A cuppa cuppa cuppa kindness…

When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people

~Abraham Joshua Heschel~

I find in getting older and in matters of the written word, I delight in a good biography/autobiography/ memoir even matching the glass of wine to go with it – so far I’m choosing white or red 

It has been said that those who prefer their stories true do so only because  their own lacks much enthusiasm; I myself find them camaraderie on my life’s journey. I believe everyone has an interesting tale to tell – with just perhaps not as many people interested enough to listen…

In these recitations there lies a common thread – the authors look back and are humbled by, appreciative and make special mention of, the kindness shown by various people they encountered along the way, with the resulting consequences playing a big part in charting their future.

Thus in keeping with The Calm Space’s theme of kindness this month I place below a selection of titles from this category for your review. May the notes of kindness reverberate in your life.

The little unremembered acts of kindness and love are the best parts of a person’s life

~William Wordsworth~

Always Looking Up – Michael J Fox

Beloved actor, and Sunday Times bestselling author, Michael J. Fox reveals how he has remained optimistic despite his battle with Parkinson’s Disease.

“At the turn from my bedroom into the hallway leading to the kitchen there is an old full-length mirror in a wooden frame. I can’t help but catch a glimpse of myself as I pass, and turning myself towards the glass, I consider what I see. This reflected version of myself, wet, shaking, rumpled, slightly stooped, and pinched, would be alarming if it were not for the self-satisfied expression pasted across the face, I would ask the obvious question, ‘What are you smiling about?’ – but I already know the answer … it just gets better from here.”

Struck with Parkinson’s – a debilitating, degenerative disease – at the height of his fame, Fox has taken what some people might consider cause for depression and turned it into a beacon of hope for millions.

Now, in Always Looking Up, he writes about the personal philosophy that carried him through his darkest hours, and speaks with others who have emerged from difficult periods with optimism to spare.

With the humour and wit that dazzled fans and reviewers alike in his bestselling memoir, Lucky Man, Fox shows how he became a happier, more satisfied person by recognising the gifts of everyday life.

Friends Like These – Danny Wallace

Alarmed at the prospect of turning thirty and having to – gah! – grow up, bestselling author Danny Wallace sets off on a new quest: to track down his long-lost best mates…

Danny Wallace is about to turn thirty and his life has become a cliché. Recently married and living in a smart new area of town, he’s swapped pints down the pub for lattes and brunch. For the first time in his life, he’s feeling, well, grown-up.

But something’s not right. Something’s missing. Until he finds an old address book containing just twelve names.  His best mates as a kid. Where are they now? Who are they now? And how are they coping with being grown-up too?

And so begins a journey from A-Z, tracking down and meeting his old gang. He travels from Berlin to Tokyo, from Sydney to LA. He even goes to Loughborough. He meets Fijian chiefs. German rappers. Some ninjas. And a carvery manager who’s managed to solve time travel. But how will they respond to a man they haven’t seen in twenty years, turning up and asking if they’re coming out to play?

Part-comedy, part-travelogue, part-memoir, Friends Like These is the story of what can happen when you track down your past, and of where the friendships you thought you’d outgrown can take you today…

The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch

On 18 September 2007 computer science professor Randy Pausch stepped in front of 400 people at Carnegie Mellon University to deliver his last lecture. At 46, Randy had been told the month before that he had pancreatic cancer and had only months to live.

Top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical ‘final talk’. For Randy Pausch the idea wasn’t hypothetical. His talk lovingly, humorously and defiantly revealed the most important things Randy had learned throughout his life, the wisdom that he had gathered and the message he wanted to leave his children.

During the lecture, Pausch was upbeat, alternating between wisecracks, offering inspirational life lessons, and performing push-ups on stage. At the end of the lecture they gave him a standing ovation, but he had no idea how many people would be affected by his words.

Through the power of the internet his lecture has now been seen by over 6 million people. Now, Randy Pausch’s lecture is to be expanded in this book. The man who has already touched so many will leave a legacy that will allow us all to treasure his wisdom and experience long after he is gone.

700 Sundays – Billy Crystal

In a book about heroes… about laughter… about family… One of America’s most beloved entertainers takes us home. Billy Crystal opens the front door to a time in his life when he shared joy, love, music and laughter with an eccentric family headed by the hardworking father who left them all too soon.

To support his family, Billy’s father Jack worked two jobs and long hours and could spare only Sundays to spend with his loved ones. But these precious days would be in short supply – Jack’s life was suddenly ended by a heart attack when Billy was just fifteen. 700 Sundays refers to the sadly precise amount of time shared by a devoted father and his adoring son.

From the story of the Crystal family’s proud connection to the New York jazz scene of the 40s and 50s… to the hilarious living room performances that would sow the seeds of Billy’s unparalleled career… to the times of tragedy, heartbreak and his mother’s unending courage, 700 Sundays celebrates the memories, the love and all the other wonderful gifts parents can give a child.

Based on his Tony Award winning play, 700 Sundays is not the story of Billy Crystal’s great career. It is a tribute to a family and the people who helped make him a man. Personal, poignant and funny it will have you laughing out loud and sometimes crying – with the realization that Billy’s family is also yours.

Billy Crystal has created one of the most versatile and prolific careers in the entertainment industry. He and his wife, Janice have been married for thirty-five years and have two daughters and one grand-daughter.

Dying: A Memoir – Donald & Myfanwy Horne

“I am constantly thinking about the way my life is ending, but the idea of being dead has not worried me since I abandoned religion in high school, and my nearness to death has not produced a belief in the supernatural.”

On learning that his illness was terminal, Donald Home began dictating his experience of dying, and his resulting journal is full of courage, honesty, insight and humour. Ever the intellectual, he also recorded his last thoughts on some of the big human questions: faith and regret, the uses of art, the rewards of the engaged mind. And on contemporary dilemmas such as the Iraq War, anti-Americanism and the meaning of democracy.

These essays have been refined by his wife and long-time editor, Myfanwy, who has also written her own inspirational account of Donald’s final weeks. Far from being morbid, Dying is a book that sings with life.

Donald Home’s memories of his well-lived years sit alongside his unflinching view of their end, and the whole is uplifted by his willingness to laugh at human foibles, his own included.

Helping Me Help Myself: One Skeptic, Ten Self-Help Gurus, and a Year on the Brink of the Comfort Zone – Beth Lisick

Grappling with her lifelong phobia of anything slick, cheesy, or remotely claiming to provide self-empowerment, Beth Lisick wakes up on New Year’s Day 2006 with an unprecedented feeling. She is finally able to admit to herself that she’s grown tired of embracing the same old set of nagging problems year after year.

She has no savings account. Her house feels unorganized and chaotic. She and her husband never hang out together. The last time she exercised regularly was as a member of her high school track team almost twenty years ago.

Instead of turning to advice from the abundant pool of local life coaches, therapists, and healers readily available on her home turf of northern California, Beth confronts her fears head-on. She consults the multimillion-dollar-earning pros and national experts, not only reading their bestselling books but also attending their seminars and classes.

In Chicago, she gets proactive with The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. In Atlanta, she tries to get a handle on exactly why “women are from Venus,” and in a highly comedic bout on the high seas of the Caribbean, she gamely sweats to the oldies on a weeklong Cruise to Lose with Richard Simmons.

Throughout this yearlong experiment, Beth tries extremely hard to maintain her wry sense of humor and easygoing nature, even as she starts to fall prey to some of the experts’ ideas, ideas she thought she’d spent her whole life rejecting. Beth doesn’t think of herself as the typical self-help victim. But is she?

The Weight of Silence – Catherine Therese

The Weight of Silence is the gravity of all the unsaids, the unseens, and how they shape our lives.

A father’s drinking, a mother’s shame, a daughter’s longing to hold onto a trouser leg to hear someone speak of what never happened. The Weight of Silence = 9 lbs 4 ozs.

In her achingly funny, heartbreaking childhood memoir, Catherine Therese takes the reader inside her head, and upside down on a unique emotional rollercoaster from picking her belly button in her backyard in Blacktown, pulling her hair out standing on her head, to the stage; hiding inside her wardrobe interpreting silence, to the bedroom of a boy with half a thumb and to the labour ward, in an unforgettable story of remembering, forgetting, pretending, of becoming who you are.

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