Why read That's Not What I Meant!?

Book cover of That's Not What I Meant!: How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships

Book description

“Tannen combines a novelist’s ear for the way people speak with a rare power of original analysis....Fascinating.”
—Oliver Sacks, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and The Mind’s Eye

In That’s Not What I Meant!, Deborah Tannen, renowned communication expert and author of the New…

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Why read it?

1 author picked That's Not What I Meant! as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Kieran File

Author

This book really drew me to the power of language because it completely changed the way I think about everyday conversations and their power to shape relationships. Tannen’s exploration of conversational style taught me that it is not just what we say but how we say it that shapes our relationships. Misunderstandings I’d brushed off made sense: the clashes between my need to be direct and others' preference for subtlety, for example, or why certain conversations left me feeling unheard.

This book was empowering and humbling at the same time. It offers a guide to better communication that doesn’t point…

From Kieran's list on expanding your knowledge of how language works.