I would like to recommend a book and series of lectures (available on CD) that I found useful for improving my speaking and conversation. They are by Deborah Tannen, Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and I have never seen these mentioned in TS groups before. These are not directly aimed toward us and are not about voice control, but for anyone looking to better understand speech patterns or styles of speaking which tend to differ between genders. For me, I found many things which already fit with my own patterns, and others where I thought I could improve and deliberately adjust my own patterns in order to fit into social situations better.
The book, "You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation" is independent from the lectures but is also considered a companion book for the lectures. It focuses more on conflict between genders than the lectures, but addresses it by looking at the differences in ways of speaking and how it affects our understanding of each other.
The lectures are on a multiple CD set called "He Said/She Said (Exploring the Different Ways Men and Women Communicate.)" They total about 7 hours and are easy, enjoyable listening. The intended audience is the average person so there is minimal academic jargon. She draws from a number of transcripts of taped conversations she made of people in home, work, or school environments. I listened to the whole set several times during 4 hour drives to my electrologist (along with the Andrea James voice CD). I think I obtained it through Barnes & Noble but doing a quick search online it looks like it is available from other sources also.
Lecture 1 He Said/She Said: A Framework for Understanding Conversations Between Women and Men
Lecture 2 The Source of Gender Patterns: Children at Play
Lecture 3 A Cross-Cultural Approach to Gender Talk
Lecture 4 The Role of Opposition in Men's Relationships
Lecture 5 The Role of Talk in Women's Relationships
Lecture 6 The Interplay of Power and Connection
Lecture 7 Ambiguity and Polysemy: Two Keys to Understanding Language and Gender
Lecture 8 Indirectness: Not in So Many Words
Lecture 9 Talking at Home: Gender in the Family
Lecture 10 Talking at Work
Lecture 11 Who Talks More?: Public and Private Speaking
Lecture 12 A History of Research on Gender and Language
Lecture 13 Nature/Nurture: The Source of Gender Differences
Lecture 14 Conclusion: What Can You Do?
