This was a hodgepodge of stories where the author seems more interested in getting his personal point of view across than informing the reader. If you are looking for an entertaining and informative book; keep looking

I enjoyed What the Dog Saw but found some of it to be painstaking, rather than enthralling or deeply interesting like his previous works. This one was more of a hard slog.

This book contains a wide variety of topics ranging from how hair color ads meshed with womens' views of themselves to an investor who only makes money when the market drops more than expected,to how long it takes to formulate an opinion in an interview to why the Challenger Shuttle disaster occurred. Although, the author is a journalist and not a psychologist he makes astute observations and seems to do his homework to fill out his observations.

These stories have appeared in the New Yorker over the years and are re-presented here. However, there is no real cohesiveness or theme to the book - it is a collection of essentially unrelated observations and stories. Some of the chapters simply tell a story, like Ron Popiel of Ronco fame and others describe how people are promoted. I also found it a bit frustrating at times because an issue was illuminated but then he moves on without any further discussion. For instance, he talks about how hard it is to hire good teachers but there is no discussion over how this situation could be improved.

His observations often provide a different, not generally considered, perspective on the issue. However, mixed in with very interesting insights there are several chapters that are not as interesting. For instance, there is a lengthy discussion over why there are many different kinds of mustards but only 2 ketchups.

The authors other three books, Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers are all better reads than this.

I love Gladwell, but this audiobook is NOT unabridged as they claim. Million Dollar Murray and part of the next story are not included.

Typical Gladwell as he breaks down what might seem like the most mundane of subjects into fascinating detail. Subtle life lessons and business lessons abound in these stories. I like "Outliers" better because it seemed more neatly tied up but I highly recommend "What the Dog Saw".