Celebrated Republican speechwriter Peggy Noonan gives the reader advice on how to be better at public speaking. The lessons she imparts are surprisingly applicable to many forms of creative writing, not just giving speeches.

People who want to improve their ability to speak publicly, or want to enjoy reading Peggy Noonan dunking on liberals and celebrating conservative politicians.

The writing advice. It was truly insightful and practical.

The fact that she couldn't hide her political bias in any way, shape, or form, and even more so the fact that she didn't follow her own advice and keep this book concise and to the point.

Write a rousing speech.

Really hates Democrats.

There is some genuinely good writing advice in there. Just be prepared to skip through large swathes of the book when she gets a little too self-indulgent or too high on her horse.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. At first, I wanted to give it five stars because the advice she gives about public speaking (which also actually translates remarkably well for creative writing in general) is exceptionally easy to follow and useful. So I was all in on this book for the first quarter of it or so. However, the later parts of the book made me want to give it three stars (or even less) because she does two things that I find infuriating... first, she lets her partisan bias show. I know she was a Republican speechwriter, but every anecdote in the book is either "Here's a great speech from a Republican and why this Republican is a genuinely brilliant politician" or "Here's a bad speech from a Democrat and why this Democrat is a terrible politician." Second, and perhaps far more grating, she doesn't take her own advice. Early in the book, she gives several genuinely insightful nuggets of wisdom about how to be concise, not bore the audience, know where the line is between making your point and going on too long... and later in the book she literally (and repeatedly) says things like, "May I indulge in just one more anecdote to make my point?" after already using two or three. I would have liked this book a lot more if she had been a little less politically biased and had followed her own advice. That said, based on the quality of the advice in the first part of the book (which I found genuinely helpful), I split the differences and gave this book four out of five stars.

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Created Feb 29, 2020 at 11:19pm • Submit your own review...