Good Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck

By: Amy Alkon

Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie

Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

We live in a world that's very different from the one in which Emily Post came of age. Many of us who are nice (but who also sometimes say "f*ck") are frequently at a loss for guidelines about how to be a good person who deals effectively with the onslaught of rudeness we all encounter. To lead us through this this miasma of modern manners, syndicated columnist Amy Alkon - The Advice Goddess - gives us a new set of manners for our 21st-century lives. In chapters titled "The Telephone", "The Internet", "The Apology", and "Communicating", among others, Alkon maps out new rules that go beyond what fork to use to answer real questions we all have:

• When is it okay to phone somebody instead of emailing or texting? When is it rude?
• Why shouldn't you tweet about a guest at a private dinner party? Everybody knows privacy is dead, right?
• How do you shut the guy up in the pharmacy line with his cellphone on speaker?
• When is it right to approach somebody who's crying in public and when is it right to leave him alone?
• When should you unfriend somebody on Facebook and what do you say when she calls you on it?
• If you have an STD, when do you tell people, what do you say, and do you have to contact everyone you've ever had sex with?

Real advice for today with more than a touch of humor, Good Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck is destined to give good old Emily a shove off the etiquette shelf (if that's not too rude to say).

©2014 Amy Alkon (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Introvert Friendly

Love this book! Even introverts like me can reach out to others with kindness without becoming doormats. Very funny too!

Entertaining but...

Entertaining but often confusing. I tend to agree with many of the negative commenters at Goodreads regarding much of her advice about dating and sexual harassment. I don't think anyone should tolerate some creep bothering them. On the other hand, you can't go through life with a one solution fits all circumstances which I think leads to some of the confusing and often contradictory advice. I would tend to recommend caution in engaging people like she does. On the other hand, it did give me some hints on how to reduce my own level of public poor behavior. I don't need to walk around with a chip on my shoulder. If some says hello, it is not a insult.

I go around with don't mess with me written on my face and maybe that is not entirely necessary.

In any event the book is imparted with humor and is rather entertaining.

Inspiring

And fun. Worth a listen or even two to change how we can relate to other people in societies too big for our brains.

good values and comun (not that comun) sense.

I enjoyed most of the book and had some good laugh on funny images and thoughts association. it has some aspects that are more related to USA/Californians identify than it would have with Europeans and or Latin culture. i learned from it and heard about aspects that never thought before. well done!

F-ing Funny and Factual

After using every tactic in our arsenal to solve the problem of 6 piles of dog excrement that dotted our front lawn like landmines and greeted us each morning when we opened the front door, I purchased this book. When I say every tactic, I mean from calling the city, animal control, stuffing mailboxes with fliers quoting the city ordinances regarding responsible pet ownership, posting a sign in the middle of our yard (with attached plastic bags) imploring neighbors *PLEASE clean up after your dog!* (or horse?), and even doing night recon with our old lame bulldog, an airsoft gun and a spotlight. By the time I had to resort to a ludicrous, tacky, ridiculous, sign pleading with people to pick up their pet's poop from our manicured lawn, we had already had the F-bomb blitzkrieg behind closed doors, and were at the point of standing in our flower beds screaming like crazy people at any one that even walked by our house, including children on tricycles. Having to clean up after a pack of assorted sized dogs with assorted diets every effing morning, will do that to you -- even you gentle folk that think the F-bomb is the ultimate no-no spewed only from those with mouths like a sewer pipe. Did I get an answer? Yes and no; but I definitely laughed and lowered my blood pressure.

Alkon, who writes a syndicated advice column, actually offers some really good advice dealing with the tangles we get into living and working with those people that don't give a F*CK -- the ones that really need this book. The problems she tackles head-on include those not even on the horizon until the advent of electronics and social media, including how to re-act when you receive a text accompanied by a picture of an acquaintance's "zipperwurst". She is hilarious, clever, considerate, and grounded; but mostly she is blunt and fearless, empowering the reader to throw their shoulders back and take some power when dealing with any form of boorish, rude, impolite, inconsiderate, discourteous, insolent, people you still have to see every day. And sometimes she gives examples where the offender actually takes responsibility and ends up apologizing!

Like she says, you can be aggressive without being hostile. But it is a fine art facing an offender of civility if you don't have any desire to surround your property with an electrical razor wire fence, find a new job, or change churches after flipping the middle finger to a driver that cuts you off and realizing it was your Pastor. I don't want to stand out in my yard giving passer-by's the stink-eye, or hurling words my grandmother said, "only make you look unintelligent;" but neither do I want to keep a garbage can full of stinky dog poop in my garage until garbage day. I'm not holding my breath until I hear... "we're so sorry our Great Dane has been using your lawn as his toilet!" But, I do feel fortified with the might of right, the responsibility to live with civility and dignity, and the duty to enforce, with kindness, good manners. Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Alkon tells you how to begin that quest...and does it with terrific style and humor.

The title lured me in!

The book is better than I expected. The author offers sound advice on how to handle many situations. It's certainly more relevant to the today's society than is Emily Post. Amy Alkon is like Judith Martin (Miss Manners) with a sense of humor. This book is funny while being serious. I definitely recommend it.

A MUST READ/LISTEN!!

I really really liked this book. It could change your life & your mind about how you deal with people & how you let them deal with you!

Okay, but self-contradictory in places

An OK listen, though I'd suggest Dale Carnegie for a better take on the same ideas. This book is not as clear or concise, and is occasionally self-contradicting... For example, shortly after a rant about phone center operators showing false concern, she seems proud of herself for suggesting ways in which a researcher could send canned responses to people as a way to show concern.
But, fine, especially as a daily deal book!

Who'd a thunk? Glad she did!

A great way to start the new year.

Often wondered about guidelines for this brave new world order. I found insights to help navigate and span this digital divide we communicate within.
Will have to listen and repeat a few times to have it really sink in. Thanks Amy.

Great for the Car

This book was funny, informational and overall entertaining. I listen to it in the car and am happy for the rest of the day after I listen. Would recommend to anyone over age 17