Rhetoric gives our words the power to inspire. But it's not just for politicians: it's all around us, whether you're buttering up a key client or persuading your children to eat their greens. You have been using rhetoric yourself, all your life. After all, you know what a rhetorical question is, don't you? In this updated edition of his classic guide, Sam Leith traces the art of argument from ancient Greece down to its many modern mutations. He introduces verbal villains from Hitler to Donald Trump - and the three musketeers: ethos, pathos and logos. He explains how rhetoric works in speeches from Cicero to Richard Nixon, and pays tribute to the rhetorical brilliance of AC/DC's "Back In Black". Before you know it, you'll be confident in chiasmus and proud of your panegyrics - because rhetoric is useful, relevant and absolutely nothing to be afraid of.

Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Outliers, offers a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers and why they often go wrong—now with a new afterword by the author. A Best Book of the Year: The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Chicago Tribune, and Detroit Free Press How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to one another that isn’t true? Talking to Strangers is a classically Gladwellian intellectual adventure, a challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology, and scandals taken straight from the news. He revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal at Penn State University, and the death of Sandra Bland—throwing our understanding of these and other stories into doubt. Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don’t know. And because we don’t know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world. In his first book since his #1 bestseller David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell has written a gripping guidebook for troubled times.

“WE NEED TO TALK.” In this urgent and insightful book, public radio journalist Celeste Headlee shows us how to bridge what divides us--by having real conversations BASED ON THE TED TALK WITH OVER 10 MILLION VIEWS NPR's Best Books of 2017 Winner of the 2017 Silver Nautilus Award in Relationships & Communication “We Need to Talk is an important read for a conversationally-challenged, disconnected age. Headlee is a talented, honest storyteller, and her advice has helped me become a better spouse, friend, and mother.” (Jessica Lahey, author of New York Times bestseller The Gift of Failure) Today most of us communicate from behind electronic screens, and studies show that Americans feel less connected and more divided than ever before. The blame for some of this disconnect can be attributed to our political landscape, but the erosion of our conversational skills as a society lies with us as individuals. And the only way forward, says Headlee, is to start talking to each other. In We Need to Talk, she outlines the strategies that have made her a better conversationalist—and offers simple tools that can improve anyone’s communication. For example: BE THERE OR GO ELSEWHERE. Human beings are incapable of multitasking, and this is especially true of tasks that involve language. Think you can type up a few emails while on a business call, or hold a conversation with your child while texting your spouse? Think again. CHECK YOUR BIAS. The belief that your intelligence protects you from erroneous assumptions can end up making you more vulnerable to them. We all have blind spots that affect the way we view others. Check your bias before you judge someone else. HIDE YOUR PHONE. Don’t just put down your phone, put it away. New research suggests that the mere presence of a cell phone can negatively impact the quality of a conversation. Whether you’re struggling to communicate with your kid’s teacher at school, an employee at work, or the people you love the most—Headlee offers smart strategies that can help us all have conversations that matter.

In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo offers a revelatory examination of race in America Protests against racial injustice and white supremacy have galvanized millions around the world. The stakes for transformative conversations about race could not be higher. Still, the task ahead seems daunting, and it’s hard to know where to start. How do you tell your boss her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law hang up on you when you had questions about police reform? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend? In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from police brutality and cultural appropriation to the model minority myth in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race, and about how racism infects every aspect of American life. "Simply put: Ijeoma Oluo is a necessary voice and intellectual for these times, and any time, truth be told." ―Phoebe Robinson, New York Times bestselling author of You Can't Touch My Hair

Have you ever awakened in the middle of the night and had such a strong feeling of having to do something and not been able to go back to sleep until you did it? Have you had many experiences about which you called coincidences or intuition? Have you had a song come on the radio with words that touched your heart at a time when you really needed to hear them? Have you had a friend/relative call you on the phone just when you were about to call that person yourself? Have you had a book come into your hands just when you needed to read the message in it? If you answered yes to any or all of the preceding questions, then this book is the one for you to read. It is a true story about what happened to an average person like you, who decided to take a leap of faith and believe that it was God speaking to her whenever any of those things happened. It could be your story, because the author describes what she did to hear Gods Voice and what transpired when she followed the directives which she was given. Read this book to see what can happen in just 12 short weeks when you take a leap of faith, be still and listen, and try to be just Love.

If you are that husband or man who leaves conversations asking; Why am I angry? Why doesn't she get it? Why do I feel disrespected? This book will help you to break that stronghold and strengthen your relationships. You will learn to identify the methods, intents and thoughts of different types of conversationalists. You will also learn to stand bolder and with confidence, or be more sensitive and understanding in some of the conversations you've attempted to avoid or wish to have control over. Men, see how God can turn our conversational challenges with our wives and partners into vocal victories!

You, Talking to Me is an informative and entertaining look into the mind of a journalist whom Writer's Digest called "legendary." In concise lessons of only a few pages each, Grobel details what he's learned from talking to 120 of the most fascinating people of our time, among them Gov. Jesse Ventura, Coach Bob Knight, kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst, Nobel Prize winners Saul Bellow, Richard Feynman, and Linus Pauling, and he reveals stories about Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry, Dolly Parton, Kiefer Sutherland, James Spader, Robert De Niro, Henry Fonda, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, Elmore Leonard, Goldie Hawn, Barbra Streisand and so many more. No other journalist has spent the time or has had the insight to such a wide variety of celebrated artists. Grobel's lessons range from the serious ("Don't Be Bullied," "Anger Fuels Conversation," "A Lie Can Be as Telling as a Truth"), to the humorous ("Shlock Can Be Art If You Believe It," "If They Offer You a Drink, Don't Make it Soft," "If They Mistake You for Someone Else, Let it Ride," "If They Offer to Lasso You, Go With It"), to the absurd ("When You Save Someone from Getting His Head Smashed, He'll Respond with Kindness," "Know How to Defuse a Potentially Threatening Situation, and Keep Enough Cash in Case You're Thrown Out of the Car Onto a Deserted Highway in Ohio," "Treat Your Plants to Baroque Music, and Stay Clear of Fluffers"). Over the years people have asked Grobel what he's learned doing in-depth interviews for Playboy, Rolling Stone, Newsday, the N.Y. Times, and his books of conversations. This is his answer.