Almost Everything: Notes on Hope by Anne Lamott (English) Hardcover Book

Description: Almost Everything by Anne Lamott From Anne Lamott, the New York Times-bestselling author of Dusk, Night, Dawn and Help, Thanks, Wow, comes the book we need from her now: How to bring hope back into our lives"I am stockpiling antibiotics for the Apocalypse, even as I await the blossoming of paperwhites on the windowsill in the kitchen," Anne Lamott admits at the beginning of Almost Everything. Despair and uncertainty surround us: in the news, in our families, and in ourselves. But even when life is at its bleakest--when we are, as she puts it, "doomed, stunned, exhausted, and over-caffeinated"--the seeds of rejuvenation are at hand. "All truth is paradox," Lamott writes, "and this turns out to be a reason for hope. If you arrive at a place in life that is miserable, it will change." That is the time when we must pledge not to give up but "to do what Wendell Berry wrote: Be joyful, though you have considered all the facts." In this profound and funny book, Lamott calls for each of us to rediscover the nuggets of hope and wisdom that are buried within us that can make life sweeter than we ever imagined. Divided into short chapters that explore lifes essential truths, Almost Everything pinpoints these moments of insight as it shines an encouraging light forward. Candid and caring, insightful and sometimes hilarious, Almost Everything is the book we need and that only Anne Lamott can write. FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography Anne Lamott is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Hallelujah Anyway; Help, Thanks, Wow; Small Victories; Stitches; Some Assembly Required; Grace (Eventually); Plan B; Traveling Mercies; Bird by Bird; and Operating Instructions. She is also the author of seven novels, including Imperfect Birds and Rosie. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an inductee to the California Hall of Fame, she lives in Northern California. Review Praise for Almost Everything: "Anne Lamott has a rare talent for making writing look easy... Given the warmth, liveliness and intimacy of her prose, time with one of her books can feel like a visit with a friend." —Wall Street Journal "Part memoir, part manual and part sermon from the church of Lamott, this satisfying escape points to notes of beauty in our uncertain world." —People "Like a feminist C.S. Lewis, [Lamott] talks about God, politics and other unmentionables, and gently exhorts her readers, as she does herself, to find joy in a bleak and chaotic world: a leftie guru of optimism." —The New York Times "[Lamott] cheers us on with her blend of sobering truth and essential inspiration."—Parade Magazine "Plenty of us have grown to trust Lamotts spiritual compass. We settle in quickly here, knowing just around the next sentence she might pry open our heart, and pack in truths we will mull long after weve put down her pages... Again and again, Lamott steers us in and out of the canyons and potholes of despair." —Chicago Tribune "By the time you finish Almost Everything: Notes on Hope by Anne Lamott, you might find yourself just a little bit changed as a person. In the book, she candidly discusses her journey to finding hope, and its full of beautiful pieces of advice that youll find yourself highlighting on your Kindle over and over again." —PopSugar, Recommended Books of 2018"Many are deeply blessed by Ms. Lamotts down-to-Earth spirituality, her cleverness, her ability to tell a story with a moral, or at least with a sensible point." —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "That is what the wise and wonderful Anne Lamott considers with uncommon self-awareness and generosity of insight throughout Almost Everything: Notes on Hope— the small, enormously soul-salving book that gave us Lamott on love, despair, and our capacity for change." —Brain Pickings "Lamott boldly sets out to share . . . she veers from the intensely personal to the philosophical, highlighting some of the ways joy and pain are close companions in life. . . . Anyone reading with an open mind and heart will come away with more than a few nuggets of useful wisdom." —BookPage "Anne Lamott is our wickedly funny, self-deprecating, insightful guardian angel, and shes given us the gift of hope" —Pasadena Star News Praise for Anne Lamott and Her Books: "Lamott is a superb writer. Her voice is one-of-a-kind: deft, folksy, cheerfully hostile. . . . She is witty and funny and smart." —The Washington Post "A clarion call to the better angels of our nature." —Chicago Tribune "I keep learning a lot from the clear and great Annie Lamott. I think you will, too." —Gloria Steinem "Lamott is beloved by legions for her smart, irreverent take on the human condition, filtered through her unique brand of compassionate Christianity and delivered with delicious, self-deprecating wit. Lamott goes even deeper in these essays." —People "Anne Lamott is a cause for celebration. [Her] real genius lies in capturing the ineffable, describing not perfect moments, but imperfect ones . . . perfectly. She is nothing short of miraculous." —The New Yorker "Lamott is funny, witty and irreverent. . . . Her basic message is love and forgiveness. . . . Not a bad message for any faith." —The Denver Post "Best bathtub read for me would be anything by Anne Lamott. . . . She always makes me laugh and she embraces all the broken bits." —Andie MacDowell, actress Review Quote Praise for Anne Lamott and Her Books: "Lamott is a superb writer. Her voice is one-of-a-kind: deft, folksy, cheerfully hostile. . . . She is witty and funny and smart." -- The Washington Post "A clarion call to the better angels of our nature." -- Chicago Tribune "I keep learning a lot from the clear and great Annie Lamott. I think you will, too." --Gloria Steinem "Lamott is beloved by legions for her smart, irreverent take on the human condition, filtered through her unique brand of compassionate Christianity and delivered with delicious, self-deprecating wit. Lamott goes even deeper in these essays." -- People "Anne Lamott is a cause for celebration. [Her] real genius lies in capturing the ineffable, describing not perfect moments, but imperfect ones . . . perfectly. She is nothing short of miraculous." --The New Yorker "Lamott is funny, witty and irreverent. . . . Her basic message is love and forgiveness. . . . Not a bad message for any faith." -- The Denver Post "Read this book, whatever your faith. Read it twice." -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "Best bathtub read for me would be anything by Anne Lamott. . . . She always makes me laugh and she embraces all the broken bits." --Andie MacDowell, actress Excerpt from Book one Puzzles All truth is paradox. Everything true in the world has innate contradictions. "I know one thing, that I know nothing," Socrates said. This is distressing to those of us who would prefer a more orderly and predictable system, where you could say and prove that certain things are true, and that their opposites are false. Is this so much to ask? Paradox doesnt always work for me (okay, never), even though I believe both that we are doomed and that life is a magical, mystical gift. I love it here, love my life, though sometimes it has been devastating and sometimes, politically, a fever dream. Life is taxing enough at its most predictable, but you cant bank on anything. For example, we learned as children that light is particles, and in a predictable world we would all still agree that since light obviously is particles, like grains of sand, we could all get on with our lives and maybe get the cat a flea dip later. But then you have annoying people who say and can prove that light is also waves, like undulations of water. The paradox is that both of these are true and theyre both true at the same time. But if both aspects of light are true, then why have they never been observed together in the same room at the same time? (The old Batman/Bruce Wayne question.) If it were left to me, one camp would just give in and say, "Okay, light is particles," or "Fine, have it your way, light is waves." Maybe life and light are both like that, two mints in one. How is thinking about this at all helpful to my tiny princess self? It upends my best thinking, and my natural response is to mock it. So what if the only constant is change? Why bother touching up your roots? What if Mother Teresa was right that "if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love"? I dont want to hurt more. I have hurt plenty; Im good on hurt. Ix-nay on more urt-hay. But almost every facet of my meager maturation and spiritual understanding has sprung from hurt, loss, and disaster. Is it true that the more you give, the richer you are? Do you want my mailing address? Is being born a death sentence-are we, as Beckett said, born astride the grave? If we are born to eternal life, did we already have the good parts that were in process before we existed, where possibly they served dessert with breakfast? These are the questions that keep me up at night. Paradox means you have to be able to keep two wildly different ideas in your head at the same time. This is one too many for some people, including me on bad days, and sometimes our fearless leaders. I prefer bumper stickers. I really do. "If you lived in your heart, youd be home now" is all I need as a life philosophy, as I barely avoid smashing into the host bumper it is pasted onto. But all truth really is paradox, and this turns out to be a reason for hope. If you arrive at a place in life that is miserable, it will change, and something else about it will also be true. So paradox is an invitation to go deeper into life, to see a bigger screen, instead of the nice, safe lower left quadrant where you see work, home, and the country. Try a wider reality, through curiosity, awareness, and breath. Try actually being here. What a concept. The medieval German mystic Meister Eckhart said that if the soul could have known God without the world, God never would have created the world. Paradox is an invitation to know the soul of your own cranky stubborn baby self, and of the sublime. One of the passengers on the famous US Airways Flight 1549 that crash-landed on the Hudson River in 2009 was asked afterward how he felt, and he said, "I was alive before, but now Im really alive." This is the invitation. Jesus was a rabbi, schooled by rabbis, who thought like rabbis. Rabbis, upon being asked a question by a disciple, usually answer with a paradoxical inquiry or a story. This can be annoying and time-consuming for those of us looking for neat, simple answers. But truth is too wild and complex to be contained in one answer, so Jesus often responded with a question or a parable. Most parables are paradoxical in that they dont go the ways you think they will. Jesus is messing with peoples minds, paradoxically out of love, so they dig deeper into truth, where they may find themselves, and love, which is the kingdom. Take any of Jesus parables. Theres the one about a vineyard owner who goes out all day and hires people, each for the standard daily wage, no matter how many hours they work. At quitting time, he gives the last ones hired the daily wa≥ but then he also gives the people whove worked the longest the same wage. Of course those whove worked the longest kvetch up a storm. I would have. Id definitely be bitter. Heres the paradox: The owner notes that each of them got what theyd been promised, i.e., enough, the standard daily wage. Why would anybody-like, say, an addict-want more than enough? No one you know, Im sure. Each of us wants so much assurance, and there really isnt much. We religious types think Gods love, closeness, and grace are the answers to all of lifes pain and general horribleness. But then something bad happens to our children or our health. A young sober woman of my acquaintance who survived a grueling battle with oral cancer, losing part of her tongue in the process, had been in remission for a couple of years and then shared in a gathering that the cancer had returned. She would need more chemo. Everyone began the litany of stunned encouragement, of knowing someones aunts beautician whod had the same prognosis and was still alive, but the young woman waved it all away like smoke. "Oh, Gods got it," she said cheerfully. I wear these words on a necklace. I believe this with all my heart, but at the same time I also believe in science and chemo. I once saw on YouTube a home movie of a five-year-old girl sobbing beside her baby brother, who is sitting up with the slight rolling motion of an inflatable Bop clown. She alternately sobs to the camera that she doesnt want him to get older, then stops to cuddle him, gazing at him like a suitor and voicing tenderly that she loves him so much, he is the most precious baby in the world, then sobs that she doesnt want to die when shes a hundred, then cuddles him and gushes that she loves his little smiles. I think this pretty much says it. We are consumed by the most intense love for one another and the joy of living, along with the grief and terror that we and our babies will know unbelievable hurt: broken bones, bad boyfriends, old age. We live one day at a time, knowing its over too soon, in what feels like about eighteen years, seven months. Zzzzzzzip. Time for a nice catheter and heart pills. Every day were in the grip of the impossible conundrum: the truth that its over in a blink, and we may be near the end, and that we have to live as if its going to be okay, no matter what. Niels Bohr wrote, "The opposite of a true statement is a false statement, but the opposite of a profound truth can be another profound truth." We think we know what we know, and we love this so much, no matter what Socrates thought. We like to think we stand on the truth, that the ground beneath our feet is stable, moored, which totally works for me. But is it? In the San Francisco Bay Area? Really? Yet the blessing of knowing that you dont know is to get gently busted. We may not actually want to know this, but we dont have a choice. It is the same feeling when I hit the wrong button on my phone and all the app icons wiggle and jiggle concurrently in what some of us more inept, possibly older people experience as taunting. Entering into paradox, and thus mystery, can be just as overwhelming. But this is also where new beginnings and hope emerge, side by side with the dark and scrambled. Some characters in fiction and our families exist as levers, to turn everything upside down and thereby knock out of the park some of our old presumptions, pretensions, convictions, and illusions of safety. These people, both in fiction and at the holiday table, tend to be annoying and on the margins. No one is touching their hems. Just the opposite, in fact. We laugh at them, roll our eyes inwardly, and try to figure out a way not to have to sit next to them. Someone with whom I was in love felt it made sense to criticize my son to me, to Armed Tense Mother Bear, over the phone, unsolicited and in great detail, out of the blue, and express judgment about his character and parenting. My reaction was instant, weaponized love for my son-and so I withheld from this person my affection and the invitation to my heart, let alone my bed. Forget letting go and letting God. It was time for brooding, stewing, victimized self-righteousness, and thoughts of revenge. Now youre talking. I told him coldly, "Youve hurt me, and our whole family, by having these bad secret judgments all along. Youve sullied us, and our home." First he tried to explain that I was misinterpreting his attack on my son, as he really wanted to help him become a better father. This is a wonderful and honest man, but I didnt buy it, and I said so. He asked what I thought he should do. I said, with decades of therapy and church behind me, that there was nothing he could do. Ever. He went off to think this over. The next day, he asked me again. & Description for Library Maybe were "doomed, stunned, exhausted, and over-caffeinated" in these tumultuous times, as Lamott concedes. But she insists that things will change, joy is possible, and we can find lifes sweet treasures if we keep looking. From the Hallelujah Anyway author of numerous best sellers. Details ISBN0525537449 Author Anne Lamott Pages 208 Language English Year 2018 ISBN-10 0525537449 ISBN-13 9780525537441 Format Hardcover Short Title Almost Everything Subtitle Notes on Hope Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2018-10-16 NZ Release Date 2018-10-16 US Release Date 2018-10-16 UK Release Date 2018-10-16 Illustrations PRINTED ENDPAPERS Publisher Penguin Putnam Inc Publication Date 2018-10-16 Imprint Riverhead Books,U.S. DEWEY 170.44 Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:137702743;

Price: 56.5 AUD

Location: Melbourne

End Time: 2025-02-10T03:15:36.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 AUD