David and Goliath

Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; Reprint edition October, 2013
ISBN # 978-0-316-20436-1
Lexile Measure: 580L
Classification:  Non-fiction

Summary:
In David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell explores our assumptions about obstacles and whether they are based in fact or fiction. 

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Language:
Profanity is sparse and far between and found only in a couple of quotes.  Words and phrases include “hell,” “son of a b*tch,” “m*therf*cking n*gger,” “bullsh*t” and “bast*rd”. 

Drug and Alcohol Use:
Mild, passing references to alcohol use.

Violence and Crime:
In Gladwell’s dispassionate way, he discusses a number of violent encounters in an attempt to discover their causes and misconceptions about those causes.  

• For example, Chapter Five contains vivid (awful) descriptions of the efforts to find a cure for childhood leukemia. 
• Chapter Six describes the violence taken towards African-Americans by whites during the civil rights movement.  
• Chapter Seven discusses violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.  
• Chapter Eight details the murder of a young woman (by shooting) that inspired her father to petition for the “three strikes and you are out” approach to crime that we are all familiar with today. 

Sexual Content:
On p. 261, Gladwell mentions a subject’s previous addiction to porn and sexual bondage and S & M.  

Other:
None.

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