"How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to one another that isn't true? Talking to Strangers is a classically Gladwellian intellectual adventure, a challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology, and scandals taken straight from the news. He revisits...

"Once upon a time, there was a girl who wanted nothing more than to play Snow White in her school's musical. Excitedly, Tameika dances and sings her way through the halls. But on the day of the auditions, she overhears some kids suggesting that she is not princess material. Tamika suddenly doesn't feel quite right enough to play a perfectly poised princess"-- Jacket flap.

The everyday life of middle schooler, Russell, is depicted in his spiral notebook full of doodles and journal entries detailing what it's like being different and how to be comfortable in his own skin. "Russell is a middle schooler; he excessively doodles in his spiral notebook; he has two best friends, Charlotte and Preston; he is not-so-great at sports; and he is pond scum. Nicknamed "Swamp Kid" by his classmates, Russell has algae for hair, a...