Tundraco's Daily Living Guide to Book Reviews

The Skinny on Success Why Not You? By Jim Randel Illustrations by Malinda Nass Rand Publishing (2009), 319 panels ISBN 10: 0981893597 ISBN 13: 978-0981893594

Reviewed by Israel Drazin - April 27, 2010

The Skinny On is a series of clever, humorous, and entertaining books that teach significant lessons in an informal, non-pedantic, concise, and engaging fashion usually, but not always, using drawings of stick people engaged in dialogue. Readers can finish the volumes and get many valuable and useful ideas in about an hour.

This volume shows that success is not secured by "the smartest, most talented, best-looking or even the luckiest" person, but by people who identify what they feel strongly about, recognize that they have the potential for success, who take action, and pursue it persistently despite setbacks; people who realize that failure is a part of the process of success.

The book offers many examples of how to do this by referring to more than five dozen books and about the same number of quotes, as Buddha: "Your work is to discover your work, and then with all your heart, give yourself to it." There are interviews with anchorman Brian Williams discussing how he became successful, a part of a speech by actress Jodi Foster, and many others. The book describes how authors, such as Stephen King, J. K. Rowling, and John Grisham, spent years writing before they became successful.

In short, Jim Randel effectively shows how every reader of his book can develop the strength of mind to improve the likelihood of success in his or her chosen endeavor.

Dr. Israel Drazin is the author of fifteen books, including a series of five volumes on the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible, which he co-authors with Rabbi Dr. Stanley M. Wagner, and a series of four books on the twelfth century philosopher Moses Maimonides, the latest being Maimonides: Reason Above All, published by Gefen Publishing House, www.gefenpublishing.com. The Orthodox Union (OU) publishes daily samples of the Targum books on www.ouradio.org

The Skinny on The Art of Persuasion, by Jim Randel.
This book is about developing the skills to move minds. In this graphic, one-hour read you'll learn how to influence the thinking of others.

The Skinny on the Housing Crisis, by Jim Randel.
The Skinny takes the reader through Billy and Beth's experiences dealing with real estate agents, house inspectors, appraisers, mortgage brokers, lenders and attorneys. Each of these encounters is a lesson for any person considering the purchase or sale of a home, investing in real estate or, just taking out a mortgage.