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
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
by David Grann
Random House
Author web site link
Amazon link
If this book wasn't based on a true life tragedy of epic proportions, you'd swear you were reading a best-selling mystery-thriller it's so engaging. David Grann presents the people and the "culture of killing" that existed in Osage County, Oklahoma during the 1920s. His clear and unblinking style reveals the dark, racist underside of the early petroleum industry, and how far these men were willing to go to make their millions.
We come to know Mollie Burkhardt and her sisters as they are killed off one by one, and we feel her terror and anguish at the knowledge that some person or persons she trusts are exterminating the Osage for their oil headrights.
At one time the richest people in America, the Osage sat on top of the world's then largest oil reserves. From poor ranchers to practically millionaires overnight, the Osage were the envy of the white society that surrounded them. The law took away their rights to handle their own wealth, however. "Guardians" were appointed by federal judges to handle the finances of most Osage, since only whites were seen as "competent." This racist system guaranteed abuses and frauds against the Osage, but the final draw many whites who benefited from the system felt came when the Osage sued successfully to keep their mineral rights, which by the turn of the 20th century meant petroleum deposits.
An Osage couldn't sell or give his or her oil headright to a non-Osage, but if an Osage married a white who became his or her guardian, then he/she could inherit--and sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars--the Osage spouse's headright. Mollie and her sisters were each married (or formerly married) to white husbands. Mollie's older sister Anna was discovered shot in the head from behind. Then Mollie's mother died under mysterious circumstances, suspected to be slow poisoning, and then her younger sister Rita and her husband and maid were blown up along with their newly purchased home. The newly created "Bureau of Investigation" (the precursor to the FBI) under a new young and brash director, J. Edgar Hoover, finally stood up and took notice of the numerous murders of Osage oil headright owners happening in Oklahoma.
In 1925, Hoover appointed Agent Tom White, a former Texas Ranger, to take charge of the case, which had been terribly mismanaged by earlier agents. White discovered there were many more than just Mollie's family members being murdered--possibly there were hundreds of Osage shot and poisoned in the time period 1915-1930, with many leads pointing to their trusted white guardians and spouses, upstanding members of the community. Sympathetic whites and the henchmen who pulled off the actual killings for their paymasters also met untimely deaths, proving that no one was able to escape the culture of killing once the Oklahoma oil rush began in earnest.
In the wake of the recent actions taken against Native American protestors of the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, Killers of the Flower Moon is a must-read book that demonstrates how the rich, predominately white male members of the petroleum industry are not above committing murder to obtain access to the petroleum resources they want. It is riveting true story about an ugly time period in American history that has been covered up for far too long.
Rating: 4+ sushi rolls (a great read)
