Ivanka Trump isn’t just a nebulous presidential advisor/first daughter/sweatshop benefactor, she’s also an author!
Her book, Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Success, went on sale Tuesday, and the reviews have hit like a piano dropping from a tenth story window. She previously stated that her intentions behind the book are to “inspire you to redefine success and architect a life that honors your individual passions and priorities.”
The critics have a slightly different take on her self-help drivel.
Here’s what they’re saying:
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Jennifer Senior of the New York Times writes:
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 books — by 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.
Related: Twitter reads Ivanka Trump for filth after she’s booed on stage
Business Insider’s Kate Taylor has a similar take:
The book […] reads like a mashup of countless essays and articles written in the past decade aimed at female entrepreneurs.
That isn’t to say all the advice is bad — it’s just that little is new. The book borrows heavily from books like Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In,” Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston’s “How Remarkable Women Lead,” and backlogs of IvankaTrump.com.
NPR’s Danielle Kurtzleben offers a more subtle read:
Often, the melange of quotes and how-to lists give the book more the aesthetic of a Pinterest board than a career guide.
Related: Ivanka’s book should be called “Women Who Work… In My Sweatshop For $1 An Hour”
And Beth Teitell of the Boston Globe is particularly shady:
Ivanka’s 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.
Mashable’s Chris Taylor went right for the jugular in his review, titled “We read Ivanka Trump’s insufferable new book so you don’t have to”:
Here is proof that a female CEO can write a business book that is just as bad — just as padded with bromides and widely-known examples and self-promotion and unexamined privilege and jargon — as one written by an overconfident male CEO.
All things considered, she may not want to quit her day job.
Wait… what is her day job?!
Fredrick Bertz
So, she’s a self-involved idiots who only knows how to parrot the ideas of others while taking the credit. She fits perfectly into her father’s cabinet.
sylvialucas444
jjjjhhhhStart making more money weekly… This is a valuable part time work for everyone… The best part ,work from comfort of your house and get paid from $100-$2k each week …•••••••??
???USA~JOB-START
Low Country Boy
You nailed it.
natekerchel
Was anyone expecting a Pulitzer prize winning tome? Not me for sure. Why is it that people who have been handed everything to them all their lives without having to work for it always seem to believe that they are remotely talented? Her search for credibility will not be satisfied by this ‘book’ judging by the critics reactions – I seem to remember Melania also ‘heavily borrowed’ from other people’s words when giving speeches. Par for the course when your name is trump – exploit other people’s work for your own benefit.
Jere
Why? Because they surround themselves with people who tell them they are.
Alexis
What’s for certain is that stealing others ideas and selling a bad product run in the Trump lineage (or maybe their gene pool).
scotshot
There’s their gene pool and whoever they marry and drag into the swamp with them.
kehvan
Of course they are.
While I doubt the book is any good, it could be on par with Shakespeare, yet given the modus operandi of people on the left who constitute the lionshare of journalists, they’d pan it regardless.
mhoffman953
Trump or his daughter could cure cancer and the usual suspects would run the headline “Trump takes jobs away from cancer doctors”
There’s no reasoning with these people
Ejens005
Reason? Yes, perhaps someday we – the left – will be able to grasp embarrassingly reasonable concepts like anthropogenic climate change, the necessity of feminism, and the myth of supply-side economics.
DCguy
I love the fake Trump Troll comments on this. Did you notice how they try to hide the truth.
Lets translate.
Her book IS shit…..(And here comes the right wing victim dance) Um…but EVEN IF IT WAS BRILLIANT the evil “LEFT” would attack it.
So in other words, the book is shit. Thanks for confirming. Nice of you to have multiple screenames back up that fact.
Mort
Find out who’s buying it in bulk. The Trump 2020 campaign? The USIA? The Chinese government? This isn’t a book. It’s a slush fund.
MikeE
Hey Ivanka, “architect” is not a f***ing verb you dumba$$.
1EqualityUSA
It can be used as a verb, though not often done.
DMRX
I wondered at first, as well, but I bothered to type “architect definition” into a search engine before looking like an idiot.
1EqualityUSA
Years ago, an 83-year-old decorator used it as a verb. I looked it up later. She was my mother’s mentor and our friend, so who’s going to correct her. Turns out, using it as a verb is possible. If it confuses then another verb should be considered. The Trumps are all about confusion.
MediaGuy
The left WAS just a bunch of closet haters. But since Hillary’s astounding loss (how do you get three million MORE votes and you’re still not president. you gotta be really stupid to pull that off), anyway, since her loss the left has shown themselves to be vociferous haters, screamers, pouters, crybabies, and whiners. So even if Ivanka’s book was Ulysses, the left would have hated it. Check yourselves lefties, it’s really embarrassing. The world is cringing for you. (well, maybe not France, they don’t know any better).
Ejens005
I’m sorry you feel that way. It IS difficult, having hope for a better future for everyone. Always seeking equality, morality, reason, justice. Trying to form a more perfect union. It’s exhausting, actually. Yes, sometimes we run out of patience. When people fight against their own best interests and those of their neighbors, and against the long arc of progress. But, we will keep hoping and fighting, for us and for you.
MediaGuy
Hey Ejens005. You said you’re fighting for “equality, morality, reason, justice”. The last time we put the left in charge of those things the males in our society lost our reproductive rights and our children lost their lives by the tens of millions, often in the most hideous, violent ways. There are many examples of the hypocrasy of the left, reprodutive rights comes to mind as the most salient. So keep sneering from your elitist ivory tower, keep looking down your nose at everyone, and enjoy your privilege while you can, because it’s not going to last. Trump was just the first baby step. The battle is already in the streets and will continue to grow exponentially. The victims will be the liberal left. And, after years of injustice, immorality, inequality and insanity brought to us by the left, reason will be restored, with an iron fist, if that’s what it takes.
1EqualityUSA
I picture you saying this with a menacing raspy voice, feeble coughs, and drool pooling up behind your lower lip. Wow, ugly is so ugly! Seething hate. Loosen up the loin cloth, throw off the buffalo fur, and drop the caveman act, over-the-top total wad. Shove your ivory tower.
DCguy
Oh look, another one of Mo Bros screenames rambling on about the FOX News branded “Left”.
So much easier to invent a group to hate rather than have to use specific examples.
Here’s ANOTHER screename claiming that even if IVanka’s book was great “The LEFT” would attack it.
Um, but by saying that, you just admitted that the book was crap.
How sad, FOX News and the rightwing blogsphere needs to invent the evil “LEFT” so fools like you will support Russia and Putin over your own government. Backing up Trump is just another way for you to do that.
MediaGuy
EqualityWhatever. I read all that theatrical, snowflake crap you wrote. We’ll see how it goes.
DCGuy. Isn’t it fabulous that James Comey just admitted that he accidentally threw the election to Trump. Haahahaa. Hillary knows it’s true and it really is fabulous. Haahaha. Lololololol.
jckfmsincty
Ivanka is our best interest for a moderating influence? She just wants to get richer like daddy.
SeanH
Wow, what a shock, the reviews are bad for Ivanka’s book! Go figure. While you all are crying and moaning, she’s a success….use your energy to better your lives rather than post on a dumb blog….
DCguy
So basically another Trump just copied others work. It’s a mash-up of quotes and suggestions from 1980’s sales and inspirational books.
So what IS Ivankas advice to women? Be born rich, get bought into grad school, never work for anybody but your father, have your company started with borrowed money from your dads lenders.
Yeah, that’ll help so many.
sylvialucas444
Start making more money weekly… This is a valuable part time work for everyone… The best part ,work from comfort of your house and get paid from $100-$2k each week …•••••••??
???USA~JOB-START
He BGB
The article doesn’t mention many of the women she quotes didn’t approve them like Toni Morrison. Apparently Ivanka used a quote about slavery regarding being a slave to your job or some such BS and used Toni s quote about African slavery. Ivanka makes it look like she came from nothing and worked her way to the top but we all know that’s not true. Like her dad, out of touch with real people.
jckfmsincty
It’s faint praise to say that Ivanka is the smartest one in the Trump klan.