Rating: 
Summary: Unnecessary
Review: I read this book after seeing the TV movie "Martha, Inc." I actually found the movie quite funny, but this book is downright mean. I have no feelings about Martha Stewart at all. I don't like her, I don't hate her. I've never seen her show or read her magazine. I think the only Martha Stewart product I've ever owned is one of her pillows (which is a very nice pillow, might I add). Anyway, my point is, I don't care about Martha. But after reading this book, I found myself siding with her more than with the author simply because the author was so heartless and cruel. He picks every bad thing and every mistake Martha's ever made and doesn't give her enough credit for the great things she's done. Not only Martha, but her family. He takes these low blows at her family members for no reason other than to be a jerk. I got the impression this book was written for a few reasons... First, to make money. The author knew Martha is a hot topic right now, a book would sell. Second, to make her look bad. She's taken enough criticism the last year or so, why add to that? Totally unnecessary. I don't think this book (or anything) could destory Martha anyway. She's very smart, very capable, she's ahead of the game. If she were a man, she'd be running the world. So, while I think the author certainly made an attempt at playing a part in ruining her career, he's going to fail. Martha simply can't be ruined. She's too smart. That's hard for many people to admit, but it's true. Anyway, I do not recommend this book. It's biased. It's wrong. It's mean. It's unnecessary. If you want to hear one man's opinion on Martha Stewart, this book if for you. If you like reading trashy biographies, this book is for you. I'm almost embarassed to say I've read it, simply because it's a waste of time. Nothing important is said in this book. Nothing worth reading or knowing. My advice, skip this one. Use the money to pay off a credit card bill or car payment.
Rating: 
Summary: Pies and Tarts
Review: I tend to agree with A reader from Mississippi on this one. I am also not a huge fan of Martha Stewart, in fact, I have not read any of her books, have no interest in her televisions shows and can see that the product line she pushes in KMart are nothing more than overpriced cheaply made products, so no, I am not "her number one fan". That being said, I still have to be frank here and say that in reading this book, one can clearly see that this was a slanted tell-all of the life and times of Martha Stewart. However, underneath the author's continual barbs, digs and innuendo casting Martha in an unfavorable light, I still found the actual life story very interesting. I also agree with A reader from Mississippi with the authors writing style being annoying at times. I also found him a bit repetitive in overstressing page after page how disliked Martha was or how conniving, cunning or ruthless she was and I wondered if the author himself didn't have a personal bone to pick with Martha, or if he was acting as "avenger" on someone elses behalf who had a grudge against Martha. I have to admit that the meat of the book held my interest, but I, too, would have been happier if the story were told in a less biased manner and from a more objective standpoint. In the grand scheme of things, Christopher Byron paints Martha Stewart as nothing more than a common back-biting tart who happened to build herself a billion dollar empire. As far as I'm concerned, objectively speaking, she did make her own success and she didn't do anything a man wouldn't have done in the business world. She did what she had to do in order to succeed. Not bad for a days work in the kitchen.
Rating: 
Summary: More than you ever would want to know about Martha
Review: This is a great book about Martha Stewart and her rise to power and fame all the way to the unraveling of her prestine image as the congenial problem free hostess of the American lifestyle. Chris Byron starts off the book by telling the early history of Martha's upbrining and the oppressive family dynamics which were the basis of her drive to become sucessful and domineering. It is a story of a woman, who in her ambition to become rich and famous, alienated all those who were close to her, which drove her to even more reckless behavior towards her husband, family and coworkers. The book is informative and entertaining, bringing out the best and the worst of Martha Stewart. No one is perfect, but Stewart seems to have tried all her life to be that way, only to fail dismally because of it. The book will shock and have you astonished at the actions of Stewart and will give you a clearer insight on what makes Stewart tick, and that's a good thing...
Rating:
Summary: Can't decide between two or three stars
Review: First, I neither like nor dislike Martha Stewart. I've never read her books or magazines or watched her t.v. shows or videos. I work full time, am not very domestic, and don't much care about what she has to say. I did find interesting the parts of the book that talk about what its subtitle says it talks about. I gave it three stars for that. But the book might deserve two stars because it was also gossipy and opinionated. I expected this book to be more than one of those unauthorized biographies, which I avoid because I doubt them. I think this book bills itself as more than that, but it isn't.
Rating: 
Summary: Martha Inc.: An Eye Opener!
Review: I was expecting another trashy unauthorized biography that details the rudeness, insensitivity, and stupidity of Martha Stewart, the reigning Domestic/Omnimedia Goddess. But this book does much more: not only does it paint what I feel must be a balanaced portrait of the person, it sheds light on her motivations and the type of person she inherently is (whether you like it or not). Byron's goal is honesty here, and it's needed and important to seeing past the Martha Stewart caricature we normally view. Before I started Martha Inc., I couldn't care less about the woman, but when I was finished reading the book, I had a deeper understanding of her, a better appreciation for her many accomplishments, and I even felt a bit sorry for her. I was expecting trash - but what I got was a profound surprise, and I recommend this book to everyone!
Rating:
Summary: hoping for a more unbiased read
Review: As I read this, I got the feeling that the author had been rebuffed by Martha and was getting even with her. It seemed so full of hatred and snide remarks. I really didn't get the feeling that I was learning about the real Martha, but of someone that had gone around to as many people as he could find, to any and everyone who would say a snide remark about her and then blasting her. (Some of the pictures you see, obviously come from his ex or someone close to him.) You begin to wonder what his agenda is. I wonder if he is a Republican and this is another witch-hunt like the one done on the Clintons, as you can see in one of the pictures, she attended a luncheon to help Hillary's campaign. And now with the election in 2004 and her trial, is it going to be used to distract the voters. What happened to Enron. One thing that you learn in the book is that Martha, growing up in a not so easy family life, (an exacting father)succeeded to become one of the most prominent women of our time. She came from the bottom to the top and in the process gave a lot of inspiration to women. The next book, I would like to read would be about her and written by her. I didn't get a true sense of her from this book-just a touch of meanness on the authors part. I am sure that Martha is not a perfect person, no one is, but this was a little too much.
Rating: 
Summary: Reads like a cheap unauthorized biography
Review: When this book first came out, I was really looking forward to reading about how Martha Stewart built her empire, especially with there being so much about her in the news. Now let me preface my comments by saying that I read a lot of business and other nonfiction books, and I don't have any personal problem with Christopher Byron, but this book was a huge disappointment. With the resources that Mr. Byron had access to in writing this book, it would seem that the story should have been clear and objective, like Roger Lowenstein's biography of Warren Buffett, but what we get here is an extremely editorialized style of writing that prevents intelligent people from being able to make their own judgements on the subject matter. There are strings of sweeping statements made after interviews with one individual on a particular topic that influence the way Mr. Byron characterizes Martha Stewart in each section of the book. Let me also confess that I am not a fan of Martha Stewart or her company, so I am not making these statements for any other reason than the fact that I expected so much more in the presenation of the materials in this book. Moreover, Mr. Byron continues (and this is VERY annoying) to ask these filler questions in every other paragraph, e.g. "And what did Martha do next?" It was annoying the first time I read it but by the time I had made it to page 100, I became convinced that that was just a part of Mr. Byron's style in this book, and my hopes of getting a well-written biography of Martha drifted down the drain. I would have had no problem with this book if it was called _Martha Stewart: The Unauthorized Biography_, because that's exactly what it reads like. Now don't get me wrong, the book is not some trashy, tabloid expose, but Mr. Byron does not treat this biography with the type of a respect and journalistic presence that good biographers do. He seems to just [down] on this subject, and that upsets me and offends my intelligence. I'm not trying to be rude here, but having waited months for this book to come to paperback, I felt like I have been a bit cheated in what lies between the covers.
Rating:
Summary: Get it from the library instead
Review: This book was a good read, but I don't recommend buying it outright, but getting it from your library instead. Not sure I'd recommend it as a keeper. Die hard Martha fans are not going to like this book, but then they will brook no criticism of her anyway.... For the most part, this seems to be a fair accounting of her rise to fame. She apparently is a bad friend and business partner. She also seems to lack warmth as either a wife of a mother. The author also does a good job illustrating how her predominantly male sponsors have consistenly underestimated her appeal to her female audience, which is pretty amusing. With a few notable exceptions, she doesn't appear to be a "nice person -understatement of the year". But her audience doesn't care about this. They all anxiously await for her to dispense her domestic wisdom upon the huddled female masses who wish they could aspire to her lifestyle. Alas, they never will becasue this woman has her own army at her disposal to do her bidding. That said, I do appreciate her Good Things column, so I am not immune myself. I find the story lacking in a few areas. First, he makes this corny analogy comparing Martha Stewart to Nancy Drew. It would have been ok for the first chapter, but her drags this weak analogy through the book. Personally, I'd hate to be defined by what I read as a child..... Another weak point is that he doesn't really give much detail about Andy's relationship with Robin Fairclough. She appears briefly in the story as Martha's personal assistant, then all of a sudden you ar reading that she had become Andy's wife. Not that we need all of the gory details, but it would have been interesting to know how Martha came to choose her as an assistant and how the relationship progressed. There is also not much about Alexis and it would have been intersting to know more about her. Byron tries to give a few examples of when Martha helped people at the beginning of the book, but then you don't see too many examples of this later on. Personally, I don't have any trouble believing she is an ogre, especially after growing up with such an abusive father. But there must be times when she could be decent too. I read somewhere that she helped her sister Laura through some really difficult times, but that gets glossed over in the book. Although I think Byron is giving one of the fairest accountings of her life to date, sometimes I get the feeling that Byron is too heavily swayed by being another in a long line of ticked off Westport neighbors and he is getting his "digs" in with this book.
Rating:
Summary: Omnivorous Ambition...Elegant Lifestyle
Review: Byron does indeed tell an "incredible story" about one of the most successful businesswomen in the world. How much of it is credible? Is she really as brilliant and resourceful as he suggests? Is she also as spiteful and mean-spirited as he suggests? As I read this book, I sometimes had a difficult time determining what Byron makes of the material he shares. His attitude seems ambivalent as indeed do those who have worked for and with Stewart over the years. Much of the material was provided by friends, enemies, acquaintances, business associates, and employees. He and most of those interviewed seem to admire what she has achieved. However, he and many of them also seem to deplore her values, attitudes, and (especially) her mistreatment of others. Byron met Stewart in Westport (CT) and knew her only casually as a neighbor whom he encountered infrequently. At that time, he was advancing his career as a journalist, writing for the Wall Street Journal. He became intrigued by the rapid development of her own career and decided to write a book about her. Initially Stewart agreed to cooperate with him but later reconsidered. At no point in the narrative does Byron express any animosity toward her (or about anything else, for that matter) but many others do, notably Kathy Tatlock and Norma Collier. Along the way, Byron also examines Stewart as wife and mother. He observes: "As Martha's fame grew, and she became increasingly absorbed in making it grow still more, she seemed to have less and less time for her personal relationships -- not just with [husband] Andy and [daughter] Alexis, but with her employees, her neighbors, and anyone else she might encounter day to day. A brusque efficiency began to take over her conversations." Eventually her husband left her and other personal relationships deteriorated further as she continued to pursue and achieve her various business objectives. Today, she owns Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. (How she regained control should guarantee her immediate induction into the "Business Hall of Fame.") She is among the wealthiest and most influential people (male or female) in the United States and, if consumer markets continue to expand in underdeveloped countries, it seems certain that both her wealth and her influence will increase exponentially. Throughout his book, Byron shares lots of opinions and evaluations of Stewart (his and others') as he attempts to understand her character and personality, her life and career. He seems to try very hard to be circumspect. The Stewart who emerges by the end of the book reminds me of what Walt Whitman once said of himself: "Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes." For whatever they may be worth, here are a few of my own reactions to the material in this page-turner of a book. First, I wonder how much criticism of Stewart there would be if she were a male. Is she held accountable to the same standards as, for example, Jack ("Neutron") Welch? Also, often mentioned in the same context as Oprah Winfrey, Stewart seems much more interested in lifestyle; Winfrey in quality of life. Big difference. Most people love Oprah; few seem to love Martha. How to explain that? Also, at a time when "branding" is an especially hot business topic, Stewart seems to be among the very few celebrities who IS the brand...rather than any merchandise (magazines, books, videos, television programs, etc.) associated with her. Finally, I am intrigued by the number of high-powered male corporate executives who underestimated her, who (in Byron's word) made the mistake of "chick-ing" Stewart. How else to explain the fact that she was able to regain total control of a variety of media assets (e.g. Martha Stewart Living magazine and a series of spin-off books called "The Best of Martha Stewart Living") from Time Inc. in 1997 for $2 million out of her own pocket, about three days worth of the assets' revenue. She then created a new company (Martha Stewart Living Multimedia LLC), took it public in October 1999, and saw the company's stock price nearly triple during its first day of trading. That gave "the one-time Connecticut caterer a personal net worth of more than $1 billion." Hers indeed is one of the most extraordinary business careers in American history, one which -- over an extended period of time -- accelerated with increasing impact and profitability. As presented by Byron, Martha Stewart the businesswomen and Martha Stewart the person seem essentially the same, and that will continue to be true, for better or worse, as an uncertain future reveals itself.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Buy This Book!
Review: This is not a hatchet job, it's a rolling-pin job. I saw a preview of the positively dreadful made-for-TV movie and I would hate to see anybody profit from this piece of dreck. I can't stand the phony creature myself, and she has embarrassed women everywhere with her antics, but this book is so poorly written that I cringed through at least half of it. As a former journalist myself, I was appalled at the lack of basic reporting skills evident here. Even though this woman doesn't deserve much better, it still remains a terrible, terrible book.
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