Home » Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace (Hardcover)
Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace (Hardcover)
By Anne Lamott
December 2014 Indie Next List
"Thank Annie's god for her continued willingness to share the obvious, the hazy, and the crazy with us. This collection of new and selected essays is such that her 'old' stuff sounds new, and Small Victories becomes a refresher course in why we love Annie's books and her advice ' fall in love with your own crazy, ruined self.'"
— HOPE W MAYS, Bookmiser, Inc., Roswell, GA
The New York Times bestseller from the author of Help, Thanks, Wow, Hallelujah Anyway, Almost Everything, and Dusk, Night, Dawn. Lamott's long-awaited collection of new and selected essays on hope, joy, and grace.
Anne Lamott writes about faith, family, and community in essays that are both wise and irreverent. It's an approach that has become her trademark. Now in Small Victories, Lamott offers a new message of hope that celebrates the triumph of light over the darkness in our lives. Our victories over hardship and pain may seem small, she writes, but they change us—our perceptions, our perspectives, and our lives. Lamott writes of forgiveness, restoration, and transformation, how we can turn toward love even in the most hopeless situations, how we find the joy in getting lost and our amazement in finally being found.
Profound and hilarious, honest and unexpected, the stories in Small Victories are proof that the human spirit is irrepressible.
Anne Lamott is the New York Times bestselling author of Help, Thanks, Wow; Small Victories; Stitches; Some Assembly Required; Grace (Eventually); Plan B; Traveling Mercies; Bird by Bird; Operating Instructions, and the forthcoming Hallelujah Anyway. She is also the author of several novels, including Imperfect Birds and Rosie. A past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an inductee to the California Hall of Fame, she lives in Northern California.
"Lamott is beloved by legions for her smart, irreverent take on the human condition, filtered through her unique brand of compassionate Christianity and delivered with delicious, self-deprecating wit. Lamott goes even deeper in these essays."
"Anne Lamott is practically a household word in the peeling-back-the-soul department. She's utterly disarming. She's hysterically funny. One minute, you're falling off your chair laughing, and the next, you're gasping for air, because Lamott has just unfurled a sentence that cuts straight to the heart of what you really needed to know. … Lamott is one in a million… Hers is an inimitable mix of irreverence and deep-down holy wisdom. Her wit is so sharp, her synapses fire so quickly, she deftly connects the dots and vaults across the spiritual landscape like nobody else…Lamott grounds the holy in the messy, hilarious, madcap adventure that is her life. And she sees the truth so piercingly perceptibly, we're left slack-jawed and wiser in her wake."
"A collection of beautifully written essays, filled with nuggets of wisdom gathered over years of mindful living. The stories tackle some heavy topics … [but] Lamott's candor, and sarcastic, self-deprecating humor lighten the content and engage readers. …Her words heal us all."
"[Lamott's] insightful and often hilarious prose celebrates the little lessons that everyday challenges can teach us."
"Most [of Lamott's essays] balance wry, acidic humor with deeper feeling — most often, a longing for grace and a sense of gratitude for its manifestations."
"Prime examples of Lamott's crystalline insights and wicked wit. There are laugh-out-loud moments…and frank revelations about her personal brand of 'left-wing Christ­i­anity,' that sound a clarion call to social activism rather than sanctimonious judgment. It is so good to hear from her again."
"Lamott can infuse even the darkest material with humor and uplifting revelations. Much loved by fans, her books are on many a nightstand within reach for hour-of-the-wolf reading."
"Lamott is funny, witty and irreverent…Her basic message is love and forgiveness…Not a bad message for any faith."
"Lamott once again summons her calm and reassuring voice to tenderly grab us by the hand and walk us through the most uncomfortable moments we may ever encounter in life: pain, suffering, betrayal and loneliness. Lamott masterfully and matter-of-factly recounts her battles with sobriety, her complex relationship with her family, and how she ultimately found her voice through spirituality. Heavy? Yes. But within each bracingly honest story, Lamott lathers on her trademark humor."
–NY 1
"Anne Lamott embraces language and life with equal zest, squeezing from the intersection wisdom of the most soul-stretching kind…A master of the touchpoint between wit and wisdom, Lamott adds to the poignant a wink of the playful…Small Victories is an enormously ennobling read in its entirety."
"[Lamott is] perhaps the best popular essayist America has produced in decades…[Small Victories] brings together a range of heartfelt journalistic and spiritual writings, which have all the pleasures and accessibility, the humor and surprise, of her longer books…A must for all Lamott fans and a fine point of entry for newcomers."
"Honest, witty essays on the hidden blessings in life…Sage advice on finding beauty and happiness in life despite bad circumstances."
"An essay collection that tackles tough subjects with sensitive and unblinking honesty…Lamott is refreshingly frank…[and] has the rare ability to weave bracing humor seamlessly with earnest, Christian faith."
"Thank goodness for Anne Lamott. Her writing style, both unfussy and diaphanous, her congeniality, loopy humor and dogged optimism are balms. Her latest book, Small Victories is a gem…Surely, when it comes to questions of faith, Lamott is to essay writing what Marilynne Robinson is to fiction. Awesome."
Praise for Anne Lamott
"Lamott writes essays…that are howlingly funny mini-sermons, reminding us of what's important in life."
"[Lamott] has a gift for putting into words what it means to accept and ultimately embrace the beauty, mystery, and pain that is life."
"The wickedly witty and very funny Lamott…makes you laugh at the same time she makes you think."
—Denver Post
"[Lamott] can capture the bliss and beauty of tiny emotional events in a few perfect words, then skewer her own worst impulses with brutal hilarity."
"Anne Lamott is a cause for celebration. [Her] real genius lies in capturing the ineffable, describing not perfect moments, but imperfect ones…perfectly. She is nothing short of miraculous."
"Anne Lamott has married a razor-sharp wit to a disarming spiritual sincerity. A ferociously smart, droll, and original writer."
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Publication Date: November 10th, 2014
Minimum Grade Level: UP
Literary Collections / Essays
Religion / Essays
Kobo eBook (November 9th, 2014): $4.99
Hardcover, Large Print (December 3rd, 2014): $45.89
CD-Audio (November 10th, 2014): $30.00