Communication Books

Envisioning Information

Edward R. Tufte

Amazon Price: $34.56 List Price: $48.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Graphics Press Amazon Marketplace: 72 new & used starting at $17.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 52 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Continually Rewarding Gem 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Every time I go back to this book I get something more out of it. Over the past 10 years I've been through my copy a couple of dozen times. If communicating information is important to you, you should take a look at this classic.

A very good resource 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Nutshell review - This is a beautiful resource on presenting information in a myriad of ways with many examples of good and bad design. Beautifully illustrated.

Portable affordable art 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Tufte follows up his debut classic with an even more beautiful piece of graphic art disguised as a guide to ways to display three (and more) dimensions on a flat surface.

While even more beautifully crafted than The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition, it has less in the way of practical guidance. Tufte's principle here can be reduced to this far-reaching but not so simply-implemented statement: increase the resolution of "flatland" (paper or computer screen) to show more data to increase clarity.

As usual, the principle is lavishly illustrated with beautifully-reproduced examples of good and bad ways of envisioning information. In fact, I have found Tufte's principle and illustrations are useful ways of thinking about how to improve my own graphics, but I find my ability to implement them frustrated by the limitations of the design tools I use most: Excel, PowerPoint, Project, Word, wikis. That is a negative reflection on the tools, not on Tufte.

In any case, enjoy Tufte's books now for the portable affordable art that they are, and hope for the tools to catch up soon.

Editorial Review:

A remarkable range of examples for the idea of visual thinking, with beautifully printed pages. A real treat for all who reason and learn by means of images. -- Rudolf Arnheim

The Art of Public Speaking, 10th Edition

Stephen E. Lucas

Amazon Price: $100.00 Not yet published By: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Beware of binding. 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a good textbook for anyone who wants an overview on the elements of speaking in public. The content is broad, but not too deep. It puts perspective on oration that I had not considered before. There is a lot of practical thinking woven into the chapters.

However, buyers beware! I bought the ring-bound edition, not understanding that I would have to provide my own 3-ring binder. It was a complete buyer error, but be advised to consider the binding of your textbook. Acquaint yourself with the various types of binding (i.e., spiral, ring, etc.) and identify your preferences.

Editorial Review:

By far the leading speech textbook of our time, The Art of Public Speaking has defined the art of being the best for more than 10 million students and instructors. Whether a novice or an experienced speaker, every student will learn how to be a better public speaker through Lucas' clear explanations of classical and contemporary theory and thorough coverage of practical applications. The new edition offers an innovative new digital experience--Connect Lucas. Bridging the printed page with the spoken word, this revolutionary Web site will allow students and instructors to access a complete media and research library, study and speech preparation tools, and a completely integrated media-rich textbook in a dynamic online environment (www.connectlucas.com)

Please Understand Me: Character & Temperment Types

David Keirsey, Marilyn Bates

Amazon Price: $29.95 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Prometheus Nemesis Book Company Amazon Marketplace: 10 new & used starting at $21.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 89 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Helps to understand yourself 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Please Understand Me is an old book on personality and a good book. It helps you to understand the stable personality traits that you cannot change in the Kiersey model of personality which is a lot like the Myers Briggs. All in all an informative read.

The Personality Code is another great personality book that's neat because it's more modern and includes a code that lets you go online and take a personality test. It also breaks people down into 14 types and shows you which of the 14 is your anti type.

Knowing there is a problem is half the battle... 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

As a military leader, it is essential to motivate your organization. "Please Understand Me: Character & Temperament Types", by Keirsey and Bates, is an excellent primer in basic personality types.

With an understanding of the basic temperament types, leaders will be able to identify key attributes of each of the temperament types in their workers. Some people will fit the cookie-cutter descriptions quite nicely, others may vary their temperament types depending on the situation. The ability to recognize the key attributes to each of the temperaments will enable you to apply the right motivation technique at the time.

What's the right motivation technique to apply? This book doesn't answer that question, which is my main complaint with it.

This book is a fascinating look at the basic personality types. It was a great read, but I was looking for more.

Editorial Review:

This book is excellent for understanding your own character and it is in new conditions. No marks or breaks on any of the pages.

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Neil Postman

List Price: $11.95 By: Viking Adult Amazon Marketplace: 15 new & used starting at $3.89

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 126 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Judge a book by its cover 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Just today I logged on to one of the biggest news channels' website (CNN) and on the front page under "Popular News" was the following headline: "Is that Miley Cyrus flashing her bra on the Web?" I had just finished my second reading of this book and it seemed like a stark reminder of what Neil Postman was talking about over 20 years ago, how television has drastically changed our culture and redefined everything in our society from news to politics, education and even religion. I don't know of any book written during my lifetime that is more socially relevant and whose message is more important to be read and understood by the general public.

In Chapter 6, "The Age of Show Business", Postman writes, "To say television is entertaining is merely banal. Such a fact is hardly threatening to a culture, not even worth writing a book about. It may even be a reason for rejoicing. Life, as we like to say, is not a highway strewn with flowers. The sight of a few blossoms here and there may make our journey more endurable." He goes on to point out that the problem is not that there are entertaining shows on television, but that in order to accommodate itself to the demands of television, *everything* must be presented as entertainment. In order to generate ratings, advertisers and ultimately revenue, no subject is too serious to be presented in any way other than the one that attracts the most viewers. When the local news reports about a murder, it has no relevant meaning to our lives and it's not told so much to inform us of the tragedy of a murder but because it is the most exciting and what people want to see. News producers have a motto for this, "If it bleeds it leads."

Probably the most alarming example Postman cites is how television has changed politics and political discourse. This is where the transformation from a word-based media to an image-based media is felt the most strongly. Politicians have realized that the content of what they say is now largely irrelevant compared to how they appear, how they present themselves. Postman uses the example that when Ted Kennedy made a run for the presidency, Richard Nixon offered him the following advice: "Lose twenty pounds." Nixon had been in politics most of his adult life and knew the name of the game well, that one's ideas, beliefs, actions and words are now almost completely irrelevant in a world where nearly everyone has started getting their information from television only. Before Mike Huckabee entered this political race, he lost over a hundred pounds. If you look at photographs of presidents throughout our history, you notice that most of them certainly never got anywhere in life because of their looks and some of them are downright ugly men. Political races are now completely decided in the arena of television and their coverage of it has become absurd and embarassing. This is the change that Postman has tried to point out, that a literate culture that depends on the printed word for information and communication creates a vastly different culture from one that depends on images, ten second soundbites and information that has no context or relevance to anyone's life, like what Miley Cyrus or Paris Hilton is up to.

It has been over twenty years since Neil Postman wrote this but his ideas are even more relevant today. This book should be read and understood by everyone but it mostly falls on deaf ears. I think it was Mark Twain who said that the man who doesn't read has no advantage over the man who can't read. Television is now an integral part of life not only in America but in Europe, China and pretty much any other developed nation. This would not be a problem but, as Postman points out, one of the nasty side effects of television is that it has degraded literacy rates, so that every year we hear that people are reading less and less. People and specifically children spend an alarming amount of their free time watching television and to get them to read you practically have to force it upon them. Once in a while a book like Harry Potter will become a hit but for many children and even adults that was the only book they purchased or even attempted to read in an entire year. We hear that children in this country are performing worse every year in school but the finger is never pointed at the obvious culprit because we hear about this on TV.

Editorial Review:

A brilliant powerful and important book....This is a brutal indictment Postman has laid down and, so far as I can see, an irrefutable one. --Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World.

The Alex Studies: Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey Parrots

Irene Maxine Pepperberg

Amazon Price: $21.60 List Price: $24.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harvard University Press Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $19.94

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Can a parrot understand complex concepts and mean what it says? Since the early 1900s, most studies on animal-human communication have focused on great apes and a few cetacean species. Birds were rarely used in similar studies on the grounds that they were merely talented mimics--that they were, after all, "birdbrains." Experiments performed primarily on pigeons in Skinner boxes demonstrated capacities inferior to those of mammals; these results were thought to reflect the capacities of all birds, despite evidence suggesting that species such as jays, crows, and parrots might be capable of more impressive cognitive feats.

Twenty years ago Irene Pepperberg set out to discover whether the results of the pigeon studies necessarily meant that other birds--particularly the large-brained, highly social parrots--were incapable of mastering complex cognitive concepts and the rudiments of referential speech. Her investigation and the bird at its center--a male Grey parrot named Alex--have since become almost as well known as their primate equivalents and no less a subject of fierce debate in the field of animal cognition. This book represents the long-awaited synthesis of the studies constituting one of the landmark experiments in modern comparative psychology.

People Skills: How to Assert Yourself, Listen to Others, and Resolve Conflicts

Robert Bolton

Amazon Price: $10.19 List Price: $14.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Touchstone Amazon Marketplace: 191 new & used starting at $0.01

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Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A wall of silent resentment shuts you off from someone you love....You listen to an argument in which neither party seems to hear the other....Your mind drifts to other matters when people talk to you....

People Skills is a communication-skills handbook that can help you eliminate these and other communication problems. Author Robert Bolton describes the twelve most common communication barriers, showing how these "roadblocks" damage relationships by increasing defensiveness, aggressiveness, or dependency. He explains how to acquire the ability to listen, assert yourself, resolve conflicts, and work out problems with others. These are skills that will help you communicate calmly, even in stressful emotionally charged situations.

People Skills will show you

* How to get your needs met using simple assertion techniques

* How body language often speaks louder than words

* How to use silence as a valuable communication tool

* How to de-escalate family disputes, lovers' quarrels, and other heated arguments

Both thought-provoking and practical, People Skills is filled with workable ideas that you can use to improve your communication in meaningful ways, every day.

The Fine Art of Small Talk: How To Start a Conversation, Keep It Going, Build Networking Skills -- and Leave a Positive Impression!

Debra Fine

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Hyperion Amazon Marketplace: 61 new & used starting at $7.98

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 63 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A lot of Technique but very little Social IQ 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Based on some of the 4 and 5 stars reviews here I approached this book with excitement and high expectations only to be let down - hard.

The author states that her background is in Engineering and, frankly, I'm not surprised. The "problem" of small talk and conversation is treated like an engineering project rather than the fine art that it truly is (regardless the title). If you're an engineer (like I am) you might be tempted to believe that the litany of manipulative formulas presented here actually make sense and will work. And, I'm sure that they do - with OTHER socially challenged engineers (and others who are socially awkward). So, it's hardly surprising that the Author's client list is filled with companies with a strong engineering culture!

However, in the rest of the real world they're finding out that what is truly effective when it comes to relationships and conversations is "Social IQ". So, therefore, in leiu of this book I would recommend any of the following:

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Success

AND that is what is sorely (I would even say conspicuously) missing from this book. Without Social IQ the techniques outlined here are not only ineffective they could be downright irritating to "normies". (and, speaking as an engineer, I would be hard pressed to call most engineers "normal" when it comes to social matters)

However, if you develop Social IQ the techniques that are presented in this book would actually be quite effective - powerful in fact. So this reviewer's consumer advice would be, get this book AFTER you've developed (or refined) your Social IQ skills. Then you will have the essential skills required to be a superb conversationalist and friend!

This may sound daunting (it was for me) but, believe it or not it really isn't and you probably have all that you need lying latent inside you! Social IQ -- that's the key NOT JUST the words and approach that you use.

Editorial Review:

Nationally recognized communication expert Debra Fine reveals the techniques and strategies anyone can use to make small talk-in any situationDo you spend an abnormal amount of time hiding out in the bathroom or hanging out at the buffet table at social gatherings? Does the thought of striking up a conversation with a stranger make your stomach do flip-flops? Do you sit nervously through job interviews waiting for the other person to speak? Are you a -Nervous Ned or Nellie+ when it comes to networking? Then it+s time you mastered The Fine Art of Small Talk.With practical advice and conversation -cheat sheets,+ The Fine Art of Small Talk will help you learn to feel more comfortable in any type of social situation, from lunch with the boss to an association event to a cocktail party where you don+t know a soul.