Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame
How to Know a Person by David BrooksHigh Conflict
How to Know a Person by David Brooks

How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks

As David Brooks observes, “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen—to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.”And yet we humans don’t do this well. All around us are people who feel invisible, unseen, misunderstood. In How to Know a Person, Brooks sets out to help us do better, posing questions that are essential for all of us: If you want to know a person, what kind of attention should you cast on them? What kind of conversations should you have? What parts of a person’s story should you pay attention to?Driven by his trademark sense of curiosity and his determination to grow as a person, Brooks draws from the fields of psychology and neuroscience and from the worlds of theater, philosophy, history, and education to present a welcoming, hopeful, integrated approach to human connection. How to Know a Person helps readers become more understanding and considerate toward others, and to find the joy that comes from being seen. Along the way it offers a possible remedy for a society that is riven by fragmentation, hostility, and misperception.

More Adult, Non-Juvenile Books

  • Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, in the 1990s, Hanif Abdurraqib witnessed a golden era of basketball, one in which legends like LeBron James were forged and countless others weren’t. His lifelong love of the game leads Abdurraqib into a lyrical, historical, and emotionally rich exploration of what it means to make it, who we think deserves success, the tension between excellence and expectation, and the very notion of role models, all of which he expertly weaves together with intimate, personal storytelling. “Here is where I would like to tell you about the form on my father’s jump shot,” Abdurraqib writes. “The [...]

  • When first published in 2017, They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us became an instant cultural sensation, appearing in music videos, B-sides to singles by The National’s Matt Berninger and Julien Baker, as an essay prompt on standardized tests, and led critics at NPR to herald Hanif Abdurraqib as “one of the most essential voices of his generation.” This expanded paperback edition includes three additional essays by the author and an original afterword by Jason Reynolds. In an age of confusion, fear, and loss, Hanif Abdurraqib’s is a voice that matters. Whether he’s attending a Bruce Springsteen concert the day [...]

  • This Wild and Precious Life is a stunning journal featuring inspiring quotes from beloved poet Mary Oliver and delightful illustrations that illuminate her themes of wonder and nature. “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Simple, direct, and profoundly feeling, Mary Oliver touched countless readers with her tender, accessible verse, expressing her love for the physical world and the powerful bonds between all living things. Her poems deftly weave close observations of nature with an evergreen state of wonder, and her essays about the craft of writing are remarkable for their intelligent yet comprehensive advice. Oliver is [...]

  • A collection of poetry by Rita Dove.