I saw you included World Wide Rave by David Scott Meerman, and I would have to say his other book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR 2.0 deserves to be on the list as well!

-@allenkristina

I’ve been known to blog about things very non-intellectual from time to time, however. Variety is the spice of blogs….!

I love this blog. While you post something quite intellectual, everyone is commenting on the Diamondbacks.

Totally agree with AP Stylebook. As for grammar, believe it or not, I was given Strunk and White’s “Element of Style” in the fifth grade by a teacher who had played professional ball with Harmon Killebrew. I know, who. Back to baseball references. Unbeknownst to me, my sophomore English teacher submitted one of my essays to a statewide contest. For one year, I was Arizona’s top essayist. If it hadn’t been for Strunk & White, who knows.

This morning I had a meeting where the retiring city manager (and greatest one in nation) was. Just discovered Frank Fairbanks went to Loyola Marymount University where he has a finance degree. I asked a high level city employee if Mr. Fairbanks had studied under management expert Peter Drucker. “Who,” was the response I got. Now you see why I get sooo frustrated with “professionals” in Phoenix? I said Drucker wrote the book on executive management, gave a thumb and index finger indication of how thick they were, and without thinking said, “I’ve read five of them.” Didn’t realize it until that came out of my mouth.

Back to your list, though. I’ve always held Cutlip, Center and Broom as the definitive PR textbook. PRSA used it for APR studies. When I moved to Phoenix in the mid-80s, Alan Center graciously spent hours with me. We’d always meet at a Carl’s Jr. by his home in Poway. Okay, he drove two miles, I drove 400, but it was worth it. Got to meet Glen Broom, too.

Fate also plays into one’s career. Dr. Otis Baskin, the retired dean of Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business and Management, spent two years as head of ASU West’s business school. I recruited him as a Heart Association volunteer. He took the measuring tools I had developed during my M.B.A. studies and put them in HIS textbook. Today people have bastardized that case study, calling it ROI. As the creator, I say NO SUCH THING. So I recommend reading Baskin and Cutlip, Center and Broom.

Back in the ‘80s, when PRSA was more pertinent than today, the Phoenix chapter invited Chester Burger, the dean of public relations, to speak. Just a regular lunch meeting. I got to meet Burger. See an hour worth of Burger at this blog, http://marketingsociologist.wordpress.com/2009/02/14/free-education-via-youtube/
“Free Education via YouTube.”

Burger was in the process of editing my FAVORITE PR textbook, “Experts in Action: Inside Public Relations (Longman Series in Public Communication)” by Bill Cantor.

Every person in any related marketing field should be forced to read – monthly – Theodore Levitt’s “Marketing Myopia,” published around 1956 in Harvard Business Review.

Lastly, there are two books I was introduced to during my M.B.A. studies that I love. I am Philip Kotler’s biggest fan – anything and everything by him. The other book was Edward R. Dewey’s “Cycles.” This should be required reading for any strategic planner.

Thank you for this blog, Ms. VandeVrede.