My interest in birth order developed because I kept noticing similarities between people that were of the same birth order. I am a middle born (2 older and 2 younger sisters) so my curiosity was spiked when I found this book. The author convinced me birth order has influence over your entire life from interaction with siblings and parents, handling of intimate relationships, to parenting. The real life examples of very famous middle borns like Abraham Lincoln added impact and understanding.I not...

Very interesting book on the dynamics of family and birth order. Provided both research findings, implications of these findings, and recommendations for addressing and utilizing the strengths and weaknesses of middle children.

My mother read this a long time ago and thought I might find it interesting, so this was my out of comfort zone quarantine read haha. I'm not really a self help kinda person, and my interest in pop psychology is fairly limited, and honestly I'm not even sure how much I buy into the birth order thing? So this book was okay, but had WAY too many anecdotes and retroactively imposed a lot of qualities and ideas on people who have long been dead. I wasn't thrilled with any of that, from a scientific

Very cyclical and repetitive. Not very well written.

A fascinating collection of research and anecdotes delving into the oft-neglected and misunderstood world of the middle-child. A lot of birth-order researchers have previously focused on first and last-born, so this researcher, Catherine Salmon, felt compelled to investigate and write about the middle child. At times, it felt the author was manipulating her display of statistics in order to prove her point, rather than the other way around. She frequently cites stats like "52 percent of US Presi...

As a middle child, I found the information in this book rather fascinating. I especially enjoyed seeing how much impact middle children have had as leaders, artists, creators, innovators. I was also surprised to see the connection between my empathic nature and being middleborn. It is apparently a common trait in middle children. It also saddened me to realize that all of these great qualities may go away as families shrink to just one or two children. A thoughtful book on an often overlooked su...

Very interesting. I love wearing the badge of having "middle child syndrome" when it can get me some sympathy from my parents (jazz joking) but I found some of the insights in here quite true and empowering. Her comments on how the world might be affected by the lack of middle children was also rather interesting. A great read if you have a middle child, are married to a middle child, or if you are a middle child.

Overall, the context resonated with me. I didn't read it page by page but would read it in details when the topic seemed interesting. I am a middle child. The book highlighted the traits of middle child, and why and when they are great traits. I had a few aha moments. I would recommend this book if you are interested in personalities. I agree with the author that the birth order affects us strongly on how we see the world and handle difficult situations.

This book was really interesting! I don't always self-identify myself as a middle child. Even though I'm the 2nd of 7, I am the oldest girl and so I often classify myself as an oldest child along with my brother. But, I found this book really insightful. I feel like I do have a better understanding of my personality: both strengths and weaknesses after reading it. If you're a middle child or are involved with a middle child in some way (spouse, children, friend, etc), I think you'd find it insig...

This book was an interesting look at middle children. As a middle, I related well to the concepts in this book, and I liked the stories about middle's contributions to society in general. It was worth reading.

Cat recommends because of NPR story. Note for middles, a bit of parental neglect isn't always a bad thing.

This book is dedicated to middleborns. Through research and real-life anecdotes, Dr. Salmon aims to show the character traits, life ambitions, and social interactions middle children are prone to from early childhood into their adult lives. Some of the examples, specifically the celebrity ones, were gimmicky and that some of the points made and examples used felt manipulated or too convenient to suit the author's purpose. Therefore, the book should be read with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, it d...

Extremely dry... Was hoping to get science backed up insights about middle Born's, instead it was more of self made conclusions based on some self made theory that is not very consistent.

Interesting book for me as I’m a middle boy of three sons. I’ve got a strained relationship with my parents and a non existent one with my two brothers. I tried over many years to reconcile but they were not interested so I walked away from the stress and found a quieter life without them. A lot of my past makes sense after reading this book.

The first half of the book is pretty science heavy and not my speed, but the second half is more practical and I greatly enjoyed it. If you are a middle child, dating a middle child, have a middle child or have a close friend who is a middle child I was encourage the read because I do think it gives some important insight.

Very interesting topic. I made a lot of jokes to my parents when I was reading about how misunderstood I was, but that's not really the premise of the book. Prior to Dr Salmon, there wasn't a whole lot of research or text available with an emphasis on middleborns by themselves. There were many things that resonated with me. During a mini road trip with my mom, I read aloud the sections about parenting a middleborn and middleborns as parents, and it invoked a lot of discussion between us as we ta...

I am a middle child and became a lawyer through my own ambition and perspiration.I was expecting this book to help me to tap into "the secret powers" since I am always the scapegoat in my family of origin. Middles often are the neglected child that people in the family target for their misfortunes. We are also known as "the invisible" child. This book is extremely political. I did not buy a book on politics, I bought a book on being the middle child and learning to exploit the characteristics of...

Interesting book , Im a Middleborner and it is literally describe what I have gone through in the last years .As Middle Eastren community’s we have large family normally between 4 to 6 and I think the larger family number the harder for parents to give attention and time to There children which make harder on the MiddleBorner .Also , the first Born child He has the control on the family which explained in the book. However, I really get benefit from what I have read and describe all the feelings...

Meh. The author is a PhD and based this book on her research; I would have liked to see more discussion of those studies. Instead, we got some anecdotes--highlights of her research perhaps-- and lots of repetition. This book made some very good points, but could have done so in half the pages.

What an interesting book. I've only read a little about birth order studies in the past and this book basically summarizes those studies and adds some new information in an easy to read format. I'm a middle child and I can honestly say this book pretty much describes me to a tee. Unfortunately, none of the secret powers are superpowers. I was so hoping I could read people's minds or something. But seriously, there is some great information about how birth order affects an individual's upbringing...