Category Archives: Book Reviews

Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman My rating: 4 of 5 stars Bringing Up Bébé is full of the collective parenting wisdom of the French, not just from luminaries such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Walter Mischel and Françoise Dolto (who was also covered extensively in the book),… Read More: Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of… »

The Good Dad: Becoming the Father You Were Meant to Be by Jim Daly My rating: 4 of 5 stars As someone who grew up under similar circumstances (i.e. without a father), I can totally relate to what Jim Daly, President and CEO of Focus on the Family, wrote in his book. The religious overtones… Read More: The Good Dad: Becoming the Father You Were Meant to… »

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown My rating: 4 of 5 stars Like Carol Dweck in her book “Mindset”, Greg McKeown separates people into two camps – the essentialists and the non-essentialists. Sadly, the real world is not as black and white. Unlike Dweck, McKeown explains his “theory” with well-supported reasoning so… Read More: Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less »

Grit by Angela Duckworth My rating: 3 of 5 stars So apart from delayed gratification being a predictor of future success, as documented in Walter Mischel’s book The Marshmallow Test, “grit” – a special blend of passion and perseverance, does the same thing too. Well, at least that’s what Angela Duckworth seems to imply in… Read More: Grit »

Steal the Show: From Speeches to Job Interviews to Deal-Closing Pitches, How to Guarantee a Standing Ovation for All the Performances in Your Life by Michael Port My rating: 3 of 5 stars The first two parts of the book are boring to read with a lot of fluff. It didn’t steal the show as… Read More: Steal the Show »

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck My rating: 2 of 5 stars The concept of fixed/growth mindsets is sound, but the arguments for it in this book are stretched too thin at times (like a simple blog post being over-extended into a book). Dweck ended up devoting many pages describing the… Read More: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success »