Publisher: Rodale BooksPublication date: 4-Apr-2017
Date Finished: 22-May-2017
Format: hardback
Pages: 256
Genres: Nonfiction, Self-help
ISBN: 9781623367978
Source: Barnes & Noble
Rating:
Reading Challenges: Goodreads Reading Challenge
Synopsis
“From New York Times bestselling author of Adulting: How to Become a Grown-Up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps Kelly Williams Brown comes a funny, charming guide to modern civility in these—yes, we’ll say it—rather uncivil times.
Graciousness is practicing the arts of kindness, thoughtfulness, good manners, humanity, and basic decency. As a bonus, it makes your life and even the world (or at least the room you’re in) much lovelier.
It’s not about memorizing every rule of traditional etiquette to a T (though there is so much there to explore!) or spending all your time maintaining a spotless house. It’s about approaching the world with compassion, conviction, self-confidence, and whole-heartedness, whether you’re at the Met Gala or saying good morning to a convenience store clerk.
From chatting easily with anyone to mastering the subtleties of social media etiquette (hint: block early, block often), Brown has talked to gracious women and men all over the country to give you easy ways to embody your own graciousness.
Throughout the book, she provides tips on how to deal with the people and circumstances that challenge even the most socially graceful among us, advice on how to practice graciousness in everyday life, and thoughtful discussions on being kind to those around you without ever losing your sense of self.
With the wisdom of gracious folk ranging from celebrities to the author’s mother-in-law, this book explains the perspective, actions—and, sometimes, inaction—that help us move smoothly and effectively through whatever life tosses at us.”
–Goodreads
Review
Despite her books being self-help, they are extremely entertaining (and also very helpful). Before starting this book, I imagined it would be one that will help me through the heaviness that has been upon me since November (if you catch my drift). Sadly it did not give me coping methods to swim through that sea, but it did give me advice on how to be a great human being myself. Additionally, that the desire to be great human beings can be infectious.
This book is riddled with great advice from subway etiquette to hosting etiquette to internet etiquette. The entirety of it was written in a charming and witty way that makes it flow better than many fiction novels I’ve read.
I leave this book wishing the author would be my best friend because she seems like such a lovely, understanding person. I definitely recommend this book to anyone desiring some assistance on internet etiquette and such, it’s worth the read.
About the Author
“• New York Times-bestselling author of Adulting, and latest book Gracious.
• I was born in southern Louisiana, and have since lived in Mississippi, Oregon, Texas and Washington D.C.
• I studied journalism at Loyola University New Orleans, and worked as a daily news reporter for seven years before transitioning to copywriting and freelancing.
• I’ve worked as a long-form features writer, a columnist for The Daily Beast, and cocktail waitress on Bourbon Street.
• My work has appeared on or in the New York Times, the Today Show, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Esquire, The Boston Globe and many more, and has been translated into seven languages.
• I also do speaking engagements; my TEDx Talk, “I’m a Millennial, and I am a Monster” was a TED.com editor’s pick of the week.
• I am really good at cooking gumbo, etouffee, steaks and stew. I am proficient at cooking lots of other things.
• In my spare time, I like to read, dance, craft, drive to small towns to eat lunch, dress up in folk costume, seek out the few shades of red lipstick that a redhead can reasonably pull off, try new soups, feign interest in sporting events, experience actual interest in curling and gymnastics, and find the oddest and most interesting people possible.
• In my spare time, I do not particularly like to blog or use Twitter, but I do both those things a lot anyway. ”
–Author’s Website (www.kellywilliamsbrown.com)
Advertisements Share this:
