Being Perfect & A Short Guide to a Happy Life

By: Anna Quindlen

Narrated by: Anna Quindlen

Length: 47 mins

Publisher's summary

At the heart of this beautiful and insightful audiobook lies "the perfection trap", what it is, how to avoid falling into it, and how to instead shape a life that is uniquely yours.

In Being Perfect, Anna Quindlen gives a name to, and invites us to laugh at, a lifestyle that is all too familiar to many people, one that emphasizes the pursuit of trying to be perfect in the eyes of others, and to win the world's good opinion, rather than focusing on the most important goal of all: "Giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself." With wit and wisdom, Quindlen offers a keen understanding of how to create a life that is rich in meaning for you, by living on your own terms and by listening to your own deepest instincts, rather than to the demands and values of the world outside. This audiobook is an inspiring guide to living a rewarding and happy life, a life fulfilling in all its flaws, a life that is truly yours.

In A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Quindlen reflects on what it takes to "get a life", to live deeply everyday and form your own unique self, rather than merely to exist through your days. "Knowledge of our own mortality is the greatest gift God ever gives us," Quindlen states, "because unless you know the clock is ticking, it is so easy to waste our days, our lives." Her mother died when Quindlen was 19: "It was the dividing line between seeing the world in black and white, and in Technicolor. The lights came on for the darkest possible reason....I learned something about enduring, in a very short period of time, about life. And that was that it was glorious, and that you had no business taking it for granted." But how to live from that perspective, to fully engage in our days? In A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Quindlen guides us with an understanding that comes from knowing how to see the view, the richness in living.

©2000, 2005 Anna Quindlen (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

A little book to remind you what's important...

and what's not.

I haven't read "Being Perfect" yet, but my sister gave me "A Short Guide to a Happy Life" as a gift, and I've since given it to a small group of close friends as gifts as well.

I like to read it when I have the blues. I like it because it doesn't pretend to cure you, but somehow I always feel better after I read/while I'm reading it.

Now I know I'd like to have both in audio form to carry with me in mpg form!

Just okay

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would definately appreciate these narrations if I were attending one of the graduation ceremonies at which she delivered them. They were short and to the point. However, I wasn't really wowed by this book.

Did Being Perfect & A Short Guide to a Happy Life inspire you to do anything?

No

Straight to the point

Anna Quindlen cuts straight to the point that LIFE is not a dress rehersal and we need to live every minute of every day to the fullest. This short book makes you feel like she is talking directly to you and sending you a personal wake up call.

Blah, Blah, Blah

The most boring audiobook Ive ever heard.
I checked this book out for techniques on how-to
rid myself of a over-perfectionistic personality.
Because this book was the only searchable title
that covered perfectionism I used a credit.
What a waste !! This woman rambles on with absolutely no point for what seems an eternity.
I grade this book an F-
Terrible, with no usefull information..