I’m currently reading Leonard Sweet’s latest book, Nudge. While a full review will follow, I wanted to give you some excerpts from the pages of this very interesting book. In this excerpt, Sweet is giving an example of the difficulty of reading ‘smoke signals’ – when things are not what they seem:

Mildred was the the “Tongue of the Church” and the self-appointed monitor of the church’s morals. She could not stop sticking her nose into other people’s business and gossiping what she sniffed out. Several members did not approve ofg her extracurricular activities, but feared her enough to maintain their silence.

Mildred made a mistake, however, when she accused Henry , a new member, of being an alcoholic after she saw his old  pickup parked in front of the town’s only bar one afternoon. She emphatically told Henry and several other memebrs that everyone seeing it there would know what he was doing. Henry, a man of few words, stared at her for a moment and just turned and walked away. He didn’t explain, defend, or deny. He said nothing.

Later that evening, Henry quietly parked his pickup in front of Mildred’s house, walked home, and left it there all night. You gotta love Henry.  (p. 139)