What Every BODY Is Saying

One of the first books I listened to on Audible was Joe Mavarro and Marvin Karlins' "What Every Body is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-Reading People" (2012). It was so long ago that I hadn't started writing reviews, but that was fortunate with this book. I've been using some of the techniques described in the book for 18 months, and they work. I wouldn't have known that when I finished the book.

I am a civil trial attorney, and I long relied on gut feeling and intuition when I picked a jury. In other words, just dumb look. This book gave me the ability to know, with some basis, whether a jury liked my client or the opposition, and whether I was effectively advocating my client's defense. Once, in a memory seared sharp, I completely torqued a juror off, which I realized by her flared nostrils and lips pursed together to nonexistence. I was able to dig out of that situation.

This isn't the key to picking a perfect jury, but it helps. It's like knowing a secret code.

I occasionally listen to the book to refresh my techniques. The book teaches how to speed read people, but learning the techniques takes a lot of time, patience, practice and feedback - when you can get it.

I'm giving the book an overall 4 because it is so useful, but it's a 3 on the story. Despite the exciting topic, it's pretty dry and academic. The narration is a three, too. It sounds more like a business seminar than a narration.

I want to mention that "What Every Body is Saying" and Pamela Meyer's "Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception" (2011) really builds on Navarro's techniques. Listen to them consecutively, and it's like a college psychology course.

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What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The content was great, but the narrator was speaking in a "now you are listening to me read" cadence and it drove me nuts.

I found this book very.... long. The sad part about this misconception on my end is that I regularly listen to books that are 20+ hours long. I have even gone through War & Peace as well as Anna Karenina and those did not feel as long as this book. The narration was dry at best and I found myself just getting through this book through mostly sheer will power than due to any sort of interest.

If you are a naturally observant person, one of those people particular key on detail then you will find this book more or less telling you what you know already. A lot of what is said in this book regarding reading people tends to be very subjective and the author admits this at multiple parts in the book. I won't lie and say there was nothing good or nothing learned here because there was actually some noteworthy portions and it served to confirm some of my already preconceived notions; on a whole I saw it as just a sea of useless fodder with just a small handful of note-worthy moments.

The narration was painful to listen to.... I found it so difficult to get through this book and the narration did not help. Maybe it was the content that was just lackluster and the narrator couldn't do much to improve it.

As I said, this book just seemed way too long for a title that is just 7 hours long... I normally go through 7 hour worth listening in a day.... Yet I think I went over a week before I could finish this one....

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I'd not recommend this book cause it's like recommending half cake recipe to best friend...

What was most disappointing about Joe Navarro and Marvin Karlins ’s story?

Through whole book I had a feeling that some ingredients in this recipe are missing. In my mind if you want to share something with others do it right and honestly or don't bother at all.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Narrator really sucks... He's more boring than all my worst teachers combined.

Could you see What Every BODY Is Saying being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No, no, no...!!! No movie here!

What would have made What Every BODY Is Saying better?

The material was dry and repetitive. Nothing earth shattering or insightful and the performance was perfunctory at best. The content could have been covered in a 30 page report that would have been more memorable had the reader been dynamic.

Has What Every BODY Is Saying turned you off from other books in this genre?

no

What didn’t you like about Paul Costanzo’s performance?

Little inflection or intonation - like being read to by a robot

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

the narrator, spoke, with unnatural pauses, inserted at, weird, places in, each sentence, sounding like, a bad, parody of, William Shatner.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

more business or real life examples. too much of the book was related to interviewing criminal suspects. not many of us get to do that

How could the performance have been better?

use a, different narrator. I, would, never listen, to a book that, used this, narrator even, if, the book was, written, by William, Shakespeare

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

no practical info that can't be found in other books about body language

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The narrator. He was so generic and flat it was difficult to maintain interest. I ended up listening at 2x speed. The topic was sometimes dry and a little hard to follow - but at least the author attempted to make a few asides or crack a joke or two, but none of that came across in the performance.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

No much of a reliance on the PDF file to describe or demonstrate the content. Maybe this wasn't the right kind of book for an audiobook.

What didn’t you like about Paul Costanzo’s performance?

It was flat, monotone and lacking in any sort of real inflection. It made it difficult to maintain my interest in the book. He could have just as easily been discussing the merits of diesel engines. I've heard more interesting performances on commercials for mutual funds.

Could you see What Every BODY Is Saying being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Maybe a corporate training video starring an insurance salesman.

Any additional comments?

Good book for the content, but prepare for a slog through the narration.

1. If it had had another narrator (as pointed out by most of the earlier reviews). This narrator seems to be constantly out of breath and pauses whenever he can (within a single breath group in a few cases). It's a miracle that despite the narrator I still could see that the author has done his best to lay out his expertise in a way that would make sense to the least attentive reader.

2. If the editor had cut out most of the redundant passages and "foreshadowing". The introduction seemed so long, I kept wondering if the book would ever get to the point instead of promising to do this and that. There were also quite a few examples that were repeated (along with the accompanying pictures).

3. If the author had gone into the details of the case of the "liar that got away" near the end of the book. The author confesses that even he didn't see it coming (which was refreshing), and since he goes to such great lengths to underscore how difficult lie detection is, it would have been helpful if he had provided his "hindsight" about the case of that liar extraordinaire.

4. If the publisher had hired professional actors to demonstrate the different "tells". Despite his expertise in spotting and analyzing tells, the author (also the man in the pictures) leaves much to be desired as a mime, and the woman in the pictures was even less convincing.

60% obvious observations, 30% "Lie to Me", 10% fascinating and applicable information. The accompanying pdf is pretty cheesy, but does serve to sum up the info.

If you could sum up What Every BODY Is Saying in three words, what would they be?

Know thy interactions.

What did you like best about this story?

This is a very informative book. Navarro is a retired FBI agent with a great deal of experience in the art of reading people. What I liked most was his attention to the methods for reading people in contrast to telling many stories from his career. Too often in books like this are short on information and long on memories. This is not the case for this excellent work of non-fiction.

What about Paul Costanzo’s performance did you like?

Paul's reading was very clear and articulate. However, you could have picked up the tempo of the reading.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I would say 70% of the material in this book surprised me. My expectations of what was offered were surpassed because the information was clearly field tested and so different from what I would have guessed.

Any additional comments?

I recommend reading this if you want to learn more about human gestures and what they generally mean.