The Book Blawg

Fired! : Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized, and Dismissed by Annabelle Gurwitch

A while back I reviewed We Got Fired! : . . . And It's the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Us by Harvey MacKay. Let's compare the two. We Got Fired! is an inspirational book, full of encouraging stories by people from all walks of life (mostly famous, though) who were fired, and how everything turned out for the best. Fired! on the other hand, is primarily funny stories, written by actors, writers, comedians, and so forth (Tim Allen, Bill Maher, Bob Saget), not all of which have happy endings. There is a definite sarcastic tone to the book. It also contains some strong language, including liberal use of the F-word, if that is of concern to you.

These two books actually make for a nice study in networking. MacKay has written a book (or two) on networking, and does it quite well. He managed to get such heavy hitters as Donald Trump, Michael Bloomberg, Muhammad Ali, Robert Redford, Lee Iacocca, and Larry King to contribute their stories. Annabelle Gurwitch, on the other hand, is an actress and writter whose claim to fame is that she was once fired by Woody Allen. So it's her network that contributed stories to the book.

Of the two, I am going to recommend the MacKay book over the Gurwitch book. If you get fired and you need to laugh, read Gurwitch. If you need encouragement, read MacKay.