The Art of Choosing Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I had high expectations for this book. Sheena Iyengar's research on choice is well known and often quoted, and I was looking forward to this exposition of her ideas. The book is OK, and will be a worthwhile read for those with a deep interest in choice theory and decision making; however, I personally found the book to be less valuable than other books on this subject.
More specifically:
On the positive side, the book is well researched and is particularly strong when discussing cultural differences regarding choice and decision making. It is loaded with a large number of anecdotes and research studies.
On the negative side, after having read the book, I had a hard time outlining the key points or recalling a handful of particularly powerful examples. Despite the author's frequent references to the importance of a "narrative," I struggled to find the narrative in the book.
In a nutshell, when reading this book I felt as though I would have learned a lot if I'd had the opportunity to spend a semester in one of the author's classes, benefitting from a rich give and take of ideas and arguing the interpretations of the various research findings and personal perspectives. However, not enough of that experience came through in the book -- the studies and examples were mostly ones I had read many times before, and the integrating "theory of the case" was not strongly presented.
For discussions of decision making as it relates to economic or business choices, I found "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely of Duke and "The Winner's Curse" by Richard Thaler of Princeton to be more valuable than "The Art of Choosing." For consumer choice research and issues, Barry Schwartz's "The Paradox of Choice" remains the standard. To swim in the evolution of decision theory as it struggled to integrate its joint heritage in psychology and economics, "Choices, Values, and Frames" by Dan Kahneman and Amos Tversky is the place to look. On the subject of intuitive decsion making, Malcom Galdwell's "Blink" is exceptionally well written and a joy to read.

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Away From My Desk: A Round-the-World Detour from the Rat Race, the Tech Wreck, and the Traffic Jam of Life in America Review

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(More customer reviews)I had my doubts when I picked up this book. Principally I was sceptical about how one begins to cover in any substantial way travels though 45 countries in one year. Within the first thirty pages it became clear to me that the author was searching for and painting a comparative picture of our world. In my opinion the book's prime attraction is in Haffar's skill at distilling cultures, societies, and entire countries into their essential elements. And he does so with humour, occasionally irreverent but never crass. This is brilliant, entertaining reading for anyone, traveller or otherwise, who is curious about the world we live in.

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