This little guide was far more helpful than it has any right to be. I was drawn to it because I am an introvert who is married to a social butterfly. He attends a lot of functions on his own because I find communication with strangers to be exhausting, but this seemed like a good way to branch out and see if I could master some new skills. At first time I was a little disappointed because it seemed like the advice was fairly repetitive… Have some icebreakers in your pocket, look for commonalities, ask probing questions, read the other person's body language, have some exit strategies ready to draw the conversation to close at the appropriate time. This advice was applied to almost every scenario in the book, but after hearing it over and over again, it definitely made sense. Personally, I found the most helpful section to be at the end of the book. The tips for navigating thorny conversations and especially the chapter about small talk for introverts were right up my alley.

Overall, I would say this is a guide to making conversation, not just chitchat. The goal is to connect with other people in a positive way and I feel like I can definitely apply these tips to my own life. As I read through each chapter, half of me was inspired to try to be more social with strangers and the other half was continuously horrified by the idea that some rando might try to talk to me. I decided to split the difference… My first step will be grocery shopping without my earbuds in because I know old people like to chat me up in the grocery store! After that, who knows? Baby steps toward connecting with other humans.

I appreciate NetGalley and the publisher for access to a digital ARC. My honest review is my own opinion

Although there are some good tips and examples, I found that there is a lot of repetition throughout the book. There is a lot of focus on the effect of small talk and what it can lead to, which is interesting, but I think it would be more helpful for the book to go into more detail on how to small talk. It sometimes feels a little vague.
I do like that it is quite a short book and is an easy read! I like that the sections are short so it’s not overwhelming. Ultimately, I did learn from this book and will be using some of the techniques mentioned. The book would have received a higher rating from me if there wasn’t so much repetition.

I really didn't enjoy this book. The book was 70 pages long with alot of repeating the same points over and over. Sometimes I feel like these smaller books could be an article or maybe even a pamphlet. I also felt like the author was saying things that were common sense and not focusing on the key of the book which is chit-chat. If you're going to make that your title and not focus on it as much then it is a disappointment. I do not recommend this book

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Luigi Padovesi, and BooksGoSocial for providing this helpful guide to learning how to socialize in a variety of settings. This guide discusses the importance for small talk, how it can benefit you as well as others, and even examples of how to communicate in a variety of settings. This is a great tool for those in the business world as well for anyone in their everyday private lives. I love the variety of examples to use for conversation starters or to keep those awkward silences from happening. This is a very helpful guide and I look forward to picking up a physical copy as well. I plan to use this guide for myself as well as to help my children learn the art of small talk. Thank you again for allowing me to review this book.

An interesting read, some good tips, they might seem a bit obvious and common sense, but it’s always nice to be reminded.

I did feel that was tailored more to an American reader and someone who had access to lots of social events. Yes there was a chapter for the introvert, but it would of been nice to have tips for just chit chat help for people you see every day but never know how to start up a conversation and keep it going.

Good tips on not over sharing and coming on too strong, and good examples of responses when trying to stay engaged.

It was a good over view, with hand bullet points to remind you of key info.

I tend toward introversion so I like reading books about how to make conversations. This was... okay, I guess. I'm not sure that this was written by a human and not just some AI prompt. It certainly wasn't edited (which, I did read an ARC but still). Lots of repetition. LOTS of repetition. This 71 page book might have been closer to 60 if it had been vetted and rearranged.
You'll have to work hard to find the good points though they do exist.

This is a great, short how-to for those of us who dread making small talk. While the book is brief and to the point with helpful individual chapters, I felt the first introductory chapter was long and a little tedious. The chapter for introverts made this book safely accessible and an excellent recommendation for gifting to high schoolers, particularly those graduating.

Sadly I found Luis Padovesi's Art of Chit Chat disappointing. While it goes into starting conversations in different contexts, keeping the flow, understanding body language and ending conversations, often using bullet points and examples,I found the chapters VERY repetitive.

Other than the examples given in each chapter everything else was just rehashed over and over again. To the pount I found I had to force myself to keep reading!!!

It would have been better if all the info was in one chapter and then a section with different examples for different contexts maybe in some kind of table. Would make for easier reference too!