[.ca] Living a Life That Matters: Resolving the Conflict ... (ISBN 0375410635)

From Amazon.com:
A person's longing for significance--which can lead to excessive ambition, moral compromise, and preoccupation with status--often stands in conflict with a longing to be good. In Living a Life That Matters, Harold S. Kushner (the Massachusetts rabbi whose bestselling books include When Bad Things Happen to Good People) suggests that the most successful lives are the ones that most effectively manage and resolve that conflict. For example, Kushner retells the biblical story of Jacob, in a chapter whose lesson is named by its title, "How to Win By Losing." Hamlet, Dirty Harry, and Exodus are a few of the dozens of examples he cites while elaborating on the essential lesson of this book: that success and significance converge in every act of love, generosity, and self-sacrifice that we make for our families, friends, and communities. --Michael Joseph Gross

fairly interesting:
a variety of essays of varying degrees of wisdom, all more or less related to people's desire to be important, to matter to someone. One phrase I liked: "a church or synagogue that only admitted saints would be like a hospital that only admitted healthy people. It would be a more pleasant place and easier to run, but that's not what we're in business for." Another example: I liked his explanation of the destructive impact of crime (i.e. that it robs victims of their feeling of power and significance) -- but Kushner's argument against the death penalty did not persuade me. He writes: "we don't have to kill criminals to reclaim power over them" -- but the primary victim of a murder is unable to reclaim power, because he or she is dead, dead, dead.

Please read it:
Other reviewers have already given good to great summaries of this book. I just wanted to add my vote. Great book!

Good Book:
I picked this up at the Sheboygan Public Library a few months ago and I couldn't put it down. It has many excellent messages about life and living. One can see positive experiences in almost any life venture, even the scary life ventures. In his own special way, Kushner helps your life be more special when you read this book. Jeffrey McAndrew author of "Our Brown-Eyed Boy"

Book That Matters:
I guess I expected more from this book....but I just don't buy that living a life that matters can be as simple as having one relationship that matters.....I came away wanting more. MR

A book that truly matters:
In my years of ministry, I have held the hand of many dying persons. And you know what? Never has one said "I wish I had spent more time at work", or "My life would have been complete if I had got that promotion." Nope. They talk about words of love unsaid, words of anger they wish they could unsay, time that should have been spent with their kids and family that they wasted on chasing an ephemeral ideal of 'success'. In Living a Life that Matters, Kushner has given us a timely examination of why it is that so many in our culture spend their valuable time striving for a culturally defined success that doesn't really matter, and how to reevaluate and reorient for a meaningful life. Kushner's wonderful stories and examples, as well as clear entertaining writing make this a gem. It's easy to read, and as deep as the night sky. If you are a person with an unsettled feeling in your soul, wondering what your life really means after all, Kushner's book is a great place to start looking for answers.