Book Club... And Then Some!

59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot
by Richard Wiseman

Book Review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

In a word: fascinating! 59 Seconds is one of those, “I just couldn’t put it down,” types of books. Having previously cited some of Wiseman’s research on humor in the final chapter of Edgar E. Willis’s book, How to be funny on Purpose: Creating and Consuming Humor, I was already familiar with one area of his research. Other areas include deception and luck. What makes this book utterly fascinating is his ability to distill (and make palatable) thousands of papers (research studies) in psychology, then apply them directly to the way we (readers) live their lives. The way he destroys many of the myths that often are taken for granted, is eye-opening.

Wiseman’s chapter titles reveal how closely the research studies (and his applications of them) relate to our lives: happiness, persuasion, motivation, creativity, attraction, relationships, stress, decision-making, parenting, and personality. How can anyone deny that at least one, and probably more, of these areas relates to his or her life?

Wiseman’s close dependence on scientific studies, while maintaining complete and easy readability, I might add, makes this book a valuable resource and practical guide to change. Wiseman explained his method and approach in this manner: “Over the course of a few months, I carefully searched through endless journals containing research papers from many different areas of psychology. As I examined the work, a promising pattern emerged, with researches in quite different fields developing techniques that help people achieve their aims and ambitions in minutes, not months. I collected hundreds of these studies, drawn from many different areas of the behavioral sciences. From mood to memory, persuasion to procrastination, resilience to to relationships, together they represent a new science of rapid change” (p. 8).

Wiseman’s delightful, sometimes dry, sense of humor not only makes the text engaging, but it makes it entertaining as well.

With the specific, practical tools Wiseman offers, clear reporting of the methods the researchers used, and the delightful encouragement of the author himself, you cannot help but be moved to grow, develop, and change in new purposeful and meaningful directions. His 59-second sections full of useful, applicable advice are thought-provoking and valuable. I remain fascinated! (If you want to see a short video of Wiseman, there is one on the Amazon.com website where his book is advertised.)

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What would Google do?
by Jeff Jarvis

Book Review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

I found this book fascinating simply because it challenges you to think. Jeff Jarvis has numerous credentials. He is on the faculty of the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He was the creator and founding editor of Entertainment Weekly. He writes the new media column for the Guardian in London.

What would Google Do? has three parts, and if I was asked which part I enjoyed the most, I would be hard pressed to give an answer, and here’s why. I have always been intrigued by Google, and the first part of the book explains its philosophy in a set of 40 rules divided into 10 categories. For example, his opening section, “New Relationship,” includes 4 rules: 1) Give the people control and we will use it, 2) Dell hell, 3) Your worst customer is your best friend, 4) Your best customer is your partner. This is just one example, of course. But I found great information in the rules, “The link changes everything,” “If you’re not searchable, you won’t be found,” and “Simplify, simplify.” There are many more.

The second part of the book, “If Google Ruled the World.” Jarvis simply applies the rules discussed in the first part of the book to a long list of businesses: media, advertising, retail, utilities, manufacturing, service, money, public welfare, public institutions, and exceptions. In the third part (only 10 pages long) called, “Generation G,” Jarvis focuses on social implications of the new power structure, dramatically democratized by Google's solutions. In one Amazon.com review, B. Mann writes, “While many companies were sleeping, the rules of business changed, at least as it pertains to business built on, or enabled by, the internet. Or maybe not all the rules changed (e.g. Wal-Mart, the big dog, will remain the big dog), but a new set of rules has been layered on top (e.g. small is the new big).

With those new rules (plus, admittedly, luck), Google has become a behemoth, cyberly speaking. In the process, Google helped redefine the fundamental nature of the relationships between seller, buyer, advertiser, and the "middlemen" whose value in society is rapidly evaporating.”

Although there is a bit too much of Jarvis in this book, it is still a worthwhile read. It is not a book about what Google does, but a book of what we can do with Google. And, furthermore, it is not a practical book, a well-organized book, or one that offers a deep understanding, but I think it offers a preliminary look at the way Internet-based relationships fuel a new business model, and I found it enjoyable simply because it is speculative. It makes you think!


Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet
by Ian F. McNeely with Lisa Wolverton

Book Review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

In this delightful, well-written, and fully documented 276-page (of text) book, with 25 pages of notes, you will discover a wonderful, fully absorbing, history book that, in my mind, completely and satisfactorily answers the question the authors set out to answer: How does history help us understand the vast changes we are now experiencing in the landscape of knowledge? Further, what are the pivotal points of institutional change and cultural transformation from the classical period to the present?

With Reinventing Knowledge you must enjoy an intellectual challenge, it is true, but if you are interested in the key institutions (i.e., the library, the monastery, the university, the republic of letters, the disciplines, and the laboratory) that have shaped and channeled knowledge in the West, this is certainly a book that will both dazzle and exhilarate your senses.

Because of my background in speech communication, I was particularly drawn to the early section in which they explain the public arenas of democratic Athens where competitive speech and writing took center stage, but were considered an inferior path to truth. There was, then, a shift to knowledge as written then, in another shift, to libraries that could produce Homer’s epics as well as the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible — which made knowledge portable. In yet another shift, monasteries arose as key knowledge institutions to not just preserve written culture of the ancient past but create new frameworks for understanding as well.

It was with the creation of universities that knowledge was again embraced and there was an emphasis on performance, use of the spoken word, and the questioning of texts. This is how the authors proceed through the book, and it makes for fascinating reading.

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Speech-Less: Tales of a White House Survivor
by Matt Latimer

Book Review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

I immediately sought out this book when I read parts of it at my father-in-law’s house. He had just received Speech-Less: Tales of a White House Survivor as a gift, and I read a portion of it that I wanted to include in the public-speaking chapters of the tenth edition of my book, Communicating Effectively (McGraw-Hill, 2009), on which I am currently at work. What I didn’t realize was what a wonderful, funny, honest (and, generally, non-partisan) work of art this book truly was. I say “work of art” simply because Latimer is such a gifted writer. His insights, insider information, and the examples he uses are truly revealing and enjoyable.

He is so open, honest, and straightforward, and although these are, indeed, Latimer’s own viewpoints and opinions, you quickly grow to trust his perceptions. I was fascinated, as were other reviewers, to read Latimer's views of Rumsfeld, Chaney, Bush, Colin Powell, Condi Rice and many other of the big names in the Bush administration. The book is 294 pages long, and it includes an index. Once you get started reading it, however, you won’t be able to put it down. As a writer of speeches for myself (never for others), I am somewhat awestruck that anyone could get as excited and enthusiastic as Latimer (or any other speechwriter, for that matter) about writing speeches to celebrate non-events. Oh, I realize there is no such thing as a true “non-event,” but what I mean are trivial, commonplace, celebrations of little importance to the world. I guess being close to the president of the United States, working for him directly, and knowing that you have to perform (prove yourself with) the little assignments to get the big ones that have the potential of making a major difference, is sufficient.

It was for Latimer; however, his experience as a speechwriter was disappointing: “Still, I wasn’t satisfied with my overall experience in the White House,” he writes. “I’d hoped I’d come on board, impress everyone, and craft the great speeches I’d dreamed of since childhood. That wasn’t happening. In fact, the speeches for the most part were disappointment. And the speechwriting process at the White House was nothing like I’d expected it to be” (p. 179).

Nonetheless, moving among the power brokers of the world—and being depended upon by them—was a serious “head trip” for Latimer like when he said, “Knowing that I was dying to meet the vice president..” (p. 172). You must understand that I have not just a little distaste, but a huge and overwhelming dislike (revulsion), for the people of the administration of which Latmer writes; however, I must add at once, his “no-holds-barred,” full-disclosure, honest descriptions of all the characters is refreshing. Of Cheney, Latimer wrote, “I liked the guy from the outset. I truly did. And unlike many people in the administration, he never once did anything that caused me to change my mind” (p. 174). His admiration of Cheney and Rumsfeld, I might add, surprises me, just as his total dislike of Colin Powell, Jimmy Carter, and all liberals. But that doesn’t destroy the entertainment value of the book! It is a real pleasure to read great writing that flows well, engages you, and regularly tickles your funny bone.

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Telling lies: Clues to deceit in the marketplace, politics, and marriage
by Paul Ekman

Book Review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

Telling lies is a book that everyone can read: expert and layman alike. There is no sophisticated vocabulary, scientific terminology, or eloquent theoretical discourses. If you are looking for a specific formula, exact template, or reliable protocol that can be used to investigate or detect liars, this book will serve little purpose because there is no such system. However, if you are looking for a catalog of the wide variety of cues that liars manifest (e.g., words, voice, facial cues, or body), and the results of numerous scientific studies on lying, and examples from politics, sales/business, government, and everyday life that reveal the various cues, this is a delightful, well-written book.

The narrative form that Ekman uses is interesting and engaging. What led me to this book in the first place was some recent research on lying. As reported by Benedict Carey, “Judging Honesty By Words, Not Fidgets,” in The New York Times (May 12, 2009, p. D1), he writes, “In part, the work grows out of a frustration with other methods. Liars do not avert their eyes in an interview on average any more than people telling the truth do, researchers report; they do not fidget, sweat or slump in a chair any more often. They may produce distinct, fleeting changes in expression, experts say, but it is not clear yet how useful it is to analyze those.” The study, according to Carey, draws “on work by Dr. Vrij and Dr. Marcia K. Johnson of Yale, among others,” and was conducted by “Dr. Colwell and Dr. Cheryl Hiscock-Arisman of National University in La Jolla, California. [They] have developed an interview technique that appears to help distinguish a tall tale from a true one.” The actual interview technique is not as important as the conclusion: “People telling the truth tend to add 20 to 30 percent more external detail than do those who are lying.” When liars concoct their prepared deceitful script, it is tight and lacking in detail, whereas those without a deceitful, previously prepared script, recall more extraneous detail and may even make mistakes. “They are sloppier,” say the researchers. The researchers point out that their interview, content-based approach does not apply to individual facts, may be poorly suited for those who have been traumatized and not interested in talking, and it is not likely to flag someone who changes one small but crucial detail in a story.

The point is that in the interview, content-based approach, those who seek to detect lies are not looking for specific nonverbal or verbal clues; they are looking more holistically at content. This “new” science is evolving fast says Carey.

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Life is a verb: 37 days to wake up, be mindful, and live intentionally
by Patti Digh

Book Review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

Digh’s book, Life is a Verb, is arranged around her six-point guide to life that includes intensity, inclusion, integrity, intimacy, intuition, and intention.

The following is an accurate “product description” for this book: “Within these pages—enhanced by original artwork and wide, inviting margins ready to be written in—Digh identifies six core practices to jump-start a meaningful life: Say Yes, Trust Yourself, Slow Down, Be Generous, Speak Up, and Love More. Within this framework she supplies 37 edgy, funny, and literary life stories, each followed by a “do it now” 10-minute exercise as well as a practice to try for 37 days—and perhaps the rest of your life” (Amazon.com)

Of the book, Sarah Morgan of Stewartsville, NJ, said: “The writing exercises are excellent, bite-sized, and spur you to much deeper consideration of the topics. And the writing itself is funny, real, down-to-earth and extremely moving. I've bought one copy and will buy several more as gifts.” Morgan has put her finger on an important aspect of this book: It is either a gift-wrapped present (because of the fancy presentation and original artwork that makes the book stunning) to yourself or it can be a brilliant choice (because of the vibrant colors, various fonts, poetry, and artistic designs) as a gift for someone else. This is one of the best conceived, imaginatively produced, creatively expressed, and sensitively presented books I have ever read.

Artybeth from Colorado writes in her brief review of the book, “The writing is wonderful and I've seen so many things I've not seen before. Her insights and observations immediately put one in tune with their inner creative self and there [is] much food for thought. It has a beautiful layout and visuals including wonderful quotes trailing along the pages.”

Digh’s writing is outstanding, the quotations she adds are delightful, the artwork is sensational, her examples are captivating, and her “Action” boxes and “Movement” suggestions are practical and useful. Overall, your senses will be assuaged, your feelings will be soothed, and any harsh or violent thoughts you have will be calmed as you read — really absorb — this wonderful creation.

Married to Africa: A Love Story
by G. Pascal Zachary

Book Review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

Married to Africa: A Love Story is a fascinating story about contrasting cultures. It is the zoo located in Accra, Ghana, where Zachary meets Chizo Okon, and this book is about their warm and humorous story. I found the in-law introductions by both partners captivating and truly priceless. Zachary depicts life in Africa—the spiritual fervor of some Africans, the mysterious power of juju, and the rewards of eating bushmeat and other African dishes (from the front book jacket). What it was like being white in a black society offered information and insights just as how Chizo experienced being very black in San Francisco. The vignettes are both wacky and wonderful, such as when police mistook Chizo for a black male robbing Zachary’s house, surrounded the house, and saw her come to the door which a large knife in her hand—not out of self-protection or malice, but because she was using the knife in the kitchen. Driving without a licence, charming a stern Jewish mother-in-law, and managing requests from poor relatives in Africa are among other delightful vignettes. If you enjoy love stories, cultural comparisons and differences, and are looking for a witty well-told tale, this book will suit your reading interests just fine.

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