Articles tagged: Book Reviews

If you want to master visual communication, this book is for you.

If you want to impress your audience with eye-popping slides, this book is for you.

If you want to break free from the Death By PowerPoint pandemic, this book is for you.

Nancy Duarte has written slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. (More on Nancy in a future Six Minutes interview — stay tuned!)

Ever since my copy arrived, I can’t put it down. I’ve carried it to and from work every day so that I can read a few pages on breaks. It’s that good.

I highly recommend slide:ology. It is destined to become a classic reference text for presentation skills.

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Stephen Kosslyn has written a wonderful book for all presenters: Clear and to The Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations.

The subtitle for the book promises to illuminate the psychology of PowerPoint. Does it deliver?

In a way, yes. The 8 principles, dozens of examples, and hundreds of tips reveal much that would improve your PowerPoint skills.

However, this book delivers so much more. The 8 psychological principles can be applied to many aspects of public speaking beyond PowerPoint design.

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Learn to speak the language of motivation with Fire Them Up!, the subject of the latest Six Minutes public speaking book review.

Fire Them Up focuses not on short term steps (things to do), but on seven qualities of inspiring business communicators (things to embrace).

The target audience is broad: CEO, salesperson, manager, merchant, entrepreneur, coach, teacher, pastor, and parent.

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The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking: Modern Techniques for Dynamic Communication is 224 pages of practical, plain, and pure public speaking advice.

Author Dale Carnegie packs an incredible breadth of public speaking advice into a short, easy-to-read format.

Over 7 million people have completed Dale Carnegie training, following the basic wisdom contained in this book.

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The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion Through the Art of Storytelling has one consistent message: that storytelling is a critical skill for business communication and public speaking.

Author Annette Simmons weaves hundreds of stories into The Story Factor. These stories — drawn from cultures around the world — illustrate well the power of story in conveying lessons.

I discovered this public speaking book two years ago in my Toastmasters club library. When I picked up the book again recently to write this review, I was delighted to reacquaint myself with several stories that I have since adopted into my own speaking repertoire.

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Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln came to me as a great Christmas gift — a stocking stuffer which will improve my speaking skills considerably.

I was skeptical at first. I guessed that this was another stuffy book filled with speeches and anecdotes from famous speakers who lived so long ago that their speeches are part of history and their anecdotes are no longer relevant. That’s what I thought as I opened the book.

What I discovered is not really a “book full of speeches and anecdotes” (although there are many, many speech excerpts and anecdotes). Rather, I discovered a practical book of speaking techniques that will bolster the repertoire of any speaker who aims to lead.

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Presentation Zen book reviews, to be more accurate. Lots of them.

In the spirit of Rotten Tomatoes - a site I always check before buying or renting a movie - this article gathers book reviews from public speaking experts and fellow bloggers.

A summary of their opinion is simple: buy this book and the slides in your next presentation will benefit.

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