<p>Former comedy club host, online philosophy professor, and keynote speaker, Dr. Matt Deaton, demystifies public speaking as nothing more than idea transfer. His ambitiously titled&nbsp;<em>The&nbsp;Best Public Speaking Book</em> covers&nbsp;everything from preparation to posture, microphones to mindset, hand gestures to hecklers. And Deaton does it with such endearing levity that you forget you&rsquo;re learning to do something scarier than dying (according to&nbsp;Seinfeld).</p><p>The core is captured by his Three Commandments:</p><p><strong>I. Know Thy Material&nbsp;<br />
II. Be Thyself&nbsp;<br />
III. Practice&nbsp;</strong></p><p>Study your subject, polish your authentic stage self, and rehearse, and you&rsquo;re more than halfway there. To get the rest of the way there&rsquo;s:</p>
<ul>
<li>The Urban Honey Badger (honored on the book&rsquo;s cover) &ndash; an unconventional assertiveness drill designed to vanquish nervousness and build a confident (and slightly edgy) stage presence</li>
<li>How to develop a message that&rsquo;s easy for you to deliver and for your audience to absorb (when points logically flow, everyone wins)</li>
<li>How to tailor your silent message to win your audience&rsquo;s respect and attention</li>
<li>How to quickly recover when things go wrong (Blackout? Fire? No problem!)</li>
<li>Growth assignments that take&nbsp;readers from the easiest of the easy (Checkout Speech is literally practicing your delivery in line at the grocery), through a library volunteer assignment (the audience is little kids, so the pressure&rsquo;s low &ndash; brilliant way to safely build experience), all the way through readers&rsquo; original reason for studying public speaking (whether for school, work, or the prison talent show)</li>
<li>How to effectively use PowerPoint (hint: visuals ' text), present to a remote audience (assume they&rsquo;re watching Netflix&hellip; on the potty), select a quality clicker (hint: range ' lasers)</li>
<li>All the classic&nbsp;essentials, too: enunciation ('Rubber baby buggy bumpers&hellip;'), voice projection, eye contact (for audience members without face tattoos, anyway), when (and when <em>not) </em>to use a lectern, why reading a script is the lowest form of public speaking (good news: follow Deaton&rsquo;s Three Commandments and you won&#39;t need a script).</li>
</ul>

<p>Add a humble professor&rsquo;s touch &ndash; coaching, encouragement and inspiration (something Deaton admits needing lots of when he began), and you&rsquo;ve got one heck of an engaging and effective book. Readers might also accidentally learn to overcome procrastination,&nbsp;transcend perfectionism, supplant negativity with optimism, grow from setbacks, and other corny self-help gems that happen to work.</p>
<p>New in this revised second edition is a chapter on how to handle tough crowds, another on&nbsp;the speaking business (don&rsquo;t rule out getting paid to speak, argues Deaton &ndash; if it could happen to him, it can happen to you), chapters on each of his Three Commandments (surprisingly absent in the first edition), and a new YouTuber stretch assignment with an invitation to share a vid for friendly feedback.</p>
<p>Read the reviews. Browse inside. See for yourself why this 2^nd edition of Deaton&rsquo;s inviting how-to just might <em>be</em> the best public speaking book. But know that he expects application. If you&#39;re not up for reminders to stop reading and start doing, there are less demanding options available. This one isn&rsquo;t for spectators. It&rsquo;s for ambitious rookies with a seed of courage and the commitment to get better&mdash;the only two traits, argues Deaton, aspiring speakers need to succeed.</p>