Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

Kansas City, Missouri (and others)

First of all, this book needs a MAJOR content warning for graphic descriptions of sexual assault, including pedophilia. The descriptions were also totally unnecessary and seemed to be just used to sensationalize the book. That is lazy and problematic. This is my first problem with the book.

This book is not a self development about being better at small talk, as I thought it was before purchasing it (I had an excess of credits on Audible and was spending them without much digging into the books). It was a series of vignettes about various people who have been deceived, including many important people in power. It doesn't provide any advice about how to be better at reading people. It's just a series of loosely connected stories, some that are more interesting than others.

My most pressing issue with this book is that his chapter on sexual assault was disgusting. I had to listen to an hour of victim blaming and rationalization of a sexual predator (Brock Turner of all cases). ALCOHOL DOES NOT CAUSE SEXUAL ASSAULT. SEXUAL PREDATORS CAUSE AND COMMIT SEXUAL ASSAULT. Consent is not ambiguous or difficult to ascertain. If it is murky, consent is not being given. It is that easy. Saying anything else is leaving room for predators to continue to harm people. I could hardly stomach this chapter, and I wanted to give up on the book here.

The only reason this book gets 2 stars instead of zero (Can you leave a zero star review?) are the chapters about Sandra Bland, the police, and suicide. All of Gladwell's claims include credible sources and studies, and the last portion of the book was educating and insightful. I enjoyed hearing an explanation for America's police problem that wasn't a simple "all cops are bad (which they are) so the police should be abolished or de-funded (which it should)" or "those officers are just 'bad apples.'"

Overall, the somewhat interesting parts of this book did not redeem the terrible parts. I would recommend leaving this one unread. Perhaps Gladwell's other books are better, but I am not going to give him another try any time soon.

I chose Kansas City as the location for this book because it was the location of a police study mentioned in this book. The study, taken out of context is one of the reasons why we have a police force that conducts ridiculous amounts of random traffic stops. This was one of the more interesting chapters, and I am trying to remember this book in a positive light

Review by the Numbers:

Overall: 2/5

Writing: 3/5

Plot: 2/5

Message: 2/5

Character Development: n/a

Challenges Satisfied:

Kansas (Reading My Way Around the World Challenge)

Book About Other Groups (Police) (Diversity Challenge)