January Not Fiction Book Discussions

We will open the year of discussions with Outliers:The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. In the clear, anecdotal style that made The Tipping Point and Blink bestsellers, Gladwell attempts to answer the question "Why do some people succeed far more than others?" using examples such as the Beatles and Bill Gates, star athletes and Asian math whizzes. His conclusion--that success is as much the result of culture and circumstance as it is of intelligence or ambition--may change the way you view human potential. In an interview, Gladwell said, "My wish with Outliers is that it makes us understand how much of a group project success is. . . . and that means that we, as a society, have more control about who succeeds--and how many of us succeed--than we think" (www.gladwell.com/outliers/index.html).

We will use Gladwell's ideas in Outliers throughout our discussions this year, considering, for example, how much of Steve Martin's success as a comedian is the result of talent, ambition, hard work, or circumstance in our conversation about his memoir Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life; or the implications for how best to help women of the Third World overcome oppression in our conversation about Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.

We hope you will join our discussions, Tuesday, January 5, at 7:00 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, January 21, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; or here on the blog.