by Betsy Graziani Fasbinder ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 7, 2018
A lean, helpful primer for authors who want to succeed as speakers.
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A manual coaches writers to be better public speakers.
Writing a book is hard enough, but for many authors, the prospect of having to then stand up in front of a group of strangers to speak about that work is even more daunting. Yet in the world of contemporary publishing, author events and readings are necessary for book promotion. That means that meek, thoughtful writers who have just spent years laboring over their sentences in solitude must suddenly transform into personable, compelling public speakers. Impossible? Not according to Fasbinder (Filling Her Shoes, 2017, etc.). “Skilled public speaking is not a gift, but a set of simple, learnable skills that anyone willing to put in the effort can learn,” asserts the author in her introduction. “Your book and your ideas deserve the best, most skilled ambassador to share them, and that, dear writer, is you.” In this guide to public speaking, Fasbinder gets readers into the right mindset, breaking down the reasons behind their common fears and building up the confidence of would-be speakers. She then walks readers through the process, focusing on not just what to say, but how to say it. The author introduces the necessary skills that readers can practice to develop on their own and even discusses the lesser, atmospheric aspects of a speaking engagement like music and food. She is prepared to turn the least confident of readers into successful, vocal advocates for their own works. Fasbinder writes in a clear, concise prose that is always conversational: “My experience tells me this: whenever a speaker gets into a combative verbal exchange with an audience member, it’s the speaker who loses—one hundred percent of the time.” Chapters are divided into easily digestible sections, cleanly organized with charts and lists. The author knows her audience, and the fact that the book is tailored to writers—notorious neurotics, overthinkers, and overexplainers—makes for an especially informative and enjoyable read. Fasbinder’s candid yet comforting delivery makes it feel as though she’s with readers every step of the way, offering a thumbs-up from the back of the room.
A lean, helpful primer for authors who want to succeed as speakers.Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63152-463-9
Page Count: 248
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Robert Greene ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 13, 2012
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
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by Cheryl Strayed ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2015
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.
A lightweight collection of self-help snippets from the bestselling author.
What makes a quote a quote? Does it have to be quoted by someone other than the original author? Apparently not, if we take Strayed’s collection of truisms as an example. The well-known memoirist (Wild), novelist (Torch), and radio-show host (“Dear Sugar”) pulls lines from her previous pages and delivers them one at a time in this small, gift-sized book. No excerpt exceeds one page in length, and some are only one line long. Strayed doesn’t reference the books she’s drawing from, so the quotes stand without context and are strung together without apparent attention to structure or narrative flow. Thus, we move back and forth from first-person tales from the Pacific Crest Trail to conversational tidbits to meditations on grief. Some are astoundingly simple, such as Strayed’s declaration that “Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard.” Others call on the author’s unique observations—people who regret what they haven’t done, she writes, end up “mingy, addled, shrink-wrapped versions” of themselves—and offer a reward for wading through obvious advice like “Trust your gut.” Other quotes sound familiar—not necessarily because you’ve read Strayed’s other work, but likely due to the influence of other authors on her writing. When she writes about blooming into your own authenticity, for instance, one is immediately reminded of Anaïs Nin: "And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Strayed’s true blossoming happens in her longer works; while this collection might brighten someone’s day—and is sure to sell plenty of copies during the holidays—it’s no substitute for the real thing.
These platitudes need perspective; better to buy the books they came from.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-101-946909
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
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