal Memoirs :: Literary :: Family Deve :: The Glass Castle - A Memoir

 

Winning

5 stars (Jack Welch is great!) - Jack Welch is a great business leader! He is also very direct and to the point about his ideas. I love that about his book. A must read for anyone serious about growing and learning. 4 stars (Lots of good insight into the world of business) - I am a small business owner trying to think big and "keep it real." There were many valuable insights in here and reminders on common sense issues. 3 stars (Insightful At Times, but Mostly Superficial) - Jack Welch clearly is a legendary business leader; however, a great writer he is not. The book offers a few insights - eg. the power of corporate vision and value, budgeting and rewarding performance in the real (dynamic) world - but his book is not nearly as specific and helpful as Larry Bossidy's (Welch's former #2) "Confronting Reality," and "Execution." Sadly, the book also does not reference how Welch greatly simplified planning and accountability by getting rid of the planners and layers of bureaucracy, and instead focusing on fast reaction - a lesson that some firms, government and public education still need to learn. In addition, Welch does not address most of the vast changes simplifying much of management in the last few years - even though he pioneered much of their use. The job has become primarily one of reducing costs - especially by shifting work away from Americans. This is accomplished by: 1)Maximizing outsourcing (eg. to Canada - primarily to avoid U.S. healthcare costs; to China and India - primarily to greatly reduce production labor, call-center, and design and programming costs, 2)Maximizing use of illegal immigrants within the U.S. - eg. in the meatpacking, construction, and other food-processing and food-serving areas, 3)Maximizing use of legal temporary immigrants within the U.S. - eg. Indian citizens with H-1B and L1 visas in areas such as electronics design and manufacturing, and computer programming. 4)Maximizing use of aggressive accounting - eg. capit...
PerfectBound :: Business & Economics-Leadership :: Suzy Welch :: Jack Welch :: :: Winning