The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters Paperback – April 14, 2020

Priya is methodical, intentional and quite resourceful in helping us think - through and execute family, professional and life-moments through gathering. I have been excited to purchase this hardcopy fof months now!

The book explores the critical factors that make any event successful. I recommend it for anyone who wants to take event game to the next level.

The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker wasn't exactly what I expected. It took me several pages to reconcile that the book wasn't what I thought it was going to be, but once I did I found it very interesting and rather helpful. It reminded me a lot of my days as part of a committee organizing a writers and readers conference. I couldn't help but compare and contrast our efforts with her recommendations. Parker made me alternately wish I'd read this book back then and feel proud of the work we did. That said, I could imagine how some of the things Parker suggests would feel contrived to guests and even to hosts even those who were genuine in their efforts, particularly at parties. Maybe this comes from my upbringing where gatherings, or get-together as we called them, were much less formal by design and people appreciated that informality. It also reminded me of parties I attended where there was so much structure, no one seemed to have any fun. Everyone was too busy making sure they followed the rules. While Parker presents her ideas on gatherings complete with fun and interesting examples to prove her point, I often wondered just how well they would work among the people I know. I thoroughly enjoyed The Art of Gathering and the different methods of gathering Parker explored, but I kept feeling this little tug in the back of my mind reminding me of how many parties I've thrown and how the best ones were always the ones where we dropped the pretenses aka formalities and allowed people to be themselves in the moment while the ones with strict activities and/or rules never went quite as well. That said, I loved some of the ideas in the book about keeping things flowing and getting people interacting. All in all, The Art of Gathering is definitely worth the read if one is looking to be a better organizer of or participant in meetings, conferences, and other formal gatherings.

A weirdly amazing book that mixes principles for organizing a successful gathering together with etiquette rules, psychology and a pinch of politics. The author encourages people to think about various etiquette rules (without making any judgment as to what is right or wrong) and introduces psychological concepts that are prevalent in our daily lives without our realization. While the author does not express any political opinion, she does touch on how today’s political discourse takes shape when people avoid confrontation and she offers some suggestions about how such discourse can lead to fruitful conversations in a respectful environment that encourages people to disagree with each other while also trying to understand each other (after stopping worrying about saying something politically incorrect).The book is also full of examples from the author’s life and career but the examples are used to draw principles that are applicable to our daily lives. Going forward, it will be one of the books that I will use as a resource whenever I organize a gathering with friends and/or colleagues.As for the readers who criticized the author’s name-dropping throughout the book. To be honest, I think it’s pretty easy to ignore all the names throughout the book and to just focus on the underlying lessons and principles that the author draws from various examples. But if you have a specific hatred towards influential people, sure, don’t buy/read this book as the mention of familiar names might rub you the wrong way.

This is an incredible book. Parker does a flawless job of explaining her theories, naming them memorably, and justifying them. She offers many examples of gatherings to spark imagination in readers to take similar action in their own lives. I genuinely think this book's principles could change how even three people gather together. I've told so many people about this book.The cover is a real winner, too.

This book has good nuggets of information but you have to search for them. It drags on. The quality would have improved by making it 1/2 the length.

We spend too much time in lousy meetings (work and life).Yet as humans we crave and need getting together. Priya gives us a thorough guide to embrace.Hope more people read this and become thoughtful hosts.

It was everything I expected and more! Good book