Redux #5 - "The Language of Emotional Intelligence" by Jeanne Segal

I don't want to spend much time discussing The Language of Emotional Intelligence: The Five Essential Tools for Building Powerful and Effective Relationships (2008) by Jeanne Segal because I wasn't impressed with it, and I really don't want to spend any more time on it. I picked up this book as part of my continuing efforts to become a firefighter. The entry test for firefighters involve some questions on "emotional well-being" and "interpersonal skills." Although I am pretty confident in my ability to do the math and English sections on the test, I figured it wouldn't hurt to focus a bit on "emotional well-being" and "interpersonal skills"--an important part of the test, and two things that law school definitely does not encourage. So, after looking at a list of recommended books from the little firefighter study packet, I found this one.

Now, I like learning how people think and interact; I usually find psychology studies fascinating, but this book was a pretty painful read. It was so general it was impossible to learn anything, and it was incredibly repetitive. I've learned more about humans from reading books about chimpanzees. There weren't many reviews on Amazon for this one, but they were all pretty positive. Now that I've read the book, however, I suspect the author/publisher has been busy on Amazon themselves. I'm a little wary of these "self-help" type books, but I wouldn't mind them if they were a little more interesting and helpful. I might try one or two more from that list just to be thorough, but if they're like this one, I'm giving up.