The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over
by Jack Schafer
A great book for writers, actors and any others who want to observe and note human behavior in their creations, especially non-verbal behaviors. It's amazing how little most of us think about how we are being perceived by others, and by changing a few of our non-verbal behaviors here or there, we can make friends and influence our boss for the better.
Former FBI Agent Jack Schafer worked in behavioral analysis and honed his skills in reading both non-verbal and verbal behaviors in a wide variety of individuals. So, when he gives down-to-earth advice, you can feel confident that it’s been field-tested and found true. And the sheer simplicity of effective human communications is astounding. The secret of how to make friends isn’t particularly complicated. Schafer notes it’s a simple formula: Friendship = Proximity + Frequency + Duration + Intensity. Couple that equation with understanding the basics of non-verbal communication—make appropriate eye contact, tilt your head, keep an open posture, give a genuine smile—and you’ll be making and keeping friends before you know it. By employing “The Golden Rule of Friendship” and practicing empathetic statements and mirroring body language, you will seem like a mind-reader to your co-workers and family members, and they will open up and feel honored to return the favor.
With tips for effective electronic communications and how to maintain long-term relationships as well, The Like Switch is probably the only reference on the topic of human interactions you’ll ever need.
Rating: 4 sushi rolls
Apollo: The Race To The Moon
Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox
Simon and Schuster
Purchase Link
You never know what rare gem you'll find on a old bookshelf. Apollo: The Race To The Moon is one such find. Published in 1989, it's still an excellent history of the Apollo program from its inception to its unfortunate early demise after the return of Apollo 17. For space history nuts like me, it's definitely a must-read. For anyone remotely interested in how the American "space race" began and the politics, organizational challenges and personalities involved, it is well worth it.
The men (and they were mostly white males, alas) who were tasked with fulfilling Kennedy's vision of "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely within the decade" were of a different breed. Driven, dedicated, single-minded, innovative, dynamic--you can't come up with enough positive adjectives to describe them. They started with little to nothing and had to invent an organization to build launch, mission and recovery systems to meet a seemingly unreachable goal in a very short period of time.
We get to know the personalities that have become synonymous with Apollo and the space program--Max Faget, Jim Webb, Joe Shea, Gene Kranz, Chris Kraft, Werner Von Braun, among others. We feel their stress, their fears, their challenges. It was a time period and a place where the objective was more important than any one flight controller, scientist, astronaut, engineer or technician.
The Apollo program was truly a time of team spirit and self-sacrifice for the good of the whole. Americans will probably never experience such an intense time period to obtain such a lofty goal ever again.
Filled with fantastic facts, intriguing insights and introspective interviews, Apollo: The Race To The Moon will make you ask the pertinent question Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell once asked: "When are we going back?"
Rating: 4+ sushi rolls
The Concert Pianist
Judy & Keith
Devine Destinies Books
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Authors' web page
Thirteen year old Elizabeth Crenshaw has a very unusual gift--she can play the piano compositions of a murdered UCLA music student. In Judy and Keith's The Concert Pianist, the mystery of who killed student Lola Schumann after she leaves the bar where she plays piano takes a very interesting twist. Elizabeth's mom always wanted a piano, so she buys one at an auction. Elizabeth sits down at the keyboard and begins playing like a professional almost immediately.
Curious, Elizabeth looks inside the piano and finds a letter written by Lola. It says that she witnessed a drug-related killing and if anything happens to her, then she wanted to let someone know how her death came about. Elizabeth shares this information with Detective Gareth Lomas. He investigates and discovers a dirty cop is covering up for the drug dealer who had Lola run over. Gareth is set up and kicked off the force, but he persists in his investigation, even at the cost of his own reputation as one of LA's finest.
The Concert Pianist is a short and intriguing murder-mystery with paranormal elements sure to entertain young adult readers.
Rating: 3 sushi rolls
