An A.D.D.er’s Review of “Odd One Out: The Maverick’s Guide to Adult A.D.D.”

Posted by Jeff on October 16, 2007 · View Comments

I was quite excited to purchase a copy of Jennifer Koretsky’s Odd One Out. I have been reading her newsletter since 2005 and found that it was easy to read and it always offered useful ideas. So when I got the book I expected some deep, philosophical tome based on years of writing a newsletter.¹ What I found instead was a deceptively simple book. Notice the word “deceptive.” Herein lies the genius of the book (and, I believe, the genius of her newsletters). It deals with very serious problems – such as the feeling of being overwhelmed and issues of time and structure – and it offers solutions using easy to understand language.² And in case you missed an important point when reading the book, key phrases are printed in boldface type. That makes it is easy to go back and find something you read a few days earlier and, believe me, you will be going back to this book again and again. Why do I like this book so much? Part of it is that the theme of the book – that you should learn how to work with your A.D.D. and not against it – resonates with my current situation in life. Jennifer’s suggestions – learn how to de-stress, take time to “recharge” your body, make sleep a priority, do not judge yourself using unrealistic criteria³ – make sense to me because I’ve been struggling for several years and I’m ready to make important changes. Further, Jennifer’s book corroborates what I had only recently discovered on my own, namely that my A.D.D. will not go away, that it may resurface at inconvenient times and there is nothing I can do about that. That’s just the A.D.D. life. So if you too have hit the wall with your A.D.D. and are ready to make some changes then take a look at this book. It may turn out to be exactly what you need to finally take control of your A.D.D.

Why did I have this expectation? I don’t know. It’s probably the way I would have written the book.↩
It’s been said that it is actually much more difficult to write using simple language than it is to use more complex, and therefore, more obtuse language.↩
One could probably write whole volumes about the unrealistic expectations A.D.D.ers use to measure their progress…or lack thereof.↩

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Filed under Lifestyle, Productivity · Tagged with Jennifer Koretsky, Reviews

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Rosanna

Bah probably because the cover looks like a book for children? I found this book really bad, like most ADHD-related literature.
Jeff

I think a big problem is that many of the ADHD books written *by* ADHDers assume that you are receptive to their ideas and/or receptive to their style of presentation…or the author is saying something you’ve already figured out or that you are not ready to (mentally) tackle. It depends, in part, as to where you are in the scale of dealing-with-your-ADHD.

As for Jennifer’s book, like her newsletter, it is written in an easily digestible form, that is, she offers practical advice in a way that is easy to understand. However, she’s often tackling important issues and sometimes that’s not obvious because her writing style does not hit you over the head with the issues.

Anyway, I’ve found that even books that I didn’t like still provide something of value. For example, I use a 400-page biography of George Bush as a foot rest.

-sent via blackberry