This trashy, overstated assault on the proprietors of Mars Inc. (best known for M&Ms and other candies) could easily prove 1995's worst business book. With awesome self-assurance, albeit precious little flair, Pottker (coauthor, Dear Ann, Dear Abby, 1987) takes out after the secretive Mars clan, which built, owns, and operates an eponymous commercial domain with global reach and annual revenues of at least $12.5 billion. In addition to its perennially popular chocolate bars (Milky Way, Snickers, et al.), the firmbased in McLean, Va. (less than three miles from CIA headquarters, the author is at pains to point out)makes and sells Kal Kan pet foods, Dove confections, and Uncle Ben's rice products. Relying on secondary sources, absent hard data and insights on corporate strategies, Pottker trivializes what by any standard is a consequential multinational enterprise and lards the narrative with frequently contradictory critiques of management's failure to make acquisitions, introduce dramatic new products, and otherwise measure up to her inch-deep understanding of what makes an effective corporate executive. Along the way she offers third-hand gossip on the foibles of the two third-generation brothers (Forrest Jr. and John) who are now running the show. Unfortunately for the author's purposes, the personal lives of the parsimonious, workaholic siblings are not such stuff as tabloid dreams are made on. Nor, despite constant assertions to the contrary (which are belied by the author's own findings), do their performances as corporate executives suffer by comparison with industry counterparts. In the US, Mars Inc. trails only Hershey (by a slim margin) in market share, meanwhile effectively preempting the competition in post-Soviet Russia and other potentially lucrative outlets in the erstwhile Soviet bloc. An uninformed and uninformative take on a pillar of the sweet- tooth trade. (photos, not seen) (First printing of 40,000; author tour)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1995
ISBN: 1-882605-20-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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