When this came out, I gave 5 of them out at Christmas...I have never done that before. It is an amazing collection of essays from many different sources. I continue to turn to it when I am overwhelmed with the sense of helplessness about the current state of the world and our role in it. ( )

I picked this up not long after it first came out in 20o4; I understand there was a revised edition published in 2014.

For me, this was a good coffeetable book, though not in the traditional sense. I left it out on my coffeetable, and when the news was getting me down, I'd pick it up, leaf through it, and read part or all of a chapter that appealed to me.

It's a book for when you wonder why, let alone how, to keep working for change in the world, because nothing you do seems to be making any difference. It's a reader on hope and perseverance. ( )

It took me a long time to read this book, not because it's difficult to read, but because I had to stop and reflect for a bit after every single chapter. There is so much wisdom in this book, I have to take it by the spoonful. Hopefully, wiser and smarter readers than me will digest it faster, but I urge you to write a small note to yourself after every chapter. It's well worth your extra time ( )

A study in hope and the power of perseverance. The selections were sometimes too short, although in a few cases, the shortness of the essays made them more palatable and easier to get through. A few articles seemed to be composed entirely of quotes from other inspirational authors, making me wonder why those works being quoted weren't included instead. My favorite essay was an examination of what exactly Christ meant by "turning the other cheek," "going the extra mile," and giving both the cloak and the robe, putting these words into a historical context that I had never considered. That was one essay I considered too short, and one day I will find one of that author's books to read his ideas more fully.
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Worth it for the excerpts from Mandela's and Toto's stories alone.