Why Good Things Happen to Good People
Saturday, May 10th, 2008
For centuries, people have sought the “secret formula” to happiness and a meaningful, long life. Now, scientific study has discovered a simple source: giving. Stephen Post, Ph.D., and journalist Jill Neimark have written the book Why Good Things Happen to Good People based on extensive research at universities across the United States. Authors Post and Neimark explore the studies and the people behind them, discovering the astonishingly simple “formula” and tell it in an engaging style.
This is not my first blogging effort. There are bits and pieces all over this site and at our old home, and few scattered postings on other, even more obscure blog hosts. But I think I’ll come back to here fairly often. In my quest for book news and between various and sundry editing duties, I find stuff that’s interesting but doesn’t quite fit any of the usual pegs, round or square. That’s stuff I’ll dump on you, the unsuspecting and unfortunate reader of this blog (Yes, all three of you). I think I’ll call it 
Far fewer than the 80 percent of Americans who own slow cookers use them on a regular basis. This book is an attempt to change that. Instead of the usual recipes for slow-cooked roasts and throw-together soups, it is filled with modern and ethnic-inspired recipes – 350 in all – for such dishes as Mexican black beans with pork, Caribbean jerked chicken, polenta, and veal stew with sun-dried tomatoes and rosemary. Award-winning food writer Jane Snow talks about remarkably versatile slow cookers, and shares a recipe for risotto from Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook.
Ask. Believe. Receive. In The Secret, Rhonda Byrne compiles the words of successful authors, businesspeople, spiritualists and scientists to explain the “Great Secret” woven throughout human history — the law of attraction.
Water for Elephants is the story of a Great-Depression-era circus told through the memories of ninety-something-year-old veterinarian, Jacob Jankowski. Sara Gruen’s exhaustive research into the traveling circuses of the 1930s and 40s gives us a rare look into the fascinating, secretive subculture of that era’s big-top performers and roustabouts. Many of the most compelling anecdotes in Gruen’s well-told story are based on actual events.
The story of John Bul Dau’s childhood and early adulthood could be summarized by this prophesy: “This will be a black-haired time.” Which means: None of the people in Sudan will live long enough to have gray hair. It’s easy to turn off the news and lose interest in story after story of death and destruction in other parts of the world. We are inundated with images and stories about terrible pain and suffering all the time, and can become somewhat desensitized to it. Reading “God Grew Tired of Us” cuts through any desensitization and brings those feelings of sorrow and happiness, of pain and love, back into focus again.
Some people hibernate and lick their wounds after a difficult divorce. Not author Elizabeth Gilbert, who self-prescribed a year of exotic travel and convinced a publishing house to pay for it with a book advance. The result is Eat, Pray, Love, Gilbert’s journey of self-discovery in Rome (the eating leg of the trip), on an ashram in India (the praying portion) and love (in Bali, where she reconnected with joy).
Living History provides Hillary Clinton with a 566-page opportunity to describe her roller coaster ride as a bright young lawyer and working mother whose husband rose through the ranks of Arkansas state government, only to win two terms in the grand prize of American politics – the presidency. This book gives the reader a detailed, insider’s look at the high-stakes, power-driven world of political warfare. It makes for fascinating reading and more than justifies Hillary’s claim that her life is a work of Living History in progress.
John Grogan spun this engaging book from his years with the ill-mannered, psychologically-challenged Marley. Through the touching stories about this needy creature, Grogan shares meaningful observations of life, marriage and fatherhood — not to mention the unconditional love familiar to anyone who has ever befriended a dog. In this exploration, we examine that mysterious bond between dogs and their people.
