Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. Strout won The Pulitzer Prize for her collection of 13 short stories set in small-town Maine. The Pulitzer judges commended her for work that "packs a cumulative emotional wallop" held together by the "blunt, flawed and fascinating" character of title character Olive. Strout's book was a finalist for this year's […]
After meeting a bevy of baby animals -- including a clever monkey, a hairy warthog, and a dusty lion cub -- the baby in this story discovers the most precious creature of all...itself, of course! With an exuberant rhyming text by bestselling author Mem Fox and adorable cut-paper illustrations by Caldecott-Honor recipient Steve Jenkins, this […]
I routinely do presentations and thought many of the things I do and know about presenting to an audience were simply common sense. However, sitting in workshops over a three-day conference gave me the perspective of a participant. It appears that many of the common sense things that I do and know are not so […]
We all make excuses. But the successful ones are those who can kill the excuses like the miserable maggots they are. I’m too tired. I don’t have the time. I don’t feel motivated. I’d rather do nothing. I don’t have the money, equipment, space. I can’t because … We’ve all made the excuses. Here’s how […]
"For all those years you’ve protected the seed. It’s time to become the beautiful flower." -- Stephen C. Paul
Army Reservist Ryan Smithson was only 19 when he went to Iraq as an engineer, and the experience haunted him for years. Smithson ended up writing a college essay about one of his first missions there, which not only impressed his professor—but also led to Smithson’s first book, Ghosts of War: My Tour of Duty. […]
Better Communication - Focus your Communication Focus your communication on the needs of the audience
Schools and libraries routinely prepare summer reading lists. Many kids, however, greet these lists with as much enthusiasm as they would a plate of brussel sprouts, as they view literary classics and...more » » »
Zodiac by Neal Stephenson Sangamon Taylor's a New Age Sam Spade who sports a wet suit instead of a trench coat and prefers Jolt from the can to Scotch on the rocks. He knows about chemical sludge the way he knows about evil -- all too intimately. And the toxic trail he follows leads to […]
In the first two articles of this series, we learned how using the rule of three can improve your speeches by [1] writing triads of words, phrases, and sentences and [2] by applying three-part speech outlines. In this article, you will learn how adding an unexpected twist to the third element can add power or […]
