Six Degrees of Separation: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

 

Because I have not read this book I had to look it up on Amazon to learn about it:
The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas.

 

My Chain

 

#1 Outliers by Malcom Gladwell.

 

 

The first book that came to mind wasn’t Blink, his later best-seller, but Outliers, which I have in my business collection in my day job as a librarian. I’ve read parts of it during downtime. I like his style of writing and his thoughts are very prescient. He thinks we “pay too much attention to what successful people , and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing “Outliers by Malcom Gladwell.

 

#2 Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

 

Amy Chua’s book also looks at success–at forcing your children to be successful. It caused a firestorm, but I understood her. Now, what to do with a kid like mine who didn’t care if you punished him or took away [name anything] etc., he just continued doing it his way? Many folks saw her book as near child abuse. Why? No sleepovers. No play dates [I hate that term, by the way]. I really didn’t see what the big deal was. None of those things are very helpful in the long-term, but then I could see the other side, too: neither is trigonometry unless you want a math or science career [I also am sick to death of the acronym STEM]. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua.

 

#3 The Devil Wears Prada

 

 

 

To most readers (or viewers) this book (or movie) was

Think Tiger Woman As Boss.  Having worked in law firms for many, many years before my current job, I thought she was pretty reasonable. The Devil Wears Prada  by Lauren Weisberger or the movie.

 

#4 The Swans of Fifth Avenue

 

 

The name “Prada” led me to the fashionable ladies who befriended Truman Capote–the women he called his “swans.” The lived to be beautiful ornaments and were extremely successful at it in a time in which a woman’s success was still measured by her husband’s career. The Swans of Fifth Avenue: A Novel by Melanie Benjamin.

 

#5 An American Wife

 

 

The Swans and the idea of the wife as part of the husband’s success (or failure) led me to The An American Wife: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld, that tells the story of a modern-day, fictional (fictionalized?) first lady–FLOTUS.

 

#6 The Rules

Combining the themes of achieving success and success as a successful man’s wife brings me to The Rules. Yes, it’s a fun read, no, I didn’t obey them (and consequently am not the wife of a successful man!!), but one tabloid reported that former actress turned Mrs. Prince Harry, Meghan Markle did. Hard to argue that bagging the future King of England’s only sibling isn’t marital success, right?

 

The Bonus Round

This movie is usually described as a “romp.” That’s 60s movie-speak for a  rather sexist comedy about a timid man and “bombshell” (aka the leading lady). But no look at success could succeed without it! Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?