Malcolm Gladwell offers some novel viewpoints on the balance of intelligence and opportunity that result in phenomenal success... or what he calls 'outliers'. He shows by real-world examples and case studies that having a high IQ alone does not insure success. It's fascinating to read and I'm sure it will give you insight into your own life, as it has for me.

I have enjoyed all of Gladwell's books. Any one of his books would be an excellent read.

I found Outliers to be much less enjoyable and interesting than his previous works. This one seemed rather unconvincing in its assertions based on a few anectdotes. On some of the chapters, the author seemed to be too long-winded in making his points (over and over again).

Everyone in book club enjoyed reading this a great deal. Lively discussion. Was a nice change from fiction. Everyone had "ah-ha" moments when reading this book.

This book gave me some neat insights into teaching my children and definitely reaffirms how important practice is.

Very interesting and informative, but difficult to apply practically. It illustrates that no one thing makes someone "successful", but a conglomeration of things and circumstances combined with hard work.

The author provides a number of good stories and some interesting research, but he never ties it together successfully.
The stories and research are fun to read, but the book is unsatisfying.

Repetitive to the point of wondering why this writer is trying so hard to sell his concepts.

I really enjoyed reading about the Outliers in this book. A lot of light was shed on the success of some of the most famous names around. It was interesting to see why some flopped while some flourished with near identicle backgrounds and talent. In the end, it appears that a lot is left to fate/chance or in your cultural history. 2 thumbs up!

We had a good discussion about this book. Most members found it an interesting and easy read, even if they didn't agree with all of the ideas in the book and how the facts were selected and presented. This also gave us a lot to talk about! It is a very "user friendly" non-fiction book club pick.

This was our first non-fiction book club pick. The consensus from the group was that the first half of the book was interesting, but it seemed to lose its way when Gladwell started talking about the garment industry.
We talked about the 10 000 hour rule and decided that the saying - "practice makes perfect" holds true when it comes to perfecting a skill.
Another portion of the book people found interesting was the language of numbers used in different countries and how mental math would be easier to master with a less confusing language than English.
The last section of the book, devoted to the author seemed like "filler". It almost seemed like he ran out of material but needed to add pages to fill a book.
One thing the book did succeed at was illustrating that a person's success isn't a solitary effort, that it involves unique timing , placing and a certain skill set.

The author states that highly and famously successful people had hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities that allowed them to achieve success. That and 10,000 hours of work, practice, study, etc. He picks case studies to prove his point. The studies are very interesting, some fascinating. Not everyone in our group is in agreement that luck and a helping hand is more important in all cases than hard work and sheer genius, but that's what made a good discussion.

Our book club enjoyed our meeting to discuss the book as much as reading it! One member brought a chapter synopsis which was so helpful and recommended to others. We hope to add a Gladwell book every year as a great genre change up and educational read for us all. I highly recommend.

Our book club had mixed emotions about this read. About two thirds really liked it; a third of us, not so much. I was part of the \\\"ehh\\\" group. It did make for a spirited debate. It was odd that people who don\\\'t typically favor non-fiction seemed to be most vocal about their enjoyment, even going so far as borrowing his other two books from the library. Personally, I found it very repetitive......and I do mean very.

This book details the successes of various people or groups. It offers an interesting perception of the world.

Really enjoyed reading this book and how the author presented facts to debunk some popular thoughts. Didn't care so much for his earlier book "BLINK." Can't wait to read his latest book "David and Goliath."

Very interesting to understand our successes are not necessarily where we attended college or where ranked in class, but more about our heritage, when we were born, and timing is more the key to our opportunities for success.