Our reviews do not focus on critique, instead we delve into what a particular reference offers MAD Mavens. We summarize and extrapolate from the points made. Rather than suggesting what is good and bad about a book, we offer you what we have found that is useful. Use these reviews as your resources.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

You have already done it. You have already blinked. You have already made a snap decision about the usefulness of this summary. You make snap decisions all the time and everyday. Blink discusses these decisions. Why do we make them? How do we make them? Why don't we trust them? Why shouldn't we trust them? Why we might want to trust them? Who does trust them and when? Blink is about our natural ability to slice a moment thinly—thin slicing—and recognize patterns in our environment, experiences, and relationships. Read more...

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt with Stephen J. Dubner

Freakonmics might change how you think about economics. It reads more like a Gladwell book reframing interesting questions. While it does not provide the methodology or the deep analysis that an economist might treasure; it does reveal that cause and effect are not always what they seem. Conventional wisdom is often wrong. What appears to be obviously true, may in fact be untrue. And the connections between two very different topics may surprise you. Read more...

The Art of Possibility, Rosemund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander

The Art of Possibility, written by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander, embarks on a super stellar sail to a realm of fascinating possibility. It creates tools for reframing how we think about ourselves, others, and the world we play in. First the Zanders posit that we interpret and construct the experiences we have. This playful game of life is all about choosing how we feel, how we respond, and how we opt to play. Then why not play it in a way that is useful and expansive?

Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell sends us on the miraculous journey of change in “Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference”. MAD Mavens is founded on the concept of little things making a big difference. We look for those magic bullets, the critical leverage points, the Tipping Point for our lives and our causes.

Aging Well, George E. Vaillant

Taking data from three extraordinary longitudinal studies, Vaillant modifies Erikson's 8 stages of Psychosocial Development. Vaillant calls the stages of adulthood: Identity, Intimacy, Career Consolidation, Generativity, Keeper of the Meaning, and Integrity. Sharing stories of the individuals in the studies, Vaillant explains both what qualities lead to a long life and, more importantly, what qualities lead to a good life. He brilliantly sums this up, "Objective good physical health was less important to successful aging than subjective good health. By this I mean that it is all right to be ill as long as you do not feel sick." Successful aging has more to do with how you think than your personal history or actual physical health. And it is not our history, rocky as it may have been, that prevents us from having a wonderful old age, rather it is the goodness we encounter that allow it. In Valliant's own words: "It is not the bad things that happen to us that doom us; it is the good people who happen to us at any age that facilitate enjoyable old age."

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