Although a tad bit smarmy in her choice of references and her overly dramatic vocal inflection, the content of this CD set is entertaining and has a few points that will resonate and stick with you (like "sticky eyes"). Some advice offered seems definitely conflicting - don't smile too quickly and at anyone without first discovering who the recipient of your attention is; but then, smile as an overture or prelude to converation, responding with the openness and friendliness of a little puppy, for who could resist this?

Much fun to listen to in the car, almost like having your sweet old aunt sitting next to you sharing lots of good suggestions for conversational skill.

I had to quit after starting the second cd. Her tone and overly enthusiastic approach for every single concept almost sounds condescending to the listener. She would be better suited to read children's books to a daycare class. The author does have some good pointers IF you can stand to listen so I gave it two stars. I was however very disappointed on the advice for starting smalltalk. "Just say anything" is not advice! I was hoping for some more in depth examples and scenarios here. I suppose "Turkey sandwich" would be a great icebreaker then.

This audio book goes in the "Top 10 Things I Should Never Have Wasted My Money On" list. The author's voice is terribly irritating and is worstened by the overdramatic way in which she reads. I suffered through CD #1 and got half way through #2 before I just couldn't take it anymore. The reason I listened so long is because I kept waiting to get some little tidbit of information that might help me justify the $25 I spent on this audio book. No such luck. The content of this book is nothing more than trite methods we have all heard over and over again. The author gives these methods long, silly names and attempts to pass them off as new ideas. I am sad to say that I cannot find one redeeming quality of this book. Spend your money on something else.

I agree with most everyone here. I couldn't absorb very much, the reading distracted my mind. At first I thought I wasn't concentrating, so went back and paid fullest attention. Yet the reading confused my mind enough not to be able to listen properly.

The reader changes inflection and emphasis every three, four, or five words. Your mind hears words, but also hears all the strong emphasis, and tries to put the two streams of information together. But they don't fit together. The emphasis is gratuitous, rarely having anything to do with the words--some sort of over-acting? So your mind (at least my mind) can't put the two streams of information together very well, and seems to get subconsciously sidetracked or something. I was trying to focus, it was weird, my mind couldn't, it was being tricked to listen to two stories that my mind insisted were one.

But you can't just ignore the emphasis because it's part of the voice that is the carrier of the words.

I'm sorry to give this a 1-star rating, because the content in book form might be good. But what other rating can I give it if I can't finish it and got nothing from it? A waste of money. Buy the book, it may be good.

It is very ironic that a lesson on communication can be so hard to listen to! That said, I listened to this audio book 3 times. The ideas presented by Ms. Lowndes are fantastic, and I've made quite a few changes in my conversation since listening to the book - all which have proved to be quite successful. But I do agree with some of the other reviewers, the reading really is over dramatized... but if you can get past it, this is a wonderful book!