Monday's Reviews Today: A Fictional Take on Running a Restaurant & a Look at Gen Y’s Buying Habits
-- Publishers Weekly, 5/14/2009 1:24:00 PM
In Michael Idov's "sagely wry" first novel—loosely based on his experience running a Manhattan café—newlyweds open a hip downtown café and battle landlords, contractors, coffee distributors and temperamental pastry chefs. Per our review: “Idov’s debut mercilessly takes down ‘money is an illusion’ bohoism.” In nonfiction, Kit Yarrow and Jayne O’Donnell use "extensive research” to deliver a report on “the buying habits and influence of Generation Y” in Gen BuY: How Tweens, Teens, and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail. The authors—a consumer psychologist and a reporter—“show how societal shifts contributed to a generation that’s strongly connected to shopping” and “present Gen Y’s unique—often gendered—buying behaviors and the psychological motivations guiding its purchasing.”
Ground Up
Michael Idov. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $14 paper (272p) ISBN 978-0-374-53154-6
From Idov, a staff writer for New York magazine, comes a sagely wry novel loosely based on his experience running the short-lived Cafe Trotsky on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. In the fictionalized version, newlyweds Mark and Nina are living off her trust fund on the Upper West Side. Mark writes the occasional book review and Nina has given up her halfhearted career in entertainment law to pursue photography. After a guest (and, coincidently, Michelin reviewer) compliments their food at a dinner party they’re hosting, Nina confides that she has always dreamed of running a cafe, and soon the pair are preparing to open their own hip downtown Viennese paradise. Lacking in experience but full of enthusiasm, the couple battles with landlords, contractors, coffee distributors and temperamental pastry chefs, yet Cafe Kolschitzky bows badly: friends barely show up and a Starbucks knockoff sets up shop across the street. Meanwhile, their funding is cut, no profits have been turned and the naïve couple begins to unravel. Packed with insight and frequent hilarious asides, Idov’s debut mercilessly takes down “money is an illusion” bohoism. (Aug.)
Gen BuY: How Tweens, Teens, and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail
Kit Yarrow and Jayne O’Donnell. Jossey-Bass, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-470-40091-3
Yarrow, consumer psychologist, and O’Donnell, USA Today reporter, explore the buying habits and influence of Generation Y—those born between 1978 and 2000—arguing that this cohort has become the nation’s tastemaker and is revolutionizing how companies do business and how marketers reach their audience. Thanks to extensive research, including one-on-one interviews, focus groups and a national online survey, the authors offer an astute look at the motivations and influence of these powerful consumers. They show how societal shifts contributed to a generation that’s strongly connected to shopping; they also present Gen Y’s unique—often gendered—buying behaviors and the psychological motivations guiding its purchasing. Of particular interest is the chapter on what savvy marketers are doing to harness this group’s incredible buying power. The authors also include insightful commentary from Gen-Yers themselves who underscore how different their generation is from previous ones. This enlightening book is a must-read for all who hope to keep their companies relevant and viable. (Sept.)
