Surprise

January 12, 2015
This is a vibrant, readable foray into
the potential and the proper place for surprise in our lives. Authors Renninger and Luna, founder and head of the culture department at LifeLabs New York respectively, prove both knowledgeable and
personable guides. Through their animated narrative, we learn to see the world with fresh eyes, learning, for instance, of surprise’s possible evolutionary basis in the “fight or flight” instinct. Perhaps the book’s most appealing aspect is its lively presentation, which sprinkles the pages with inventive terms, from the Struggle Sandwich to the Surprise Seesaw, and visual components that clearly illustrate verbal concepts. Chapters are also punctuated by helpful “cheat sheets” that give synopses of the surprises therein. In a world that often seems keen on eliminating the unexpected with predictive technologies, this book suggests that an element of surprise might prove all the more necessary. As such, this entertaining, smartly packaged book leaves readers with a full set of practical tools geared toward making everyone surprise-seekers in their own lives. Agent: Katherine Fausset, Curtis Brown.

December 1, 2014

The aim of Luna and Renninger's book is to assist readers to learn how to see the unexpected as an invigorating element of life. The authors, both psychologists, researchers, and entrepreneurs, make their case by demonstrating how surprise first elicits a spike in brain waves to hijack attention, then causes the mind to generate questions and draw hypotheses. The element of surprise forces a person to revise their scheme of thinking and as a result share this finding with others. Essentially, astonishment moves us out of our comfort zones and sharpens our skills for handling the unexpected, thus developing "surprise skills" can be very handy. VERDICT A delightful, sophisticated read for everyone who desires a spark in their lives.

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