Talking To Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
This book beautifully and strategically brings together (seemingly unrelated) topics and events to shine a light on how we as humans lack the ability to understand strangers and their intentions in certain contexts. Gladwell brings readers through courtrooms, a texan polices roadside encounter with Sandra Bland, Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, Neville Chamberlain’s interactions with Hitler , psychological studies, double agent CIA officers, Friends (the sitcom) and more.
Without a doubt, one of my favourite reads. It was packed with significant historical events I had never heard of that I really enjoyed learning about - it even inspired me to do some extended research on some of them. I really fell in love with Gladwell’s writing style and think his delivery and development of the topic absolutely BRILLIANT.
I often have a hard time when reading because my mind just decides to start thinking about anything but the words on the page in front of me and then I’m stuck having to choose between re-reading (which feels like such a drag) or taking the gamble and going on hoping what I missed wasn’t really important. However, I absolutely did not have that problem with this book. I was hooked the whole time and just couldn’t get enough.
I read this book for the first time a few months ago over the course of a few weeks and then again recently. This time, I read it out loud (which was great because it allowed me to practice my speaking skills) to Ruby and Sarah over the course of like two days - talking to strangers was our only concern for those 48 hours. Sharing the experience between the three of us was really nice as we would often pause and talk about what we had just read. From applying newly learned psychological phenomenons to our love lives, to Sarah enlightening me about Fidel Castro and Ruby teaching me how to pronounce at least one word per page, I will forever be grateful for this shared experience of ours.
Ruby Sarah and I in St. Marys Quad (our favourite place to read)
So, thank you Sarah, Ruby and Malcolm Gladwell. (And if it wasn’t already obvious - I highly recommend this book!!)