Because of A Book with Stuart Lutz

This week I have Stuart Lutz on the blog talking about the most influential book that he has read.

Stuart Lutz has always been fascinated by the stories told by older people. Perhaps it started when he was a boy and heard his great-grandparents recount their immigrant voyage to America, their first airplane sighting, and the first time his great-grandmother could legally vote (even though she had been married four years). Also, when he was young, he was intrigued during a family trip to Charleston, South Carolina, when the tour guide pointed out the building that still housed some Confederate widows, even though the Civil War had been over for 125 years. He could not understand how that could be, until the guide explained that some young ladies married much older men who had fought in the Civil War.

Lutz’s interests in history and writing come together in The Last Leaf, an oral history book featuring the stories of almost forty survivors and eyewitnesses to historically important events. Lutz is the only person to have interviewed the last three Civil War widows (the last one died in 2008), but The Last Leaf also features the last American World War I soldier, the final living person to have flown with Amelia Earhart, the final pitcher to give up a home run to Babe Ruth in his historic 1927 season (when Ruth hit sixty home runs), the last suffragette, the final Medal of Honor winner for heroism on Pearl Harbor Day, the last person to have made design contributions to the ENIAC (the first electronic, programmable computer), the final Iwo Jima flag raiser, the last survivor of the sunken Lusitania, the final Harry Houdini stage hand, and the last employees of Thomas Edison and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Each chapter blends the narrative of the “Last Leaves” with historical background so readers can understand what occurred and the long-term importance of each event.

Lutz owns Stuart Lutz Historic Documents, Inc., a firm that sells rare letters and manuscripts (www.HistoryDocs.com). He has written for American Heritage and Civil War Times Illustrated, and appeared on National Public Radio. He has a B.A. in American History from Johns Hopkins.

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My Most Influential Book

By Stuart Lutz

About fifteen years ago, I lived in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Not only is it one of the country’s wealthiest counties, it is one of the showiest too. Everyone, it seemed to me, owned a luxury car, took exotic vacations, and shopped at the local boutiques. And frugal me was driving an old Mitsubishi Colt with 140,000 miles that required bi-monthly repairs, and living in a small apartment in a woman’s subdivided house. It was easy to wonder what I was doing wrong.
I mentioned this conundrum to my uncle, who was then a top executive for one of the country’s most prestigious financial firms. “Most Americans,” he explained to me, “are so far in credit card debt that they will never get out, or they two weeks away from living on the street [his forecast is being proven by today’s foreclosure crisis].” I was momentarily puzzled by what he said, and I responded with, “Perhaps for the little guy, but these people who drive Mercedes, they can’t be two weeks away from foreclosure.” “They frequently are,” he replied. “People who make big money usually spend big money. Or they skip contributing to their retirement funds so that they have no accumulated wealth. I read recently that the average luxury car buyer only makes something like forty or fifty thousand dollars a year. It’s hard to get ahead financially when the price of your car equals your annual salary.”
Soon thereafter, I received a package from my uncle containing The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William D. Danko. The book is an academic, yet easily readable, study of people who have at least a million dollars in wealth, excluding the value of their homes. The people profiled include business owners worth seven figures, or others who have frugally saved over a million dollars in their retirement accounts. Stanley and Danko emphasize several characteristics the millionaires generally share, including frugality, a desire for financial independence, self-employment, and an emphasis on saving, investing, and budgeting. The authors define “underaccumulators of wealth” and “prodigious accumulators of wealth,” and introduced me to one of my favorite phrases, “big hat, no cattle.”
The Millionaire Next Door is the most influential book I have read in the past two decades for a few reasons. First, it is my desire to be financially independent. Recent news stories state that the Social Security trust will be exhausted in 2037, about the time I can first collect. If there is not going to be Social Security, then I need to be a “prodigious accumulator of wealth” to retire.
Second, the book showed that the frugality that I learned from my parents is the lifestyle that I want to have. I am just not a Mercedes or BMW person. Instead, I am delighted to drive my seven-year old Toyota with 146,000 miles or my fifteen year old Acura with 206,000 clicks; I prefer them to the slavery of new car payments or a lease. Yet my frugality does not mean all self-denial; my wife and I have twice traveled to Hawaii and Ireland; we just do it in the off-season when rates are cheaper.
I re-read The Millionaire Next Door at least once a year for continued inspiration. But my page-flipping is only the theoretical. As for the actual practice of becoming financially independent, I think of the book once a month when I deposit my hard-earned, hard-saved check into my retirement accounts.
To conclude, I own a business that buys and sells historic documents and letters. I have a client who made a fortune on Wall Street and collects papers related to early financial history. About fifteen years ago, he bought at auction one of the first known American stock certificates for almost $40,000. Subsequently, I bought the letter that should accompany the aforementioned stock, and I sold it to him for nearly $10,000. I met this gentleman at a New England hotel to show him the letter. When we finished our business, we walked out to the parking lot, and he got into a beat-up Buick that looked like it belonged in the local demolition derby. Yet he had spent nearly $50,000 on two sheets of paper. He was living proof of the millionaire next door.

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About The Millionaire Next Door:  The bestselling The Millionaire Next Door identifies seven common traits that show up again and again among those who have accumulated wealth. Most of the truly wealthy in this country don't live in Beverly Hills or on Park Avenue-they live next door. This new edition, the first since 1998, includes a new foreword for the twenty-first century by Dr. Thomas J. Stanley.



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About The Last Leaf:  When we read about famous historical events, we may wonder about the firsthand experiences of the people directly involved. What insights could be gained if we could talk to someone who remembered the Civil War, or the battle to win the vote for women, or Thomas Edison's struggles to create the first electric light bulb? Amazingly, many of these experiences are still preserved in living memory by the final survivors of important, world-changing events.
In this unique oral history book, author and historic document specialist Stuart Lutz records the stories told to him personally by people who witnessed many of history's most famous events. Among many others, Lutz interviewed:

-the final three Civil War widows (one Union and two Confederate)
-the final pitcher to surrender a home run to Babe Ruth
-the last suffragette
-the last living person to fly with Amelia Earhart
-the final American World War I soldier
-the last surviving employees of Thomas Edison, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Harry Houdini.

The wide-ranging stories involve humor (the 1920 Olympic medalist who stole the original Olympic flag), tragedy (the last survivor of the 1915 Lusitania sinking), heroism (the final Medal of Honor recipient for actions on Pearl Harbor Day), and eyewitnesses to great events (one of the last scientists at the first nuclear chain reaction, and the final Iwo Jima flag raiser).
In more than three-dozen chapters, Lutz blends background information in a lively narrative with the words of the interviewees, so that readers not familiar with the historical episodes described can understand what occurred and the long-term significance of the events.

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Because of A Book with Sylvia LaFair

Joining me on the blog today is author, Sylvia LaFair.  Many thanks to her for stopping by and sharing thoughts on leadership through Mrs. Piggle Wiggle.

Sylvia Lafair, PhD, is a business leadership expert, President of CEO – Creative Energy Options, Inc., a global consulting company focused on optimizing workplace relationships and author of the award winning book, “Don’t Bring It to Work”.

She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes.com, USA Today, Time, New York Times, many radio, and TV programs.

As an executive coach and leadership educator, she has more than 30 years of experience with all levels of management.

Her quick-witted humor, charisma, and energy are infectious and her knowledge gives substance and depth to all presentations.

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Because of a Book

By: SYLVIA LAFAIR, PhD

It’s amazing how a pudgy lady who lived in an upside down house, baked amazing cookies, and was married to a pirate can help point you in the direction of a future career.
This woman, a combination of Antie Mame, Mary Poppins, and Maria from the Sound of Music was a major influence for me to choose psychology as a major in college. I remember when my third grade teacher introduced us to Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. She told us the book was a classic. I had no idea what that meant, it just sounded important.
So we gathered on the floor and entered the fantastic world where kids learned about life without being yelled out, where they became accountable for their own behavior by experiencing what matters and what doesn’t.
The “cures” this jolly lady had for bad behavior always made sense to me. There was no lecturing, no finger pointing, and no time outs on stools in corners. Like the boy who had tons of toys and never wanted to pick them up; he didn’t have to. Sounded good to me. It also made sense that he soon had blocked his way out of his room and eventually learned, in his own time about consequences of behavior.
She took the plaintive cry of the “waddle-I-doers” and made an indoor treasure hunt the action of the afternoon. What fun! And the “don’t-want-to-go-to bedders” learned about the importance of sleep by staying up late, later and very late.
Somehow, the behavior modification and reinforcement for positive ways of responding made sense to my nine year old brain.
Here is where it gets really interesting. I have morphed my career from family therapist to leadership development expert. I now teach people that the behavior patterns they learned in their original organization, the family, are what they bring into their present work organization.
I started to relook at Mrs. Piggle Wiggle and see that she also had great lessons for high potential and emerging leaders in all types of work settings. It’s about accountability, learning to understand your own boundaries and how to be good and kind to others. And so much can be learned about solving problems as you taste the cookies that are always a part of the reward for choosing wisely and treating others with respect. That’s core to leadership, isn’t it?
I am now a grandmother and when my daughter feels like tearing out her hair when her three year old sets sassy or her five year old gets bored she has an old friend of mine to rely on.
Books that touch the human universals in all of us are truly classics. When I wrote “Don’t Bring It to Work: Breaking the Family Patterns that Limit Success”, I reread the stories from my old friend to help me stay true to what I wanted to say.
So, thank you Betty MacDonald for conjuring up Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. And thank you for all the wise “cures” that everyone on the planet can relate to.

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About Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Farm

Ms. Piggle-Wiggle's left her upside-down town house and has moved to a farm in the country. With the help of her cows and pigs and horses, she's still curing girls and boys of their bad habits. So whatever the problem-from pet forgetter-itis to fraidycat-ness-the parents all exclaim, "Better call Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle!"

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About Don't Bring It to Work

How can you get to the bottom of workplace behaviors that simply don't work for you or your organization?
Don't Bring It to Work explores what happens when patterns originally created to cope with family conflicts are unleashed in the workplace.?This groundbreaking book draws on the success of Sylvia Lafair's PatternAware program Total Leadership Connections. Throughout the book she shows how to break the cycle of pattern repetition and offers the tools that can turn unhealthy family baggage into creative energy that will foster better workplace associations and career success.
Lafair identifies the thirteen most common patterns that correspond to characters familiar to anyone who has ever worked in an office: Super Achiever, Rebel, Persecutor, Victim, Rescuer, Clown, Martyr, Splitter, Procrastinator, Drama Queen or King, Pleaser, Denier, and Avoider. To help overcome destructive behavior problems, she maps out the three main steps for becoming aware of patterns and finding the way OUT:

• Observe your behavior to discern underlying patterns
• Understand and probe deeper to discover the origins of these patterns
• Transform your behavior by taking action to change

The book includes a wealth of real-life anecdotes and practical, workbook-style exercises that clearly show how anyone can get beyond old, outmoded attempts at conflict resolution and empower themselves to make profound differences both at work and in their personal lives.

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Because of A Book with Elizabeth Harper

 This week's guest is Elizabeth Harper, whom I met through my BLU post looking for guests for this feature.  If you are ever looking for guest posts or want to see what kind of guest posts other bloggers are looking for, check out BloggerLinkUp.  Please make Elizabeth feel at home.

Elizabeth Harper is an internationally acclaimed color intuitive, psychic artist, spiritual guide, healer and teacher. She is a faculty member of the Omega Institute, teaches workshops at the Open Center and Lily Dale Assembly and is co-founder of Spiritual Living, an online education & wellness center. Her pioneering work with color inspired her Sealed With Love jewelry, Powersilks, and the intuitively revealing ColorScope. Her work and life have been featured in popular national magazines including Woman's World, Redbook, Prevention and Health. She is a magazine columnist and regular contributor to radio and television in the US and Australia, and she is the award-winning author of "Wishing: How to Fulfill Your Heart's Desires" (Beyond Words/Atria/Simon & Schuster 2008).
Find out more about her work on her website: www.sealedwithlove.com

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Because of A Book

My brother Phillip died in a car accident when I was ten years old. Shortly after his death he began to visit me in my dreams. I had always been sensitive to energies. I saw auras, knew more about people than I should, and I could accurately predict the future for friends and family. After my brother’s passing my psychic skills seemed to intensify. It was around this time that my mother, no doubt realizing that I felt “different,” chose to give me a book that helped me to understand what I was experiencing. Its title encapsulates its contents – The Boy Who Saw True. The book, however, does not reveal the name of its’ author, only that he lived in the north of England at the turn of the twentieth century.

The Boy Who Saw True is a compilation of a set of diaries started when the “boy” was young and culminating in correspondence with his second wife while on his travels. He humorously details his clairvoyant observances and the shameful scolding he was exposed to by members of his immediate family for what they considered to be bad behavior. Their ignorance was understandable. He was, in short, extremely mediumistic, meaning he could see and converse with the spirits of dead people to such an extent that you would think he was speaking with a living embodied being.

The book fascinated as much as it comforted me. My mother very cleverly waited until I could appreciate its worth. In the early part of the book the innocence and naivety of the boy is apparent, but this is what makes him so endearing. Some of the language is funny and very “British” and the compiler of the works thought to leave a number of the boy’s spelling mistakes, making it all the more heart warming.

From an early age I was an avid absorber of all paranormal books. I had virtually exhausted every library within a fifty radius. We are talking about the available tomes of forty years ago; new age literature was not as common then as it is now. My mother, one of the pioneers of yoga in Britain, thought to subscribe to the Psychic News magazine and would make a point of ordering books they had reviewed. The Boy Who Saw True was one of these books. It came at the perfect time in my life when I needed support and guidance for my burgeoning psychic skills. It imprinted my soul with the understanding that not everyone is accepting of this gift, but nonetheless it is a gift to be nurtured and cared for.

I recommend this book to all of my psychic development students and to anyone curious about the unseen world. It offers insight into the life of a psychic and makes this skill palatable, amusing and above all - normal! It is a little piece of light that brings joy to my heart every time I read it. I no longer have the original copy. Whenever I buy it I am inspired to give it away, a gift to be shared. I am after all my mother’s daughter!

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About The Boy Who Saw True - Based on the diary entries of a young Victorian with extraordinary supernatural talent, this is a naïve, insightful, funny, and moving account of a precocious young clairvoyant. Born with incredible powers, the anonymous author could see auras and spirits, yet failed to realise that other people were not similarly gifted. This remarkable book has become a paranormal classic.

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About Wishing: How to Fulfill Your Heart's Desires - In Wishing, author Elizabeth Harper provides the tools and wisdom necessary to manifest each and every wish made. Using the basic concepts of the law of attraction, a step-by-step wish process outlines how wishes manifest, why some go unfulfilled, and how you can best realize your wishing potential in all aspects of your life. From wishing the train would come on time to yearning for those six precious little numbers in the lottery that will irrevocably change your life, we all make multiple wishes during the day with the hope some will come true. Wishing's "wish sense" is a time-tested, magical formula for successfully manifesting your heart's desires and a proven way to get the results everyone wants. 

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Mailbox Monday - 1/31/2011

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme started by Marcia at The Printed Page.  You can read all about it at the Mailbox Monday blog.  Well, the mailbox has gone on tour.  This month's host is Rose City Reader. 

I love this meme because it lets me take a peek into other bloggers' mailboxes and find out what they received over the last week.  I will warn you, it does lead to more books as you will find many that you want because of others mailboxes.  If you'd like to join in on the fun, post about your books and link up!

This was a pretty big book week for me, especially with children's books, which are hard to see when taking pictures only of the spines, so I've spread them out in groups and that's how I'm sharing them with you this week.  I can't wait to dive into these and start posting reviews.

These four titles were waiting for me at the post office on Tuesday.  They were sent for review from Charlesbridge Publishing.

• A Call for a New Alphabet
• Camille's Team
• Percy Gets Upset
• The Multiplying Menace Divides 

Raj, the Bookstore Tiger by Kathleen P. Telley, from Charlesbridge Publishing
Silverlicious by Victoria Kahn, from HarperCollins - I am so excited about this one!  I have previously purchased Pinkalicious and Purplicous for my 2 oldest granddaughters.
There's a Dragon in the Library by Dianne de Las Casas, from Pelican Publishing
For the Love of Music: The Remarkable Story of Maria Anna Mozart by Elizabeth Rusch, from Random House - I plan on gifting this one to the music teacher at my school when I've read and reviewed it.

Cahoots (ARC) by Karla Oceanak, from Bailiwick Press - I have enjoyed the first 2 books in this series, so the publisher contacted me and asked if I'd be willing to review the 3rd book.
The Radleys by Matt Haig and Goodnight Tweetheart from Simon & Schuster as a Book Club Advisory Member.
Kat Incorrigible (ARC) by Stephanie Burgis, from Simon & Schuster

This was an email request to review, from the publisher.  Richard Fast has a series of these 29 Days books.  I chose 29 DAYS...to save money and acheive financial independence, as saving money is something I could use a little help with. 

What was in your mailbox?

Blog Tour - Write the Right Words

I am happy to be hosting another TLC Book Tour today.  This post was originally supposed to go up last week, but apparently Blogger had issues with my scheduled posts...happened more than once.

Title:  Write the Right Words
Author:  Sandra E. Lamb
Review Copy Provided by St. Martin's Press

About the Book:  A Warm and Practical Guide to Writing the Perfect Card Message
Are you at a complete loss for words when a birthday card or congratulatory card circulates at the office?
When was the last time you mailed a “thinking of you” card to a faraway family member, just to say hello?
What should you write to a grieving friend? How do you comfort a colleague in a time of need?
Every greeting card needs a personal, handwritten message to make it complete. In this comprehensive, encouraging guide, journalist and lifestyle expert Sandra Lamb offers a wealth of advice, inspiration, and examples for anyone who wants to add the perfect personal touch to their card messages---as well as anyone who wants to know the etiquette of when and what to write.
Something as small as a heartfelt message on a greeting card can help remedy our hectic, e-mail--dependent lives. Lamb provides tips and sample messages for every occasion under the sun, both happy and somber (thank-you, birthday, birth and adoption, condolence), and explains the meanings of possibly unfamiliar holidays and religious rituals to aid in the writing of appropriate messages.

My Review:  This book is going to be my new best friend!  I attended a workshop this summer about relationships.  Yes, it was for school, but I can apply it to my personal life as well.  One of the things I committed to doing, afterwards, is staying connected with my family and friends through notes and cards.  Write the Right Words is going to enable me to do that even better!

The book is broken up into seven parts: Connecting Messages, Happy Day Messages, Holiday Messages, Social Grace Messages, Care and Concern Messages, Creating a New Relationship Messages, and Dates to Remember.  I especially enjoyed the part in Connecting Messages on Connecting with Greeting Cards.  It tells you how to make the most of your handwritten message:

"Your handwritten message supplies what's so often missing in our lives: the richness of shared humanity, and the sense that we are connected one to another."

I so agree with that quote.  We do so much of our correspondence through email, text messages, and social networks, that the art and sincerity of the handwritten note or card has been lost.  I love the specialness that a note or card brings to me, and I want to do that for others.

Another part of the book that I enjoyed was Care and Concern Messages.  There are times of sickness or loss, and I want to send a note, but I'm not sure at all what to say.  Well, that day is over.  For example, each type of care or concern gives message etiquette, quotes to use, and suggested messages.  Here's a suggested message to send someone who has been diagnosed with cancer:

"It's an ugly word-'cancer.' But I've never known you to shrink from a real challenge.  We're all betting on your resilience and fight.  In case we haven't said it recently: You're very important to us.  We care what happens to you. And we all want you around for a very long time to come.  We're sending you our best wishes and prayers."

Wow!  Talk about a great message.  I'm not sure I could have thought of that on my own.   The book is set up that way throughout.  Each part lists different types of notes/cards or occasions, and then gives the etiquette, quotes and suggested messages.  I love the way Ms. Lamb has organized the book.  It is very user friendly and gives you exactly what you need when you are at a loss for words.

This is definitely one that will be staying out in my office so that I can refer to it constantly.  If you are the card sending type, or desire to be, I hope you'll pick up this book.

Sandra Lamb has also written Personal Notes and How to Write It.  I will be checking these titles out as well!

The author has graciously offered up an autographed copy for one of my readers.  Just comment on this post and you're entered.  It's that easy!  Make sure to leave your email so I can contact you.  This contest will end a week from today, Tuesday August 17th at midnight.  The winner will be chosen at random and notified on the 18th.  Open to US/Canada only.

 

Blog Tour - Alphatudes

Title:  Alphatudes: The Alphabet of Gratitude

Author:  Michele Wahlder

Review Copy Provided by: the author for a Pump Up Your Book Promotion blog tour


About the Book:  Alphatudes reveals that gratitude is the unexpected, simple secret of living a joyful life. In a world obsessed with negativity, we must deliberately choose to focus on the positive. Alphatudes uses your earliest grade school victory the ABCs to help you achieve a sustainable shift in thinking that leads to contentment, optimism and peace of mind. An alphatude is defined as: a person, place or thing for which one alphabetically expresses gratitude. Filled with vibrant illustrations, Alphatudes takes you on an inspiring 26-step journey where you ll discover how to: heighten your awareness of life s daily gifts; attract opportunities with a positive mind-set; find blessings in difficult situations; and become free from worry, negativity and resentment.

My Review:   This is a sweet little book!  As a former kindergarten teacher, I'm a sucker for ABC books and I'm excited about this one especially, as it's for adults, and it is so motivational!  Each letter starts with a quote, then 3 or 4 paragraphs about that attribute, an affirmation and ends with a short prayer for that attribute.  The layout is the same for each letter, which I enjoyed, because I knew what to expect, and as I go back to the book, can focus on any or all parts.

An example:  O is for Obstacles - I am not afraid of storms for I am learning to sail my ship. - Louisa May Alcott.  The affirmation is as follows:  I embrace the obstacles in my life with courage, integrity and strength.  I choose to see obstacles as opportunities to grow into the best person I can be.  I tap into the infinite wisdom of the universe to reveal optimal solutions.  And then the Prayer of Obstacles:  Support me as I confront my tears and move through the obstacles you have lovingly put on my path.  Help me to face these life lessons with courage, curiosity and unwavering faith.  thank you for providing me with obstacles that bring me closer to you.

Did I mention this book also has a spiritual side?  Well, if you couldn't tell, it does.  I love that!  The prayers are short, to the point, and perfect for those times when you need a prayer of specificity.  The paragraphs that Michele writes about each attribute really make you stop and think about the word, what it means, and how you can apply it to your life.  I like to read self-help or motivational books, but many times they drag on and on about topics, giving you too much information that leaves you overwhelmed.  This one does just the opposite.  It gives you just enough about each attribute, that you are able to digest it and put it to work almost immediately.  You can read it in one setting, or a letter a day.  It's your choice.  However you decide to read this one, it's one you will probably go back to again and again.

Blog Tour - Life Choices

Title:  Life Choices:  Navigating Difficult Paths

Author:   Judi Moreo and 25 others

Review Copy Provided by:  Turning Point International for a Pump Up Your Book Promotions blog tour

About the Book:  (from the Life Choices website)  If you feel “stuck” in a situation that appears to be beyond your control, these stories will show you how others have coped with crisis and uncertainty, made tough choices and positive changes in order to find deeper meaning and satisfaction in their relationships and learned to live with purpose every day. Rarely do we find a book that addresses so many different challenges. Life Choices does this in a powerful and inspiring way. This book is about experiences, the people who lived them, and how they created successful lives. From values and self-fulfillment to legacy, this book offers new resources for people who have tough choices to make every day.
Filled with wisdom and love, this book is a soothing companion for anyone searching for the courage to make a choice to change his or her circumstances. These authors and their stories prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that success belongs to everyone, no matter where they come from or what has happened to them. They are living proof that miracles can and do happen. You can be one of these people. You can navigate through difficult times and find your pathway to the life you choose to lead. Put the strength of others to work for you. Courage is not the absence of fear or pain. Courage is taking the steps to move through it.


My Review:  This is a very moving book!  If you are a fan of short stories, like those in the Chicken Soup books, then you are sure to like this one.  Because it is filled with short stories, it is one you can read through quickly, or take your time to soak up the insight of each story individually.  My preference was to read it all the way through one time, and then to go back to each story on it's own for a more in depth look.  It's hard to talk about the book without giving too much away, but I will tell you about one of my favorite short stories in the book.

Class is a Choice, by Anne Dreyer, really touched me.  Through her family's story, Anne tells the reader that you either choose to be classy or you don't.  People in her family didn't always have money, but they never let others know that.  They always lived with class.  How did they do it?  They made a choice to walk classy, read and have an inquiring mind, dress classy, speak classy, choose to improve themselves, act classy, and give more than they received.  Anne learned most of these from her father, Peter, who always walked tall, and still practices them today.  It doesn't matter who you are or what life has dealt you, you can choose to have class.

This story spoke to me because I've always admired people who acted with class.  I am, nor will I probably ever be, a person of class based on how much money I have.  But, after reading Anne's story, that doesn't matter anymore.  I can choose to be a classy person, no matter what.  It is best summed up with this quote, " people will not remember if you were rich or where you came from or your qualifications, but they will remember how you made them feel."  That is so true, and how I want to be remembered one day.

So, if you are on a difficult path or just want to read some inspiring stories of people who have journeyed through fear, pain, sorrow and challenges, then read this book.  It is sure to move you through many emotions as you go from story to story.