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Loading... Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World (2007)by Bill Clinton
None. I like the premise of this book but reading it didn't do much for me. I learned about some new humanitarian organizations but some of it was repetitive. It would be a good book for a young person investigating how to volunteer their time or resources to worthy causes. President Clinton did a good job of highlighting different ways and scenarios to volunteer one's time. But this book probably won't stay with me or influence me over time. Excellent resource about how to give back. This book looks at not only financial giving but time and talent giving. The former president makes the case for charitable contributions of time and money, offering a showcase of various operations around the world as examples. The pace moves quickly; he rarely devotes more than two consecutive paragraphs to the same organizational effort. Still, it reads pretty dry and it's a bit discouraging that nearly every example he holds up has to be qualified with the disclaimer that while most of us aren't capable of operating on that kind of scale, with those kinds of resources, everyone of us can do something. I was kind of hoping for more clear-cut examples of how the rest of us could give without having to establish a foundation. There are a handful of genuinely moving anecdotes that made this rewarding, and the back of the book includes a directory for organizations and books cited throughout each chapter that could be quite handy for any number of reasons. It's not essential reading by any means, but I confess that I do feel like I've run out of excuses for not being more participatory in helping to improve the world. Bill Clinton encourages each us to give throughout this book, giving us examples of the amazing work other people have done from all walks of life and how we can give, too. From giving money, giving time, giving skills and more, this book inspires us to give even a little, showing us how much can good just a "little" does. My Opinion: I have been interested in giving for a while now, and it has helped me see how my new volunteer work is important. I hope to give more in the future. no reviews | add a review
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He does a great job of making you feel like that EVERYONE can contribute. You can tell that he is absolutely focused on the future; he wants everyone to give, but never, ever makes you feel like a schmuck for not having done enough thus far.
Included is a 14-page resource that lists all the organizations he covers. (On the audio version, it is a pdf document on the final disc.)
But it is also yet another reason to lament our over-polarized society. Because it is written by Bill Clinton, many people of differing political views may well never pick it up. And that is really a shame. (