A review by jjp723
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

5.0

I am the only person on planet Earth who was not completely blown away by Cheryl Strayed's book Wild. Thus, I really wasn't sure that I should even try reading this one ... which would have been a big mistake. I started it the morning of my 39th birthday and finished it the same day - a big day for thinking about life and what, if any, changes are in store - and the empowerment I got from this book was intregal to all that. The advice given isn't anything we don't already know on some level but somehow Strayed makes you feel like you really can change your life, change the things that aren't working, dare to be happy - all while acknowledging that living this way takes courage and feeling uncomfortable at times. Most highly recommended!! (altho, I have to say - I didn't care for the whole "honey-bun" "sweet pea" stuff ... but to let that bother me would be called cutting off your nose to spite your face :))

*To use our individual good or bad luck as a litmus test to determine whether or not God exists constructs an illogical dichotomy that reduces our capacity for true compassion. It implies a pious quid pro quo that defies history, reality, ethics, and reason. It fails to acknowledge that the other half of rising - the very half that makes rising necessary - is having first been nailed to the cross.*

*Real change happens on the level of gesture. It's one person doing one thing differently than he or she did before.*

*You've earned the right to grow. You're going to have to carry the water yourself.*

*Strategic and coy are for jackasses.*