Self-help ✦ Penny’s Take
Emotional Success
David DeSteno · 2018
77/100
👍 Worth It
DeSteno's central argument — that gratitude, compassion, and authentic pride are more durable engines for self-control than willpower — is backed by his own published research and lands as genuinely counterintuitive in a genre full of warmed-over grit talk. The prose is clear and the science is real, even if the practical how-to sections could go deeper. A legitimately good behavioral science read that punches above the average self-help title.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
📚 Buy the book ↗📱 Read on Kindle ↗🎧 Listen on Audible ↗ affiliate links · support the site, never the verdict
As an Amazon Associate and Audible affiliate, Penny earns from qualifying purchases. This never affects the verdict — see our affiliate disclosure.
Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety92
substance80
craft76
originality82
accuracy85
hype70
age-fit82
human-eye76
Penny’s verdict77
Cross-pollinate