When life if off center,

she'll show you the right
screws to tighten.

In a desperate moment of realization, Gorydetails' books were running everywhere, wild and on the loose! :O

With a heavy net and putting tacky on the ground, I got as many of those little bastards for a trade before they all ran away! TT-TT

I lost several good ones in the battle... TT-TT

But in the chaos and dusty sunset's light, this is one I trade to her for those little wild beasts of hers~

:P

The box-o-books arrived in the nick of time, as the cardboard was splitting around the edges. But the books are all safe on this lovely, summery day. Many thanks!

I've visited New York a few times, so we'll see if the subtitle here is meant literally or sarcastically {wry grin}.

Later: I enjoyed this little book very much, both for its examples of different ways to defuse potentially ugly confrontations and for its general air of optimism. I hadn't realized it dealt with a specific theory of Nonviolent Communication, but the examples in the stories make it sound very appealing. The tales range from a trivial domestic mixup - the kind that happens often and can undermine a relationship if not dealt with. Author Dian describes her habit of opening her shower curtain after a shower so it will dry without getting moldy - and the fight she got into with her girlfriend who never left the shower curtain open despite repeated requests. Turns out they each had a different mental image of "open" (I agreed with the girlfriend {wry grin}) - cut from "you don't love me" to hearts and flowers.

Then there's a hilarious one about applying lip balm before slipping into bed, forgetting that the overdue-for-washing sheets are laden with cat hair - this one had me giggling, and deals with ways to talk one's self down from a Very Bad Mood that's all one's own fault.

Being yelled at by an irate fellow customer in a supermarket line, spending too much energy fretting over the many reasons why someone might have been driving unsafely - these and other situations demonstrate ways to communicate in a clear manner that (with luck) will de-escalate the situation, if not always result in warm fuzzies. And sometimes they deal with ways to adjust one's own thinking, to stop that wrenching, burning fury at the actions of someone else whose motives you don't know and whose actions you can't control... that part seems especially useful.

At the end of the book there's a section describing the Nonviolent Communication model, with pointers to other resources. Nifty little book!

I'm taking this to the Boston BookCrossers meetup at Panera Bread in Brookline at 2 pm, for anyone who'd like to read it - whether you're attending the meetup or not! Hope someone enjoys the book!

*** Released as part of the 2015 Keep Them Moving release challenge. ***

I'm really interested in urban experience, so I want to read this...

While this doesn't really work as fiction (it's more a step by step about modes of communication) it does set up some interesting scenarios, with ideas about how differently they can play out, depending on how the two people approach communicating. It's especially interesting to recognize all the random anger that you can encounter in everyday life, and to see how the anger can be a reaching out to connect, and express frustration at the difference between what people want and what they've been getting. So, this book notices the ways that a conversation can either further the anger or change it (pivot, in the current cliche) to a more satisfying kind of communication.

The graphic novel is wonderfully drawn, and I really enjoyed the artwork. About a 20 minute read (if you linger.) So, I'd recommend giving it that time :-)

putting into waternixie's potpourri book box.

From the potpourri bookbox. Will release at a Little free Library.