How Starbucks Saved My life by Michael Gates Gill

Michael Gill was a mover and shaker at advertising agency J Walter Thompson rapidly rising through the ranks until the new management decided he was too old and let him go. He soon found himself broke, divorced, with a baby on the way, and a tumor in his brain needing surgery. While sitting in a local Starbucks, a woman named Crystal came up to him and changed his life by offering him a job. This book details his struggles in his new career as a barista and how it ultimately gave him a new lease on life.

The book is interspersed with snippets from his "past life"--his years at Yale, the famous people he met through his father (New Yorker writer Brenden Gill), his years in advertising. Unless I missed it, I'm not sure exactly how he ended up so broke after having a good job for so many years. And I wasn't quite sure how he ended up spending Christmas with his Starbucks family because he wasn't welcome to celebrate with his own family--even though he seemed to have a good relationship with his kids. But it was a compelling read--and a good example of making lemonade when life hands you lemons.