“Lori shares plenty of feet-on-the-ground advice for forming and fostering community…The newcomer to community building will get a solid foundation, and the experienced community builder will find a useful framework as well as some new tools for the toolbox.”
~ from an Amazon review
I’m so grateful to those who have taken the time to post a review of Sounding the Drum on Amazon so far. You can go to Amazon.com or Amazon.ca or Amazon.in to see the full reviews but here are excerpts that will answer questions you may have about the book. Also, if you’ve read it, please leave a review at your Amazon store! And thanks!
What is Sounding the Drum About?
“In Sounding the Drum, Lori Gosselin has written a guide to connecting human to human, with specific pointers on building connection in the digital age.”
“Lori Gosselin has identified something that is both challenge and opportunity. At this point in human evolution, the means of forming community has changed (drastically, in some ways), but the principles have not, and we are still navigating the new ways of fostering this old human need.”
“In Sounding the Drum, Gosselin takes us on a journey of community building. Before you make assumptions about what you know about community building, you need to get this book.”
Why is Community Important?
“Community is something more than just shared values and geography. It’s a path to transformation.”
“Communities sound like the solution we need in our lives, in our cities, and in our politics today. The author makes a powerful point that communities can be the basis of personal transformation AND a peaceful social revolution.”
“True community provides a “safe” space for us to move deeper into vulnerability and it creates bonds that are unbreakable. Community, in this sense, is the solution, not just the answer.”
“Rather than bemoan the breakdown of traditional community (which she notes–this is no sparkly-eyed Pollyanna book), she recognizes its continuing strength in face-to-face encounters supported by social media, and at times even primarily built on social media.”
“But it’s not only about the online community. You can apply her community building principles in any aspect of life and work.”
“Belonging is a human need we all struggle with from time to time as we transition in life. Lori brilliantly shows us how building community around us helps us ‘belong’ and accomplish more than we ever could imagine alone.”
“There is a movement afoot, or perhaps an energetic shift, wherein people are feeling the call to gather in community. I feel so proud to be standing shoulder to shoulder with Lori Gosselin in heeding that call.”
“In the final chapter, Gosselin applies the idea of community to the challenges facing the world today, right up to and including the recent divisive election in the United States.”
Will I Be Able to Relate to the Book?
“…it is easy to read with no technical jargon. Instead, she uses real-life examples from her experiences with community building.”
“She draws on experiences spanning her life and then uses them to relate to universal experience.”
“She explains the evolution of pseudo-communities into communities in ways that make experiences in my own life suddenly clearer.”
“There’s more to a community than just chit-chatting or sharing information and news.”
“I look around me and at the relationships that I have in local groups differently now.”
Does it Tell Me How to Build Community?
“Lori also shares plenty of feet-on-the-ground advice and techniques for forming and fostering community, always within the framework of the tools she has detected early in the book and the seven pillars of community…. The newcomer to community building will get a solid foundation, and the experienced community builder will find a useful framework as well as some new tools for the toolbox.”
“In addition to the chapters on different aspects of community building, the appendix was brilliant in giving an outline of how to build different types of communities. The author walks you step by step on how to build online communities, book clubs, parent communities and neighborhood communities.”
“It is far more than a book about how to build a community in your local organization. It is a book about understanding the communities that we are part of every day of our lives and how to make them more effective and productive!”
“She gets into the nitty-gritty of community building and deals in detail about the meaning and stages of community building….The community building tips and tools in this book would really help you get started from scratch. If you wish to build or learn in-depth about community building, this is a good read.”