Pecking Order

You’ve got your large-size soda between your knees and popcorn on your lap, and you’re excited because your favorite star is in this movie. Yeah, it seems dumb, but you wonder what he’s like in real life.
Bet this: he’s probably not the same down-to-earth person he was when he was a nobody. In the new book “Pecking Order” by Omar Tyree, you’ll watch the rise and fall of an everyday man who had everything to gain, but lost himself in the pursuit.
For his whole adult life, Ivan David was a responsible man. When his brother’s baby mamas came around, Ivan gave Derrick money. When Mama got sick, he paid her chemotherapy bills. The last thing Mama said before she died was to live life, and Ivan thought about that a lot.
He worked as an accountant at one of San Diego’s most prominent firms, and while he liked his job, Ivan always wondered what it was like to own one of those fancy houses on a hill, or walk into a party without waiting for some goon to decide if Ivan was worthy to enter.
Nightclub.
Party.
Suddenly, Ivan knew how he could make money. He’d hold parties that everybody in San Diego would want to attend, and he’d make all kinds of deals to get it done. With the help a few mentors he knew, he launched his business, ID Promotions, and started to book events.
Then Lucina Gallo partnered with him, and everything sped up.
Lucina and her girls were beautiful, young, and classy, and they were in demand at every event. Lucina was a schemer, and she knew the club scene. Together, she and Ivan created parties that nobody wanted to miss, and they made crazy money.
But as those big bucks rolled in, Ivan got a big head. Gone was the boy from L.A. with stars in his eyes. He’d been replaced by a man obsessed with high finance and beautiful women.
Except the one woman Ivan wanted. She was out of his reach.
Well, amazingly, author Omar Tyree’s done it again.
To me, every book by Tyree is penned in a different style and this one is no exception. Written like a can’t-pull-yourself-away documentary, “Pecking Order” is the story of a man with hustle in his blood and a dwindling supply of compassion for anyone who isn’t useful to him. While I truly enjoyed it, my only complaint is that there’s too much business-speak in this book, the kind you’ll find at the end of a deal-sealing handshake. Not that it’s bad, but gets to be blah-blah-blah-overkill.
Just so you know. You have permission to skim through that part.