Review: Jen Psaki SAY MORE

 

 Psaki’s 2024 book is subtitled “Lessons from Work, the White House, and the World.”  There is no ghost  writer listed and it reads as a group of suggestions about the nature of communication in general and political communication in particular. There is no muss, no fuss, no interminable length. Her focus is positive and reflects a quote from the early pages.  “People who are drawn to public service want to be part of a greater good—it isn’t about them as individuals, but how they can contribute.”      

 

Her practical advice is on the money.  I liked “Do the task you are dreading most first. Then everything that follows will feel easy.”  Another favorite was to admit to yourself that you can’t be good at everything. Locating your weaknesses can go a long way to make successful corrections as you move through life.

 

Often her suggestions focus on the particular problem of being a political spokesperson. She says it is difficult to reflect your bosses’ views accurately without letting your personal views creep in. She rues the ease with which disinformation and violence can be spread in today’s social media.  If an attack is personal to you as a spokesperson, then use it to remind yourself that if you got so much under the skin of your adversary they felt the need to attack you with lies, you may be on the right track. Also defending yourself strongly from these kinds of attacks can be counterproductive. I note here that Kamala Harris has been able to use a laugh and humor to sidetrack personal slanders thrown at her. 

 

Good communication doesn’t have to be loud or long. One descriptive and emotional human interest story is often worth more than a string of statistics. For all communicators, but especially spokespeople, you must know your audience. You can’t craft a good  message or response if you don’t know who you are speaking to. Do your prep. Anticipate objections and have answers ready. Own up quickly to mistakes. It helps to be a better listener because then you can read the content and body language as it comes at you.

 

She claims the successful political communicator has to build bridges where none exist. I grant you there are adversaries who want no bridges and are concentrating on filling the river with crocodiles, but one way to build a bridge is to speak humbly about hardships you might have had that they also may have faced.  Just present yourself as human and flawed just as they are.

 

Her best advice was “Don’t take the bait!” When you get questions like “Many are saying”, “Some say”, or “Critics are saying”, your best option is to respond with a question rather than launching into a refutation. i.e.  “Can you tell me more about who they are?  Can you attach a number to apply to your question? In other words “How many is some?” or “Who are they?” There is a difference between your golf foursome and a clutch of twenty foreign heads of state.  

 

She closes by emphasizing that good communicators are optimists at heart and they keep on thinking that connection is possible and something positive is attainable. She also successfully steers clear of the contemporary political scene. That means you can pick up some good ideas regardless of your party. The book is a long way from being a candidate for a Pulitzer Prize, but does give you a bit of a look at the development of a political junkie. It is not exciting, but the advice is pretty solid.

 

I give it a 3.5 out of 5

Review: Daniel Silva A DEATH IN CORNWALL

 

Daniel Silva’s latest spy thriller, A Death in Cornwall, is every bit as good as his last ones. In this outing, Gabriel Allon, Israel’s semi-retired spy chief and part-time art restorer, is asked to help solve the murder of a well-known art authenticator. The trail leads out of the art world and into the world of billionaire oligarchs who hide their wealth in layer after layer of foreign shell companies and often use the acquisition and trading of valuable paintings as a part of their tax evasion schemes.

 

I am still in awe of how expertly Silva knits his plots and brilliant humor together as Allon and Ingrid, his kleptomaniacal computer guru associate, weave their way through all of Europe including London, Cornwall, Paris, Marseille, Corsica, and Venice at breakneck speed. Silva seems to know in acute detail every local wine and food preference as well as every road turn and railway and flight schedule to get you to the next destination. I give you one example. As the violent climax nears, one of the attacking duo asks the other what is in the rucksack he is carrying. The answer is “night-vision field glasses, two Glock pistols, ammunition, a couple of secure phones, and a box of McVities.” The sidekick asks, “Dark chocolate?” And the answer is “Of course!”  To which the reply is “I’d kill for one.” Only immaculate research, an eye for word play, and vast experience can come up with that exchange.

 

Interspersed with the action is the main theme, which is as up-to-the present as today’s evening news. It is stated baldly by the cashiered former MI5 villain Robertson when he tells Allon, “Your implacable sense of right and wrong is admirable, but I’m afraid it’s rather out of fashion at the moment. The truth is there is no right and wrong any longer. There is only power and money.” 

 

I give it a full-throated 5 out of 5 for its genre.

 

 

Book Review: Smolder by Stuart Woods sort of.

 

Mr. Woods is another of those hyper-prolific authors that turn out books like a plastic extrusion machine.  They are quick reads and even more quickly forgotten. There are about thirty of them in the Stone Barrington series alone. 

In this one Barrington, an obscenely rich lawyer, spy, serial lover, and son of a famous artist finds that an old enemy wants to humiliate him by purchasing or stealing his mother’s valuable paintings and then burning them.  At the bottom of the rotten art world, the fancy cars, the right wines, the casual affair minded women, and the equally casual killing is just another tired formula thriller.  Oh, did I mention! Mr. Woods is dead and some other hack is carrying on the torch.  “Old writers never die: the heirs just want more money." 

.5 out of 5