Conversational - not always a given
340705
One would immediately presume that a book on communication, especially professional communication, would actually be conversational in presenting its ideas and facts, but that is not always the case with business oriented texts. The Financial Professional's Guide to Communication avoids that problem by maintaining an authoritative and congenial tone throughout without verging into a hype-ridden, boisterous, sell-sell-sell! attitude.

A lot of the advice in this book is material anyone who has taken a speech class or course should be relatively familiar with (eye contact, for example), but it is condensed within this text and presented with a focused 'eye' on client relationships. If you really want to work on this aspect of your business presentation, then this volume will allow you to skip over more basic books as it contains the ideas in those volumes with a niche spin.

An added plus is that is relatively easy to breeze through this book in a couple of hours (or less) for an initial read. You can then refer back to the portions most relevant to your needs.
1341283
At first, I liked this. However, it is confusing regarding gender usage. For example, one is asked: "How would a man answer?" Well, my brain would say, "Do you really want to reply like a man since you're a woman?" And I would get stuck in the no-reply zone. I could never get my brain wrapped around the requirement to just say it and move on.

This is probably very good for comprehension after one is familiar with Hindi. Until then, I would avoid it. I do think the method, overall, really works. They just need to figure out a way to deal with gender differences.
425740
In general, I liked this book and found it useful.  I thing it contains a lot of good concepts, but because of the dialogue format it is difficult to get one's arms around all the concepts.  There are also some holes that are left unaddressed, again probably because of the format.

Given the above context, I think that there are many gems in this book and a lot of practical advice.  Reading the dialogue between all these prominent people is thought provoking and challenges you to consider the underlying assumptions of your own emotional life.

There is a lot of good advice in this book about handling destructive emotions, but the scope is actually wider than that.  I found it to be more of an exploration of the nature of emotion and how to live with emotions in a balanced way.

There are advantages and disadvantages to this approach to writing.  There are a number of reviews that praise this book and others that shoot it down.  I think the reality is somewhere in the middle.

The people engaged in the dialogue are great choices, but somehow when the book went to print I think the written form missed capturing the full spirit of what went on at the actual event.  I wasn't there, but I get a sense that in the transfer from speaking to writing some important meanings didn't come across.

In spite of my feedback above, I wouldn't be discouraged from buying this book.  It is unique and has a lot to say.  My three star rating is merely an indication that I think the information could have been presented better and perhaps elaborated on in a way that brought the concepts more to life.
3880178
I would love to give this novel more stars because it is a powerful story of mother/daughter relationships. However, the dialogue drove me batty at times. The author uses no quotation marks at all, ever, anywhere in the book. Sometimes it's difficult to know whether a character says something rapidly or says the word "rapidly." Often, two characters will speak in the same paragraph, making it difficult to tell which is speaking when. I do recommend the book, but be prepared to be confused.
1566313
I have a big problem with anyone who speaks at people and not to them, whether this is done face-to-face, via video, in a text, or in a book. Because of this, I knew that I would like The Dialogue Gap from the get-go as it addresses this issue using different terms to describe the phenomenon previously referenced. I'm not perfect when it comes to engaging in dialogue because I truly believe that some ideas do not belong at the table at all and tend to tune out the commentary related to initial premises I consider idiotic. However, that matters little in relation to this book as I can use the ideas presented to further a conversation that I deem valid.

I greatly enjoyed this book on the whole, but I do believe that a couple of issues exist with it.

At times this book did veer into the repetitive. The title, book description, and introductory chapters really present the main idea well which means that I didn't need to have it repeated over and over throughout the text -- an allusion would have worked well in these places. A little more focus on actionable items and a little less back story in the book's different sections would have also kept the book a bit more interesting. As it is, the text feels a bit too cumbersome and lengthy for the actual active value derived from it.

Giving this book a 3.5 star rating would have been my ideal but when left with a choice between three and four, it falls to the three.
962898
It is worth it. It can be better with the introduction of phrases that can and are used in day to day conversations.
1219552
This text is supposed to cover the conversation of a group of people during an evening of "Bohemian" discussions.  Each person tells their own little story or gives an ideal to the group; however, none interact with the others, they simply talk over and around each other.  I think it creates an interesting feeling of ennui and disaffectation with society as a whole, which perhaps sums up the entire Bohemian movement.  Will be of definite interest to many people.
88692
Not exactly what I expected. The topic is very interesting, it is just the way the book is formatted. It is all written in the form of an interview of a conversation that is hypothetical. That just wasn't what interests me when reading a book.
613448
The title of this book is extreamly fitting as the majority of the conversation starters in this book deal with modern age issues such as technology and what not.  Additionally the conversation starters can be used in multiple situations with any gender.  The ice breakers in this book are geared more towards the "nerd culture" however.  I did enjoy the format it makes it convienient to use at anytime.
1486253
Everybody "knows" that apes can talk; it's a "fact" at the base of a great deal of popular media and liberal arts science on the subject of how humanlike nonhumans are. People who regard homo sapiens as somehow unique are regularly battered by the overwhelming impression generated in the last generation that language, long held the most species-specific behavior of man, was approximated, at least in experiments, by chimps or gorillas.

Wallman explodes this myth by scientifically scrutinizing the research conducted on apes and by clearly distinguishing the features of human language from the mode of communication exhibited by the former. Primatologists have simply not done their ethological observations well, and have apparently neglected sound linguistic studies altogether. One wonders that the insatiable need of academics for grants and iconoclastic prestige hasn't infected their primatological findings. Wallman deserves to be compulsory reading in an introductory class on animal ethology, primatology, philosophy of science, liguistics and physical anthropology.
1415900
A fascinating and quirky take on 21st century social situation advice. As with so many of our woes, emphasis is on how to manage...or ignore...the kinds of problems we may find ourselves involved with while living our on-line life. Curious what to say...or not say...to people who feel slighted? See many examples of situations which feel too real to ignore. The examples here are based on the years of advice that Phil had been dispensing in the Styles section of the Sunday NY Times.
1369329
Interesting story. Conversation seems a bit juvenile in some places, but I never tired of reading. I will probably get the sequel.
1545493
As others have commented, it is easy to read with a conversational style. It's not really new concepts, but I like how they are put together and who doesn't need help with this?!  I liked all the examples as well.
The part I struggled with was some of the writing. Intentionally or not, it seemed to be written For straight, married, women. There were instances where a simple change of "husband" to "spouse" would have made it immediately relevant to me.  This is not a book I would recommend to my gay or guy friends for that same reason.  But straight, married women should love it!!
2635431
Covers the general topic of body language but skips some key postures and body signals that you can find in everyday conversations
26864
To learn a language, like exercise it's best to occasionally mix up your routine and style to develop competency. This book would be well-liked by learners who do better with list-type instruction rather than traditional grammar books (which I find quite boring) or other forms of language instruction. Even if you know this stuff already, it's good to reinforce what you know by this different approach.
4415628
Too many expressions are old, not current conversation , not what you really need when you travel in a foreign country
For example the conversation at the postal office in details about stamps and postage !!!, laundromat, camera shop, ??? cablegram ? really ?
4269180
This novel has a rather unique writing style, one that I found at times to be spot-on in capturing the way some people's minds almost surely work. What was disturbing was that it was often difficult to determine what was paraphrased dialog and what was the first-person narrator's thoughts. Also, I found the primary characters' stages of inquiry, born of the simple curiosity of the duo regarding the identity of a small group of, perhaps, terrorists or religious extremists, to be too thin for most of the story. As the narrator muses somewhere toward the end of the book, some discussions/conversations are far more tangential commentary than focused attention to the presumed topic. And so it is with this book. Characters wander in and out of the life of the narrator's character, the ensuing dialogs wandering here and there to explore some aspect of the human condition. With the infrequent presence of most characters, it was more difficult to stay straight about the nuanced differences in their personalities, their interests and their roles in the plot. (Actually, my reading is that most of the supporting characters where little more than foils for the protagonist narrator.) In some ways, this novel reminds me of _My Dinner with Andre_ with it's philosophic dialogs, although there is clearly a more complex cast and storyline in _The Names_.