What DID the dog see? Malcolm Gladwell's here to tell us.
With the excitement of Teen Read Week last week, we didn’t mention the latest book from Malcolm Gladwell that released last Tuesday. What the Dog Saw is a compilation of Gladwell’s best articles from years as a staff writer for The New Yorker. Topics range from birth control to Enron to dog whispering, which keeps the book interesting and different from one chapter to the next. For those who haven’t read The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers, What the Dog Saw serves as an excellent introduction to Gladwell’s ability to dissect the world right in front of us, raising questions most of us never stop to think about. While critics admit some of Gladwell’s conclusions are still questionable or hard to prove, he achieves the broader purpose of making the reader think. According to The Guardian, these essays manage to be more convincing than Gladwell’s longer works: “One virtue of What the Dog Saw is that the pieces are perfectly crafted: they achieve their purpose more effectively when they aren’t stretched out.” Whether you’re a Gladwell guru or a novice, this book is worth a read.
“There is depth to [Gladwell's] research and clarity in his arguments, but it is the breadth of subjects he applies himself to that is truly impressive.” – Ian Sample, The Guardian
“This book full of short conversation pieces is a collection that plays to the author’s strengths. It underscores his way of finding suitably quirky subjects [...] and using each as gateway to some larger meaning.” – Janet Maslin, New York Times
“There are other not so surprising assertions. That the secret of really good school results depends on good teachers more than on money and class sizes. Indeed.” – Jonathan Mirsky, The Spectator
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