The best books to make you feel better about not being brilliant at giving presentations

Barbra Streisand reads her autobiography out loud for the audiobook. It takes 48 hours and covers her early years, her films, her albums, her politics, and her love life, and when it finished, I was bereft. What a woman! She was prolific and clever and often underestimated or put down, particularly in her early years, because she was a woman.

I said aloud, “Yes, Barbra!” when she triumphed over adversity (or sexism). She’s a phenomenal woman. However, she hates giving presentations and speeches and ties herself in knots at the thought. It’s reassuring that even a global superstar like Barbra has the same fear of presenting as so many of us. But she did something about it–she practiced and got better. And so can we.

I love David Sedaris’s writing. He is so observant and has a brilliant ear for dialogue. I’ve read his diaries, which are some of the source material for this book of essays. The title refers to him learning French whilst living in Paris.

His attempts to read his essays to the class are often met with contempt by his French teacher, who barely disguises her scorn at his efforts. But, respect for David’s work ethic–he often spent the whole day on his French homework, so determined was he to crack the language. Another life lesson: there are no shortcuts–you have to put the work in.

When I was nine, I stayed with my Grandparents for a week and went to the local bookshop every morning. One day, I randomly picked up Harriet the Spy, read the first page, and couldn’t stop. Over the years, I have read it over 50 times, and it still remains one of my all-time favorites.

This book has nothing to do with presenting and everything to do with being observant, a writer, and a spy. I couldn’t have a list of book recommendations without including this. Harriet is one of the best and most realistic heroines in children’s literature, and if you haven’t read it, you’re in for a treat.

I greatly admire people who are ‘themselves’ in every situation and whoever they are talking to. People who don’t tie themselves in knots thinking about what the ‘right’ thing to say is and who don’t pretend to be someone they are not. The author of this book of letters home to her sister is–I think–someone like that.

And that’s why this book is so amusing and a huge comfort read that I repeatedly turn to. It’s Nina, from Leicester, coming to live and work in London for the first time as a nanny to two boys. She doesn’t care about what she ‘should’ say; she just says what she sees and writes what she hears–to comical effect (unconsciously).

The original and best diary of a single woman in London in the 1990s. Yes, reading it now, you might cringe at the obsession about weight (and men), but that’s what we were all like back then! And many Gen Xers still carry those scars. We salute you, big up the body confident, but we probably couldn’t be you. I love reading other people’s diaries, and–fictional, this may be–the themes are universal. 

Relationships with friends, food, and mothers–it’s all here and very funny. This list includes the tenuous link about when Bridget had to do a speech at her company book launch event. Spoiler: it wasn’t a triumph.