white people being culturally insensitive making very poor choices then being rescued by either cons or nice people.

A welcome contrast to the last book I read (The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich), the Kindness of Strangers lays out a history of humanity’s gradual cultural movement towards kindness and towards altruism. Without beating you over the head with it, the overall sentiment is that kindness works because it benefits individuals and society and ultimately makes for the things we all want in the world: peace and prosperity. McCullough seems to lay out an argument that modern globalism is an extension of understanding your neighbors, that since we are so much more aware of each other it is incumbent upon all people to show global compassion as an inevitable next step in our “kindness evolution”. This ebook does not contain essays by Pico Iyer and Tanya Shaffer, which were part of the print collection. The arrogance is again, not only awful, but he doesn’t even seem to recognize that he really almost killed his girlfriend in multiple ways. Another reviewer made the astute observation that this collection of tales doesn't offer enough space for the reader to become acquainted with the characters and they didn't like this book. I found it delightful because I was introduced to skilled authors and a taste of their travel adventures. So while it's true that the stories are short, they reminded me that dusty corners of the globe are full of friendly natives and intrepid first world explorers who enjoy the same experiences I do. This is heartening and a worthy evening retreat toward the Land of Nod, i.e., bedtime. Dave Eggers and Laura Fraser's stories were particularly attractive.

Then he was grateful, thought it was “kind” that the murderers spared them because they liked them so much???

This book is a perfect example of why I love my GR buddies- without them I never would have had this on my radar; I never would have known this existed, because let's be honest: that cover is easy to overlook. Don't let the cute cover fool you- this is emotionally draining. But it's worth it. I have always depended on the kindness of strangers", a line from Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)The best way I can describe the writing is "immature": Kittle has a ways to go before she's ripe. The characters are cookie-cutter and predictable, the dialogue's unnatural and clunky, and the whole book has a sort of preachy quality that I found distasteful.

How many times have you heard some variation of the phrase, advanced by David Hume in the 18th century, that “reason is the slave of the passions”? According to this doctrine, reason is used simply as justification for the pursuit of goals dictated by our emotions. If you want to understand human behavior, therefore, you don’t have to look much further than to what we are biologically programmed to want and pursue.These are stories that make our hearts grow, stories that will restore our faith in the world and remind us that, despite what the media says, the world isn't a scary place – rather, it is filled with Kind Strangers just like us. I've read many books about group selection and why cooperation developed via altruism within tribes, but this book shed new light on the topics. McCullough also details the interesting history of social work and social services, which I was unaware of prior to reading the book.