What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century? In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and ourselves: The Tipping Point; Blink; and Outliers. Now, in What the Dog Saw, he brings together, for the first time, the best of his writing from The New Yorker over the same period. Here is the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, and the dazzling inventions of the pasta sauce pioneer Howard Moscowitz. Gladwell sits with Ron Popeil, the king of the American kitchen, as he sells rotisserie ovens, and divines the secrets of Cesar Millan, the "dog whisperer" who can calm savage animals with the touch of his hand. He explores intelligence tests and ethnic profiling and "hindsight bias" and why it was that everyone in Silicon Valley once tripped over themselves to hire the same college graduate. "Good writing," Gladwell says in his preface, "does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head. "What the Dog Saw is yet another example of the buoyant spirit and unflagging curiosity that have made Malcolm Gladwell our most brilliant investigator of the hidden extraordinary. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Gladwell's fourth book comprises various contributions to the New Yorker and makes for an intriguing and often hilarious look at "the hidden extraordinary." He wonders "what... hair dye tell[s] us about twentieth century history," and observes firsthand "dog whisperer" Cesar Millan's uncanny ability to understand and be understood by his pack. Gladwell pulls double duty as author and narrator; while his delivery isn't the most dramatic or commanding, the material is frequently astonishing, and his reading is clear, heartfelt, and makes for genuinely pleasurable listening. A Little, Brown hardcover. (Nov.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gladwell (The Tipping Point) has gathered 22 of his pieces that have appeared in The New Yorker since 1996, arranging them into three sections: "Obsessive, Pioneers, and Other Varieties of Minor Genius," "Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses," and "Personality, Character and Intelligence." Fans who are not familiar with Gladwell's articles will be delighted to discover that his shorter work contains the same level of insight, wit, and talent for making the mundane fascinating as they've come to expect from his longer work. Gladwell's writing here is filled with colorful characters, acute analyses, and intriguing questions. However, be warned that the organization of the articles by topic rather than by date can be confusing, especially since much of what Gladwell is discussing has since changed. For instance, although articles about the Challenger explosion, the stock market, and Enron all have postscripts about developments that occurred after the original publication of these pieces, the original publication dates are indicated neither in the table of contents nor at the start of the pieces, frustrating readers' attempts to learn what time period each article covers. VERDICT Fans of Gladwell's writing will want to add this to their bookshelves. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/09.]-April Younglove, Rochester Regional Lib. Council, NY Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

In 2005, Time named Malcolm Gladwell one of its 100 most influential people. He is the author of three books, each of which reached number one on the New York Times Best Seller list. They are: The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers.

He is a is a British-born Canadian journalist and author. Gladwell was a reporter for the Washington Post from 1987 to 1996, working first as a science writer and then as New York City bureau chief. Since 1996, he has been a staff writer for The New Yorker. He graduated with a degree in history from the University of Toronto's Trinity College in 1984.

(Publisher Provided) Malcolm Gladwell, non-fiction writer and journalist, was born in England on Sept 3, 1963. He was raised in rural Ontario and graduated from the University of Toronto, Trinity College, with a degree in History.

Gladwell was previously a business and science reporter for the Washington Post and is currently a staff writer with the New Yorker magazine. He is well-known for his three New York Times bestselling books: Blink, The Tipping Point, and Outliers. His writing is often a product of sociology and psychology with implications for the social sciences and business. Gladwell became a successful public speaker after writing his best-selling books.

(Bowker Author Biography) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Preface	p. ix
Part 1 Obsessives, Pioneers, and Other Varieties of Minor Genius: "To a Worm in Horseradish, The world is Horseradish."	p. 1
The Pitchman: Ron Popeil and the Conquest of the American Kitchen	p. 3
The Ketchup Conundrum: Mustard Now Comes in Dozens of Varieties. Why Has Ketchup Stayed the Same?	p. 32
Blowing Up: How Nassim Taleb Turned the Inevitability of Disaster into an Investment Strategy	p. 51
True Colors: Hair Dye and the Hidden History of Postwar America	p. 76
John Rock's Error: What the Inventor of the Birth Control Pill Didn't Know About women's Health	p. 101
What the Dog Saw: Cesar Millan and the Movements of Mastery	p. 126
Part 2 Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses: "It was Like Driving Down an Interstate Looking Through a Soda Straw"	p. 149
Open Secrets: Enron, Intelligence, and the Perils of Too Much Information	p. 151
Million-Dollar Murray: Why problems like Homelessness may be Easier to Solve Than to Manage	p. 177
The Picture Problem: Mammography, Air Power, and the Limits of Looking	p. 199
Something Borrowed: Should a Charge of Plagiarism Ruin Your Life?	p. 222
Connecting the Dots: The Paradoxes of Intelligence Reform	p. 244
The Art of Failure: Why some People Choke and Others Panic	p. 263
Blowup: Who can Be Blamed for a Disaster like the Challenger Explosion? No One, and We'd Better Get Used to It	p. 280
Part 3 Personality, Character, and Intelligence: "He'll be Wearing a Doubled-Breasted Suit Buttoned.'-and he was"	p. 293
Late Bloomers: Why do we Equate Genius with Precocity?	p. 295
Most Likely to Succeed: How Do We Hire When We Can't Tell Who's Right for the Job?	p. 314
Dangerous Minds: Criminal Profiling Made Easy	p. 336
The Talent Myth: Are Smart People Overrated?	p. 357
The New-Boy Network: What do Job Interviews Really Tell Us?	p. 375
Troublemakers: What Pit Bulls Can Teach Us About Crime	p. 394
Acknowledgments	p. 413

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