Book Review of
Martha Rules
Lynn's Review
Martha Rules by Martha Stewart was published in 2005.
Martha Rules is pretty much what the title says. It is Martha’s ten rules or tips for a successful business. I listened to this on audio, and I enjoyed it because Martha narrated the book.
I love Martha Stewart recipes. She helped me learn to cook back in the 1990s. I even have a “Cooking with Martha” series on my food website.
I read this partly out of curiosity and partly because Martha is a great business person. No matter what you think of Martha Stewart, she changed the way Americans think about homekeeping and entertaining. She also made millions while doing it.
I didn’t glean any new tips from this book, but I found it fascinating. Martha shared her story of starting and growing her business. She talks about the importance of hard work, not expanding too quickly, hiring the right employees, and more. But she doesn’t just tell you how, she shares her tips by sharing stories of how she did it.
This book was published in 2005. Many of the tips are good, but some of Martha’s information is dated.
2005 was the early days of online recipes and blogs. When she talks about sharing recipes with her viewers, she mentions recently posting them online and also mailing recipes to viewers who request them by mail. The Martha Stewart team is no longer mailing out recipes. Information like that is quite outdated, as it’s twenty years old.
She talks a lot about Kmart and her partnership with them. If you are over forty, you probably remember Kmart. If you’re under forty, you probably have no idea what Kmart is. It’s a smaller version of a Target or Walmart store, but with fewer groceries. I would compare it to a Target, before Target carried groceries. It was also a cheaper version of Target.
She also talks about her friends like Sean Combs and others that I doubt she is still friends with. Or at least I hope that she isn’t.
If you enjoy business books, you might like this one for a quick read. However, since it’s pretty outdated, I think you can probably find better business stories or memoirs to read.