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Summary: Awesome and a goosebump-maker...
Review: A friend gave this book to me and I did not think much about it until I started to read it. It is a book to savor and not read straight through because each section makes a powerful impact on the spirit and the mind. After each "read", I could not help but stop and relect on what I had just read, so beautifully conveyed were the thoughts that I felt mesmerized by this author's writing and writing style. She gets you not only in the heart but in the gut. Although I finished it a few months ago, I keep it near my desk just in case I have a few minutes to review one of my best loved chapters. Incredibly thought-provoking. So if you want goosebumps as well as a soul-full book, this is a must read! It is timeless.
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Summary: Wisdom makes her rounds in Remen's work
Review: A grandfather's blessings have evoked in Rachel Naomi Remen a wisdom in the service of life. This book is filled with stories, anecdotes and reflections which will help readers to recognize and bless the wisdom in themselves and in others. At a time when Orthodox Judaism is in the news, this book will go a long way to dispel cliches and to advance a positive appreciation of the spiritual wisdom at the heart of all authentic religious traditions and personal experience.
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Summary: My Grandfathers Blessings : Stories of Strength, Refuge, and
Review: As a Cancer Survivor and a Servant of God, to a GOD that calls me to life, this is a great book to help on my journey and battles of life. It has short stories (which during and after receiving treatments this was just what I could handle). The wonderful stories of "Strength, Refuge and Belonging", and also for me a call to living life with God, even as I battle cancer. It is one to "chew on" again and again. IT really filled my heart with stories that I could truly understand and was able to hold in my heart as I walk with cancer. Hearing them from a beautiful lady that walked with other cancer folks just made it that more potent and healing for me! Thanks Rachel for writing this Blessed Book.
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Summary: Wisdom combined with love
Review: Dr. Remen doesn't need another 5-star review, but these stories are so wonderful. Just as strong as Kitchen Table Wisdom. I have to admit to bias, because Dr. Remen wrote a beautiful blurb for the back of my book The Art of Getting Well. But I would have loved her anyway.David Spero RN www.art-of-getting-well.com
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Summary: A Master Story-teller
Review: Dr. Remen doesn't need another 5-star review, but these stories are so wonderful. Just as strong as Kitchen Table Wisdom. I have to admit to bias, because Dr. Remen wrote a beautiful blurb for the back of my book The Art of Getting Well. But I would have loved her anyway. David Spero RN www.art-of-getting-well.com
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Summary: Wisdom combined with love
Review: I am impressed by how wonder-ful this book is. The book provides brief and easily-read vignettes which can be reflected upon over several hours, and which make excellent points of focus for meditation or for prayer. One can see the blessings follow Dr Rehmen throughout the book. She begins as an appreciative young child who is blessed to spend time with her beloved, wise, and cherished grandfather. She uses her grandfather's advice as she travels through adolescence, through her studies in medicine, and then through her teaching and healing years. One can follow the advice of her grandfather and her character development too, and how important love and wisdom are to a person at any stage of life. The love and wisdom spoken of here are not something she owns or acquires, but are something which she participates in, adds to, and then returns to the source. I think you will find this a loving and wise work, and that you will be happy you have shared with her.
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Summary: Everyone should have this book.
Review: My partner and I received Grandfather's Blessings as a gift a few weeks ago and read one short story in the morning before work and one in the evening before bed. What an inspiration these stories are. They really make you think about what's important in your life and, to steal a phrase, count your blessings. Believe all of these 5 star reviews and buy this book. You won't regret it, and more importantly, you will help inspire Rachel Remen to continue sharing her work with us!
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Summary: How can we give and discover kindness in today's world?
Review: Of the hundreds of books I have read, I consider this one of the very best. By way of background, I am a Board-certified clinical dentist with 17 years experience and three years of post-doctoral training. This collection of essays explores the value of our contributions to life, and the value of life's contributions to us. Although Dr Remen is an experienced oncologist, she has found most of her lessons by observing "the mysterious simple things," including her beloved grandfather's gentle and loving suggestions. These stories almost seem mystical in their value and goodness. They are wise and profound, despite (rather than because of) her clinical skills (medicine and medical business have usually emphasized competence and quickness rather than anything akin to compassion). I read one chapter of her book each day, along with my religious readings, and rarely finish the chapter without a tear in my eye and a glimmer of insight. She is a superb teaacher and I'd recommend her book to anyone who wonders how they are ever going to show caring or kindness in the kind of world they live in.
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Summary: SPIRITUALLY UPLIFTING!
Review: Rachel and her grandfather walk through life on a different path. Rachel is the academic achiever, who devotes her life to helping others in her profession as a medical doctor. Her grandfather, a rabbi and man of great wisdom, sees the world through a more devine and holy light. While their paths may be different, their ultimate purpose in life is the same. I never had the opportunity to bond with any of my grandparents, the geographical miles between us were far too great; however, it would be one of life's greatest blessings to have had a grandfather as wise, gentle and understanding as Rachel's. The stories contained here will bring a smile and evoke a tear, as science, medicine, religion and spirituality exquisitely merge together throughout the pages of the book. Rachel embraces the world and the reader with her compassion and love for humanity. As you read through the pages, you will be left with a better understanding of life's true meaning and purpose; it is a well-written and thought-provoking book.
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Summary: Renewal for Compassion
Review: The story behind how I found this book is an example of the small miracles that Rachel relates in her book: I was going through a hard time, my father had just been diagnosed with a terminal illness and my mother and I were fighting over my decision to go to Seminary. I was wandering in the book store and happened accross it. I bought it and preceeded to read it in one sitting (excluding the time that I had to stop reading because the tears were blurring my eyesight.) Rachel's stories will rekindle the humanity in you; she reveals the mystery in everyday life not to show you the answer but to proclaim that the mystery itself is the answer. If you are going through a hard time and you are looking for a bit or guidance and renewal then I hardily recommend this book and her other "Kitchen Table Wisdom." Bless you.
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