cover image One Smart Cookie

One Smart Cookie

Debbi Fields. Simon & Schuster, $15.45 (176pp) ISBN 978-0-671-61838-4

How a woman who grew up in the wrong part of town and whose parochial school education was less than distinguished turned a little store in Palo Alto, Calif., into a major international corporation is related by the originator of ""Mrs. Fields' Cookies'' and freelance writer Furst. With her husband as partner, Fields parlayed her original chocolate-chip cookie recipe into a chain of 500 stores with some $150 million in sales. Rejecting conventional advice regarding promotion and marketing, the couple concentrated on making good cookies, then instructed sales personnel to provide personal service. Ten years later, this policy continues in an effort to make the company a model organization, one that will encourage creativity in others, according to Fields in this self-promoting but interesting memoir. With modesty she credits her family life for her success in capturing a slice of the American Dream. First serial to Glamour; Literary Guild featured alternate; Readers Digest Condensed Books selection; author tour. (October 21)