But it's conciseness and simplicity is where its power lies. It's definitely a collector's book, too. It's the perfect book to leave right on the corner of your desk whenever you need to drink some sips of inspiration, or bring yourself back to the present. It's underlying message can be read on every page. And if you don't have the time to read, take a look at the photographs. The black and white pictures interspersed among the pages sum up Anna's simple message: get a life.
She humbly admits her lack of specific expertise in regard to academia or any other technical subject. Instead, she humanely writes of her experience of real life, and the beautiful details she has picked up along the way. That's probably why she writes such fantastic novels.
The death of her mother as a young college student changed Anna forever. It allowed her to see the beauty in every moment of her life, to embrace all of life. She writes of the absurdity about many things that mark American culture: "the rat race," complaining, career growth. Periodic quotations of deep minds also back up her message.
A quote sums up her life, and the essence of this book: "I never think of my life, or my world, in any big cosmic way. I think of it in all its small component parts: the snowdrops, the daffodils; the feeling of one of my kids sitting close beside me on the couch; the way my husband looks when he reads with the lamp behind him; fettuccine Alfredo, fudge; Gone with the Wind, Pride and Prejudice." It's a casual definition of mindfulness.
Reading this book is like meditating. It's a quick and powerful way to bring you back to the only thing you ever truly have: the present.
Also recommended: McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD