The Intelligent Conversationalist: 31 Cheat Sheets That Will Show You How to Talk to Anyone About Anything, Anytime

by Imogen Lloyd Webber

Overview

Have you ever been at a cocktail party when all of a sudden you feel like an outsider in the conversation because you have absolutely no idea what the person is talking about? You're standing around with a glass of wine and someone starts talking about how the stock market did that day leading to the career highs of Ben Bernanke and the best way to short a stock. You stand there completely silent because you know nothing about the stock market, let alone the history of economics. You're being pushed to the outside edge of the pack and there's no way to reach gracefully for your iPhone and Google. Fear not: Imogen Lloyd Webber is on a mission to make everyone as conversationally nimble as she has learned to be as a cable news pundit. Her solution: get a few cheat sheets and study up. Remember cheat sheets, those slips of paper filled with facts? As Imogen might say "Google is good, but a cheat sheet is forever..." In eight cheat sheets, Imogen takes you through the facts that come up in most conversations: the English language, math/economics, religion, history, politics, geography, biology and culture. From the history of money to who signed The Magna Carta, Imogen shows you how to get back in a conversation, win any argument and most importantly, how to pivot out of a tough conversational bind. Imogen Lloyd Webber's The Intelligent Conversationalist will help you talk with anyone about anything anytime.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250040473
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/07/2016
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	520,250
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

IMOGEN LLOYD WEBBER is a broadcaster and writer. She is the author of The Single Girl's Guide and co-author of The Twitter Diaries: A Tale of 2 Cities. She lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

The Intelligent Conversationalist [is] a sort of Baedeker for the intellectually bewildered." - The New York Times

From the Publisher

05/01/2016
For many, presenting in public is an awesome challenge. In Do You Talk Funny?, Nihill (founder of FunnyBizz) describes how stand-up comedy can be applied to speaking engagements to make people sound funnier and appear better-looking. Similarly beneficial is The Intelligent Conversationalist from Webber (The Single Girl's Survival Guide), which delivers a summary of world culture and events to enable readers to engage in small talk in academic circles. Nihill's book suggests warming up by practicing in front of cats or dogs, then talking to individuals before the presentation, and encourages inviting the audience to the story. Webber's solution is in the form of a "cheat sheet," which, as it turns out, is a solid overview of math, religion, history, geography, and culture—a one-step guide to a liberal education. VERDICT Both volumes will be valuable to patrons, depending on their needs, as each serves as a sort of guide to successful public speaking as well as understanding the societies that have contributed to our contemporary mind-sets.

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