Book Review: Outliers

Why are some people astoundingly successful and why are some struggling? Does a high IQ guarantee success? Why are Asians good in math? These are just some of the questions that Outliers answer.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book because I’m the type of person who loves finding out why things are the way they are. Malcolm Gladwell is a brilliant observer and the patterns that he observes or learns from other people’s studies are just so interesting. The things I picked up from this book are so interesting that I keep catching myself telling people about them. That’s how interesting they are.

In a nutshell and without giving away too much, the book tells us how intelligence and talent and even hard work are just a small factors in the equation of success. Many factors work together to bring success. It doesn’t mean intelligence, talent, or hard work are not important. Because they are essential, if you observe the profiles of the highly successful people. But factors you would not have thought were important actually come to play in a big way in the path to success of each of the featured individuals. Things like culture, birth year, your country’s history.

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

“When we understand how much culture and history and the world outside the individual matter to professional success–then we don’t have to throw up our hands in despair at an airline where pilots crash planes into sides of mountains. We have a way to make successes out of the unsuccessful.” – Page 220

“Outliers are those who have been given opportunities–and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them” – Page 267

“We sometimes think of being good at mathematics as an innate ability. You either have “it” or you don’t. But to Schoenfeld, it’s not so much ability as attitude. You master mathematics if you are willing to try.” – Page 246

Rating: 5/5

A Book a Week for 2010

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to read more. The plan is to read a book a week, which means by the end of 2010, I should be able to have read 52 books.

I’m off to a good start, I think, as I have been able to finish two books already and it’s only January 11. Hoping I can  keep it up until the end of the year.

Do suggest books for me to read by commenting on this post.

Here I will be keeping a log of my 52 books for 2010:

1. Twenties Girl – Sophie Kinsella
2. Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
3. Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
4.The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott
5. Watermelon by Marian Keyes
6. S.H.A.P.E. by Erik Rees
7. American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
8. Swapping Lives by Jane Green
9. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
10. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
11. The Hole in our Gospel by Richard Stearns
12. What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell

13. Single Men are Like Waffles Single Women are Like Spaghetti by Bill and Pam Farrel
14. Walking with God by John Eldredge
15. Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin
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*Updated: March 21, 2010

Book Review: Twenties Girl

I didn’t believe in Santa Claus for very long as a child. I wasn’t as into cartoons as other kids. And I rarely watch fantasy-adventure movies.

I only like to watch/read/believe real people shows/movies/books/stories.

Maybe that’s why I was skeptical when I first saw Twenties Girl in the bookstore. I mean, a chick lit read that involves a ghost??!

But this book proved to be a pleasant surprise

Sophie Kinsella‘s Twenties Girl tells the story of a girl named Lara whose life isn’t going as well as she had hoped. Her boyfriend of three years broke up with her and refuses to talk about it. Her best friend and partner in a start-up headhunting firm goes AWOL leaving her with a business she has no idea how to run. As if her life wasn’t complicated enough, the ghost of her 105-year old aunt who had just passed away suddenly appears to her as the ghost’s twenty-three year old self. As her great-aunt Sadie pesters her day in and day out and makes her do outrageous things, Lara discovers  a great deal about herself and the aunt she never knew.

Twenties Girl was a delight to read. I found myself laughing out loud many times throughout my reading of this book. I loved that this book is not your usual Kinsella read in that I guess I would say the story has more depth than her other novels. The Shopaholic series was a lot of fun, yes,  but Twenties Girl, I would say, is chick lit that’s fun to read but also has a lot of heart. It reminds me a little of my favorite Cecelia Ahern book “If You Could See Me Now.”

So if you would like to take a breather from your more serious books, I’d definitely recommend this page-turner.

Rating: 4/5