Hello everyone! Today for BirthMay I’m going to do a book review for the new book Wise Millennial.

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This is my third annual BirthMay! What is BirthMay, you ask? Well I blog every day in May because it’s my birth month! I started BirthMay in 2017 and did it again in 2018 so I knew I had to do it again this year.

Now, I do have to say that Wise Millennial was sent to me free for review purposes. Even so, all opinions on the book are my own.

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So, as I said, I was sent Wise Millennial: A Field Guide to Thriving in Modern Life by Peter Nobel Darrow free for review purposes. In his book, Darrow shares his experiences as a millennial, an entrepreneur, a privileged member of society, and many other labels that he’s been given. Focusing mainly on his mistakes, Darrow aims to help millennials learn from his experiences and help them achieve a better understanding of the world they are shaping.

I really enjoyed Darrow’s writing style! I found myself constantly laughing at his jokes, groaning at some of the mistakes he was making, and on the edge of my seat during one story regarding a hurricane. His storytelling is captivating to say the least.

For the content, I felt during reading that some of the stories could have perhaps done with a bit more details. Throughout the book I was always surprised to see how short each story was and each chapter went by quickly. However, after some reflection on the lessons Darrow shared I realized that I appreciated the brevity and it was easier to take away the point of the chapter because it wasn’t drowned out. One would be “don’t be afraid to take the leap” while another would be “but not a dangerous one!” Plus, the book was only a little over 200 pages so there really wasn’t room to linger!

I thought the book’s points were well organized and each chapter flowed beautifully. Like most guide books, it doesn’t introduce new ideas, but rather takes what you know and brings it out to the forefront of your mind, adds a bit of insight to it, and leaves it up to you to take that information and use it to better your perspective. I would love to reference this book from time to time and read/revisit portions of it rather than the whole thing at once because it is quite a bit of topics. In order for them to stick a bit more I think less would be more while reading and taking frequent and short breaks with this one would be good.

This is especially true for some of the heavier portions of the book. Darrow focuses on challenging topics such as losing his father, his serious girlfriend, and his start up all within three short years. It is clear that these are all events he considers to be defining for his life and reading about them is quite an intimate look into his thoughts and journey with them. There are plenty of fun, light chapters woven in, but these three topics follow Darrow and pop up in those as well from time to time.

Something I appreciated was how Darrow did an excellent job of acknowledging his privilege and knowing how it affected his views. Even though he discloses his background from the start he displays a great amount of self-awareness for how it affected his life and the understanding that not everyone had the same experiences as him because of it. Even so, I think the lessons he learned are incredibly relevant to every millennial, especially the ones about health and looking out for your family and such.

Personally I think my favorite section was “Healthy Millennial” because it had a chapter called “The Power of Positivity”. And as you know, positivity is my thing right now! All of them had great tidbits and advice though so it was hard to pick for sure.

Overall I think it was a great read and I wish I’d had it a few years ago to try and understand more of these concepts a little more fully, a little more early. I could see this being a great gift to a new high school or college grad, especially since Darrow does include chapters on both undergrad and grad school (MBA specifically). At any point, it’s always a great reminder to live your own life and not try to live anyone else’s.

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And that’s my review of Wise Millennial by Peter Noble Darrow! I know this book is newer so if you have read it already let me know your thoughts! Otherwise, did this make it onto your TBR list?

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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