The Definitive Book of Body Language

I actually read this book in my senior year at high school, sort of as background research for my stall at our school charity fair, where we were telling fortunes, reading palms, interpreting dreams and reading tarot cards. I was interpreting the dreams and reading palms, and what I learned about body language here helped me way more than all the books, articles and website pages I read on actual fortune telling put together! The stall was the hit of the fair: no bragging!! It was talked about for weeks afterwards, and I had people coming up to me for ages after asking me to interpret dreams for them!! Although I did put disclaimers saying that this was all in good fun, I guess people believe what they want!

It was a great book overall, show more incredibly informative, and actually practical! Of course I hope people don't use it to supplement careers as swindlers (kinda like what I did? Hopefully the 'good intention' defense would be accepted in a court of law lol!), but I think this should be read by anyone interested in understanding the connection between the body and the mind. show less

Might be most beneficial for thinking about your own body language than others' -- I felt like many people might cross their arms to be comfortable without meaning anything -- but if I'm doing it, I can check my attitude. I need to check if there's a bibliography - lots of research was casually cited within the text.

Not what the title or the cover suggest. (yes, I know, don't judge a book until you've read it. Well, I've read it, now.)

This book seems purpose-written. If you're in direct sales or marketing and you're looking for a list of tips and tricks to improve your ability to figure out what your clients and prospects are feeling, and you sometimes do business in the United States of America, then this book may be for you.

There were pluses and minuses. They included references for many cited studies, but they don't have footnotes to directly connect their assertions to the research they mention. The authors repeatedly use observational studies to inform the reader, but also to assert the validity and intrinsic truth of gender stereotypes. (This show more is one of several reasons the book seemed like it was written in the 1980's)

All in all, I was pretty disappointed with this book. It did include a fair bit of information that I find useful, but the authors put much more attention on superficial interaction (e.g. if your prospective client has his arms crossed, he probably is thinking negatively of your sales pitch, so hand him a brochure so he'll uncross his arms and be more likely to be receptive) than in helping the reader develop a deeper understanding. show less

The authors have done a great job of clearly unfolding the details on intricate body behavior.

The simple language used to explain the theory behind the gestures helps you correlate between the gesture and the persons' intent. For example, folding hands indicates a person is covering his body from something he wants to avoid or something doesn't want to be a part of. Basics like this will help even amateurs to get on board with a complex subject with ease.

Many of the examples given in the book have 'office' connotations, like interview tips, business meetings or even casual talk with your colleagues. They are just as applicable to outside office environment.

There are gesture comparisons between women and men throughout the book that are show more truly impressive. This helped me better understand the opposite sex.

The book provides a ton of information and if you are someone new to this subject (like me), don't expect to get most of it with only one reading. Just like most other skills that you have developed, this one needs to be practiced with diligence to become better at. show less

This book has information on smiling, laughter and even smoking. What do these things have to do with body language? This book was so much better than I had anticipated. The information is more in depth than a typical book on body language.
There's a section for interviews, power plays, and office politics, that gives information for nine golden keys to making great first impressions.
Ultimately, we all read subtle cues to body language, but we don't always recognize or realize it. This book may help you in recognizing the direction of someone's feet tells us more than the person's facial expression.

This was a fantastic book- and very unique. It shows how we give ourselves away (and so do other people) without even realizing it, by our gestures and mannerisms. We cant really help it because it is done subconsciously. After reading this book, it will be much easier to figure out what other people are thinking. This book is especially useful for (but not limited to) anyone in sales. If peoples words don't match up with their gestures, then we know that it is the gestures which are telling the truth. I would recommend this book to absolutely anyone. I saw Allan Pease one time at a MLM seminar and he was absolutely great (and funny)

What a piece of fluff. Some interesting bits and pieces, but too many unreferenced claims. A lot of it reads like laymen playing with the ideas of Darwinism and evolution. Ugh.

There's an extensive bibliography (hilariously titled "References") at the back of the book, but its entries are not linked to the main text by end notes, so what's the point?