Review: Pretty Thin Gruel
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 7, 2014
I bumped this review up a star because I found three or four new, actionable techniques I will try myself, and that's really why we get self help books. Isn't it?I would have given it only two stars because the content is really thin. Seven chapters serve to flesh out a seven item list given at the beginning, but the list seems really padded to me. Items 4 and 5 are substantially the same, as are items 3 and 6. And the last item, "Future Orientation" is more or less rescued by her golf story. What she really means can be abused and hammered into a shape that can be called "Future Orientation," but that's not what comes to mind when a cold reader first encounters the term. This renders the list a little deceptive as a precursor and a little useless as a memory aid.There is a lot of verbiage wasted on the names of the parts of the brain, but it is not useful. It serves only to tell the reader, "Trust me. I'm a doctor." Now about the "trust me" part, here is a list of all the references to studies included as support for her assertions:Did you miss it? Here it is again:That's right. She may be telling the truth, but as far as we can know from the book itself, it could be all made up.