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Transitioning to College
Description: Are you or is someone you know making the major transition to go to college? These titles will help make that leap a little bit easier! #college #backtoschool
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Ninth House
by Leigh Bardugo"The best fantasy novel I’ve read in years, because it’s about real people... Impossible to put down." —Stephen KingThe smash New York Times bestseller from Leigh Bardugo, a mesmerizing tale of power, privilege, and dark magic set among the Ivy League elite.Goodreads Choice Award WinnerLocus FinalistGalaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug-dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. In fact, by age twenty, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most prestigious universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?Still searching for answers, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. Their eight windowless “tombs” are the well-known haunts of the rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street’s biggest players. But their occult activities are more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive. They tamper with forbidden magic. They raise the dead. And, sometimes, they prey on the living.Don't miss the highly-anticipated sequel, Hell Bent.
Your College Experience
by John N. Gardner and Betsy O. BarefootHelping students succeed in their college experience With a clear presentation of the practical information you need to succeed in your first year of college and beyond, Your College Success provides an in-depth treatment of those topics important for all college students, including motivation, time and money management, mental health and more.
The College Wellness Guide
by Casey Rowley Barneson and The Princeton ReviewA brand new guide that helps overwhelmed students manage their mental, physical, and social health, and reach and maintain a healthy balance in their college lives.Every year, nearly two million students arrive at college campuses, ready to embark on the best four years of their lives. Yet the reality is that the current cohort of students is one of the most stressed, anxious, and depressed ever. These stressors have real effects on students' grades, social life, and physical health. And the stakes are high! Students with the right community and support services have better outcomes, from increased chances of on-time graduation, to greater ability to take on head-start opportunities (like internships) that have deep impact on post-college life.The Princeton Review is proud to introduce The Campus Wellness Guide, an innovative new book that provides a mix of information, resources, and self-assessment activities to help students reach and maintain their overall health. The book includes: • Information on how to assess your college fit academically and socio-emotionally • Self-assessment activities that students can use to ID their specific stressors and ways to alleviate those issues • Sections on physical, mental, and social wellness, each with data-backed insights and research to help define the issues and strategies for handling • Proactive activities for student use, with reflection prompts to help develop roadmaps toward a healthier status quo • Wellness highlights, e.g., information on colleges with exceptional track records in specific wellness issues • Resources for national and college-specific help
Getting Ready for College
by Polly BerentGetting Ready for Collegeis the ultimate easy-to-use guide to success for college-bound seniors, first-years, and their parents. Polly Berent answers the questions you didn’t know you would need to ask: • What’s the deal on financial aid and cash management? • Should I bring a flashlight to school? Do I really need a microwave and a vacuum cleaner? • Should I call Mom every time I’m homesick? Will my boyfriend/girlfriend wait for me? • Will having a credit card help me? Do I need quarters for the laund...
Thinking Through Questions
by Anthony Weston and Stephen Bloch-SchulmanThinking Through Questions is an accessible and compact guide to the art of questioning, covering both the use and abuse of questions. Animated by wide-ranging and engaging exercises and examples, the book helps students deepen their understanding of how questions work and what questions do, and builds the skills needed to ask better questions. Cowritten by two of today's leading philosopher-teachers, Thinking Through Questions is specifically designed to complement, connect, and motivate today&’s standard curricula, especially for classes in critical thinking, philosophical questioning, and creative problem- solving (called here "expansive questioning"). Offering students a wide and appreciative look at questions and questioning, this small book will also appeal to faculty and students across the disciplines: in college writing courses, creativity workshops, education schools, introductions to college thinking, design thinking projects, and humanities and thinking classes. Open-ended, creative, and critically self-possessed thinking is its constant theme—what field doesn&’t need more of that?
The Freshman Survival Guide
by Nora Bradbury-Haehl and Bill McgarveyA completely revised and updated values-based guide to navigating the first year of college that speaks to college students in their own language and offers practical tools that readers need to keep from drinking, sleeping, or skipping their way out of college. In the four years since its initial publication, THE FRESHMAN SURVIVAL GUIDE has helped thousands of first year students make a successful transition to college life. However, much has changed on campuses. The explosion of technology, ubiquity of social media, and culture changes have all added new layers of complexity to the leap from high school to college. THE FRESHMAN SURVIVAL GUIDE's updated edition features new research and advice on issues such as mental health, sexual assault, and finding balance. It also features expanded sections on dating, money management, and an increased focus on how the over 1. 5 million incoming freshman can prepare themselves for the biggest change they've encountered in their lives: heading off to college.
The Freshman Survival Guide
by Nora Bradbury-Haehl and Bill McGarveyA values-based guide to navigating that critical first year of college that speaks to college students in their own language and offers practical tools that readers need to keep from drinking, sleeping or skipping their way out of college. There are numerous guides for choosing a college, paying for college and getting good grades in college But THE FRESHMAN SURVIVAL GUIDE is the first to offer advice on academics, relationships and lifestyle and combine it with guidance on how to cope with the spiritual, emotional and ethical questions and issues that confront young adults. Divided into five sections (Relationships, Identity &Spirituality, Academics, Risk, Balance), the book tackles issues that include: Homesickness * Learning Who You Are * Real Stats on Mental Health * 10 Reasons to Show Up to Class * Are Your Earning Your BA or Your IM * Safety: Don't Be Paranoid, Just be Smart * Doritos Is Not A Food Group * and 19 other equally pertinent areas that other college guides don't address.This is one college guidebook that freshman won't be ashamed to read and keep in their backpacks.
College Hacks
by Keith BradfordHacks every college student needs to know!Want to ace your next exam? Claim victory as a beer pong champ? Remove that gross stain from your shirt before your interview? College Hacks gives you the tricks and tips you need to get ahead in life without breaking a sweat. Filled with hundreds of ways to simplify nearly every college situation, this guide tells you just what to do when your professor assigns you a twenty-page paper or you run out of clean dishes in your dorm room (chip bag bowl, anyone?).So stop making college harder than it should be! With these everyday hacks, you'll breeze through each semester as you finish assignments and tasks quicker than ever before!
How to College
by Andrea Malkin Brenner and Lara Hope SchwartzThe first practical guide of its kind that helps students transition smoothly from high school to collegeThe transition from high school—and home—to college can be stressful. Students and parents often arrive on campus unprepared for what college is really like. Academic standards and expectations are different from high school; families aren’t present to serve as “scaffolding” for students; and first-years have to do what they call “adulting.” Nothing in the college admissions process prepares students for these new realities.As a result, first-year college students report higher stress, more mental health issues, and lower completion rates than in the past. In fact, up to one third of first-year college students will not return for their second year—and colleges are reporting an increase in underprepared first-year students.How to College is here to help. Professors Andrea Malkin Brenner and Lara Schwartz guide first-year students and their families through the transition process, during the summer after high school graduation and throughout the school year, preparing students to succeed and thrive as they transition and adapt to college. The book draws on the authors’ experience teaching, writing curricula, and designing programs for thousands of first-year college students over decades.
Daring Greatly
by Brené BrownThe #1 New York Times bestseller. 1 million copies sold!From thought leader Dr. Brené Brown, a transformative new vision for the way we lead, love, work, parent, and educate that teaches us the power of vulnerability. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; . . . who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”—Theodore Roosevelt Every day we experience the uncertainty, risks, and emotional exposure that define what it means to be vulnerable or to dare greatly. Based on twelve years of pioneering research, Dr. Brené Brown dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and argues that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage. Brown explains how vulnerability is both the core of difficult emotions like fear, grief, and disappointment, and the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, empathy, innovation, and creativity. She writes: “When we shut ourselves off from vulnerability, we distance ourselves from the experiences that bring purpose and meaning to our lives.” Daring Greatly is not about winning or losing. It’s about courage. In a world where “never enough” dominates and feeling afraid has become second nature, vulnerability is subversive. Uncomfortable. It’s even a little dangerous at times. And, without question, putting ourselves out there means there’s a far greater risk of getting criticized or feeling hurt. But when we step back and examine our lives, we will find that nothing is as uncomfortable, dangerous, and hurtful as standing on the outside of our lives looking in and wondering what it would be like if we had the courage to step into the arena—whether it’s a new relationship, an important meeting, the creative process, or a difficult family conversation. Daring Greatly is a practice and a powerful new vision for letting ourselves be seen.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Keys to Effective Learning
by Carol Carter; Sarah Lyman KravitsKeys to Effective Learning nurtures these skills in students entering college by focusing on building accountability, teamwork, and critical/creative thinking skills that can be applied to any academic or workplace setting.
Approaching College with Purpose
by Amy Lee and Margaret Delehanty Kelly and Catherine Lee & Maggie BergeronApproaching College with Purpose focuses on the importance of students beginning their educational journey with intention, developing good habits, creating a strong mindset, and acquiring strategies to ensure a successful transition to college. Delivered with a concise, approachable, and modern tone that respects students, the text and student journal emphasize the importance of communication, critical thinking, and collaboration. Ideal for First-Year Experience and College Success programs, the text and student journal are designed to acknowledge and respect students’ unique perspectives, focus on students owning their experience, put the emphasis on communication, especially writing, and provide just-in-time skill-building resources. The content provides an integrated approach to life skills, academic success, and well-being, with a focus on building lifelong skills.
Written by educators, with a unique perspective from a student-author, the textbook and student journal are based on decades of teaching and research, designed to create a transformative experience for students. It promotes self-reflection, mindset, and diversity, with the ultimate goal of setting students on a path toward owning their experiences, and approaching college, and life, with purpose.
Paying for College, 2023
by The Princeton Review and Kalman ChanyA SMARTER WAY TO PAY FOR COLLEGE. Take control of your financial aid experience with this essential guide—the only annual guidebook with line-by-line instructions for completing the FAFSA aid forms! Financing a college education is a daunting task no matter your circumstances. With line-by-line instructions for filling out the FAFSA and consumer-friendly advice to minimize college costs, Paying for College helps you take control of your experience and: • Maximize your financial aid eligibility • Start preparing now for upcoming changes affecting student aid • Explore long- and short-term strategies to reduce college costs and avoid expensive mistakes • Complete every question on the FAFSA and CSS Profile aid applications to your best advantage • Compare aid offers and learn how to appeal them if necessary • Plan strategically as a separated/divorced parent, blended family, or independent student &“A first-rate guide through the financial aid maze.&” —Lynn Brenner, Newsday &“Can save thousands in college bills.&” —John Wasik, Forbes
The Naked Roommate
by Harlan CohenFor 10 years (and counting), The Naked Roommate has been the #1 go-to guide for your very best college experience!From sharing a bathroom with 40 strangers to sharing lecture notes, The Naked Roommate is your behind-the-scenes look at EVERYTHING you need to know about college (but never knew you needed to know).This essential, fully updated edition is packed with real-life advice on everything from making friends to managing stress. Hilarious, outrageous, and telling stories from students on over 100 college campuses cover the basics, and then some, including topics onCollege Living Dorm dos, don'ts, and dramas Lying, noisy, nasty roommatesFinding People, Places, & Patience Social network dos and don'ts Friend today, gone tomorrowClasses To go or not to go? How to get an A, C, or FDating 17 kinds of college hookups Long distance = BIG concernsThe Party Scene The punch in the "fruit punch" Sex, drugs, and safety firstMoney Grants, loans, and loose change Credit cards and campus jobsIn college, there's a surprise around every corner. Luckily, The Naked Roommate has you covered!
The College Bound Planner
by Anna Costaras and Gail LissComplete Guide to Academic & College Planning for TeensA must for every high school student." —Christie Barnes, author of What Every Parent Needs to Know About College AdmissionsThe College Bound Planner is your step-by-step comprehensive college planning guide to organize every step of your high school education while preparing smart goals for college.Get your teens ready now! College may seem far away but thinking ahead and understanding how things work will help your teen prepare. In these uncertain times, parents and students are feeling even more anxious about how to approach college readiness. This book provides advice and guidance starting at freshman year of high school up through senior year. This step-by-step guidance empowers students to take control of their academic futures and thrive, no matter what the future brings.Develop skills for a lifetime of success.The College Bound Planner helps teens master skills including note taking, studying, test taking, and writing essays and research papers. Being college ready is also about having life skills such as time management, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, and communication, as well as the discipline and drive needed to succeed. This college planner is the best college planner to get a teen ready for college.Inside, you’ll find:Academic direction and academic planning tipsGood study skills and life habits to set yourself up to succeedWays to stay organized and how to do proper goal settingGuides to prioritizing your personal goals while participating in extracurricularsHow and when to apply for college using proper college planningWhat to do to get ready for your first day as an undergraduate college studentIf you liked What Color Is Your Parachute?, Fiske Guide to Colleges 2021, or Teens' Guide to College & Career Planning, you’ll love The College Bound Planner.
Self-Care for College Students
by Julia DellittMake the most out of your college experience with these manageable self-care tips that are easy to incorporate into your busy college lifestyle. As a student in college—you&’re dealing with a lot. At times this can be physically, mentally, and emotionally draining between classes, homework, activities, and building a new social life for yourself. But the secret to making sure these are the best years of your life is making time for self-care. If you&’ve been working for hours on your latest paper, take a walk around campus to get moving. If you&’re feeling tired after a long week of classes and activities, give yourself permission to say no to those Friday night plans and take a relaxing evening for yourself. Self-Care for College Students offers suggestions that help you tackle every aspect of taking care of yourself from the simplest tasks to rewarding activities that might require more planning. Whether it is making sure you eat a healthy meal to utilizing your school&’s support services, there is advice for any situation. In this book, find realistic and practical self-care activities that you can try right away to maximize your college experience. Each activity is designed to help you refuel, such as making sure you get enough sleep to developing an exercise routine. Start making time for you and make your college years the best of your life—all while building lifelong habits for success and happiness for years to come.
She Gets the Girl
by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson DerrickShe&’s All That meets What If It&’s Us in this New York Times bestselling hate-to-love YA romantic comedy from the coauthor of Five Feet Apart Rachael Lippincott and debut writer Alyson Derrick.Alex Blackwood is a little bit headstrong, with a dash of chaos and a whole lot of flirt. She knows how to get the girl. Keeping her on the other hand…not so much. Molly Parker has everything in her life totally in control, except for her complete awkwardness with just about anyone besides her mom. She knows she&’s in love with the impossibly cool Cora Myers. She just…hasn&’t actually talked to her yet. Alex and Molly don&’t belong on the same planet, let alone the same college campus. But when Alex, fresh off a bad (but hopefully not permanent) breakup, discovers Molly&’s hidden crush as their paths cross the night before classes start, they realize they might have a common interest after all. Because maybe if Alex volunteers to help Molly learn how to get her dream girl to fall for her, she can prove to her ex that she&’s not a selfish flirt. That she&’s ready for an actual commitment. And while Alex is the last person Molly would ever think she could trust, she can&’t deny Alex knows what she&’s doing with girls, unlike her. As the two embark on their five-step plans to get their girls to fall for them, though, they both begin to wonder if maybe they&’re the ones falling…for each other.
Personal Finance
by Jack Kapoor and Les Dlabay and Robert J. HughesDecisions students make today can affect not only their life now but have an impact on their future. If students make wise financial decisions, life can become a more joyous experience. On the other hand, if students make bad decisions, life may not turn out so well. Personal Finance was written with one purpose: To provide the information students need to make informed decisions that can literally change their life. The 13th provides the information needed to take advantage of opportunities and to help manage their personal finances.
This new edition of Personal Finance is packed with updated information and examples to help students plan for the future and achieve financial security. For example, we have revised important topics like taxes, college loans, health care, and investments to provide the most current information available. Other important topics including credit, housing, legal protection, retirement planning, and estate planning have also been revised in this edition.
Never Eat Alone, Expanded and Updated
by Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl RazThe bestselling business classic on the power of relationships, updated with in-depth advice for making connections in the digital world. Do you want to get ahead in life? Climb the ladder to personal success? The secret, master networker Keith Ferrazzi claims, is in reaching out to other people. As Ferrazzi discovered in early life, what distinguishes highly successful people from everyone else is the way they use the power of relationships—so that everyone wins. In Never Eat Alone, Ferrazzi lays out the specific steps—and inner mindset—he uses to reach out to connect with the thousands of colleagues, friends, and associates on his contacts list, people he has helped and who have helped him. And in the time since Never Eat Alone was published in 2005, the rise of social media and new, collaborative management styles have only made Ferrazzi&’s advice more essential for anyone hoping to get ahead in business. The son of a small-town steelworker and a cleaning lady, Ferrazzi first used his remarkable ability to connect with others to pave the way to Yale, a Harvard M.B.A., and several top executive posts. Not yet out of his thirties, he developed a network of relationships that stretched from Washington&’s corridors of power to Hollywood&’s A-list, leading to him being named one of Crain&’s 40 Under 40 and selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the Davos World Economic Forum. Ferrazzi&’s form of connecting to the world around him is based on generosity, helping friends connect with other friends. Ferrazzi distinguishes genuine relationship-building from the crude, desperate glad-handing usually associated with &“networking.&” He then distills his system of reaching out to people into practical, proven principles. Among them: Don&’t keep score: It&’s never simply about getting what you want. It&’s about getting what you want and making sure that the people who are important to you get what they want, too. &“Ping&” constantly: The ins and outs of reaching out to those in your circle of contacts all the time—not just when you need something. Never Eat Alone: The dynamics of status are the same whether you&’re working at a corporation or attending a social event—&“invisibility&” is a fate worse than failure. Become the &“King of Content&”: How to use social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to make meaningful connections, spark engagement, and curate a network of people who can help you with your interests and goals. In the course of this book, Ferrazzi outlines the timeless strategies shared by the world&’s most connected individuals, from Winston Churchill to Bill Clinton, Vernon Jordan to the Dalai Lama. Chock-full of specific advice on handling rejection, getting past gatekeepers, becoming a &“conference commando,&” and more, this new edition of Never Eat Alone will remain a classic alongside alongside How to Win Friends and Influence People for years to come.
Dude, Bro
by Bread FosterDude, Bro: How to College is a humorous guide to surviving college written by comedian Bread Foster. Dude, Bro will provide articles, episodes, and truth (under the guise of guidance) about college life, mixed with honest stories from a mildly psychotic student. After extensive discussions with fellow college students who were part of his college experience, the most frequently uttered phrase is "how did we survive that?” and Bread wants to teach future bros how. Dude, Bro will allow the reader to get a moral out of a story where morals are neither black nor white. The objective is to provide an honest experience from a lower-middle class author who went crazy at a state university. Dude, Bro will have a sense of humor because college itself is kind of a joke.
The Ultimate College Cookbook
by Victoria GranofStudents will discover the joy and simplicity of cooking for themselves with 60 recipes for easy, delicious meals that can easily be made in any dorm room or shared apartment!The Ultimate College Cookbook offers sixty recipes for everything from breakfast to weeknight cooking and weekend gatherings, on-campus or off. Each dish is designed to be cooked in a dorm-friendly appliance, including microwaves, toaster ovens, electric burners, rice cookers, and slow cookers. Don't miss Baked Ravioli Lasagna (use frozen ravioli instead of pasta sheets!), Hot Chocolate Lava Cakes (baked in individual mugs), and even perfect jammy eggs cooked in a tea kettle (add them to noodle soups in a pinch). And with variations for easy twists (upgrade your oatmeal to Pumpkin-Spice All-Nighter Oats, or turn garlicky roasted cauliflower into something new with chili-laced miso), there's no chance of getting bored in the kitchen.
The Ultimate College Student Health Handbook
by Jill GrimesConsider this College Health 101—a guide to what students really want (or need) to know about their mental and physical health when they're away from home. College students facing their first illness, accident, or anxiety away from home often flip-flop between wanting to handle it themselves and wishing their parents could swoop in and fix everything. Advice from peers and &“Dr. Google&” can be questionable.The Ultimate College Student Health Handbook provides accurate, trustworthy, evidence-based medical information (served with a dose of humor) to reduce anxiety and stress and help set appropriate expectations for more than fifty common issues. What if you can&’t sleep well (or can&’t sleep at all) in your dorm room? What if a pill &“gets stuck&” in your throat? What if your roommate falls asleep (or passes out) wearing contacts, and wakes up with one painfully stuck? Your friend&’s terrible sore throat isn&’t Strep or Mono? What else could it be? What if everyone from your group project thinks they&’re coming down with the flu the day before your presentation? Dr. Jill Grimes has the answer to these questions and many more. Her guidebook is designed to help you: Decide if and when to seek medical helpKnow what to expect when you get therePlan for the worst-case scenario if you don&’t seek helpLearn how you can prevent this in the futureRealize what you can do right now, before you see a doctorUnderstand the diagnostic and treatment options The topics of tattoos, smoking, vaping, pot, piercings, and prescription drugs will also be tackled throughout the pages of this handbook, ensuring you, your roommates, and your friends have a healthy semester.
Transcendent Kingdom
by Yaa GyasiYaa Gyasi's stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national best seller Homegoing is a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama.
Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive.
Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief--a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi's phenomenal debut.
A New York Times Bestseller
Exit West
by Mohsin Hamid“It was as if Hamid knew what was going to happen to America and the world, and gave us a road map to our future… At once terrifying and, in the end, oddly hopeful.” –Ayelet Waldman, The New York Times Book Review
From the internationally bestselling author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, one of the most anticipated books of 2017: an astonishingly timely love story that brilliantly imagines the forces that transform ordinary people into refugees -- and the impossible choices that follow -- as they’re driven from their homes to the uncertain embrace of new lands.
In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet—sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. They embark on a furtive love affair, and are soon cloistered in a premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their city. When it explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors—doors that can whisk people far away, if perilously and for a price. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed decide that they no longer have a choice. Leaving their homeland and their old lives behind, they find a door and step through. . . .
Exit West follows these remarkable characters as they emerge into an alien and uncertain future, struggling to hold on to each other, to their past, to the very sense of who they are. Profoundly intimate and powerfully inventive, it tells an unforgettable story of love, loyalty, and courage that is both completely of our time and for all time.
We Need to Talk
by Celeste Headlee“WE NEED TO TALK.”In this urgent and insightful book, public radio journalist Celeste Headlee shows us how to bridge what divides us--by having real conversationsBASED ON THE TED TALK WITH OVER 10 MILLION VIEWS“We Need to Talk is an important read for a conversationally-challenged, disconnected age. Headlee is a talented, honest storyteller, and her advice has helped me become a better spouse, friend, and mother.” (Jessica Lahey, author of New York Times bestseller The Gift of Failure)Today most of us communicate from behind electronic screens, and studies show that Americans feel less connected and more divided than ever before. The blame for some of this disconnect can be attributed to our political landscape, but the erosion of our conversational skills as a society lies with us as individuals. And the only way forward, says Headlee, is to start talking to each other. In We Need to Talk, she outlines the strategies that have made her a better conversationalist—and offers simple tools that can improve anyone’s communication. For example: BE THERE OR GO ELSEWHERE. Human beings are incapable of multitasking, and this is especially true of tasks that involve language. Think you can type up a few emails while on a business call, or hold a conversation with your child while texting your spouse? Think again.CHECK YOUR BIAS. The belief that your intelligence protects you from erroneous assumptions can end up making you more vulnerable to them. We all have blind spots that affect the way we view others. Check your bias before you judge someone else.HIDE YOUR PHONE. Don’t just put down your phone, put it away. New research suggests that the mere presence of a cell phone can negatively impact the quality of a conversation. Whether you’re struggling to communicate with your kid’s teacher at school, an employee at work, or the people you love the most—Headlee offers smart strategies that can help us all have conversations that matter.