This classic handbook has sharpened communication skills for over a hundred thousand people. It introduces a set of personal problem-solving methods that won the prestigious Innovations Award from The University of California. Reviewers say the methods reveal the science behind why relationships work—and fail to work. The Talk Book is loaded with dozens of easy-to-learn skills that allow you to get more of your advice accepted, help someone open up to you, provide someone close with the, experience of really being understood, create a balance of give-and-take in key relationships. All these skills come from just one extraordinary tool box. It contains six “talk tools” discovered by Goodman and others over twenty years of university research. Scholars praise them as a psychological breakthrough. Each one is natural, and already built into the way you talk, so no memorization is required. The trick is in finding out what they really do, when to use them, and when to avoid them. We rarely recognize our own troublesome talk habits that can creep in and eventually create a mess, damage a relationship, or lose an opportunity. This prize-winning psychology has a successful track- record for helping readers spot and fix unwanted habits. Thousands have proven that fact. Just read the book’s short -stories, study the real-life conversations, the surprising insights, and you will have a new powerful view of human connection and disconnection for a lifetime. Bottom line: The Talk Book can make relationships work better.READERS TALK ABOUT THEIR NEW TALK SKILLSOver 3000 people were asked to write about their experience after reading The Talk Book and doing the exercises. Here are a few un-edited excerpts: “I’ve been using most of the talk tools for three months now, and the give and take between us is much better. The meek mouse in me is gone. Now I can love him without losing myself” “…My girlfriend had to do these talk-book exercises for her psych class. I’m an overworked English major so she really had to talk me into being her homework partner. The first exercise on using questions was just interesting, but the 2nd one taught me an advice trick that actually worked on my little sister! Not bad, but the Mental Striptease game blew me away. It showed how to totally tune into someone’s mind. Awesome, because girl’s minds are sooo different. Understanding her that way in bed was such a super turn on, that for the first time in my life, I wasn’t just having sex-- I was making love with her. “I practiced Reflection skills with my family for a couple weeks, and was surprised that, like never before, talking with a new girl (at a party) was not painfully awkward! I wasn’t scared at all. It’s like being normal!” “That nervous feeling at work when starting a new client hardly happens now that I use your talk tools.” “Mother and I have not had even one fight since Thanksgiving. No more scrambled conversations. I love the book.” “I swear the divorce would have been a long agony without your book.” “Recognizing a guy as not worth my time is easier now that I can make sense of the way he talks. Maybe I shouldn’t brag, but I may not ever again complain about choosing the wrong guy. Honest, I can spot trouble the first or second date.” 4 “The way I see talk has changed forever. So many new ways for me to say what I mean, tell what I want, and hear hidden messages. It’s something like having more freedom, more personal power.”