  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 02/15/2012 *Starred Review* Walter Isaacson’s best-selling biography, bolstered by 40 interviews with its subject, is the current gold standard for books about Steve Jobs, but Blumenthal’s in-depth look at the innovator’s life makes a close runner-up and a winner for younger audiences. Blumenthal, a former business reporter, uses a speech Jobs made to a graduating class at Stanford as an inviting hook to draw readers in. He told his audience stories about the most important incidents in his life, beginning with his adoption, and how the dots of his life connected in mysterious ways. His adoptive father was skilled with his hands and a perfectionist, a trait Jobs carried on, sometimes to extremes. The worst moments in Jobs’ life, like being fired from Apple, the company he built, led him to bigger and better moments, and an eventual return to Apple, where he would give the world iPods, iPhones, and iPads. His final story was about his cancer, and his message was to “follow your heart and intuition.” Through original interviews, a smart use of source material, and a wonderfully easy-going style, Blumenthal gives a full portrait of Jobs, with his many well-documented flaws (which here might be a tad underplayed), his original and far-sighted aesthetic, and his willingness to push himself and others to achieve the best—as he perceived it. One advantage this has over Isaacson’s book is the well-placed sidebars that explain everything from how computer memory works to Jobs’ distinctive wardrobe. This is a smart book about a smart subject by a smart writer. To be illustrated with photographs. Glossaries and sources are appended. - Copyright 2012 Booklist. Bulletin for the Center... - 06/01/2012 Since Steve Jobs readily admitted to putting his dedication to work before every other aspect of his life, it’s fair that Blumenthal meet him on his own terms in this biography that focuses more on career than personal life. Framing the material according to life stages Jobs identified in a 2005 commencement address at Stanford, Blumenthal looks first at his early life as a period of amassing seemingly random knowledge and experiences-from mechanics to Eastern philosophy-leading to the acquaintances, friendships, and skills that would develop into a overarching interest in bringing personal computing to the masses. The second phase brought Jobs to the height of influence within Apple and then, due mainly to volatile personality conflicts that adversely affected product development, saw him stripped of leadership and driven to a lucrative alliance with Pixar (which, readers may be surprised to learn, actually accounted for most of his wealth). The final episode marks Jobs’ return to Apple and a period of astonishing achievement with the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, and his confrontation with mortality as he privately managed (and often mismanaged) pancreatic cancer. Many readers will so closely identify man and products that some prominent corporate issues will be noticeable for their absence in a biography, e.g., off-shore manufacturing and charges of exploitation of foreign factory workers. Most, however, will be content with this illumination of Jobs’ personality quirks, and marvel at how a guy who pitched an early collaboration with his dirty bare feet propped on a client’s desk could rise to business megastar. Only in America? Notes, index, and glossary are included. EB - Copyright 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Loading...
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