| Title | : | Almost Everything: Notes on Hope |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0525537449 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780525537441 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 208 |
| Publication | : | First published October 16, 2018 |
"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 life's essential truths, Almost Everything pinpoints these moments of insight as it shines an encouraging light forward.
Almost Everything: Notes on Hope Reviews
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Reading Lamott is a balm to my spirit and my soul. She writes about so many of the things I think about. In this book she writes the things she wants her grandson to know, including the paradoxes of life.
"Here is so much going on that flattens us, that is huge, scary, or simply appalling. We're doomed, stunned, exhausted, and over caffeinated.
And yet, outside my window, yellow roses bloom, and little kids horse around, making a joyous racket."
She writes with humor, with Grace and with a huge amount of understandinganding and common sense. I read her and find myself highlighting so many passages. I always end up buying her books because they always include so many thoughts, so much encouragement about life, fear, hurts, but always also reminders of looking for the positive. Her books are books that one can read over and over and marvel at something newly discovered with each reading.
"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 qundrant where you see work, home and country. Try a wider reality, through curiousity, awareness and beath. Try actually being here. What a concept"
She reminds me to look around, cherish what I have, find hope in the darkness, and to realize that I can't control everything, can't change people. They need to do it for themselves, and even in the blackest of times, there is light to be found.
ARC from Edelweiss. -
”(at St. Mary’s)
may the tide
that is entering even now
the lip of our understanding
carry you out
beyond the face of fear
may you kiss
the wind then turn from it
certain that it will
love your back….may you
open your eyes to water
water waving forever
and may you in your innocence
sail through this to that”
- - -
Lucille Clifton, “blessing the boats”
Reading Anne Lamott, for me anyway, feels like how I imagine how sitting and listening to her talk, perhaps less to a large audience, but a more intimate, personal group of people, friends. Her topics of discussion tend to be her view of the world, her life, her family and friends, the things she rejoices in and the things that drive her nuts, but it is a very internal focus on life, shared in a semi-rambling way that shares her philosophies, thoughts, feelings on everything in her somewhat eclectic views on life, love, family.
”I am stockpiling antibiotics for the apocalypse, even as I await the blossoming of paperwhites on the windowsill in the kitchen.”
This is the first sentence in the prelude, other than the poem that precedes it, and it really sums up Anne Lamott in a way. There is the political activist side of her, and there is the woman who eagerly awaits the first glimpse of spring, or fall or any beauty in nature. There is the woman who feels everyone should embrace themselves as they are, flaws and all, and there is the woman who still diets to counterbalance eating too much junk food.
Fans of Trump should probably look elsewhere for reading material; she’s not a fan.
For the last ten years or so I have begun each year by reading one of Lamott’s books, I’m not much for New Year resolutions, but this is one I like to keep – to begin each year with some quirky, but also thought-provoking, something that reminds me to focus on what remains that is still good and worthwhile. Like the last several books she’s published, this is relatively short, but filled with her thoughts on faith and love, spiritual without being “religious” in any specific sense – along the lines that we are “spiritual beings having human experiences, not vice versa” and then turns around and says things along the lines of “I prefer bumper stickers. I really do. ‘If you lived in your heart, you’d be home now’ is all I need as a life philosophy.’”
My favourite quote in this, though, is one I think we all can relate to:
”Books! To fling myself into a book, to be carried away to another world while being at my most grounded, on my butt or in my bed or favorite chair, is literally how I have survived being here at all.”
Love may not conquer all, but love is preferable to hate, and everyone appreciates and benefits from acts of kindness that spread feelings of hope, and love, and the cycle begins anew.
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**5++ Goodreads Stars++
"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you."
"Haters want us to hate them, because hate is incapacitating. When we hate, we can't operate from our real selves, which is our strength."
Oh Anne Lamott, how do you manage to rip my heart into pieces and then mend it ever so carefully back together? This is what Lamott calls a paradox or conundrum, that life brings both immense joy and heart-wrenching pain, pain that, at times, is unbearable. Take her discussion of having children:
"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...Every day we're in the grip of the impossible conundrum: the truth that it's over in a blink, and we may be near the end, and that we have to live as if it's going to be okay, no matter what."
Lamott's Almost Everything: Notes on Hopeis meandering and rambling in the most poignant way, a method of writing only Lamott can get away with. It is structured around themes that she wants to share with her grandchild, stories she wants to pass on that she deems critical for one's survival in a brutal world.
As with Lamott's other books, I highlighted nearly everything. So many beautiful passages, so much wisdom that has come from the pain that Lamott has known well. This is not a pain she monopolizes. Rather, this book is about how pain is part of the human condition. And because it can happen to any one of us, Lamott believes that we must find peace and happiness every single day. That joy cannot come from a number on a scale or your paystub, though:
"Could you say this about yourself right now, that you have immense and intrinsic value, at your current weight and income level, while waiting to hear if you got the job or didn't, or sold your book or didn't? This idea that I had all the value I'd ever needed was concealed from me my whole life. I want a refund."
"The opposite of love is the bathroom scale."
Lamott argues that happiness is not found in materiality but something that is omnipresent, waiting to be found in the most mundane places. There is also beauty in grief and beauty in tragedy, though she certainly does not argue that there is a rhyme or reason as to who gets saddled with grief in this universe. Grief is not a lesson to learn, forced upon those who have sinned.
"We do get a taste of the spheres in birdsong, eclipses, the surf, tangerines. In the dark, we see the stars. In the aftermath of a devastating fire, the sun rose red. To pay close attention to and mostly accept your life, inside and out and around your body, is to be halfway home."
How do we cultivate this love of the quotidian? Through play, observing the world around you, through helping others, and, of course, through reading:
"Books! To fling myself into a book, to be carried away to another world while being at my most grounded, on my butt or in my bed or favorite chair, is literally how I have survived being here at all. Someone else is doing the living for me, and all I have to do is let their stories, humor, knowledge, and images - some of which I'll never forget - flow through me, even as I forget to turn off the car when I arrive at my destination."
As always, Lamott also has some brilliant things to say about writing:
"Write because you have to, because the process brings great satisfaction. Write because you have a story to tell, not because you think publishing will make you the person you always wanted to be. There is approximately zero chance of that happening."
"We have to cultivate the habits of curiosity and paying attention, which are essential to living rich lives and writing. You raise your eyes out of the pit, which is so miserable and stifling to be in and which tried to grab you and keep you there, until something sneaky hauled you out and changed you."
Lamott won't give you easy answers about life in this book, but she will give you a lot to chew on. She challenges you to be reflexive, to examine what's holding you back in life and what you need to move forward - that these things are not a one size fits all sort of solution. We need to dig deep and find that with which we struggle: confront it and learn to live with it the best we can.
Above all else, she asks her reader to sit with the world: watch it, learn from it, listen to it, breathe it in. For "God is often in solitude and quiet, through the still, small voice - in the breeze, not the thunder."
If you haven't figured it out by now, I loved this book. I love nearly everything Lamott writes ( Bird by Birdis one of my all-time favorite books!). Thank you to Edelweiss, Anne Lamott, and Riverhead Books/Penguin Random House for an advanced reader copy of Almost Everything.
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"A friend once said that at the end of his drinking, he was deteriorating faster than he could lower his standards, and this began happening to me recently with hate".
" I don't know if my last day here will be next Thursday or in twenty years. Whenever that day comes, I want to be living, insofar as possible, in the Wendell Berry words "Be joyful though you have considered all the facts", and I want to have had dessert".
" The world is Lucy teeing up the football".
I read Anne Lamott because of quotes like these, and at least twelve other passages that I highlighted. It's like having lunch with a cynical, crazy friend, who happens to think just like you. She talks about politics (quote #1) books and authors (quote #2) and just surviving the world day by day (quote #3). She writes about dealing with families, food and eating, insecurities, everything that every one of us deal with every single day, and doing it with some measure of hope and joy. Our lunch was a short one, but left me feeling happy to have reconnected with my old friend. Until next time, it'll have to do. -
#mystrangereading Almost Everything by Anne Lamott ⭐️⭐️
I was greatly disappointed by this book. Bird by Bird is easily one of my favorite books, and I just can't wrap my head around how an author who can inspire in such great ways can also be so all over the place.
She titled this 'Almost Everything' and that is really what it is except it's so short. She talks about so much, but doesn't say much. She tries to go deep and get all philosophical and ethereal but then gets lost in her own thoughts and doesn't come back to make a real point.
Very disappointing. -
This little book was just what I needed to start the year off. Incredibly timely, soothing and inspirational. I listened to it on audio from Scribd but I ended up ordering a paper copy for future re-reads and marking.
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Love and goodness and the world’s beauty and humanity are the reasons we have hope. — Anne Lamott, Almost Everything: Notes on Hope
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Anne Lamott’s “Almost Everything: Notes on Hope” is a wonderful book to end the year with. My heart is full & hopeful after reading this book. It’s candid, caring, clever, and at times, hilarious; this is a book only Anne Lamott can write. This book is filled with hope, literally. Lamott gets it, life is hard at times, we have difficult conversations, setbacks & disappointments, dark days, we worry too much, world seems gloomy, future seems bleak at times, it’s not always rainbows & butterflies. We just never what someone is going through behind those smiles. Not to mention, it has been an especially difficult last couple of year for many people. Even if you haven’t been directly impacted by the all the ugliness, you inevitably know someone who has, and it affects the entire community as a whole.
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“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.’”
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Lamott made a list for her grandson and niece about almost everything she knew for sure that was true, and this book is based on that list. Lamott grounds her lessons in stories from her life, from her childhood, friendships, relationships, religion, writing, little bit of everything. Divided into short chapters, this books is compulsively readable, inspirational, and hilarious. At times, Lamott’s writing seems all over the place, incoherent, and just bunch of rambling, but she gets to her point at the end and knows exactly what she’s doing because she understands, knows, and feels. Ultimately, she’s calling her readers to find that hope, light, and wisdom buried in us, even in the darkest of times. It’s just like you’re having an one-on-one conversation with her, it’s so wonderful. Highly recommend it! 🤓✌️📖 -
Anne Lamott is unapologetically herself in Almost Everything. Her life philosophy is interesting. But the writing felt somewhat rambly and the whole thing just didn't connect with me. I'm just not the right audience for it I guess
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An Evening with Anne Lamott
October 19, 2018
St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Houston
People are fanning themselves in the church. The air isn't on, it's a packed house, and it is a warm October night in Houston. I dare to ask to sit in an open pew less than fifty feet from the pulpit.
I am surrounded by people with strong political and spiritual views, and we talk about important things while we wait.
And then she arrives. It's Anne Lamott, and she seems different than the last time I heard her speak, ten or so years back, stronger, more confident, even...dare I say it?...happy. She has a new book.
"I accidentally wrote this book on hope. It was originally called Doomed," she tells us. We laugh. That's one thing we adore about Anne Lamott: she dares to be honest, and she finds a way to be honest while also making us laugh.
"I'm as scared and angry as everyone else, but one of the blessings of being a little bit older is that being scared and angry doesn't last as long. And you don't always remember why you are scared and angry."
Anne Lamott is here to share what she has learned in this life with us. She has put everything she knows in this little book, Almost Everything, written for her young niece and grandson:
"We are not alone."
"Love gives me hope."
"I spent a lot of years unlearning everything I'd been taught as a child."
"All truth is paradox."
We listen to Anne. We laugh with Anne. She reads a few bits from her book, but mostly she talks, seemingly extemporaneously. A few brave souls pose questions to Anne. One woman tells her that when she was at her lowest, in an abusive relationship, she saw Anne on tv, and she asked herself, "Who is this woman?" and she got Anne's books and she changed her life. "Could you give me a hug?" the woman asks Anne. Anne says yes.
This book is a hug from Anne to the world.
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This isn't going to be a normal review and I think that's OK. You already know if you should read this or not; hopefully you've already read it anyway.
I read this book in one day, most of it after learning a man took a gun and murdered at least 10 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. It wasn't a good day, but I trusted that Anne Lamott was what I needed to be reading.
For years now, a new Anne Lamott book will emerge at the time I most need to read it and that is definitely true this time, as well. It's very easy to sink into fear and distrust and frankly dislike---why don't people care about the things I care about? Why are people posting recipes and stupid videos on Facebook while supporters of someone they voted for are murdering people?---but she reminds me to breathe, stay the course and listen to hope.
One of the things that she constantly repeats is that grace bats last. This is an awful and a scary time, but it isn't forever. There are more of us, and we will ultimately win. We will especially win if we don't become the people that we're currently afraid of.
This book feels like an incredibly needed conversation with a good friend, and it made me laugh and ugly cry in equal measure.
Highly recommended. -
While still not as good as Lamott’s spiritual classics from a decade or two ago, this is a cut above her last couple of books, with quite a few memorable lines. Despite the state of the world – environmental collapse, a volatile leader taking the country ever closer to chaos, everyday family crises and the indignity of aging – she maintains hope in what divine grace and human kindness can achieve. (Borrowed from my sister.)
Some favorite lines:
“Almost every facet of my meager maturation and spiritual understanding has sprung from hurt, loss, and disaster.”
“Could you say this about yourself right now, that you have immense and intrinsic value, at your current weight and income level, while waiting to hear if you got the job or didn’t, or sold your book or didn’t?”
“Reading and writing help us take the blinders off so we can look around and say ‘Wow,’ so we can look at life and our lives with care, and curiosity, and attention to detail, which are what will make us happy and less afraid.” -
"Stories teach us what is important about life, why we are here and how it is best to behave, and that inside us we have access to treasure, in memories and observations, in imagination."
Before Anne Lamott's 61st birthday, she decided to make a list for her grandson and niece of everything she knows that could apply to almost everyone hoping that it will one day help them in their lives.
What we get is a touching and random but poignant look at Lamott's views on everything from life, death, faith, family, writing and politics (but thankfully not too much because I can only deal with politics in very small doses these days) through personal experience and observation.
"I have just always found it extremely hard to be here, on this side of eternity, because of, well, other people; and death."
I enjoy when a writer can take the everyday and weave its truth and simplicity into words. I like reading the random thoughts and observations of others when it is written so beautifully and in a way that seems to include the entire population.
"We believe that we are all in this together. This was the message of childhood, that being together meant connection, like an electrical circuit -- think school recess on the blacktop, summer camp, and all those family holiday gatherings. Ram Dass said that if you think you're enlightened, go spend a week with your family."
Insightful, honest, and true to her previous work, Almost Everything is a touching look at life in general with the wisdom Lamott feels is necessary to pass on to the next generation.
Thanks to Riverhead Books and Edelweiss for a DRC in exchange for my honest review. Almost Everything: Notes on Hope is scheduled for release on October 16, 2018.
For more full reviews, visit
www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com -
Writings seemed to lack a cohesive flow. Her "subtle" references to politics wore me out.
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I guess I'm just not a big fan of Anne Lamott's warmed over AA self-help. I gave Traveling Mercies three stars a number of years ago, and I gave four stars to Bird by Bird, though I didn't write a review and don't remember what it was I liked - probably some advice on writing. This one is a letter to her grandson, picking up on the strategies of James Baldwin, or Ta Nehesi-Coates, with none of the gravitas or urgency.
At her best she's witty (some would say snarky,) insightful, and acerbic (some would say snarky,) the problem is it's a hard act to sustain over the length of a book, and awfully repetitive over the length of a career.
If you're a fan, here's more for you to love, but if you're not I don't think you'll find anything to change your mind. -
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قبل عام ويزيد ، قرأت كتاب للكاتبه الكويتيه
"بثينه العيسئ"، حمل الكتاب اسم "كل الاشياء" الكتاب كان عباره عن روايه تتحدث عن قصه أنسانيه لرجل أسير .. أسير عاطفه ... أسير وطن .. أسير تقاليد .. الروايه كانت تراجيديه وطوال قرأتي للروايه كنت اتسأل بفضول الى ماذا بالضبط يرمز اسم الكتاب في تفاصيل الروايه ، وبعد بحث طويل وصلت الى استنتاج ان بعض الكتب تلد لتحمل اسماء لا تأخذ من تفاصيلها من شي وهذا شي تاكدت منه لاحقا من روايه " اسم الورده " ل الكاتب الإيطالي الرائع "امبرتو ايكو" ...اليوم اجد نفسي بنفس الموقف
فالكتاب الثاني الذي قررت ان أقراءه ل "ان لاموت " يحمل عنوانا شبيها جدا لروايه بثينه ... فروايه بثينه تدعى " كل الاشياء " بينما كتاب لاموت يدعى " تقريبًا كل الاشياء" وللمره الثالثه اجد نفسي بحضره كتاب لا يمت لعنوانه بصله.
أعلل النفس بالآمال أرقبها
ما أضيق العيش لولا فسحه الأمل.
-الطغرائي -
لا تشرق الروح الا من دجى ألم
هل تزهر الارض الان ان بكى المطرُ ؟؟
-جلال الدين الرومي-
هذا كتاب لطيف جدا مثله مثل كل كتب "ان لاموت" فكعادتها في الكتابه "لاموت" دائما ما تكتب النثر بطريقه حاده ومضحكة وذكيه، الكتاب بمجمله يتحدث عن بعض تفاصيل حياه لاموت بطريقه نثريه حنونه وكأن لاموت تقول لك أقرا الكتاب معي ثم عش العمر كأجمل ما يكون العمر !
تجذب "لاموت" في هذا الكتاب انتباهنا إلى فلسفتها الروحية في الدنيا، ، والمواقف التي يمكن أن يكون بها الحزن هدية ونعمه بدلًا من ألم ونقمه، تواظب على مدار ٢٠٠ صفحه في اخبارنا كيف يمكننا أن نساعد بعضنا البعض بالرحمة والإحسان وكيف نصنع السعاده لانفسنا ولمن هم حولنا ،
تتحدث بعمق عن تجاربه الروحية ، وتتذمر كثيرا من بعض تفاصيل العالم والبيئة الحاليه، هي أمراه بصحة جيدة ، مع أسرة ممتازه ، تعيش في أغنى دوله في العالم ، وحياتها ليست حقا بتلك الاستثنائية، لكن مشكلتها الكبرى قبل ان تعيش بسلام الان كانت مشاكل روحيه منهكه.
أينما فتحت في صفحات الكتاب ستجد جملا رقيقه عن الأمل او الحب او النظره الثاقبه او الأخلاق وكيف كانت حياه لاموت وكيف امست الان بعد استقرارها الروحي ، الكتاب خفيف ولطيف ويعطيك دفئ الستينات و السبعينات وخاصه انها ان لاموت كنت تصف تفاصيل حياتها بذلك الوقت بكل دفئ وغزارة.
منحني الكتاب أيضا نظرة ثاقبة مفيدة للسياسة والأخلاق من وجهه نظر أمراه عاشت بين قرنين وشهدت ولاده دول ونهايه دول أخرى ،الكتاب بأكمله مجلد جيد للتفكير الشخصي ، وشخصيا أعتقد أنه سيكون رائعًا أيضًا في مجموعة دراسة روحية خاصة بالبالغين او حتى الناشئين.
بعض من الاقتباسات التي راقت لي ادناه :
أولئك الذين يريدون منك ان تكتب عنهم الخير عليهم أن يتصرفوا بطريقه تليق الخير !
نحن نميل الى تتبع الفضول الذي بداخلنا !
فالحياه تدرك ان الفضول هو ما يمضي بنا الى الأمام حتى عند الابحار الخاطئ.
القصص تعقد بيننا البين
أنها تعلمنا أهميه الحياه، سبب وجودنا هنا وكيف نتصرف خلال وجودنا
لطالما وجدت صعوبه كبيره بالتواجد هنا ، التواجد في هذه الحياه الابديه ، فلا طاقه لي ان أعايش البشر ولا طاقه لي ان أعايش الموت.
تربينا على وهم ان اللعب بالأوراق بالطريقة الصحيحة هي أسلوب النجاه ، لكن الأمر لا ينفع ولن ينفع.
الحب هو الحقيقه الوحيدة ، والحقيقة لديها دائما قدره على الشفاء.
مرعب جدا هو شعور الغياب ، فموت شخصا وحيدا في حياتك قد ينهي عليك عالمًا بأكمله.
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Review of the Audible Audio edition.
I've been a fan of Anne Lamott's world-weary but hopeful wisdom since her writing memoir "Bird by Bird." Her annual musings have become a standard for me and there are always experiences and observations that come through as starkly true and immediately identifiable that cut right to the bone.
I'm giving it a 3 star rating only because on audio it sometimes comes across as a bit too weary and tired whereas I think on the page it would read as more inspirational and hopeful. Probably a print edition would get a 4 star rating as seems to be the average from the other Lamott readers here. -
Anne Lamott loosely builds ALMOST EVERYTHING around a list she decides to make for her grandson and niece about everything she knows about almost everything, ideas that she thinks apply to almost everyone and that might help them someday, a list that she wishes her father had written for her. She writes humorously and lovingly about topic like serenity, food, hate, God, "famblies," and hope.
(I received pre-publication access thanks to Edelweiss.) -
Anne Lamott at her best. By her account, she's compiling what she knows that's worth knowing for her grandson, a collection of observations and advice. It's also a guide to staying sane in a crazy world, which she acknowledges in a sideways manner here and there, but doesn't focus on. It's intensely personal and deeply loving. There are weaknesses here and there; for instance, I don't know that I can recommend her health advice, but it does come from a place of reassurance, and she's trying to get people to relax and not worry so much, so I think she's not doing any harm. She has a lot of experience feeling inadequate and talking herself into living on, so she's able to do the same for her readers. And her writing is beautiful and flowing. I read this as an balm after finishing a rough read (
American Prison ), and it worked wonders.
I got a copy from the publisher through Edelweiss to review. -
I read Almost Everything: Notes on Hope looking for exactly that, some notes on hope. Anne Lamott has such a unique style of writing that I wonder if the hope may have gotten tangled up somewhere in the extended stream-of-consciousness voice that is this book. I listened to her read it as an audio book, and that made it seem even more like a long conversation with Anne, telling me her story. It's an interesting and difficult story of her struggles, but I found little hope in “almost every facet of my meager maturation and spiritual understanding has sprung from hurt, loss, and disaster”, and "life just damages people. There is no way around this. Not all the glitter and concealer in the world can cover it up.” These are Anne's truths, and I can't completely disagree with some of it, but I was lost throughout much of the book. I even listened to it twice, but was unable to find much hope at all in her ramblings. Two and a half stars that I just can't round up.
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It’s been ages since I’ve read anything by this author & I’m not sure why, because I adore her !! Reading this book felt like receiving life lessons from an old acquaintance. I’m so glad this was an impulse grab for me at the library, as really, really enjoyed it!!
4 Stars !!!! -
Reading Anne Lamott's book felt like a visit with an old friend. Operating Instructions informed my feelings about motherhood and Bird By Bird was instrumental is shaping my feelings about writing. We both have come a long way since 1993. I still love her oversized personality and love what she has to share, she is witty and bright, but this book spoke to a past self. There is a consistency to the author's books and although some of the essays made me smile I wasn't completely taken in. Still, if you love Anne Lamott, it's a pleasure to catch up every once in awhile.
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Every Anne Lamott book that I read has me feeling “oh come on” at the beginning and “oh wow OK yes” at the end. Her books model life’s trajectory: skepticism, belief, repeat. She is at once our best friend and our pragmatic counselor, tough love and lots of hugs and laughter. If you’re not more hopeful by the end of this book, you need to reread it.
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الكتاب : تقريبًا كل الاشياء.
الكاتبه: ان لاموت.
قبل عام ويزيد ، قرأت كتاب للكاتبه الكويتيه
"بثينه العيسئ"، حمل الكتاب اسم "كل الاشياء" الكتاب كان عباره عن روايه تتحدث عن قصه أنسانيه لرجل أسير .. أسير عاطفه ... أسير وطن .. أسير تقاليد .. الروايه كانت تراجيديه وطوال قرأتي للروايه كنت اتسأل بفضول الى ماذا بالضبط يرمز اسم الكتاب في تفاصيل الروايه ، وبعد بحث طويل وصلت الى استنتاج ان بعض الكتب تلد لتحمل اسماء لا تأخذ من تفاصيلها من شي وهذا شي تاكدت منه لاحقا من روايه " اسم الورده " ل الكاتب الإيطالي الرائع "امبرتو ايكو" ...اليوم اجد نفسي بنفس الموقف
فالكتاب الثاني الذي قررت ان أقراءه ل "ان لاموت " يحمل عنوانا شبيها جدا لروايه بثينه ... فروايه بثينه تدعى " كل الاشياء " بينما كتاب لاموت يدعى " تقريبًا كل الاشياء" وللمره الثالثه اجد نفسي بحضره كتاب لا يمت لعنوانه بصله.
أعلل النفس بالآمال أرقبها
ما أضيق العيش لولا فسحه الأمل.
-الطغرائي -
لا تشرق الروح الا من دجى ألم
هل تزهر الارض الان ان بكى المطرُ ؟؟
-جلال الدين الرومي-
هذا كتاب لطيف جدا مثله مثل كل كتب "ان لاموت" فكعادتها في الكتابه "لاموت" دائما ما تكتب النثر بطريقه حاده ومضحكة وذكيه، الكتاب بمجمله يتحدث عن بعض تفاصيل حياه لاموت بطريقه نثريه حنونه وكأن لاموت تقول لك أقرا الكتاب معي ثم عش العمر كأجمل ما يكون العمر !
تجذب "لاموت" في هذا الكتاب انتباهنا إلى فلسفتها الروحية في الدنيا، ، والمواقف التي يمكن أن يكون بها الحزن هدية ونعمه بدلًا من ألم ونقمه، تواظب على مدار ٢٠٠ صفحه في اخبارنا كيف يمكننا أن نساعد بعضنا البعض بالرحمة والإحسان وكيف نصنع السعاده لانفسنا ولمن هم حولنا ،
تتحدث بعمق عن تجاربه الروحية ، وتتذمر كثيرا من بعض تفاصيل العالم والبيئة الحاليه، هي أمراه بصحة جيدة ، مع أسرة ممتازه ، تعيش في أغنى دوله في العالم ، وحياتها ليست حقا بتلك الاستثنائية، لكن مشكلتها الكبرى قبل ان تعيش بسلام الان كانت مشاكل روحيه منهكه.
أينما فتحت في صفحات الكتاب ستجد جملا رقيقه عن الأمل او الحب او النظره الثاقبه او الأخلاق وكيف كانت حياه لاموت وكيف امست الان بعد استقرارها الروحي ، الكتاب خفيف ولطيف ويعطيك دفئ الستينات و السبعينات وخاصه انها ان لاموت كنت تصف تفاصيل حياتها بذلك الوقت بكل دفئ وغزارة.
منحني الكتاب أيضا نظرة ثاقبة مفيدة للسياسة والأخلاق من وجهه نظر أمراه عاشت بين قرنين وشهدت ولاده دول ونهايه دول أخرى ،الكتاب بأكمله مجلد جيد للتفكير الشخصي ، وشخصيا أعتقد أنه سيكون رائعًا أيضًا في مجموعة دراسة روحية خاصة بالبالغين او حتى الناشئين.
بعض من الاقتباسات التي راقت لي ادناه :
أولئك الذين يريدون منك ان تكتب عنهم الخير عليهم أن يتصرفوا بطريقه تليق الخير !
نحن نميل الى تتبع الفضول الذي بداخلنا !
فالحياه تدرك ان الفضول هو ما يمضي بنا الى الأمام حتى عند الابحار الخاطئ.
القصص تعقد بيننا البين
أنها تعلمنا أهميه الحياه، سبب وجودنا هنا وكيف نتصرف خلال وجودنا
لطالما وجدت صعوبه كبيره بالتواجد هنا ، التواجد في هذه الحياه الابديه ، فلا طاقه لي ان أعايش البشر ولا طاقه لي ان أعايش الموت.
تربينا على وهم ان اللعب بالأوراق بالطريقة الصحيحة هي أسلوب النجاه ، لكن الأمر لا ينفع ولن ينفع.
الحب هو الحقيقه الوحيدة ، والحقيقة لديها دائما قدره على الشفاء.
مرعب جدا هو شعور الغياب ، فموت شخصا وحيدا في حياتك قد ينهي عليك عالمًا بأكمله. -
Anne Lamott is so inspiring and speaks in such a down-to-earth way. She is able to write, with humor and understanding, about how people feel and react when life seems hopeless, often speaking from her first-hand experiences. She gives bits of advice and guidance that offer hope and healing.
I just love her, and love listening to her read her own books. I highly recommend this one! -
“But life holds on. Little by little, nature pulls us back, back to growing. This is life. We are life.”
I had borrowed this from the library, but after reading a bit, I knew I needed my own copy for annotations and rereads.
Almost Everything : Notes on Hope was a little touch of inspiration in this weird time.
This is my first Anne Lamott book and I loved her writing. She keenly observes the human experience and philosophizes on how to have hope in a hard world.
I enjoyed the spiritual aspects, but it did become a bit repetitive and preachy at times.
I’ll be checking out her other writings.
((#24in48 book 2)) -
I really liked her books on raising children. I read them at a point in my life where it clicked. I also loved her book on writing, bird by bird. But the last 3 or 4 have been an irritating stream of consciousness of feel good sayings and some funny quips. They aren’t doing much for me. I think it speaks to a different kind of person. Perhaps these are voices to those in a struggle (and I was when I had babies and when I was writing), but my life thank goodness is free from addiction and daily strife.
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I'm not really sure why I finished this book. I selected the book because we can all use encouragement about hope; but after the first few pages I was really just hoping for the book to end. While there were morsels of good thoughts in the book-mainly when she quoted others- the overall idea of hope was lost. At one point she is discussing the issue of hate and how we shouldn't hate others yet she didn't mind sharing her hate of politics and gun control. While others may find her funny I did not. The book had no direction and was quite confusing.
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Anne Lamott: still not for me. I have my own form of zen and 'it is what it is,' but somehow hers ('the world is exactly as it should be') rubs me the wrong way. And, hey, it rubs her the wrong way, too, which I appreciate. It just doesn't connect with me and bring hope the way it does for her.
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I loved this. I recommend getting the audiobook version, read by Anne herself.
“The opposite of love is the bathroom scale.
Putting away the scale is important for all but a few people. If you are one of those people who weigh themselves every day for some healthy reason - other than scaring or shaming yourself, congratulating yourself, or reassuring yourself that you are a good person because you’ve kept your weight down - then weigh away. Otherwise, can you put the scale away for a week? How about four days? I have been addicted to the scale too, which is like needing Dick Cheney to determine my value as a human being every morning.”
I laughed out loud at that. -
Lamott has pithy comments that make one smile (my favorite from this book, "Many things taste better than thin feels...creme brule and all Mexican food, except Menudo..."(paraphrased)) but her theology will never resonate with me.
It was perfect for a page or two at a time reading.
