David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants Audiobook

Quotes

• “Pop-culture pundit Malcolm Gladwell is an idea blender, mixing concepts from vastly different sources (everything from business to science to the Bible) to produce new ways of seeing the world.”

  — Reader’s Digest

• “Gladwell has made a career out of questioning conventional wisdom, and here he examines the allegedly unlikely triumph of the weak over the mighty and shows it’s not so unlikely after all. Four stars.”

  — People

• “David and Goliath readers will travel with colorful characters who overcame great difficulties and learn fascinating facts about the Battle of Britain, cancer medicine, and the struggle for civil rights, to name just a few topics upon which Mr. Gladwell’s wide-ranging narrative touches. This is an entertaining book.”

  — Wall Street Journal

• “Gladwell sells books by the millions because he is masterful at explaining how the world works—the power of critical mass, the arbitrariness of success, etc.—packaging his ideas in fun, accessible, and poignant vignettes.”

  — USA Today

• “As always, Gladwell’s sweep is breathtaking and thought provoking.”

  — New York Times

• “Truly intriguing and inspiring, especially when Gladwell discusses ‘desirable difficulties’...Gladwell’s account of the journey of Dr. Emil ‘Jay’ Freireich is unforgettable.”

  — Los Angeles Times

• “Fascinating...Gladwell is a master of synthesis. This perennially bestselling author prides himself on radical re-thinking and urges the rest of us to follow suit.”

  — Washington Post

• “What propels the book, like all of Gladwell’s writing, is his intoxicating brand of storytelling. He is the master of mixing familiar elements with surprise counter-intuitions and then seasoning with a sprinkling of scientific evidence....Gladwell is a master craftsman, an outlier amongst authors.”

  — Huffington Post

• “Provocative....David and Goliath is a lean, consuming read...The book’s most crafty, engaging chapter ties together the Impressionist movement and college choices to highlight the fact that gaining admission to elite institutions, which we typically perceive as an advantage, is no guarantee of success.”

  — San Francisco Chronicle 

• “Engrossing...Gladwell’s singular gift is animating the experience of his subjects. He has an uncanny ability to simplify without being simplistic: clean and vivid Strunk and White prose in the service of peerless storytelling.”

  — Seattle Times

• “Contemporary society can’t escape history when Malcolm Gladwell explains the world as he does with David and Goliath.”

  — St. Louis Post-Dispatch

• “Gladwell’s most provocative book yet. David and Goliath challenges how we think about obstacles and disadvantages, drawing upon history, psychology, and powerful narrative talent to rethink how we view the world around us and how to deal with the challenges life throws at us.”

  — Columbus Dispatch

• “The fifty-year-old Canadian is a superstar, the most popular staff writer on the New Yorker and a hero in the frequent-flier lounge where journalism, social science, business management, and self-help hang out....It’s a good story, and he’s got plenty more.”

  — Oregonian

• “A far- and free-ranging meditation on the age-old struggle between underdogs and top dogs…In addition to the top-notch writing one expects from a New Yorker regular, Gladwell rewards readers with moving stories, surprising insights, and consistently provocative ideas.”

  — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

• “Gladwell has long proven to be a capable narrator of his own books, and this production reflects his continued success. The work posits that personal obstacles may not always be detrimental—that they can, in fact, help some people outperform others. Gladwell steeps his research in interconnected anecdotes that require a good deal of storytelling, a structure that works well for audio. His vocal delivery commands the attention of listeners through tone, pacing, and well-placed pauses. At times, his delivery feels so natural and conversational that listeners can almost feel his presence in the room.”

  — AudioFile

• In the vast world of nonfiction writing, Malcolm Gladwell is as close to a singular talent as exists today...Outliers is a pleasure to read and leaves you mulling over its inventive theories for days afterward.

  — David Leonhardt, New York Times Book Review

• The explosively entertaining Outliers might be Gladwell's best and most useful work yet...There are both brilliant yarns and life lessons here: Outliers is riveting science, self-help, and entertainment, all in one book.

  — Gregory Kirschling, Entertainment Weekly

• No other book I read this year combines such a distinctive prose style with truly thought-provoking content. Gladwell writes with a high degree of dazzle but at the same time remains as clear and direct as even Strunk or White could hope for.

  — Atlanta Journal Constitution

• [An] important new book...Gladwell intelligently captures a larger tendency of thought-the growing appreciation of the power of cultural patterns, social contagions, memes...Gladwell's social determinism is a useful corrective to the Homo economicus view of human nature.

  — David Brooks, New York Times

• Thought-provoking, entertaining, and irresistibly debatable...[Outliers] is another winner from this agile social observer.

  — Heller McAlpin, Christian Science Monitor

• Outliers is required reading for boardroom and watercooler crowds alike.

  — Men's Health

• In Outliers, Gladwell (The Tipping Point) once again proves masterful in a genre he essentially pioneered-the book that illuminates secret patterns behind everyday phenomena.

  — Publishers Weekly

• A fascinating book that makes you see the world in a different way.

  — Fortune

• Gladwell's theories could be used to run businesses more effectively, to turn products into runaway bestsellers, and perhaps most important, to alter human behavior.

  — New York Times

• A real pleasure...Brims with surprising insights about our world and ourselves.

  — Salon.com

• Intoxicating".Gladwell is an engaging writer and a first-rate tour guide.?—Thane Rosenbaum, Los Angeles Times

• BLINK moves quickly through a series of delightful stories?.Always dazzling us with fascinating information and phenomena.

  — David Brooks, New York Times Book Review