A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Anna Quindlen
A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Anna Quindlen
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A Short Guide to a Happy Life

Author: Anna Quindlen

Narrator: Anna Quindlen

Unabridged: 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/01/2000


Synopsis

#1 New York Times bestselling author 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.

About The Author

Anna Quindlen is the author of four novels–Blessings, Black and Blue, One True Thing, Object Lessons–and five nonfiction books: Loud and Clear, A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Living Out Loud, Thinking Out Loud, and How Reading Changed My Life. She has also written two children’s books: The Tree That Came to Stay and Happily Ever After. Her New York Times column “Public and Private” won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. Her column now appears every other week in Newsweek.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Karen on September 17, 2023

Catching up… This will not be a typical review. It is more a reflection of how this book made me feel. There is a brief moment in Anna Quindlen’s ‘A Short Guide to a Happy Life’ where she describes an encounter with a homeless man. He is staring at the ocean. He looks at her and says… “Look at the vie......more

Goodreads review by Terris on November 30, 2023

Short, but sweet. It's calming and inspirational. This is something we probably all need to read a couple of times a year :)......more

Goodreads review by alison on May 20, 2007

this book was first realized as a speech given at by Ms. Quindlen at my college commencement. in the past 10 years i have read and re-read these words that i still recall so fondly. the experiences in my life have allowed me to see the intelligence and honor in anna's words; the worth of success tha......more

Goodreads review by ᴀᴍɪᴛ on March 01, 2017

1. Show up. Listen. Try to laugh. 2. You cannot be really good at your work if your work is all you are. 3. Get a life, a real life. Not a manic pursuit of the next promotion. 4. Turn off your cell phone. Keep still. Be present. 5. Get a life in which you are generous. 6. All of us want to do well, but i......more

Goodreads review by John of Canada on September 10, 2017

Nothing really new here,but that doesn't diminish its value.Simple messages are usually the best.Lots of nice pictures to go along with lots of lovely thoughts.......more