Thanks for stopping by! I'm Cori and I'm happy you've found your way here. If you're wondering why my blog is called "Let's Eat Grandpa," it's an old grammar joke: Let's eat, grandpa! Let's eat grandpa! (Punctuation saves lives.) 
Read because: I enjoyed Blink and liked the premise of the book.
Borrowed from: the Sacramento library
Rating: 7 out of 10
Synopsis: Gladwell, author and journalist, sets out to provide an understanding of success using outliers, men and women with skills, talent, and drive who do things out of the ordinary. He contends that we must look beyond the merits of a successful individual to understand his culture, where he comes from, his friends and family, and the community values he inherits and shares. We learn that society’s rules play a large role in who makes it and who does not. Success is a gift, and when opportunities are presented, some people have the strength and presence of mind to seize them, exhibiting qualities such as persistence and doggedness. Successful people are the products of history and community, of opportunity and legacy, and success ultimately is not exceptional or unattainable, nor does it depend upon innate ability. It is an attitude of willingness to try without regard for the sacrifice required.
My Review: I think that Gladwell has a knack for finding interesting little stories that make you go “cool.” In Outliers, he writes about a number of different people who have been able to acheive things out of the ordinary — Bill Gates, Mozarts, Asians (when it comes to math and school), Michael Jordan, Jewish doctors, etc. He really tears down the notion of the “self-made man” and instead posits that it is circumstances, a proclivity to try really, really, really hard, and a little talent combined. He also shows people who should have been stars but circumstances stopped them. His anecdotes are fascinating, especially when he was writing about Korean Airlines — I found that particularly interesting. Sometimes I feel like he was stretching a bit in places – sometimes things felt forced. But overall it was both educational and inspiring, and I think that Gladwell does a good job of giving us a new perspective about people we admire. (Finished 7/10/09.)
