59 Seconds: Change Your Life in Under a Minute, by Richard Wiseman

This book could be described as what should have been a collection of magazine articles about popular psychology.   It discusses experiments around what makes an individual likable, what to put in your wallet to increase odds of it being returned if lost (a photo of a smiling baby), and the like.

Given this topic set and that Mr Wiseman writes specifically about what makes people positive about something (e.g., negative gossip gives a bad impression of the gossiper) it was astounding to me that he chose to alienate more than 50% of his US audience.   How so?   A rude remark about former President Bush.

How does this bother more than 50% of the audience?   Part of it is because the author is British.   He's annoyed two groups, the "We liked Mr Bush,"  and the "He may not have been great, but he's our not great."   I assert that this covers a large percentage of his American readership.

This is a massive turn off.   Don't buy the book.