Our chemist, our window cleaner, our colleague - they populate our days but we often take them for granted. Yet these are the people who bring novelty and information into our lives, allow us to exercise different parts of ourselves and open us up to new opportunities. In their unprecedented examination of people on the periphery, Karen Fingerman, who coined the term 'consequential strangers', collaborates with Melinda Blau to expand on and make her own groundbreaking research come alive. Drawing as well from Blau's interviews, the book presents compelling stories of individuals and institutions, past and present. A rich portrait of our social landscape - on and off the Internet - it presents the science of casual connection and chronicles the surprising impact that consequential strangers have on business, creativity, the work environment, our health and the strength of our communities.
Consequential Strangers
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"A mind-expanding and heart-opening book." Daniel Goleman
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
Melinda Blau, co-author of the best-selling Baby Whisperer series, writes extensively about relationships and trends. Karen L. Fingerman is the Berner Hanley Professor at Purdue University.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Stephanie DePue
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
"Consequential Strangers," by journalist Melinda Blau and by psychologist Karen L. Fingerman, PhD, gives us a new term for a phenomenon most of us already know well, I think: the people on the edges of our daily lives, in our outer circles: the Soup Nazi, the shoemaker, the baker, the barista. The book argues that these people are more important to us than many of us, have, perhaps, realized: that intimates - family members - aren't enough to get us through the day. That people on the edges of our lives give us new ideas, new blood: that they impact our success, happiness, and health.
I'm prepared to believe it, but then, I've always thought so; it seems like common sense to me. However, the authors buttress this argument with a great many studies, and Blau has done more than two hundred interviews in furtherance of the idea. The book's accessible, easy to read, but rather repetitive. Blau has written more than 80 magazine pieces and a dozen other books, including the best-selling Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate with Your Baby series. Fingerman, who coined the term "consequential strangers", is the Berner Hanley Professor and Director of Adult Family Research at Purdue University. She's an internationally known scholar who has authored more than 60 articles and chapters.
Funny, years ago I had lunch once with a woman in classes I was taking. I have always believed in telling "consequential strangers" honestly what was on my mind, on the theory it would come back to me, and, as the woman, a black, high achiever, was complaining about her inability to marry, I told her about an article that I'd just read, that said any woman who really wanted to marry could: that she probably already knew the guy; she just hadn't thought of him in that way. Much later, we lunched again, and the woman, having forgotten our previous lunch and conversation, mentioned to me that she'd just married happily, to a guy she'd been friendly with for years. So I gave her a good idea, didn't I?
I'm prepared to believe it, but then, I've always thought so; it seems like common sense to me. However, the authors buttress this argument with a great many studies, and Blau has done more than two hundred interviews in furtherance of the idea. The book's accessible, easy to read, but rather repetitive. Blau has written more than 80 magazine pieces and a dozen other books, including the best-selling Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate with Your Baby series. Fingerman, who coined the term "consequential strangers", is the Berner Hanley Professor and Director of Adult Family Research at Purdue University. She's an internationally known scholar who has authored more than 60 articles and chapters.
Funny, years ago I had lunch once with a woman in classes I was taking. I have always believed in telling "consequential strangers" honestly what was on my mind, on the theory it would come back to me, and, as the woman, a black, high achiever, was complaining about her inability to marry, I told her about an article that I'd just read, that said any woman who really wanted to marry could: that she probably already knew the guy; she just hadn't thought of him in that way. Much later, we lunched again, and the woman, having forgotten our previous lunch and conversation, mentioned to me that she'd just married happily, to a guy she'd been friendly with for years. So I gave her a good idea, didn't I?
By Swan
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I love this book and still pop into it every now and again for inspiration to enrich my life. Melinda Blau has a wonderful attitude to life through thick and thin. I would recommend this to anyone is is saying to her/his self what is life all about !
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By bucky
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Interesting book about the impact of strangers on our quality of life,especially in the internet age. I read this after a recent book 'Loneliness', which made a similar point.We are social animals who need others.
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