The reviews are in: Ivanka Trumps new book is vapid at worst, earnest at best, and a strawberry milkshake of inspirational quotes somewhere in between.Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Successwent on sale Tuesday and seemed to immediately incite criticismfrom all corners of the internet. Trump has explained that the book is meant to inspire you to redefine success and architect a life that honors your individual passions and priorities. However,the self-help disquisition has been described in noticeably harsher terms in the book reviews that have come out since its release.Take, for example, The New York Times Jennifer Senior, who indeed described the book as a strawberry milkshake of inspirational quotes perfect for a generation weaned on Pinterest and goop.com, adding:Self-actualization is the all-consuming preoccupation of Women Who Work. In this way, the book is not really offensive so much as witlessly derivative, endlessly recapitulating the wisdom of other, canonical self-help and business booksby Stephen Covey, Simon Sinek, Shawn Achor, Adam Grant. (Profiting handsomely off the hard work of others appears to be a signature Trumpian trait.) For a while, it reads like the best valedictorian speech ever.Business Insiders Kate Tayloragrees, at least when it comes to Trumps penchant for regurgitating other peoples advice.The book[...] reads like a mashup of countless essays and articles written in the past decade aimed at female entrepreneurs.That isnt to say all the advice is badits just that little is new.The book borrows heavily from books like Sheryl Sandbergs Lean In, Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranstons How Remarkable Women Lead, and backlogs of IvankaTrump.com.So does NPRs Danielle Kurtzleben:Often, the melange of quotes and how-to lists give the book more the aesthetic of a Pinterest board than a career guide.Ivanka's new book quotes Charlotte Perkins Gilman & I am frankly furious Jia Tolentino (@jiatolentino) May 2, 2017 Ivanka quotes Nietzsche less than 50 pages into her bookKate H. Taylor (@Kate_H_Taylor) May 2, 2017 .@ivankatrump don't use my story in #WomenWhoWork unless you are going to stop being #complicit #askivanka Reshma Saujani (@reshmasaujani) May 2, 2017 Ivanka Trump's new book featured an inspirational quote from @JaneGoodallInst. Here's what Goodall told CNN in response: pic.twitter.com/IZpWGAPPJQ Jill Disis (@jdisis) May 2, 2017 In a review for Slate,Michelle Goldbergfocused more on Trumps often unchecked privilege,summarizing the book as a celebration of the unlimited possibilities open to working women when they have full-time household help that exploits and cheapens feminism.The review really picks up around the second use of the word vapid:As vapid as Women Who Work isand it is really vapidthere is a subtle political current running through it, one that helps explains how the socially liberal Ivanka can work for her misogynist ogre of a father. Beneath the inspirational quotes from Oprah and the Dalai Lama and the you-go-girl cheerleading, the message of Women Who Work is that people get what they deserve.[...]Her worldview, it turns out, is not so different from her fathers. Both see society through the lens of quasi-mystical corporate self-help, the sort pioneered by Norman Vincent Peale, author of The Power of Positive Thinking and a major influence on Donald Trump. In their schema, success is proof of virtue and people are to blame for their own misfortune. If Ivanka Trump hasnt expressed any outrage at the cruelties her father is inflicting on the poor and vulnerable, it may well be because she doesnt feel any.HuffPosts own Emily Peck similarly remarked upon the First Daughters inability to realize just how much being wealthy, white and famous helped her out in life.Trumps book, written before the election but published Tuesday, is a grab-bag of generic work-life advice for upper-middle-class white women who need to architect (a verb that pops up a lot) their lives. But underneath that, and perhaps more remarkable, is Trumps inability to truly recognize how her own privileged upbringing was key to her success.EvenBoston Globes Beth Teitelltongue-in-cheek appraisal speaks volumes:Ivankas life seems pretty smooth, but in her book she reveals struggles, like the time Anna Wintour heard that she was about to graduate from college and called out of the blue with a job offer, a challenge familiar to many aspiring writers.Ultimately, under the headline We read Ivanka Trumps insufferable new book so you dont have to, Mashables Chris Taylor packaged all the complains into one succinct sentence:Here is proof that a female CEO can write a business book that is just as badjust as padded with bromides and widely-known examples and self-promotion and unexamined privilege and jargonas one written by an overconfident male CEO.Some reviews have, of course, been less critical. Meera Jagannathandescribed the book as an earnest (if sometimes unrelatable) treatise on work-life balance, motherhood and workplace empowerment in The New York Daily News.The Associated Pressapparently enjoyed the books earnestness as well:Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Success offers earnest advice for women on advancing in the workplace, balancing family and professional life and seeking personal fulfilment,the review reads.In fact, earnest must be the euphemism of the week 'Maya Oppenheimnoted the books somewhat earnest tone in The Independent, too.Women Who Work currently boasts three out five stars on Goodreads, with only two written reviews submitted so far. Its fairing slightly worse on Amazon, earning only two and a half stars (out of five) from reader reviews there.Book world ire is hardly new for Trump, though. Just last month, a horde of social media-savvy librarians schooled the author after her tone-deaf#NationalLibraryWeek tweet. Its hard to believe theyll be stocking her books on shelves anytime soon.type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related... + articlesList=585c27aae4b0de3a08f49aa1,58f4c2b4e4b0b9e9848d001f,58c071d3e4b0ed7182699786,58efe607e4b0bb9638e2a409,58eb8840e4b00de141050bef -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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