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Loading... A Short Guide to a Happy Life (2000)by Anna Quindlen
None. "A Short Guide to a Happy Life" is a trite column-slash-commencement speech about the author's appreciation of life after the death of her mother. You'd think a novelist would be able to summon some realistic detail about love and loss — if she can, it's not in this volume. (  ) bkohl | May 28, 2012 |  But you are 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 the bus, or in the 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. This (extremely) short guide to a happy life by Anna Quindlen is a very quick read with quite a few nuggets of wisdom. Encouraged to get a ‘real’ life that we can enjoy in addition to our obligations, we are also treated to some outstanding photos of people doing just that. The book is so short that I’ll keep my review short as well. Recommended for Quindlen fans and those needing a ‘Q’ author or a short non-fiction title for reading challenges. 2000, 50 pp. (  ) 1morechapter | May 24, 2012 | Short, all right. And disappointing. Trite, almost. Yep, we're all going to die and we should stop to smell the roses. A pot-boiler, I suspect. laytonwoman3rd | Dec 27, 2011 | This book reads like a graduation commencement speech. It is short, sweet and to the point. Its message is clear, “Live life while you have the chance, for it will be over all too soon!” The book is so short that it can be read in just one sitting and has many fun photos to go along with the text. ( ) Chris177 | Jun 21, 2010 | A slim little volume with Anna Quindlen's thoughts on the good life, which mainly involves appreciating spouse, family and friends, and not allowing work and career to get in the way of this. A worn sentiment, but Anna Quindlen is a good enough writer to freshen it up, and her personal experience of her mom's death at age 40 (when Quindlen was 19) adds resonance and verisimilitude. Only about 20 pages of text, the rest being some nice photographs of people enjoying life, this reads like a college commencement talk, which it may very well be. (  ) burnit99 | May 3, 2010 | no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0375504613, Hardcover)"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 (retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Apr 2011 09:10:13 -0400) "... what it takes to 'get a life'--to live deeply every day ... rather than merely to exist through your days."--Dust jacket. |
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