Sarah Schumacher
I would not call this a “bombshell exposé.” The author felt very measured, if frustrated by a lack of transparency from Emily Weiss. If there was ever a true scandal at Glossier, this book didn’t cover it. There were certainly missteps, but you’ll learn nothing you didn’t already know from the ex-employee Instagram account in 2020. It's a book looking for a bombshell and finding mostly typical founder/startup dysfunction.
While it’s an interesting story, and Emily Weiss has obviously been very ambitious (and privileged) from her youth, I personally believe it’s making way too big of a deal of her selecting a new CEO at the end of the story. The book acknowledges that founders may not have the right skills to be ongoing leaders, while also seeming to think Emily Weiss somehow failed (the author’s personal hope) by not eternally being the CEO herself. If anything, this should be heralded as a sign she is, in fact, willing to make hard decisions, despite having the same wannabe tech company delusions as Adam Neumann of WeWork. Coming from the business world, this seemed like a very normal stepping stone decision, and the fact it seems to have felt like it wasn’t is itself a sign that the cult of founders is still a serious problem. Also, she’s still in leadership. As someone who considers a couple of Glossier products as mainstays in my daily routine, I WANT the company to be run by someone who understands operations, scale, and longevity in a practical, non-flighty way. Bringing in an experienced CEO is the right way to go.
It was difficult to follow a clear narrative arc in this book. There's history, it's well-written, and there's some excellent commentary on the detestable word "girlboss" and the double standard for women executives, but I'm not sure what the point of this book was, exactly. It originally started out as a book on the beauty industry and pivoted to became all about Glossier, and it definitely feels that way. Read it if you're a fan of Glossier, are interested in the vapidness of the fashion industry, want to see a high-level view of what creation and growing pains look like for a VC-backed DTC company, or want a decent look at their brilliant Instagram marketing and building a following around a brand (Glossier pioneered this concept in many ways). However, if you want more on women as founders (mostly in tech), read Brotopia, or if you want real founder drama go with Bad Blood.
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"Weiss started out as a starry-eyed innovator, a girl for whom nothing had ever gone wrong. She wasn’t a Rockefeller, exactly, but to most Americans she might as well have been. She was pretty, connected, thin, tall. She dripped with privilege. But she was also smart. And, crucially, she was willing to put in the work. She had a solid idea—Into the Gloss—that came at exactly the right time. That was all hers. But Weiss sometimes fell into an internalized misogynist trap of not taking credit for her ideas, as if Glossier were a craft project, a manifestation of her vision boards. That’s because luck plays a huge role in Weiss’s trajectory. And luck can be scary to discuss because it can’t be bought or controlled. You can only set up all the right conditions for it, which can involve a lot of hard work, though not always. People don’t like talking about luck the way they don’t like talking about privilege: because it makes it seem like they haven’t “earned” everything. But I don’t think it has to be a luck or hard work thing, but rather an and." (Marisa Meltzer, Glossy)
This is a mindfulness book disguised as a book about productivity; it will completely shift how you think about every time management tip you’ve ever read, because it’s fundamentally about a mindset shift. If you’re an entrepreneur constantly running on the hamster wheel of someday work-life balance, you need to drop everything and read this.
I have a massive TBR list, so I’m not sure that I’ve ever wanted to turn around and start reading the same book again, but it’s absolutely how I feel about this one. I read fast, but this is the kind of book that asks you to sit with it and digest what the ideas mean for your own life. This is going to be my top pick of 2023.
I wanted to read this before giving to my kid, and wow, what a story. It’s an incredible, unputdownable book that never stops, with all sorts of twists, great characters, and a wonderful botany-focused world of magic. The world is in a state of greed, fear, and climate change that mirrors our own, which makes it feel timely and somehow more believable. It ends hopeful, but realistic (the danger isn’t over), with a clear lead-in to the next book, which I immediately preordered. There are themes that would make for excellent questions and book club material.
Nature/animal loving kids who enjoy suspense fantasy will love this one. There are a few illustrations, but it’s definitely a more advanced chapter book that’s probably best suited for 10 and up.
Just bad… don’t ruin the Bone series by reading this. The art is not that good (there‘s one panel in particular that I’m shocked wasn’t corrected). The typeface used is annoyingly hard to read, and the story is just… not good. Imagine being a fan who read the original Bone series, and with what you’ve gleaned there about Rose’s backstory you decide to make a prequel, except that you have no experience with storytelling. That’s what this feels like, and it dulls the brilliance of the original series and Rose in particular. Don’t waste your time with this one.
Going on my Books Every Human Should Read list. This one is incredibly important, particularly for Americans, as it breaks down moral questions to a depth unheard of in our current public discourse. It ends on an optimistic note, suggesting how and why it matters that we discuss things like inequality in a particular way. Highly recommended, but plan time to work through this one slowly.
An incredible series for about 7-8 years old and up. Great characters, incredible storyline, hard to put down and frequently laugh-out-loud funny (both words and visuals). My kid devoured these then demanded I read them too (and started rereading them with me). Highly recommended, particularly if you also enjoy Zita the Spacegirl.
Required reading for anyone living in America in 2023. This is the most clear, to the point summary I have read to date: article, book or otherwise, that answers the question: “why are American Christians overwhelmingly White Christian nationalists who support an authoritarian and the attempted overthrow of our democracy?
He touches on Reagan, which is always what this comes back to... before, actually, to the Civil Rights Movement, Christian schools as a guise for segregation and Goldwater. The intentional marriage of right-wing politics and marketing to the evangelical vote. He draws a clear throughline from White Christian nationalism to “family values” and Dobson/FOTF to purity culture to Trump.
This is the best, well-written summary you will get without having to read a ton of other books. It's accessible, and he includes personal stories to emphasize what these beliefs look like from the inside. As someone who spent a decent chunk of my life in these spaces, 110% of his experiences ring true. This is not hyperbole.
Every reasonable politician should be reading this book so maybe they finally take it seriously. January 6 wasn't the end; it was the beginning.
I also recommend The Death of Democracy for a deep dive on Hitler's rise to power and how it parallels Trump (including the established government's lack of taking it seriously until it was too late).
I picked this up on a whim after someone mentioned it in a recent convo. I knew nothing about the book or the authors and was pleasantly surprised by it.
However, I think it's for a very specific type of target market. It is directed only to womxn. It's written very casually, with humor, and clearly intended to be relatable. It's a fun read, with stories of two composite women sprinkled in. It discusses science, includes notes, but it's not clinical. But I think the reader already needs to understand the basic gist of some of the societal issues around gender and patriarchy before reading this.
I'm seeing from other reviews that many people are not understanding where this analysis is coming from. It's not a simple thing to analyze the root causes of why society is the way it is, and it requires an open mind, introspection, and the ability to see some really unpleasant stuff. If this is your first exposure to these ideas (i.e. if you're a woman uncomfortable with the word feminist), this may be a bit of a shock. It absolutely ties into burnout, yes, but on a much deeper level than what's expected by most readers.
I feel like I would recommend this to people who are already familiar with these ideas. The authors have tried to make it accessible, but I think it's going to be too much for, say, a conservative-leaning woman who attends a church where only men are allowed to lead, and she's never actually thought deeply about why that is. There's just so much to unpack here. Women in these situations are explicitly taught they can't trust themselves and they're going to dismiss this book outright as soon as they see the word “patriarchy.” I'm not sure what book I'd recommend there, other than to start with just learning about your own self-worth and capacity to be a whole human separate from any required roles you think you need to fulfill. This is absolutely the Human Giver concept they discuss in the book; that is the quintessential Christian housewife, and even if you don't identify with that, if you're American you live in a country saturated with those ideals.
So if you're a womxn who calls yourself a feminist and need to be reminded about some of the core issues and things you already know you should be doing I'd recommend this. It's just not about solely “burnout” per se. It's about what's behind your own expectations for who and how you have to be in this world, and it asks you to consider whether these absorbed ideas are helping or hurting you.
4.5 stars. The definition and concept of a complex, tightly coupled system is the most valuable insight from the book. Many of the disaster examples I've seen dissected elsewhere, although I don't think we can spend enough time learning from them. Overall very well written and enjoyable read with some practical solutions. I would have liked to see more of that.
3.5 stars. There's some really good material in here, but it's just too disorganized. It feels incredibly long because it feels repetitive, disjointed, hard to follow? Some sections are just brilliant, and there are many areas worth underlining, but I can't figure out how this is supposed to be organized or what kind of solid takeaways you might have after finally hitting page 396.
The most valuable areas were those that discussed schemas, and I have a feeling I'd rather read the book by the originator of those ideas, which she references in the back (Reinventing Your Life by Jeffrey Young).
Many Buddhist schools of thought are referenced, but not in enough detail for this to be a good read if that's where your interest lies.
The closest thing there is to a theme is how mindfulness helps you see the source of reactions, which is already going to be understood by the people most likely to pick this book up. Did I learn things? Absolutely. But I would recommend other books depending on your specific area of interest.
3.5 stars. There was some great information in here, but it's essentially a mile wide and an inch deep.
I've read so many books that cover these issues in depth and are extremely valuable, so I'm not sure who I'd recommend this book to, other than an absolute newbie to business. Much of what was written here will be extremely obvious to anyone who's been in business for any length of time.
Overall I think what bothered me most are the many unequivocal statements about how he guarantees you will be a better manager if you just __. Again, when there's very little depth, it just sounds pretentious and salesy. I would have loved to see a recommended reading list, or even a note about “for more on this topic, see the excellent work of ____.” I've read many of the books that could/should be recommended, so I know many of his concepts are recycled ideas with different names. That's not necessarily bad, but I think that's why this feels so...siloed? Even a bit arrogant. He practices what he preaches with calls to action, and the drive is toward his website and program alone. It gets annoying (I've been on his email list and had to unsubscribe).
Also, I LOVE Storybrand, use and recommend it to all my clients, and Marketing Made Simple is also great. I'm just really not sure who this book is for, other than maybe kids considering an MBA program or something.
I feel like I may need to write a more in depth review on my website that lists the books I'd recommend. And yes, I realize some people would be like “who has time to read 20 books?!” I guarantee you can find the time to download an audiobook or cut back on TV if it makes you that much better of a business owner.
Start with Traction by Gino Wickman. Donald Miller pulls many concepts from that book, and it's far better.
This book was incredible. Short chapters but each packed with concise well-written statements that distilled important concepts into something you can immediately grasp. I don't love reading about finance, but I do love psychology, and the marriage of these two angles was done incredibly well.
It also helps that I have the exact same goals/expectations and financial strategy as the author, because I know we're coming from the same place (an extremely important idea he covers in Chapter 16). It's only the last chapter where he gives an overview of what he does personally; the rest of the book is a primer on larger principles.
Do NOT skip the Postscript on US history. In a few pages he summarizes why we ended up here in the most succinct way. That section alone should be required reading.
TLDR; don't read this book for specific investment advice. Do read it to absorb core principles that will help you make better decisions about your finances, and potentially much more.
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Gratuitous mashup example: this feels like taking Jon Kabat-Zinn's Wherever You Go There You Are, Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast & Slow, Ray Dalio's Principles and some Seth Godin, then mashing them into a single book about financial decision making. A great book to read a chapter or two out of often. It feels like a series of blog posts that became a book, but in the best possible way.
This was excellent precisely because its written specifically for agencies: everything is directly applicable. His breakdown of agency roles, in particular, is invaluable, and he clearly understands our pain points. If you run an agency, pick this up immediately.
It's definitely more of a workbook, so set aside time to work through the chapters, and you'll end up with a 90 day action plan at the end of it. The downloadable workbook is worth getting as it's an editable Google doc, so it's easy to work through alongside the book itself. You will have to sign up for Karl's email list, but if you're an agency, you should be on it anyway. He shares nothing but extremely well-written, highly valuable advice and his blog is a gift.
I read a lot of business books, and Work Less, Earn More feels like a distillation of the methods from all the best ones, but for agencies. If you've read Traction (EOS), The 12 Week Year, anything by David C. Baker or Blair Enns, The E-Myth... you'll pick up on this immediately. This is an excellent place to start even if you haven't read those books (and his reading list in the back is excellent).