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YOGA FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING

AN EMBODIED APPROACH TO MASTERING YOUR ONSTAGE PRESENCE

An encouraging and often captivating book of speaking advice.

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

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  • GET IT

A yoga-centered debut self-help book aimed at helping novice and veteran public speakers improve and sharpen their onstage presence.

Newman, a longtime public-speaking coach and yoga instructor, offers a holistic manual for tackling public speaking anxiety via yogic breathing, movement practices, mindfulness, and meditation. Yoga, she says, is a powerful tool for strengthening presentation skills because it offers “the ability to connect our breath, attention, movement, and ultimately to connect with and even shift our nervous systems…so that we can move about the world in more calm and conscious ways.” The book first helps readers identify the most important facets of their presentations—the who, what, and why—and then does a deep dive into how and why our bodies may react unfavorably to the demands of public speaking: “A small amount of fear that motivates us to do our best can be productive,” she writes. “Fear that paralyzes us needs to be addressed.” She then introduces a set of techniques that can be immediately implemented to reduce the physical symptoms of such anxiety, which include extended exhalations, yoga’s mountain pose, mantra meditation, and ways to manage excess energy. Along the way, readers will find a series of journal prompts that encourage them to reflect on how these new techniques work or don’t work for them. Overall, Newman’s book is full of practical tips to make presentations livelier and more comfortable for both the speaker and the audience. Its format and practices are digestible and easy to follow, accommodating people of varying ages and experience levels, and the author’s writing style will instill confidence in readers. Her expertise permeates this book as she explains the science behind the fear of public speaking and methods for dealing with its effects.

An encouraging and often captivating book of speaking advice.

Pub Date: May 19, 2022

ISBN: 979-8-218-00503-0

Page Count: 145

Publisher: Newman Communications LLC

Review Posted Online: July 20, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022

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CALL ME ANNE

A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.

The late actor offers a gentle guide for living with more purpose, love, and joy.

Mixing poetry, prescriptive challenges, and elements of memoir, Heche (1969-2022) delivers a narrative that is more encouraging workbook than life story. The author wants to share what she has discovered over the course of a life filled with abuse, advocacy, and uncanny turning points. Her greatest discovery? Love. “Open yourself up to love and transform kindness from a feeling you extend to those around you to actions that you perform for them,” she writes. “Only by caring can we open ourselves up to the universe, and only by opening up to the universe can we fully experience all the wonders that it holds, the greatest of which is love.” Throughout the occasionally overwrought text, Heche is heavy on the concept of care. She wants us to experience joy as she does, and she provides a road map for how to get there. Instead of slinking away from Hollywood and the ridicule that she endured there, Heche found the good and hung on, with Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford starring as particularly shining knights in her story. Some readers may dismiss this material as vapid Hollywood stuff, but Heche’s perspective is an empathetic blend of Buddhism (minimize suffering), dialectical behavioral therapy (tolerating distress), Christianity (do unto others), and pre-Socratic philosophy (sufficient reason). “You’re not out to change the whole world, but to increase the levels of love and kindness in the world, drop by drop,” she writes. “Over time, these actions wear away the coldness, hate, and indifference around us as surely as water slowly wearing away stone.” Readers grieving her loss will take solace knowing that she lived her love-filled life on her own terms. Heche’s business and podcast partner, Heather Duffy, writes the epilogue, closing the book on a life well lived.

A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.

Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023

ISBN: 9781627783316

Page Count: 176

Publisher: Viva Editions

Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023

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THINK YOU'LL BE HAPPY

MOVING THROUGH GRIEF WITH GRIT, GRACE, AND GRATITUDE

Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.

Memories and life lessons inspired by the author’s mother, who was murdered in 2021.

“Neither my mother nor I knew that her last text to me would be the words ‘Think you’ll be happy,’ ” Avant writes, "but it is fitting that she left me with a mantra for resiliency.” The author, a filmmaker and former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, begins her first book on the night she learned her mother, Jacqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during a home invasion. “One of my first thoughts,” she writes, “was, ‘Oh God, please don’t let me hate this man. Give me the strength not to hate him.’ ” Daughter of Clarence Avant, known as the “Black Godfather” due to his work as a pioneering music executive, the author describes growing up “in a house that had a revolving door of famous people,” from Ella Fitzgerald to Muhammad Ali. “I don’t take for granted anything I have achieved in my life as a Black American woman,” writes Avant. “And I recognize my unique upbringing…..I was taught to honor our past and pay forward our fruits.” The book, which is occasionally repetitive, includes tributes to her mother from figures like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, but the narrative core is the author’s direct, faith-based, unwaveringly positive messages to readers—e.g., “I don’t want to carry the sadness and anger I have toward the man who did this to my mother…so I’m worshiping God amid the worst storm imaginable”; "Success and feeling good are contagious. I’m all about positive contagious vibrations!” Avant frequently quotes Bible verses, and the bulk of the text reflects the spirit of her daily prayer “that everything is in divine order.” Imploring readers to practice proactive behavior, she writes, “We have to always find the blessing, to be the blessing.”

Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.

Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023

ISBN: 9780063304413

Page Count: 288

Publisher: HarperOne

Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023

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