A Short Guide to a Happy Life

Rating:
Summary: Short and powerful through its simplicity and conciseness¿
Review: It took me approximately twenty minutes to read A Short Guide to a Happy Life. It's obviously one of the shortest books in print.

But it's conciseness and simplicity is where its power lies. It's definitely a collector's book, too. It's the perfect book to leave right on the corner of your desk whenever you need to drink some sips of inspiration, or bring yourself back to the present. It's underlying message can be read on every page. And if you don't have the time to read, take a look at the photographs. The black and white pictures interspersed among the pages sum up Anna's simple message: get a life.

She humbly admits her lack of specific expertise in regard to academia or any other technical subject. Instead, she humanely writes of her experience of real life, and the beautiful details she has picked up along the way. That's probably why she writes such fantastic novels.

The death of her mother as a young college student changed Anna forever. It allowed her to see the beauty in every moment of her life, to embrace all of life. She writes of the absurdity about many things that mark American culture: "the rat race," complaining, career growth. Periodic quotations of deep minds also back up her message.

A quote sums up her life, and the essence of this book: "I never think of my life, or my world, in any big cosmic way. I think of it in all its small component parts: the snowdrops, the daffodils; the feeling of one of my kids sitting close beside me on the couch; the way my husband looks when he reads with the lamp behind him; fettuccine Alfredo, fudge; Gone with the Wind, Pride and Prejudice." It's a casual definition of mindfulness.

Reading this book is like meditating. It's a quick and powerful way to bring you back to the only thing you ever truly have: the present.

Rating:
Summary: A Happier Life
Review: Anna Quindlen is one of the most articulate, informative, and enjoyable contemporary writers I have read, and "A Short Guide to a Happy Life" is another great addition to her list of books. Although it was written as a commencement speech and not intended to be a book, there were so many requests for copies of the speech, it made sense to publish it in book form. I wish I had read a book like this one when I was growing up, but I learned most of Quindlen's advice the hard way. Maybe I would've had a happier life when I was younger, but my life is happy now that I've learned that things usually work out for the best. It's still a good book to read after acquiring lots of wisdom and experience -- just to keep everything in perspective and remind us of the most useful things to pass on to our children and grandchildren. I recommend this book to everyone -- young and old.

Rating:
Summary: *short*, occasionally cliched but overall pleasant gift book
Review: "Life is made up of moments, small pieces of glittering mica in a long stretch of gray cement." A perfect companion to a quiet Sunday afternoon, Anna Quindlen's book flows with trademark elegance and touches on the simple observations of a life worth living. At just 50 pages, it's a quick read and the page-size photos sprinkled throughout the book give it added charm. Some, including myself, may wish she included more.

I'm a fan of Quindlen's Newsweek columns and found that the humanity she brings to her short guide echoes in her biweekly writing. She doesn't offer profound wisdom and her book won't change your life, but it will nudge you along a fulfilling path and, perhaps for a few, move us to embrace a handful of moments that allow us to live and to love. Though it reads like a commencement address at times, full of one-line quotables, it is as titled, simply a short guide to a happy life.

Rating:
Summary: Get a Short Life
Review: I read Anna Quindlen's 50 page book in line at the bookstore waiting to check out. I'd picked it up intending to give it as a gift to a high school graduate. Minus about 20 pages for unremarkable, stock, black and white photographs, you have a good length essay about how to get a life. Her wisdom, stemming from her mother's early death, can be culled from an Amazon search of "happiness" books or Basic Bumper Sticker 101. *Live for the moment *Stop and smell the roses *Live each day like it's your last *Appreciate the simple things *Simplify your life *Nobody ever wished they'd spent more time at the office when on their death bed

Okay. So what did I do? Did I return the mini sound bite version of how to have a happy life and instead buy the Dali Lama's version or the King James version or what? This is what I did with the 8 bucks I was going to spend on the book. I bought a double-dipped ice cream cone and a bunch of minature yellow roses. I then sent the graduate a check for 50 bucks and we both were very happy with my decision.

I don't know. I still think I might go back and buy a few copies for gifts. Ms. Quindlen has always been one of my favorite writers and this is a darn good essay even if it's all fluffy and marshmellowy and already been done a million other times at a million high school and college graduations across the country.

A final note:I'm going to remember to say on my deathbed,"I wish I'd spent more time at the office."

Rating:
Summary: Would Make a Great Graduation Gift
Review: Short and sweet. Very sweet. Words of wisdom simply put and a pleasure to read. With a variety of stock, black and white photos, it's a lovely overall package and I believe it would make a nice graduation gift for high school seniors and college grads.

Thank you Anna Quindlen.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Words of Wisdom
Review: I read this book at time in my life when I was looking for answers and was horribly busy and actually pretty depressed--the bits and pieces of true wisdom within its pages touched me deeply and has actually affected my outlook on life. Other books that have affected me in much the same way: "Stop and Smell the Asphalt" by Lindy Batdorf and "Traveling Mercies" by Ann Lamott. When a book affects your life in a positive way, makes you think, laugh or cry...well, that's a book to hold onto and share with absolutely everyone you know. I'd recommend these books as gifts because they actually speak into a person's life in an wonderful way.

Rating:
Summary: don't be so cynical
Review: I've read some of the reviews that look down on this book as being simplistic. Okay, Ms. Quinlin's thoughts are simple to digest but they aren't easy to live. And okay, they probably won't turn anyone's life around. But that's only because people are too caught up in the day to day details of life (I'm late, I'm stressed, I'm not rich enough yet) to see what's really important. Often, it takes a big shock (as the author received when her mother died) to truly understand what life is about and change your world accordingly.

I'm a person living with a terminal illness and I can tell you from the trenches that Ms. Quinlin knows what's what. Happiness isn't a permanent state; it's a series of small moments. You'd better be open to them, or you'll be dead and you'll have missed all the good stuff.

Also, please note: Ms. Quinlin's book began as a commencement address. Perhaps you'll appreciate it more if you think of it as words of wisdom for young people just starting out in life. But I see it as words of wisdom for people too caught up in the demands of modern life to stop and look up at the sky. There's nothing wrong with being reminded to tilt your head back once in a while.

Rating:
Summary: Inspiration and More
Review: Tuesday I was at the bookstore when it opened to buy this book. I bought a copy for myself and one for my daughter, then went to sit on a bench overlooking the ocean to read it.

This tiny gem of a book contains many thoughts that are just common sense until you see them written down. Then they become points to ponder, to think about and mull over in your mind and heart. Which is exactly what I did after finishing...I sat and looked out at the sea, thinking about what I had just read.

Much of the text of this book was part of a commencement address that Quindlen was to give at Villanova. She released the speech after she cancelled and I have been told that it was so well-received that she was asked to put it into book form.

This is a book to savor and to read over and over again and to give as a gift to a loved one. I plan to return to the bookstore to buy several more copies.

Some of the thoughts in the book:

On life: "there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on a bus, or in a car, or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account, but your soul."

On being a mother, a wife, and a friend: "I show up. I listen. I try to laugh."

On being charitable and good to others: "if you do not do good... then doing well will never be enough."

And on living for today: "I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is the only guarantee you get."

Quindlen talks about leading a balanced life and not making work one's entire focus--she says "you cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are." and "Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work."

Her thoughts on mortality, which Donald talked about in his review, are powerful-- and applicable to all of our lives.

I certainly think Quindlen herself is a first-rate writer and thinker, and thank her for the valuable lessons in this book.

Rating:
Summary: *short*, occasionally cliched but overall pleasant gift book
Review: "Life is made up of moments, small pieces of glittering mica in a long stretch of gray cement." A perfect companion to a quiet Sunday afternoon, Anna Quindlen's book flows with trademark elegance and touches on the simple observations of a life worth living. At just 50 pages, it's a quick read and the page-size photos sprinkled throughout the book give it added charm. Some, including myself, may wish she included more.

I'm a fan of Quindlen's Newsweek columns and found that the humanity she brings to her short guide echoes in her biweekly writing. She doesn't offer profound wisdom and her book won't change your life, but it will nudge you along a fulfilling path and, perhaps for a few, move us to embrace a handful of moments that allow us to live and to love. Though it reads like a commencement address at times, full of one-line quotables, it is as titled, simply a short guide to a happy life.

Rating:
Summary: Simple yet powerful
Review: I wasn't expecting much when I picked up this book, just grazing through it in the store, but then I noticed the time--I had been standing there reading it for an hour. That should tell you how good it is. Simple, yet powerful and with things to say we all need to hear.

Also recommended: McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD