The Right Words at the Right Time

Rating:
Summary: A Perfect Gift
Review: I bought this book out of curiousity and found it to be special. Ms. Thomas beautifully illustrates the serendipity of life and its impact on our life's direction. Her collaborators share their stories of events and words that shaped their lives...for some it was a subtle word, for others it was a major event.

As important as these words and events were, they were not as obvious for those transformed until years later when they could look back seeing the fork in the road and the direction the event/word took them. The shared stories come from all walks of life. The book is a good reminder for all on how each of us has the power to impact and transform another's life in a positive way every day.

This is a great gift idea, especially for those who are in transition (between careers or stages of life), or are weathering one of life's storms.

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring, Fantastic, A great read!
Review: I loved this book. Marlo Thomas has done it again, this time for adults. It is the perfect example of a celebrity who uses her position to get all of her friends to share their stories and give each of us hope an inspiration. You will see many of your favorite famous people sharing the moments in their lives that have helped them and their stories then help us. The fact that the proceeds are going to a Cancer hospital for children complete the circle to make this book a winner. Marlo doesn't need the attention or the money so she shares with us all of friends' experiences to help us and help children with Cancer. Bravo!

Rating:
Summary: The Right Book at the Right Time
Review: I really, really liked this book. In fact, as soon as I finished it I wanted to share it so I sent it (priority mail - no less!) to my friend in California.

I remember my dad saying "If something is worth doing, it's worth doing well" and that's in the book. Obviously those were words that came at the "right time" for me.

There's a lot in the book to think about. It's not a celebrity book by any means - its a people book. Words are very powerful and sometimes at the most unexpected times, they have such an impact on your life you never forget them. The same goes for this book.

It's to be enjoyed and then shared and remembered. Marlo Thomas has always gone for quality, not quantity. This one can sit proudly beside "Free to Be" - unless you send it to a friend.

Don't pass it by.

Rating:
Summary: Negative twenty stars
Review: I was really enjoying The Right Words at the Right Time until I got to Tom Wolf's essay. It was going along well, until I came to the paragraph that started with the English being masters at jujitsu wit, and holding up Oscar Wilde as an example of same. Well, I'm used to people who don't know better calling Oscar Wilde English, and was letting that one go whena mere two paragraphs later I found him using (G.B.)Shaw as proof that the Irish, too, are masters of this...ability. At that point, the blank stupidity of Mr. Wolfe's essay just lost me. If he's going to write for publication, the least he can do is get a clue as to what he is talking about. Both Wilde and Shaw were Irish--in fact, Wilde's mother was a rather famous Irish Republican. I'm ashamed of Mr. Wolfe, Ms Thomas, and the editors of this book, none of whom seem to know much of anything.

Rating:
Summary: We've Heard It Before, But It Has Value
Review: Joining the "story about someone who did something great" bandwagon is Marlo Thomas. It is not as if such stories are unimportant. But it seems our bookshelves are packed with the tales of celebrities and how they overcame adversity or foolishness, each one blander than the next.

Thomas ain't Turkel. Pick up anything by Studs Turkel.

Itzhak Perlman's story is intriguing, but only because his adversity has always been as clear as his mastery of the violin. He doesn't seem to be playing the PR game.

Otherwise, there is a canned tone to the stories. I can't explain this, but something in the phrasing is so ordinary, it seems to miss the passion that must have been behind the people who lived the stories. Maybe it was overedited, or ghost-written by a cub writer who hasn't lived through any adversity. I think the stories have power, but not this version.

I recommend "The Right Words at the Right Time" as a easy summer read, the kind of book you read as a passenger or leave up at a vacation home...

Rating:
Summary: Lots of great storytelling from an array of celebrity types
Review: Lots of great storytelling from an array of celebrity types woven through the book by the theme of the right words at the right time. Marlo has done a wonderful job in collecting some unique and diverse stories from some pretty interesting people. There are stories here for most everyone and many are worth repeating. Worth the purchase.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent inspiration for all ages!
Review: Marlo Thomas gathered together the wit and wisdom of over 100 innovators, thinkers and cultural icons, who share a moment when words changed their lives. It's great to be able to share in the personal moments of these well known people's lives and glean some inspiration from their stories. Definitely a book to keep around on your coffee table to share with others.

Rating:
Summary: Inspiration without sappiness
Review: Marlo Thomas is one of the very few celebrities who actually has a college degree, and her smarts--both school smarts and just plain common sense--come winningly through in "The Right Words at the Right Time." Thomas explains in the introduction that something her father (comedian Danny Thomas) once said to her in the way of encouragement struck her with such force, and stayed with her for so many years, that she grew curious to see what types of epiphanies other folks had had.

What follows are wonderful stories from all manner of famous people--ranging from Jennifer Aniston to Bill Cosby to the Dalai Lama and practically everyone in between. They share with us, in casual, sounds-just-like-it's-them-talking style, the words which somehow strengthened or inspired them. Many of the stories are from childhood, but a surprising number of them took place in adulthood. Shaquille O'Neal relates how his mother once tartly told him he couldn't afford to wait to be good, because no one knows who will be here tomorrow and who won't. This simple observation stunned O'Neal and set him on the path to athletic stardom. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos shares a simultaneously painful and hilarious story about telling his grandmother she was shortening her life through cigarette-smoking--and also shares his grandfather's gentle, measured response to his smart-alecky treatment of his grandmother. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg shares a charming story from her early married life:

The morning of [my] wedding, I was upstairs, making last-minute adjustments, when Marty's mother put something in my hand and said, "I am going to give you some advice that will serve you well: in every good marriage, it pays sometimes to be a little deaf." She had placed in my hand a set of wax earplugs. I was puzzled. What was she trying to convey? I put her words in the back of my mind for a time, a rather short time as it turned out. When Marty and I were on our honeymoon, I began to appreciate the wisdom of her advice. The appreciation has grown enormously over the years. My mother-in-law meant simply this. Sometimes people say unkind or thoughtless things, and when they do, it's best to be a little hard of hearing--to tune out and not snap back in anger or impatience. In my forty-seven years of marriage, I have recalled that advice regularly . . . But the idea behind the words reaches far beyond family . . . I drew upon [her] words when I was told I was not welcome in certain places because I am Jewish or that I could not do certain work because I am a woman.

The book is filled with great stuff like this--most of it elemental advice, but advice which resonates because it is larger and more complex than it looks. It is advice which applies to more than one situation, making its meaning endlessly adaptable and malleable for the reader. There is much food for thought here, all of which could be used by a new graduate, or by anyone in need of some "right words" to lean on in a difficult time.

Rating:
Summary: this is a wonderful book
Review: This book is for everyone who has felt discouraged, overwhelmed, embarassed, saddened and confused. The experiences of the contributors in this book are so diverse as our the contributors themselves. They are comprised of actors, CEOs of major companies, movie directors, talk show hosts, musicians, athletes, activists, journalists, artists and politicians. These are some of the stories, people, and words that stood out for me.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani who learned that life is a combination of great tragedy and great beauty from a woman who lost her father, husband, and son all in one year. He learned to celebrate the beauty and the positive things in life. Oprah Winfrey was inspired by the words of a producer who said just be yourself when she felt overwhelmed starting out as a talk show host years ago. Her main compettion was Phil Donahue who was the king of talk shows at the time. The same idea motivated Marlo Thomas when she was started out as an actress. Her legendary father advised her to run her own race. Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com learned an important lesson by listening to the words of his grandfather It is much harder to be nice than clever. I thought those words as like so many in this book to be profound. Actress Jennifer Aniston was inspired by a speech written by Marianne Williamson given by Nelson Mandella. The gist of the speech is that we all have a light or gift within us that we all need to share. Journalist Ted Koppel took the words of Roy Rogers to heart when he read that everyone is ignorant just on different subjects. Steven Spielberg was inspired by the words of a Davy Crockett movie The words Be sure you're right, then go ahead gave him the confidence to drop out of college and become a director.

Some of the most interesting insights come from people who are not as famous. Doris Kearns Goodwin, a historian who worked with President Johnson writing his memoir was inspired by the words of psychologist Erik Erikson that the richest lives attain an inner balance comprised of work, play and love. Erikson concluded that we should not sacrifice one need to pursue another. The contribution by Dr. David Ho is interesting to me because of what he does for a living. David Ho is the director of AIDS research and through his efforts with different drugs patients live longer and healthier lives. Patients focus on living and not dying because of him. I enjoyed the wisdom in the story of political advisor Mary Matalin who learned from her father that confidence is what separates successful people from unsuccessful ones. Confidence is created from 3 things being prepared, having experience, and never giving up. This is an idea I will never forget.

There are some cliches in this book, but they are interesting because of the people who were motivated by them achieved great things. Astronaunt Sally Ride was inspired by the words reach for the stars and became the first woman in space. Toni Morrison was motivated by the words anything worth doing is worth doing well. Morrison won the Nobel Prize for her novel Song of Solomon later in life. Designer Ralph Lauren was inspired by the music of Frank Sinatra and the song My Way.

The Right Words at the Right Time is an excellent book filled with pearls of wisdom. This book has wonderful insights about life, work, character and love.

Rating:
Summary: Who knew I would love this book?!
Review: This book shares the personal stories of different celebrities from different areas of endeavors and of different political persuasions. As such, the collection is a bit of a mishmash - some thoughtful and meaningful stories; some rants and riffs of self-centered yammering that should have been edited - heavily. Also, the factchecking was surprisingly sloppy in places.

However, I took away a valuable lesson - the importance of our words, and how they radiate out into the world in ways we can't anticipate. For example - the simple words of a firefighter's grieving mother touched Rudy Giuliani and guided him and inspired him two weeks later on Sept. 11, 2001.

Who knows how what we say may change someone's life? This isn't the greatest book I've ever read, but that "lesson" will stay with me for a long time.