table book with fun affirming stats Quick read with many proof points that women are better at lots of things than men.
Have already bored my beau with some of the fascinating "facts!" I was disappointed by this because he covered too much in too little detail.
I think it would have been more compelling if he had cited more studies rather than one or two per topic, I started out interested but the chapters quickly became repetitive,
That being said, if you pick this book up, may I suggest Chapter, Women are Better Video Gamers in which he mentions a study conducted on the players of Everquest.
: This little tome was surely written by Captain Obvious, Kind of fun to read about the areas in which women excel, but it's also a little 'cutesy', Furthermore, when you're looking at the studies that have only a few dozen people in them many of the studies had larger sample sizes, it's hard to take them seriously.
Studies and statistics are funny things, Question format, wording, population demographics, size of population, and so on can all have an impact on the outcome, This book did make some interesting points and I certainly wouldn't argue with a few of them I am a woman after all but I hesitate to make generalizations that one is better than the other.
Both genders certainly have their strengths and weaknesses but I think there are so many variables that can go into being the best in any field.
I think maybe that I did miss my childhood calling to be a spy though, : After glancing through other reviews of 'Man Down' I am surprised at how polarizing people find the book, and the lengths to which they go to discredit the conclusions.
Have they missed the point altogether The front jacket cover says "Chockfull of fun facts and conversation starters, this book may not end the debate about men versus women, but it will definitely change the starting point.
" It's a slim volume onlypages and can be read in less thanhours, It is not an exhaustively researched tome with the final word on the men vs, women debate. It's just a fun, quick read that reveals some surprising evidence, frequently delivered with a tongueincheek smirk,
Abrams goes on to citeareas in which he has uncovered evidence that women are better than men, including tolerating pain, tasting beer, gambling, investing, avoiding fraud, utilizing social media, driving, voting, giving directions, sleeping, news casting, and doctoring, among others.
Much of the socalled evidence is rather anecdotal, For instance, in chapter"Women Get Ready Faster Than Men", he cites a study by Superdrug, the second largest purveyor of health and beauty products in Britain.
The study indicates that men spend on averageminutes on grooming each day, while women spendminutes, My response to that is "yeah, right !"
Some of the factors on which Abrams judges women better than men are already well understood and indisputable, such as longevity, health and stamina.
Women also account for more of the student population in universities, The chapter titled "Women Are Getting Better Looking Faster Than Men" is also a bit of nonsensical fluff fun to read but highly subjective.
Abrams' closing argument is that the consistent themes throughout his book "prove that women make fewer errors and are less corruptible, more conscientious, and more effective with their time and risktaking.
Together this creates a compelling case for women, " The fallacy of Abrams' argument is that he hasn't listed any of the areas in which men are superior, and always will be.
The battle of the sexes rages on, but other than adding fuel to the fire, no one will be convinced based on the slim evidence in this book.
Nevertheless, it was a fun and quick read and made even more interesting by the fact that it was written by a man! ".
. . behind every great man there is probably an even greater woman and in most cases, she ought to be out in front" p.
Awesome Women are better then men at alot of things, But we don't go around and brag about it, Well maybe. I especially liked Chapter. WOMEN ARE BETTER WITH HAMMERS, Seems men can't hit the target with a hard object to pound into another surface, Could it be because he wants to be all macho and over does it or does she look at the target and see's the action through.
Makes contact and doesn't miss, Hmmmm then again you can see women are better with hammers if you have ever watched SNAPPED on Oxygen channel, If the case involves a hammer or anything as a weapon we as women, . . NEVER MISS OUR TARGET!! Just saying! I enjoyed this little pastiche of a book, I too read it in a day, He's a clever writer. One of my favorite quotes, . . "Someone once asked me why women dont gamble as much as men do, and I gave the commonsensical reply that we dont have as much money.
That was a true but incomplete answer, In fact, womens total instinct for gambling is satisfied by marriage, " Gloria Steinem Can we talk! A male friend of mine kept commenting "yea right" when I was reading things to him, He was also of the opinion the guy was after dates,
Testosterone isn't all bad, The same instincts that cause men to be bad investors and to think it's safe to stand outside in lightening, . . too much risk is the same thing that get's them into boats and across the ocean,when they don't know where the heck they're going, Then the women come in and civilize the place, This book is full of research showing, with no agenda, that women are better than men at a lot of activities, It makes sense to me, as men evolved to hunt and protect similar skills while women did most everything else in society! I am pretty sure Dan Abrams wrote this book so he could win brownie points with the women in his life.
Not that this is a bad thing, but this isn't much of a book, Oh, sure, it's full of statistics about how awesome women are, but everyone knows that it's not that hard to lie with numbers.
It's too short to be particularly analytical or 'deep', and here's the kicker there are very few citations at all, I'm not sure how you write a book that's made up of statistics and not put citations in, That boggles me. But maybe because Abrams is so light on analysis, his editor decided not to double the Man Down's size by adding them, Whatevs.
Anyhow, this is light reading, It's not light in the way a cold soup is light next to a steak no, it's more like whipped cream, Frothy, tasty, full of air and little substance and quick to get through, It might be a good coffeetable book, Took me three hours or less, I'd guesstimate, to read it covertocover, And I'm sure at your next dinner party it could stimulate conversation a bit, Abrams writes fairly coherently, and he has a sense of humor that livens things up a bit, so it's enjoyable,
This Man Down's real importance, though, is that it should be required reading for all YA authors with a maincharacter romance, Imagine if Stephenie Meyer had read just Chapter"Women Handle Failed Relationships Better", We wouldn't have the horror that is New Moon and Bella's months of going emo after being dumped, because she'd know that after a breakup, women lean on their friends and family and they get over it.
We might have gotten months of emo!Edward, but at least that would have been more accurate,
Pick any YAPNR that has a stunningly attractive male lead and imagine it if the author had read this section before writing that book: "Astudy by Radboud University in the Netehrlands found that shocker male brains became impaired in the presence of beautiful women, no matter how intelligent the man may be.
According to the Telegraph, which reported, the research, "Men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive.
" Meanwhile, the women didn't even flinch at the presence of an attractive male, So the presence of attractive women effectively renders a significant portion of men about as useful as slightly drunken sailors, while women remain stonecold sober.
"
PWNED.
If there had been some indepth analysis, this would have been a fantastic piece of nonfiction, As it is, it's not a complete waste of time, and it does wonders for the female ego,
In conclusion:
I know it's a teeny tiny book, but I just kept wanting more information, Fun read though! A good book to read to boost the selfesteem of women, who have been told our entire lives that we have been less than men.
Turns out to be grossly untrue, I just finished reading this book by Dan Abrams, It is amazing. Dan Abrams is a great author, I was a bit disappointed in this book, The title and concept was very intriguing, of course, but the chapters were only one or two pages long and gave short abrupt "scientific findings" about why a woman is better at blank.
I felt very short changed, this was an interesting read, i like the argument! however, it is written by a lawyer and he uses lawyerlike arguments, although this was a short book, i found myself wishing it was shorter, possibly combining some chapters would have helped, but yeah it was a good read !!! Sent this title to my hugely talented, yet still insecure daughter, Think I need to buy her a copy, . . In an interview which I can no longer find, the author said: 'Overall I found that mens biggest problem is that theyre too confident and womens biggest problem is that theyre not confident enough.
'
Meg, honey, are you listening! Being pretty skeptical about a few claims made it fairly daring for my plunge into the generous data this book had to offer a skeptic like me.
I have to tell you though, like the television show MYTHBUSTERS, the facts don't lie, Women may not be stronger, faster, or hold the presidency, but they ARE more cautious overall in their decisionmaking which is why they're better at certain things.
Men make quicker, riskier decisions we can thank evolution for that, Ever wonder why women go to all the foofoo smelly soap and lotion stores You'll just have to read the teenytiny book to find out.
Did we really need a book to explain what is so very obvious Not really, but seeing some of the drastic numbers on how women are better was entertaining.
At this stage of life, I am a big audio book reader, having the physical copy nearby so that I can review anything that I wish to review.
However, I would not recommend the audio version on this particular read, While the standard format is set up with mini sections to glance through and enjoy, it felt like rapid fire statistics when being read aloud.
I kept looking at his name unitl I realized it was Dan Abrams, who I used to occationally watch on msnbc.
Plus, the first chapter's quote was from Miss Piggy and he mentioned Mythbusters, so that gives you an idea that it's an amusing little book.
All
the facts and figures he had were interesting and I think the presentation of his 'case' is more solid because it's coming from a guy.
" behind every great man there is probably an even greater woman and in most cases, she ought to be out in front" p.
Simplest and most basic way to describe it all,
The book is pretty good, somewhat tongueincheek, Interesting info, though I'm sure it could be skewed any which way it wanted, Very quick read, took me aboutminutes, I would have thought the book would be bigger, but unfortunately not, Some interesting studies included, but overall pretty gimmicky, There are some interesting tidbits in this and I like the quotes at the beginning of each chapter, but there's not a lot of research to support each individual claim.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, everyone is familiar with the tired cliches: women are bad drivers and are not good with money only guys play video games and they give bad directions.
Dan Abrams tackles the toughest case of his career in "Man Down, " Drawing on years of legal experience and research studies, Abrams explains stepbystep why women are better than men in just about every way imaginable, from managing money to flying planes to living longer.
Abrams uses his trademark charm to get his point across without opining on the issue himself, Chockfull of fun facts and conversation starters, this book may not end the debate of men versus women, but it will definitely make it more interesting.
Praise for "Man Down"
"a provocative collection of bitesize prowomen essays"
"Wall Street Journal
"
"compelling, controversial"
"Glamour"
"I've always liked Dan Abrams.
And now that he's charmingly admitted what we all knew anyway, I like him even more!"
Liz Smith",