Annie's Reviews > Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life

This book had an interesting approach to co-authorship, with each writer taking responsibility for several individual chapters.

Marie Kondo's writing is fantastic - her style is gentle but evangelical, and I really enjoyed her sections. Her focus on the physical aspects of decluttering and tidying the office were full of helpful tips.

Unfortunately, the other sections appealed less to me - partly because as a librarian I'm quite au fait with electronic records management and so found the tips for that very basic, and partly because I hate the very concept of networking, and the approach described here sounded really cold. I say "sounded" because I think what Sonenshein is advocating is not networking for the sake of it, but simply making friends with likeminded people. Unfortunately, instead of it coming across like that it sounded quite calculating and put me off. Having said that, I will read his own bestseller, Stretch, so at least it worked in making me want to do that.

Finally, a limitation of the book overall is that it clearly is aimed solely at office-workers and solely at those with more control over their diaries than most. Unlike Kondo's other books, the principles applied were not universally applicable. Or, perhaps, her universal principles were not applicable outside white-collar working environments.

Overall, 4/5 for Kondo's chapters and 2/5 for Sonenshein's, leaving a score of 3/5.