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Title: A Short Guide to a Happy Life
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Manufacturer: Random House
List Price: $12.95
Our Price: $3.00
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| A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Random House A Simple Reminder of the Magic of Life | Anna Quindlen's charming and engaging little book is a refreshing reminder that life is short, magical and that every moment matters. In a direct and elegant way, Quindlen shares the lessons she learned during and after her mother's death. These lessons focus on embracing your life and not taking it for granted whether you're in one moment enjoying spring flowers or being of service to another human being. I was really touched by the author's honest and humble sentiment throughout the book; Quindlen manages to bypass the drama and darkness of the experience of her mother's death and offer up the richness of what she experienced as a result. Reading it felt like receiving a sweet gift from a friend.
Another book that shares profound life lessons with a similar sense of sincerity and sweetness is Being Here: Modern Day Tales of Enlightenment, by Ariel & Shya Kane. Through incredible stories and examples from real life, the Kanes share what they have discovered on their 20+ year journey as a couple about how to have life be richer and more fulfilling than you ever imagined. If you want to feel inspired, refreshed and enlivened (rather than 'worked on' or preached to), pick up both of these books and treat yourself to a truly delightful experience. | | A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Random House Quick and easy read reminding us of what's important! | I really liked this little book. The pictures are really cool, and the comments on what it takes to be happy are good reminders, like:
-- Being a good spouse, mother and friend
-- Laughing, listening and just showing up
-- Keeping still and being present
-- Being generous
-- Remembering to live instead of just exist...and many more
This is a very quick read, so it's easy to pull it out again from time to time to remind us of what's really important. It would make a nice gift book, too.
| | A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Random House Anna Quidlen A Sort Guide to a Happy Life | Terrific Writter.
I have picked up about 5 copies of this book to give as Graduation gifts for High School and College students.
She take ordinary situations and simply everyday moments and show us how to really look at them and learn.
This book is a treasure.
You'll want to hold onto a copy for yourself.
~Jane | | A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Random House Simple, yet profound | One can read this brief but powerful book in 15
minutes but the lessons are timeless. Anna Quindlen
gets to the heart of what is valuable and precious in
life by reminding us how temporal our existence is. I
love her idea to "...think of life as a terminal
illness, because, if you do, you will live it with joy
and passion, as it ought to be lived." She reminds us
that the simplest of moments are miraculous and worth
celebrating. This small volume offers tons of
inspiration.
Another book I go to for inspiration is Being Here: Modern Day Tales of Enlightenment
by Ariel and Shya
Kane. This book is filled with delicious stories
that touch and amuse but ultimately guide the reader
to a place of well being and gratitude for all that
life has to offer. Both of these books are pure
magic. Keep them near by in case you get knocked
about by life. These authors will bring you back to
living fully and joyously one moment at a time. | | A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Random House Quindlen's Concise Guide | | After reading the book and then checking the Amazon reviews both pro and con, I must disagree with those who nitpick about the title and/or the premise of the book. Before paying for a book, I make good and sure it will fulfill its promise. That is easily done by thumbing through, reading excerpts from the book, previewing the table of contents and/or index, and deciding a book's content, length, tone, narrative, etc. provide what I'm looking for. To not do so until after paying for the purchase and taking it home, and then to whine about it as was mentioned by at least one reviewer....well, caveat emptor. I bought this book as a gift for family members who are non-readers and not knowlegeable searchers for help and answers to a lot of troubles, upheaval, and uncertainties they are dealing with at present. It was well-received by them, and was read in its short entirety (the title does say it is "short," so that is a strong hint.) This guide seems to be helping them make well-thought-out, informed choices and decisions, and consider the ensuing outcome from their choices and decisions. I can't argue with the positive effect this concise guide has made for them. After all, its content can't be trite or cliched if this is somebody's first exposure to what the book offers. | | A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Random House Product Description | "Life is made of moments, small pieces of silver amidst long stretches of tedium. It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won't happen. We have to teach ourselves now to live, really live...to love the journey, not the destination."
In this treasure of a book, Anna Quindlen, the bestselling novelist and columnist, reflects on what it takes to "get a life"—to live deeply every day and from your own unique self, rather than merely to exist through your days. "Knowledge of our own mortality is the greatest gift God ever gives us," Quindlen writes, "because unless you know the clock is ticking, it is so easy to waste our days, our lives." Her mother died when Quindlen was nineteen: "It was the dividing line between seeing the world in black and white, and in Technicolor. The lights came on for the darkest possible reason....I learned something enduring, in a very short period of time, about life. And that was that it was glorious, and that you had no business taking it for granted." But how to live from that perspective, to fully engage in our days? In A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Quindlen guides us with an understanding that comes from knowing how to see the view, the richness in living. | | A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Random House Amazon.com | | "I'm not particularly qualified by profession or education to give advice and counsel," confesses author Anna Quindlen, as she begins this tender little instruction book. "It's widely known in a small circle that I make a mean tomato sauce, and I know many inventive ways to hold a baby while nursing, although I haven't had the opportunity to use any of them in years." It is precisely this commonplace form of wisdom that make readers trust and respect Quindlen. She uses her candid, heart-to-heart narrative voice along with her novel-writer descriptive skills to show readers how good we have it: "Life is made up of moments, small pieces of mica in a long stretch of glittering gray cement." Later she urges readers to "Look at the fuzz on a baby's ear. Read in the backyard with the sun on your face." The format smacks of "gift book," with an abundance of pleasing, artsy photographs. Don't be ashamed to fall for the packaging, though. This is one of those books that could remain in the living room for years or in the family for generations. --Gail Hudson |
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