While traveling a couple weekends ago, I came across a small, locally-owned bookstore.  I decided to stop in to see what the place was like, as such stores usually offer books that big-box stores don’t (plus, their employees are typically very well read and make wonderful suggestions).

Upon entering the store, the first display I saw was for Michael Gates Gill’s How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else.  For some reason, the book really caught my attention; thinking back, I’m not entirely sure why, but I’m guessing it was a combination of the title and the display.  I picked up a copy, skimmed the back cover and decided this was the book for me, so I headed to the cashier (I try to limit myself to one book per trip to a bookstore, because I already have a stack of over a dozen books I have to read).

Two days later I started reading and three days after that I’d finished the memoir.  I don’t often finish books so quickly because I have lots of other things going on, but I found myself picking up the book every free minute I had.  Most mornings I usually watch EPSN, but for three days I opted to skip the latest sports news so I could continue with the amazing memoir.

I was truly fascinated by the author’s re-telling of his firing from one of the United States’ most prestigious advertising firms to taking a job as a Starbucks Partner (their name for employees) in Manhattan, suddenly finding himself in the minority.  Through the process, Gill learns what it means to truly live well and respect others.

If you’re at all interested in non-fiction, particularly memoirs, you should add this book to your wish list.  The book is an amazingly quick read and I have a feeling I’ll find myself going back to this book anytime I need a dose of reality.