The Innkeeper Tales
The Innkeeper Tales has been highly recommended for both personal reading lists and community library collections as an “entertaining collection of stories that reveal life lessons for obtaining true success and happiness in our lives.
Loosely modeled on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the stories are told by business travelers whiling away a very long day when they’re stranded by an early spring Baltimore blizzard at a bed and breakfast called The Abacrombie. With the B&B owner (Herman) keeping the food and conversation going, each traveler tells a story drawn from his own life. All the stories are true.
Tuck talks about his Air Force experience. Ben, the “rebuilder” confesses his uncontrollable urge to make shiny new things out of collapsing old things. Read about Tony (“the car guy”), collector Burt, Pete the politician, Mike and his dark tale, and more. Like Danny, who lost it all, and Randy who redeems himself. Listen to another man talk about becoming addicted to his wife’s auction scavenging and old-furniture renovating.
But at the heart of the Tales is another kind of renovating: the rebuilding of lives, the refurbishing of the sense of self. Like the listeners sprawled in the inn’s breakfast room, you will have a rich learning (and laughing) experience reading this book.
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an excerpt from The Innkeeper Tales
Suit Meets Overalls
There stood Danny in his Joseph Banks suit staring at George in his green Dickey work clothes. Both men thought they were getting the best of the other. For less than $30,000, the men exchanged lives. George had more cash than ever before in his life, and Danny was off to mandatory classes to learn from the big oil company how to pump gas.
George had agreed to stay on for a few weeks to help the businessman become a working man. George was amazed when he watched how Danny responded to the first customer seeking the $9.95 oil, lube, and filter hawked on the new sign out front. Just the fact that Danny got the car on the lift and up in the air without it falling off was stunning to George. As Danny unscrewed the oil plug on the bottom of the drip pan, George was further impressed. There stood Danny under the car in his bright white shirt and crisp new ball cap sporting the company logo. George was shocked that a college graduate with business skills and an ability to make more money than he himself ever had was about to work under a car — just as he, George, had done for years. Maybe George should give the young guy some credit.
That’s when George noticed the hot black oil running down Danny’s arm. As the screw let loose from the drip pan, Danny didn’t move quickly enough, and the crisp clean shirt was ruined in less than ten seconds. George couldn’t stop laughing.
“Hey, college boy,” he shouted, “is that how they taught you to do it at school? Catch the hot oil on your shirt so it won’t drip on the floor?”
George and Danny bonded at that moment. George had learned in that second what Danny already knew: in some ways, the street-smart George was much brighter than the college boy. Danny let George teach him.
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Alan Walden
… a delicious collection of stories … but more than just a diverting fantasy. It’s also the text of a crash course from the Herman School of Business. John Herman is an entrepreneur with a lot to say about why business doesn’t really understand itself. I strongly recommend that you buy the book and read it carefully, cover to cover.
— Award-winning broadcast journalist, Alan Walden, former director of Network News and senior correspondent for NBC Radio
Rambles.net
The Innkeeper Tales is an engaging memoir tucked within a well-crafted fictional framework. It should appeal most often to male readers, especially those Renaissance men who have had and admire folks with varied personal histories. read the full review
— Corinne H. Smith for Rambles.net, 6-30-2007
Blogcritics Magazine
The Innkeeper Tales is an enjoyable collection of true stories giving readers strategic advice for life and business success … From one tale of a man buying an incredible sinking boat, to another selling off pieces of companies in the middle of catastrophic financial trouble … the stories shed brilliant light on some of the ethical boundaries we as a civilized people are challenged with each and every day. ... I found The Innkeeper Tales to be an insightful and entertaining collection of stories packed with triumph and failure … A wonderful piece of work that is funny at times and sad at others, this is about the lifecycle of triumph to failure, rebuilding, and back to triumph.
— Bill Bennett for Blogcritics Magazine, 3-1-2007
Reader Views
Each story’s character finds a place in your heart as you cheer him on to win this race called life. Hardly a life situation seems to have been missed as the characters share their story. You’ll find a womanizer, a businessman, a romantic couple, an aging builder and so much more as you open the pages of this wonderfully written book. Canterbury Tales move over, you have a more modern and just as classy competitor at your tail! Kudos to Mr. Herman, for a job well done.
— Beverly Pechin for Reader Views, 12-9-2006
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reader comments
I definitely have a better outlook on life. Thank you for an enjoyable book.
Written by Anonymous on 28 March 2007
A slice of life … and then some
Written by Anonymous on 28 March 2007
The Innkeeper Tales is an entertaining collection of true stories providing much insight for how to succeed in life and business. Sometimes heartbreaking, other times heartwarming, this book centers on a group of strangers who are snowed in at The Abacrombie, an award-winning bed and breakfast in the cultural district of Baltimore, Maryland. Owner and manager — and author of Innkeeper Tales John Herman, Jr., keeps the coffee flowing and the conversation going as the guests open up and candidly share their life experiences with one another. Through the characters’ many triumphs and failures, readers from college students to business professionals will learn important life lessons for obtaining true success and happiness.
Written by Arline Zatz on 28 April 2007
The Innkeeper’s Tales is touted as a modern-day version of The Canterbury Tales. Written in the 1300s, The Canterbury Tales chronicles the various tales told by a group of people passing the time while making a pilgrimage to England. The Canterbury Tales is a challenging book to read and has been the scourge of many literary students. Thankfully, the same thing is not true here.
In the case of The Innkeeper’s Tales the stories revolve around the exploits of guests who stay at the real-life Abercrombie Bed & Breakfast in Baltimore, Maryland.
Broken up into short little bursts of writing, mostly detailing conversations, Innkeeper’s is a book filled with stories of people and their various idiosyncrasies.
Tales of politicians, stock brokers and ordinary, average guys fill the pages of the book; the stories are told with wry humor and, designed to “entertain, enlighten and empower,” the book has a unique angle in its intentions. The tales of “The Rebuilder” and “The Alpha-Male” are fun to read and highlight the diversity of the book’s characters.
More than anything, The Innkeeper’s Tales is a fitting tribute to the spirit of self-motivation and promotion and is kind of like spending a sunny day people watching in the park.
Written by Brandon Daviet on 28 April 2007
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