We’re not in the habit of reviewing business books here. After all, we don’t care who moved your cheese or how many damn habits of yours are highly effective. But throw movies into the mix and color us a little interested.
Enter THE BIG PICTURE: ESSENTIAL BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE MOVIES, in which Kevin Coupe and Michael Sansolo call upon more than 60 popular comedies, dramas and action films to deliver tips aimed at angling your business toward the top.
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TYCOON’S WAR: HOW CORNELIUS VANDERBILT INVADED A COUNTRY TO OVERTHROW AMERICA’S MOST FAMOUS MILITARY ADVENTURER by Stephen Dando-Collins is a riveting read of battle and adventure in Central America of the 1850s, but it’s also rather depressing when judged by the mores of today. Tennessee-born William Walker became a filibustero, an American mercenary fighting in the Nicaraguan civil war. His martial skill and innate generalship eventually led him to the presidency of Nicaragua.
His goal as president was to solidify Nicaragua’s borders, to create a Central American empire, and to maintain control of the Accessory Transit route, a method of conveying passengers from the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua to the Pacific Coast. East Coast Americans who wished to try their fortunes on the West Coast would use either this route or the Panama route, the latter of which took slightly longer.
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The biggest mystery surrounding THE GIRL IN ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S SHOWER is why it’s being marketed as a real-life mystery at all. Robert Graysmith has contributed some enduring works to the true-crime field — most notably ZODIAC — but this is one where any crime is secondary.
It alternates between telling the stories of Marli Renfro and Sonny Busch, concentrating on 1959-1960. Renfro was a nude model, secretly hired to be Janet Leigh’s body double for the shower scene in PSYCHO. Meanwhile, just eight miles away, Busch is a creepy momma’s boy who has a thing for strangling old ladies.
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Just glancing at its title, one would be forgiven for thinking that Matthew P. Mayo’s collection of brief historical anecdotes stays with the more mainstream-classroom elements of Western lore, but don’t be fooled. There are pistoleros galore. Army/Indian conflict is not suggested in the title, but COWBOYS, MOUNTAIN MEN & GRIZZLY BEARS: FIFTY OF THE GRITTIEST MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE WILD WEST contains stories about the usual collection of military mishaps and massacres.
There was Capt. William Fetterman, who bragged that with a mere 80 cavalrymen, he could cut a swath through the entire Sioux Nation — and was then, along with 80 soldiers, lured into a trap by Crazy Horse and wiped out. And there was Col. John Chivington, an even bigger loudmouth, who led a raid on Black Kettle’s camp of peaceful Cheyenne in 1864. This action was once referred to as The Battle of Sand Creek, but is now more accurately called the Chivington Massacre. When asked after the fact why the men under his command killed children, Chivington answered appallingly, “Nits make lice.”
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In the world of narrative journalism, Evan Wright might place second only to Mike Sager. Wright’s collection, HELLA NATION: LOOKING FOR HAPPY MEALS IN KANDAHAR, ROCKING THE SIDE PIPE, WINGNUT’S WAR AGAINST THE GAP, AND OTHER ADVENTURES WITH THE TOTALLY LOST TRIBES OF AMERICA, has the same undeniable, voyeuristic appeal as Sager’s.
