Wednesday, Oct 21, 2009

Book Review: What The Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell

Author:  Malcolm Gladwell

Publisher:  Little Brown/Hachette

ISBN #:  978-0-316-07584-8

 Type:  Non-Fiction

Pages:  432 Hardback

Published:  October 20, 2009

Website:  http://gladwell.com

Purchase:  $15.11 (HERE) 

The Publisher’s Summary

“What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century?

In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and ourselves: The Tipping Point; Blink; and Outliers. Now, in What the Dog Saw, he brings together, for the first time, the best of his writing from The New Yorker over the same period.

Here is the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, and the dazzling inventions of the pasta sauce pioneer Howard Moscowitz. Gladwell sits with Ron Popeil, the king of the American kitchen, as he sells rotisserie ovens, and divines the secrets of Cesar Millan, the “dog whisperer” who can calm savage animals with the touch of his hand. He explores intelligence tests and ethnic profiling and “hindsight bias” and why it was that everyone in Silicon Valley once tripped over themselves to hire the same college graduate.”

(Excerpt is from http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780316075848_Description.htm)

The Review

I’ve never read The New Yorker, but I understand that it is choc-full of wonderful articles.  Malcolm Gladwell is a staff writer for The New Yorker and has also written as a business and science reporter at The Washington Post.  If you’re a fan of either publication, you are sure to enjoy this book. 

The best way that I can describe this book is a compilation of his best articles.  Although, the articles are full chapters with divisions there within.  The topics range from great entrepenurs to hair color marketing to birth control.  My favorite chapter was the one in which the book was entitled, “What The Dog Saw.”  This chapter was a poignant essay on Cesar Millan, dog behavior, and human behavior.  I also enjoyed the articles about hair coloring, Grey Poupon/ketchup, and birth control. 

Without attempting to pigeon-hole this book, I think it would be the perfect bathroom or waiting room read.  You can read a very interesting daily topic filled with interesting facts.  This book is not gender-biased, hence the ladies should enjoy this book as much as the gentlemen.  In fact, I’m lending this book to my brother as he’s the type of guy who loves reading books with interesting facts.

The Rating

In the genre Non-Fiction:Essays, on Sher’s “Out of Ten Scale,” I am giving What The Dog Saw a rating of 7 out of 10. 

Giving Thanks

Thank you to Little Brown/Hachette for the review copy of this book.

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