An energetic and optimistic game plan for achieving better socializing through better talk.
DeNucci presents a book of stories and strategies designed to improve conversations.
The author, a conference speaker, is quick to assure her readers that her new guide is “NOT a book that will try to transform you into a flitty social butterfly or a dashing bon vivant who strives to be the life of the party.” In these pages, she advocates for employing an array of approaches to improve real, meaningful conversations of the type that can “help us uncover common (or contrasting) backgrounds, interests, experiences, beliefs, and connections.” Each chapter of her book includes many stories drawn from the experiences of her friends in various social and personal encounters and ends with discussion questions (“How does it feel for you to rehash fond memories and mutual experiences with colleagues, classmates, friends, or family members?”), leaving space for readers to write their answers. DeNucci explains that, while improved conversations can obviously benefit family and work situations, research has also tied better socializing to higher levels of physical health. This makes it all the more concerning that, according to a United States Bureau of Labor Statistics survey, the average person spends less than an hour socializing in an average day. The author discusses several of the most obvious culprits for this dire situation, from chronic overwork to rampant distraction fueled by the Internet and social media. As one of her inset quips puts it, “The best conversations are interesting and uninterrupted. Too bad most of us haven't had one of those since 1997.”
Throughout, even as she describes societal obstacles that seem insurmountable (most especially the ubiquitous practice dubbed “phubbing”: “ignoring one’s companion or companions in order to pay attention to one’s phone or electronic device”), DeNucci maintains a cheerful, upbeat tone. She is always open-minded and candid when she confesses that she shares some of the faults she describes—there are no attempts to lecture or criticize. Instead, she adopts a tone of “we’re-all-in-this-together” amusement over the state of modern communication. “Think of all the things people feel compelled to do and say online that they’d never do or say in person!” she writes; “Kind of mind-boggling.” This has the cumulative effect of making her authorial voice feel like that of an older sibling or sympathetic coach. This quality is particularly convincing in the book’s section focusing on being a good listener, which the author puts forth as a key to making good conversation. She effectively describes the benefits of listening in a monologue-obsessed online culture and gives readers tips on strengthening this often-overlooked skill. Readers who’ve been increasingly frustrated either by society’s degraded conversational priorities or their own discomfort with meaningful socializing will find DeNucci an enthusiastically supportive presence on the page, assuring readers that they are not alone and that improvement is possible. The author’s combination of good cheer and straight talk (“if you insist on being the smartest person in the room,” she writes, “you just might end up being the only person in the room”) will make this book invaluable to conversationalists at all levels of expertise.
An energetic and optimistic game plan for achieving better socializing through better talk.Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2023
ISBN: 9780983546153
Page Count: 486
Publisher: Rosewall Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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