What Every BODY Is Saying

An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People

By: Joe Navarro, Marvin Karlins

Narrated by: Paul Costanzo

Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

He says that's his best offer. Is it?

She says she agrees. Does she?

The interview went great - or did it?

He said he'd never do it again. But he did.

Listen to this book and send your nonverbal intelligence soaring. Joe Navarro, a former FBI counterintelligence officer and a recognized expert on nonverbal behavior, explains how to "speed-read" people: decode sentiments and behaviors, avoid hidden pitfalls, and look for deceptive behaviors. You'll also learn how your body language can influence what your boss, family, friends, and strangers think of you. You will discover:

• The ancient survival instincts that drive body language
• Why the face is the least likely place to gauge a person's true feelings
• What thumbs, feet, and eyelids reveal about moods and motives
• The most powerful behaviors that reveal our confidence and true sentiments
• Simple nonverbals that instantly establish trust
• Simple nonverbals that instantly communicate authority

Filled with examples from Navarro's professional experience, this definitive book offers a powerful new way to navigate your world.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2008 Joe Navarro (P)2011 HarperCollinsPublishers

Let Me Hear Your Body Talk

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.

[If this review helped, please let me know by pressing the helpful button. Thanks!]

good subject matter, terrible narrator

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.

Barely Made It Through This One

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....

Hard to be excited

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!

I should have listen to the other reviewers

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

content okay, but narration ruins the experience

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

Interesting, SLOW narration and very dry

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.

The book could have been so much better

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.

Get great insight with minimum fluff

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.

Worst narration ever.

I am about half way through this book and HAD to write a review already because of the incredibly awful narration. The reader's tone is stilted and slow. It is so bad it sounds like a computer animated voice. I don't think I could read that precisely and clipped if I tried. As much as I am appreciating and learning from the content, the narration is so bad it almost makes it unlistenable (is that a word?),
Great information
HORRIBLE reader.

Sensible and well balanced.

Unlike some books on the subject, this author is very clear that there is no 'Pinnochio effect' which is to say you cannot see a gesture and declare someone is lying. What does happen is that we give off signals of stress or comfort, and reading these signals is very easy and rewarding if you are in a business meeting. His years of experience in the FBI and as a trainer are often included and fascinating in illustrating the book.

Excellent

I thought this might struggle as an audio book but it does work. There is a lot about the reasons behind body language which enabled the author to clump body language in to bite sized chunks to make it digestable.

Very interesting

The things he says and the way he describes them are easy to understand and actually laughable when you notice for yourself or at someone else. I think this book is quite comprehensive to satisfy my interest at speed reading people for personal life and business.

Listened Once - need to listen a few more times

Much along the lines of another reviewers comments, I'm sure the narration could have been tightened a little though, the writing style of the author is very much 'why use one word when you can use 10'.



That being said, I thought the content was very interesting and useful in both a business and personal context.



Will have to listen to it a few more times yet before I'll start using the tools and tricks in earnest.



Sat in a meeting today feeling myself doing some of the things mentioned herein, the things that I could or should have been gaining from their faces rather than portraying in mine. Nonetheless, shows that the content has stuck in mind and therefore value cleaned from the 7 or so hours this book took.

Wonderful

This book is full of wisdom and insight. Joe Navarro doesn't simply provide his (expert) opinion but explains the mechanisms behind body movement and the types of movement which reveal hidden emotions. This is not another book on Body Language, this is a book about the interaction between the brain and the body and how to read body movement to gain insight into the concealed emotions of an individual. A fantastic listen.

Hideously Boring

Would you try another book written by Joe Navarro and Marvin Karlins or narrated by Paul Costanzo?

Sadly the "academic" co author has hijacked the main author (the FBI chap) and created what could have been an interesting and insightful book into a tedious and thoroughly boring audio. The academic should also remember you cannot refer to illustrations when you are listening to an audio book. 100% disappointed.

What could Joe Navarro and Marvin Karlins have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Sack the academic and just have the FBI chap tell it his way.

Would you be willing to try another one of Paul Costanzo’s performances?

No

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Totally pissed off.

Any additional comments?

If the real author (FBI chap) is reading this.....if I have "read" this right...you should have gone with your instincts and had faith in your own creation. Forget the academic with his high flying words....most people are bored by this and want a practical book.

Fantastic book!

This was a great listen, full of well-explained non-verbal clues that people exhibit involuntarily, due the limbic brain's natural responses to certain situations. Highly recommended!

Very interesting

A nicely laid out book with some really interesting points. Joe's years of experience really come through, especially as he freely admits even he can still get it wrong!



He's like a real Cal Lightman (Lie to Me) and gives some very useful tips to interpret body language.

Great story poorly told

This is a really good book and gives you a lot of insight into body language - you start noticing things that you wouldn't have previously - the story is very drawn out though and it is not helped by the narrator of the audiobook who speaks in a dull, monotonous tone. If you are able to get past that the book is well worth listening to.

This Is A Must

This book ive listened to a matter of 5 times and cant get bored it teaches you what to look for in people and shows you tue signs also a good book to have starting out on the road of cold reading and decepting people