Have you ever been in a situation where you struggled to find the right words to say? It can be challenging to express ourselves in awkward or difficult situations. However, a new book offers practical advice for such scenarios.

This concise guide presents 20 realistic scenarios and provides suggestions on how to handle them effectively. I found it to be an insightful and practical resource that can assist anyone in navigating uncomfortable conversations. It's a valuable addition to any personal library and can be referred to time and time again when faced with new awkward situations.

This was an OK book. If you are stuck in some situations this book might help, it might give you a direction. It is not brilliant I couldn't, see me saying half of what is said and some of them are long winded.

Whether we’re talking to our significant other, friends, family, work colleagues or strangers crossing our paths, we rarely have a tactful approach, nor the right words to express ourselves fully or deescalate a situation when we’re off in the deep end.

How To Find The Right Words addressed some of the most awkward situations from I just want us to be friends to I’ve screwed up at work with accompanying conversation prompts to help you tactfully navigate these situations with minimal harm.

Unless you have photographic memory it’s unlikely you’ll remember the script word for word and that’s where the bulk of the value in the book reveals itself. In its teachings of diplomacy, kindness and understanding of the human experience. For when we have a greater understanding of ourselves and the other person we can have the conversations we dread without destroying our sanity or the relationship - and that’s game-changing.

Fingers crossed we get another (longer) edition, with more awkward conversation questions and their prospective answers.

This is a really helpful book to think about how to approach difficult conversations in many different areas of life.

In life, we always want to let others know how we feel and we also want to be kind at the same time. .and, doing these two acts together is not an easy task as both of them seem entirely opposed to each other. If we reveal the true depth of our anger, frustration and disdain we might ruin a friendship or relationship. and , if we said nothing then there would be a sense of claustrophobia (Ghutan is also a word in Hindi which represents this feeling ) and inauthenticity.

Too often, unsure of how to proceed, we veer between extremes either we say nothing for too long or we explode suddenly someday.

Speaking up directly and politely is an art. This education should have started at our homes. But most of the time what we are exposed to at our homes ? sulking or screaming , insistence or denial. We create wrong definitions of good boys and girls. and , the kids end up becoming that but that doesn’t mean that they have nothing tricky they wanted to say. They simply close their mouths and swallow their complaints in order to be called that “Good” boy or girl.

And, here comes diplomacy. Diplomacy is the art of advancing an idea or cause without unnecessarily inflaming passions. Diplomacy is supposed to be a skill that evolved to deal with problems in relationships between countries, where diplomats are used to convey messages in less inflammatory ways. It avoids the decisions taken in the heat of the moment. These are the same set of skills that matter in many areas of our daily life.

When you have to do this difficult conversation you have to take care of a few things - you need to respect the person sitting in front of you, admit your own errors if any, and pass on the message ( a very tricky part ) . after passing the message be prepared for any sudden loss of temper, a wild accusation, a very mean remark - do not take them personally. It needs practice but if started early in childhood it can be mastered. But wouldn’t that ruin the kids of their innocent childhood or adolescence ? Maybe it's not for kids but what about adults ?

This is a nice ~90 page book and provides a good idea about how to find the right words to convey your feeling without flaring passion .

Go for this book !!!

There are times when we all are faced with difficult situations that put us at a loss for words. Something must be said, but what? How do we best deliver a message that is awkward for all involved?

This short book gives 20 very realistic scenarios and suggestions on how best to address them. I found it to be very insightful, practical, and helpful. It's a book that would make a fine addition to your library as it's one you'll want to refer to again and again as new awkward situations arise in your life.

My sincere thanks to NetGalley and The School of Life for allowing me to read a copy of this book. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

While this book might seem a little preachy and presumptuous, it may be a godsent to socially awkward people or people who have trouble making friends or maintaining relationships. Either way, it's a decent book to keep on your bookshelf, instead of having to scrabble around Google to find a halfway decent text to send someone.

This was such a useful book and it would help anyone in business or their personal lives, no matter what they do.

(ARC kindly provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)
I was really excited to dive into this one as someone who struggles with social anxiety and not knowing how to act/ what to say. Overall, I liked how the book was organized and the simple language it used. Because of the way the chapters and subheadings were laid out, I feel like this is the kind of book you can go back to for reference later on. I also really appreciated that it not only offered general advice, but it also gave example sentences of how you would actually say it/ phrase it to another person. As for the actual content, I found some of the advice more helpful than others. (Although to be fair, not all of it is applicable to my life anyways). I just mean that at times, it presented how someone would react to a statement and I don’t think I’d react that way if the roles were reversed.
An example of something that really stuck a chord with me personally was the advice on how to reject someone. I’ve had a lot of trouble with this in the past because I hate the idea that I’m hurting someone’s feelings. But this helped reaffirm that not being clear with my feelings isn’t the kind thing to do. Both ways end in hurt, but one is considerably less.

This book is what it says it is, and yet I was left unimpressed.

Each chapter is literally one difficult situation or another and how to say the difficult thing. However, I can't figure out who the audience is. If a person was able to apply such a stale script to such awkward and emotionally charged situations, I doubt they would go looking for a book on what to say.

I think the author(s) did not investigate the emotional and psychological reasons why such tough conversations would need to be had. Why would someone stay in an awful relationship and not leave? Giving them a script is not going to break the manipulative or co-dependent grip of the relationship.

The first chapter is about how to tell your partner that you're into weird sex stuff. The second chapter is about making friends as an adult... and maybe a robot. Then they offer scenarios at work and end the book with a few chapters on how to tell your family to take a hike. I'm being facetious, but the book did not offer much of real value in my opinion.

This book is more or less a ronseal job in that it announces plainly what it's about....and then states that case just as plainly throughout the book.

There's no frills in this one. It's a helpful enough read, although dry, and some of the examples given struck me as a bit strange. Does contain some helpful nuggets though, especially around diplomacy.

Very interesting and helpful. I bookmarked quite a few sections that I would like to refer back to.

This is a book for everybody. We have all found ourselves in situations where we just cannot find the right words. We've been in relationships, wondering whether our loved ones still love us, wondering whether our friends still want to be our friends anymore. We've all screwed up at work at least once if not a million times, and we sure as heck have all had some really weird encounters with strangers.

But how do we find the right words to deal with those situations?

Picking up this book is a good place to start.

I really enjoyed this book. I’ve read others by the School of Life (and watched some of their YouTube videos), and their advice is always shared in a helpful, non condescending, practical way; with an addition of wry, insightful wit thrown in. It’s a quick read.

A warm, supportive book. A short read but containing plenty of moments I went back to re-read and really think about. A lovely reminder that when we're communicating, what we really want to do is extend and experience kindness - easier said than done!

Very interesting book offering some sage advice. Some of it is common sense to those in client and customer facing roles and I wish the bits about dumping someone were around when I needed them

An insightful book full of practical advice on how to approach the difficult conversations we have to face in all aspects of life. Covering personal relationships, parenting, broaching difficult work scenarios, and the various awkward day-to-day situations we often encounter, this book gives pointers for framing the conversation to convey your message in the most effective way.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I found this guide on how to communicate in the difficult moments, to be both insightful and actionable, but mostly only for specific life events.

The writing style is open, familiar and helpful.

If I knew someone going through a breakup, divorce, dating etc, then I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this short read to them.

This thoughtful little book offers a brief sample and gems of advice for responding in writing (or in conversation) to many of life's inevitable challenges. I'm not sure the advice is complete and authoritative, but it will give you much to ponder as you look for ways to address your challenges. In the process, you'll certainly learn to think more carefully and critically.

Quick read which just looks at how to find the words to start difficult conversations. Funny in places too.