cover image The Baker’s Son: 
My Life in Business

The Baker’s Son: My Life in Business

Lowell Hawthorne, with Michael A. Grant. Akashic, $24.95 (240p) ISBN 978-1-61775-125-7

Hawthorne, founding president and CEO of Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery, offers a heartfelt account of a poor immigrant boy who made good. Born the sixth of 11 children in the small Jamaican town of Border in 1960, Hawthorne grew up poor but loved. He tells the story of his happy childhood and tight-knit family, who gave him strong roots. As a young man, he immigrated to the United States and joined his sister and brothers in the Bronx. After some years of struggle in New York with very little money and eight years with the NYPD, in 1989, he joined with his family and opened a series of bakeries with roots in his father’s bakery in Jamaica. He tracks the growth of Golden Krust as it became “America’s foremost Caribbean brand, and one of the top black-owned family businesses in the country.” His philosophies—hard work, dedication to family and church—are admirable, but the dearth of teachable insight and analysis into the growth of the business, and his thinking on business—lasso’ed into a few pages at the end—coupled with a limited audience for a little-known brand-name, may make this a tough sell. (Sept.)