"Engaging . . . It's not didactic - more of a revelatory journey  . . . Bronson relays some startling scientific findings . . . Nobody's ever done this before in a systematic way . . . Using the simple technique of speaking to researchers and observing them at work, Bronson and Merryman avoid the smugness common to the parenting oeuvre, which is often rather self-satisfied and/or guilt-inducing. This book's great value is to show that much of what we take to be the norms of parenting - i.e. what's good for children - is actually non-scientific and based on our own adult social anxieties . . . This is a funny, clever, sensible book. Every parent should read it."
-- The Financial Times

"NurtureShock is one of the most important books you will read this year. Bronson and Merryman move parenting out of the realm of folklore and into the realm of science -- and reveal what decades of studies teach us about the complexities of raising, happy, healthy, self-motivated kids. As a writer, I was impressed by the prodigious research and keen analysis. As a father, I was consumed with taking notes and exhilarated by all I learned."
-- Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind

"The least touchy-feely [parenting book] ever . . . Bronson delights in showing that most parental intuition and supposedly common knowledge about child rearing is just bullshit, and he has the facts to prove it. Much like in his previous work, he's entered a genre known for emotional cheese, and produced a book that's hard to put down and easy to take seriously. Grade: A"
-- The Onion AV Club

"Bronson is a writer who can capture unwieldy topics such as Silicon Valley (The Nudist on the Late Shift), family (Why Do I Love These People?) and big decisions (What Should I Do with My Life?).  Now, in NurtureShock, he's taking on child rearing, and raising some issues about adolescent intelligence, language acquisition, early friendships and aggression that will surprise even well-informed parents."
-- Time Out New York

"A provocative collection of essays popularizing recent research that challenges conventional wisdom about raising children...[Bronson and Merryman] ably explore a range of subjects of interest to parents... Their findings are often surprising. For example, in schools with greater racial diversity, the odds that a child will have a friend of a different race decrease; listening to "baby DVDs" does not increase an infant's rate of word acquisition; children with inconsistent and permissive fathers are nearly as aggressive in school as children of distant and disengaged fathers. Bronson and Merryman call attention to what they see as two basic errors in thinking about children. The first is the fallacy of similar effect-the assumption that what is true for adults is also true for children. The second-the fallacy of the good/bad dichotomy-is the assumption that a trait or factor is either good or bad, when in fact it may be both (e.g., skill at lying may be a sign of intelligence, and empathy may become a tool of aggression.) The authors also provide helpful notes for each chapter and an extensive bibliography. A skilled, accessible presentation of scientific research in layman's language."
-- Kirkus

"Bronson is a modern Studs Terkel."
-- Glasgow Herald

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Why Do I Love These People?
Understanding, Surviving, and Creating Your Own Family

From Publishers Weekly
The 19 families profiled in this absorbing book face a familiar litany of domestic dysfunction: infidelities, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, messy divorces and the intergenerational estrangement of immigrants. Novelist and social documentarian Bronson (What Should I Do with My Life?) finds the solutions to their dilemmas in the good old-fashioned elements of character and action, as people take stock of themselves and their motivations and painstakingly piece together their relationships and lives. Bronson's is an unromantic view of family life; its foundations, he believes, are not soul-mate bonding or dramatic emotional catharses, but steady habits of hard work and compromise, realistic expectations and the occasional willingness to sever a relationship that's beyond repair. But he also has an optimistic view of today's crazy-quilt of blended and unconventional families, reassuring commitment-shy young adults that "the golden era of family is not in our past, it's in our future." Bronson occasionally lapses into shallow pop psychology, as when he chalks up one husband's philandering to the oxytocin "high" caused by sex with someone new. But usually he offers a probing, clear-eyed, hopeful narrative of familial problems that many readers will recognize.
-- Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Bronson interviewed 700 people, 19 of whom are chronicled here. His book is "about decoding the mystery of family life." The stories center on men and women who lead satisfying lives with their families despite destructive childhoods, people who overcome their impulses to repeat what was inflicted upon them, and those who heal in their own particular way, not conforming to any fashion. There are some relationships rescued from the brink and some people whose lives improved after a much-needed divorce or break from their parents. Some couples created compromises by which both get their needs met and contribute equally to the family culture. Others take responsibility for the rest of their lives and no longer let themselves be victims of their experiences. The author examines such subjects as divorce, death, illness, money, prejudice, and abuse. The author of What Should I Do with My Life? (2002) posits that to give and receive love during hard times, it helps to have been shown how beforehand.
-- George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
What Should I Do with My Life?
The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Questio

From Publishers Weekly
In this elevated career guide, Bronson (Bombardiers; The Nudist on the Late Shift) poses the titular question to an eclectic mix of "real people in the real world," compiling their experiences and insights about callings, self-acceptance, moral guilt, greed and ambition, and emotional rejuvenation. Bronson crisscrosses the country seeking out remarkable examples of successful and not-so-successful people confronting tough issues, such as differentiating between a curiosity and a passion and deciding whether or not to make money first in order to fund one's dream. Bronson frames the edited responses with witty, down-to-earth commentaries, such as those of John, an engineer whose dream of building an electric car crumbled under his personal weaknesses; and Ashley, a do-gooder burdened by the unlikely combination of self-hatred and a love for humanity. Bronson wants to understand what makes these people-among them a timid college career counselor trapped in his job, a farmer bullish on risk-taking, a financial expert grabbing an opportunity to rebuild her brokerage firm devastated by the World Trade Center tragedy and a scientist who rethinks his lifelong work and becomes a lawyer-tick. He occasionally digresses, musing on his own life too much, and frequently hammers points home longer than necessary, but neither of these drawbacks undercuts the book's potency. The "ultimate question" is a topic always in season, worthy of Bronson's skillful probing and careful anecdote selection. Brimming with stories of sacrifice, courage, commitment and, sometimes, failure, the book will support anyone pondering a major life choice or risk without force-feeding them pat solutions.

From Booklist
Novelist and writer Bronson made his name chronicling the rise of cyber careers and attendant fortunes, which later evaporated with the downturn in technology companies and their stocks. In this book, he offers profiles of individuals searching for meaning in what they do for a living, drawn from interviews and personal observations. The subjects include a spiritual leader recruited by the Dalai Lama who nonetheless had to learn his purpose in life for himself; a corporate attorney who had a kidney transplant and then searched for the perfect job where she could use her passion for advocating for other patients in need of transplants; a woman who cast aside a career as a surgeon because she couldn't learn to disconnect from the demands of the profession; a college career counselor who fell into his position and was so fearful of making any changes in his own life that he was of questionable use to his student-clients. Throughout the book, Bronson explores the many fears and misconceptions arising from the search for a career.
-- Vanessa Bush Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

 

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
The Nudist on the Late Shift
And Other True Tales of Silicon Valley

The New York Times Book Review, Amy Harmon
...[an] engaging montage of Valley life.... [Bronson] has an eye for detail and a rare ability to spin the worlds of business and technology into entertaining stories.

The Wall Street Journal, Thomas Scoville
...a good--and sometimes brilliant--attempt at capturing the Silicon Valley Zeitgeist. Mr. Bronson has obviously done his homework and, with the sure eye of the journalist, has come as close as anyone to rendering a coherent and compelling account of the local culture and technological landscape.

Time, Anita Hamilton
...this clever storyteller keeps you laughing as you breeze from one episode to the next.

From Kirkus Reviews
The growing subspecialty of business books that deals with the brainiac talents and picaresque entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley is upgraded to version 2.0 with this knowledgeable communiqu from cyberspace. Just as Hollywood is said to have done, Silicon Valley lures mature talent and young folk bright or attractive enough to cast hundreds of sitcoms. Novelist and Wired contributor Bronson (Bombardiers, 1995; The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest, 1997) presents the wildcatters of the valley, from the seller of used cubicles to the multimillionaire who bedded down each night under his desk, from the devious headhunters to the young CEOs of software firms with killer apps. In a series of profiles, he probes their minds and hearts. We witness the closing days of an IPO (more dramatic than the preceding scutwork). Here, among the processors, terminals, modems, and servers are the individual programmers, salespeople, venture capitalists, visionaries who build financial empires on vapor, and the new generation of studly geniuses who truly want to change the way the world operates. It just takes being first with one big idea. Here are the super achievers who risk all for exponential dollars. And here's the nude guy, who is no urban legend. It's all quite bizarre, of course, especially the money, which is ``puppy like, untrained,'' i.e., it doesn't behave commonsensically. . . . People give money out here just to be part of the excitement of the deal. The stories are told with vitality and more than a touch of gonzo. Though basic familiarity with the terminology might be nice, after reading this entertainment, you'll think you understand the slang, the jargon, the gibberish, and the buzzwords of the valley. While Internet stocks are ballooning, so are books about the players. Here's a strong entry in the genre, savvy and clever. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Lewis Lapham
Po Bronson is a genuine voice of a new generation, the bard of Silicon Valley.

Clay Felker
Nobody is better at writing about digital technology than Po Bronson. His stories get at the truth and reality of this new world.

Ken Auletta
Most books, in baseball parlance, are singles or maybe doubles. Many books instruct but don't entertain; others entertain but teach nothing. Po Bronson has written a book about a dream valley that kept me glued to my seat--laughing, sighing, shaking my head--while also leaving me with a deeper sense of the human energy and hubris that fuels America's new entrepreneurial capital, Silicon Valley. A home run.

 

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
The First $20 Million is Always the Hardest
A Silicon Valley Novel

From Booklist , January 1, 1997
After a successful debut with Bombardiers (1995), an antic about the bond market, Bronson presents another humorous take on another frantic corner of capitalism, the computer business. The heroes, a quartet of klutzy, ill-dressed, slumming twentysomething castoffs from a design lab, decide to start up their own company. Their "righteous" (in the hip Silicon Valley slang that Bronson slings around) idea is to build a PC costing $300. Success would make them the next iron men, kings of computers, successors to Jobs and Wozniak and Gates. A few problems impede their ascent to cyberglory, and scrambling for venture capital (as Team Plaid, dressed in garish golf clothes for their first sales pitch) is the least of them. Malevolence emanates from the most ferrous iron man of all, Francis Benoit, who manipulates the start uppers out of their stock; but Benoit's victory is Pyrrhic, as Team Plaid guts the value of Benoit's ill-gotten gain by giving it away on the Web. Satirical and hilariously high-energy; bestsellerdom portends. Gilbert Taylor, Copyright© 1997, American Library Association. All rights reserved

SELECTED REVIEWS FOR
Bombardiers

New York Daily News
Hilarious, mad-as-hell entertainment that bites like an alligator...filled with the most memorable cast of loonies and sharpies since One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

From Booklist , March 15, 1995
In this chuckling caricature of an investment banking firm, Sid Geeder shines as the outfit's top-selling bond trader who hates his work, his bosses, his customers, the government, and hangs on only to be vested in millions' worth of his company's stock. Leagued with a rich gallery of likewise greedy rogues, he careens through the info-economy and unloads bonds by cajoling, insulting, and all-around yelling at the buyers. Lashed on by boss Coyote Jack, whose terroristic motivational method is random firing and constant bellowing to GETBACKTOWORK!, Sid frantically traffics in rumors and inflated optimism. Beneath the bluster is a lovable protagonist trapped in an insanely cynical world of avarice, whose only means of escape (to become vested in those shares) is to weave ever more fantastic, illusory deals, such as selling an entire banana republic--which ironically chains him ever tighter to the phones and video monitors. Yes, Sid's rebellions lead to his bizarre escape from the firm, which culminates this exuberantly satirical commentary on contemporary finance. Wacky characters and an offbeat, sardonic story point to popular success for this debut writer.
-- Gilbert Taylor
Copyright© 1995, American Library Association. All rights reserved

From Kirkus Reviews , October 15, 1994
A vicious, hilarious satire of bond traders and, by extension, the prevailing mindset of corporate America. This audacious first novel (by a former salesman for First Boston) echoes the biting tone of Catch-22. Rather than cogs in an absurd war machine, however, Bronson's protagonists are desk-bound hustlers trying to sell complicated and shady corporate bonds to the gullible or to those who know the government will bail them out when the bonds go belly-up. Caught in a cycle of making outrageous commissions for meeting outrageous quotas, the traders at Atlantic Pacific push themselves to physical and psychological ruin just to keep up. Sid Geeder loathes every new bond that management forces him to sell; because he hates the whole racket, he tries to bankrupt it by moving as many bonds as possible--which perpetually keeps him at the top of the heap as "King of Mortgages.'' Geeder's position is threatened by Eggs Igino, a young hotshot who is such a good salesmen that he palms off breakfast futures on his fellow traders. But Igino's genius leads him to the radical thought that maybe the bonds in which corporate America wallows are not ethical, a conclusion that creates a crisis for Sid and the entire firm. This couldn't come at a worse time, as Atlantic Pacific is trying to float bonds on the Dominican Republic in order to claim the nation as a corporation, then take it over and exploit its assets. Fast-paced, enlivened by a cast of odd yet believable characters, Bronson's debut is filled with wit and storytelling sleight of hand that will have readers alternating tears of laughter with tears of despair over the state of our financial institutions. Required reading for politicians and financiers, in hopes that it will make them think twice about the way they're mortgaging America's future. Required reading for everyone else, just because it's so much fun.
-- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Tom Wolfe
Ranks with Liar's Poker as a portrayal of the craziness of investment banking in its money-junkie phase.