A Short Guide to a Happy Life

Anna Quindlen

ISBN 10: 0375504613 / ISBN 13: 9780375504617

Published by Random House, New York, NY, 2000

About this Item

50 pages; B&W photographs. Price sticker to DJ's rear. Very Good condition. No noteworthy defects. No markings. ; - We offer free returns for any reason and respond promptly to all inquiries. Your order will be packaged with care and ship on the same or next business day. Buy with confidence. Seller Inventory # HVD-51212-A-0

Bibliographic Details

Title: A Short Guide to a Happy Life

Publisher: Random House, New York, NY

Publication Date: 2000

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

Edition: First Edition; Second Printing.

About this title

Synopsis:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Alternate Side, Anna Quindlen's classic reflection on a meaningful life makes a perfect gift for any occasion.

"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.

Review:

"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 makes 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