3.83 AVERAGE

informative sad fast-paced
dark informative slow-paced

The book is largely about stories of miscommunication. Gladwell did a great job at portraying both sides of the stories, in most cases, questioning what we think we know to be true.

Gladwell didn’t fully convince me of his point, which I will leave out due to spoilers, but it certainly provided some insight into our confirmation biases.

Talking to strangers, Gladwell writes, "requires humility and thoughtfulness and a willingness to look beyond the stranger, and take time and place and context into account."

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

Informational about political and social issues and how people approach situations, but got reduced to 3 stars bc of the casual mention of Israel. We're not doing that - bye!

Couldn’t finish the last chapters, because I can’t take this author seriously anymore. His views are completely fucked up and awful.
informative reflective medium-paced

Gladwell argues his points well. I think there are cultural factors he hasn’t accounted for that play into how we interact with other people, but they don’t negate the general thrust of his argument that most people want to believe that humans are good, and default to that in their interactions with others. He did verge on excusing extremely harmful behaviour at a couple of points by redirecting the blame but then smoothed that out with elaborations on the topic. Still not an easy read by any means and I expect that those who would most benefit from reflecting on their behaviour will neither see this nor benefit from its advice. 

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It's hard to quantify how much I love Malcolm gladwell's work. It is always thought provoking, often riveting, and incisively nuanced in perspective. Perhaps because of its particular focus on the incidence surrounding the death of Sandra Bland, and other aspects of the legal system, it is of the utmost importance for people who interface with the law particularly as agents of the law to read this book.
challenging informative
informative medium-paced

This book was on a list of recommended audiobooks. It's narrated by the author, but it features sound clips, interviews, and music, and it's really interesting to listen to! My favorite story featured was the story behind Sandra Bland's arrest and death and the events/emotions surrounding that tragedy.