What makes a happy person, a happy life? In this remarkable book, George Dawson, a 101-year-old man who learned to read when he was 98, reflects on the philosophy he learned from his father—a belief that “life is so good”—as he offers valuable lessons in living and a fresh, firsthand view of America during the twentieth century.

Born in 1898 in Marshall, Texas, the grandson of slaves, George Dawson tells how his father, despite hardships, always believed in seeing the richness in life and trained his children to do the same. As a boy, George had to go to work to help support the family, and so he did not attend school or learn to read; yet he describes how he learned to read the world and survive in it. “We make our own way,” he says. “Trouble is out there, but a person can leave it alone and just do the right thing. Then, if trouble still finds you, you’ve done the best you can.”

At ninety-eight, George decided to learn to read and enrolled in a literacy program, becoming a celebrated student. “Every morning I get up and I wonder what I might learn that day. You just never know.”

In Life Is So Good, he shares wisdom on everything from parenting (“With children, you got to raise them. Some parents these days are growing children, not raising them”) to attitude (“People worry too much. Life is good, just the way it is”).

Richard Glaubman captures George Dawson’s irresistible voice and view of the world, offering insights into humanity, history, and America—eyewitness impressions of segregation, changes in human relations, the wars and the presidents, inventions such as the car and the airplane, and much, much more. And throughout his story, George Dawson inspires the reader with the message that sustained him happily for more than a century: “Life is so good. I do believe it’s getting better.”

What makes a happy person, a happy life? In this remarkable book, George Dawson, a 101-year-old man who learned to read when he was 98, reflects on the philosophy he learned from his father?a belief that “life is so good”?as he offers valuable lessons in living and a fresh, firsthand view of America during the twentieth century.

Born in 1898 in Marshall, Texas, the grandson of slaves, George Dawson tells how his father, despite hardships, always believed in seeing the richness in life and trained his children to do the same. As a boy, George had to go to work to help support the family, and so he did not attend school or learn to read; yet he describes how he learned to read the world and survive in it. “We make our own way,” he says. “Trouble is out there, but a person can leave it alone and just do the right thing. Then, if trouble still finds you, you’ve done the best you can.”

At ninety-eight, George decided to learn to read and enrolled in a literacy program, becoming a celebrated student. “Every morning I get up and I wonder what I might learn that day. You just never know.”

In Life Is So Good, he shares wisdom on everything from parenting (“With children, you got to raise them. Some parents these days are growing children, not raising them”) to attitude (“People worry too much. Life is good, just the way it is”).

Richard Glaubman captures George Dawson’s irresistible voice and view of the world, offering insights into humanity, history, and America?eyewitness impressions of segregation, changes in human relations, the wars and the presidents, inventions such as the car and the airplane, and much, much more. And throughout his story, George Dawson inspires the reader with the message that sustained him happily for more than a century: “Life is so good. I do believe it’s getting better.”

“        I tell people not to worry about things, not to worry about their lives. Things will be all right. People need to hear that. Life is good, just as it is. There isn’t anything I would change about my life.”

“        For almost four years, I had gotten used to being alone. It didn’t bother me none. Back at our farm I was most often the first one up. There was lots of chores to do, but sometimes, shutting the door quietly, I would lean against the logs and look at the sky and take a few moments for myself. Inside, the cabin had the comfortable feel of people. Outside, it was empty and lonely and I had grown to like that too. I liked to look at the stars on the still and quiet mornings and listen for the howl of the coyotes.”

“        I had never seen a car before and that model T was beautiful. It was polished black with a shiny brass radiator cap. The top could come down, of course, and it was something to see. It worked in town, but wasn’t too practical. We didn’t get a lot of rain, but when the rain came down it was often a downpour. Our roads turned to mud, and the autos just couldn’t make it. After a good rain, I saw cars being towed by a mule or a team of horses. Most people agreed as to how those cars were close to useless, but I still liked them anyway.”

George Dawson lives in Dallas, Texas.

Richard Glaubman is an elementary school teacher. He lives outside Seattle, Washington.

To read Diane Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses is to dive headlong into a sensuous feast. These delightful, inspired essays on the five senses – smell, touch, vision, hearing, taste – mix biology, psychology, history, anthropology, and poetry into voluptuous prose. Who could fail to pause over Diane Ackerman’s description of Cleopatra welcoming Mark Antony to her bed in a room awash in a foot and a half of rose petals? Learn why orange juice tastes bitter when you drink it after brushing your teeth. Crawl in total darkness, feeling your way through the blaring confusion of textures in the San Francisco Touch Dome. Visit a laboratory in suburban Chicago where they levitate objects with ultra sound, or meet a “professional nose” who has “composed” scents for everything from perfume to laundry detergent. A rich book, where even the rhythm and movement of the sentences can be awe-inspiring, A Natural History of the Senses is not meant to be gobbled in huge helpings, but to be savored and browsed through like a box of exquisite chocolates. You’ll come away from each reading with keener senses – seeing colors more deeply, hearing your favorite music anew, savoring complex flavors on your tongue. – For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let’s Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. — From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Margaret Liddiard

Diane Ackerman’s lusciously written grand tour of the realm of the senses includes conversations with an iceberg in Antarctica and a professional nose in New York, along with dissertations on kisses and tattoos, sadistic cuisine and the music played by the planet Earth. “Delightful . . . gives the reader the richest possible feeling of the worlds the senses take in.”–The New York Times. (Literature–Classics & Contemporary)

Diane Ackerman’s lusciously written grand tour of the realm of the senses includes conversations with an iceberg in Antarctica and a professional nose in New York, along with dissertations on kisses and tattoos, sadistic cuisine and the music played by the planet Earth. “Delightful . . . gives the reader the richest possible feeling of the worlds the senses take in.”–The New York Times. (Literature–Classics & Contemporary)

“Clear some space on your bookshelf for Mitch Albom’s Have a Little Faith, the story of a faith journey that could become a classic. Those who were born into faith, have lost faith, or are still searching will all be engaged and challenged by this powerful story of “finding faith” in relationships with others and with something greater than ourselves. Never satisfied with easy answers or soft platitudes, Mitch explores some of life’s greatest mysteries and unanswered questions with great honesty, depth and self reflection. ”
–Jim Wallis, CEO and Founder of Sojourners and author of The Great AwakeningWhat if our beliefs were not what divided us, but what pulled us together?

In Have a Little Faith, Mitch Albom offers a beautifully written story of a remarkable eight-year journey between two worlds–two men, two faiths, two communities–that will inspire readers everywhere.

Albom’s first nonfiction book since Tuesdays with Morrie, Have a Little Faith begins with an unusual request: an eighty-two-year-old rabbi from Albom’s old hometown asks him to deliver his eulogy.

Feeling unworthy, Albom insists on understanding the man better, which throws him back into a world of faith he’d left years ago. Meanwhile, closer to his current home, Albom becomes involved with a Detroit pastor–a reformed drug dealer and convict–who preaches to the poor and homeless in a decaying church with a hole in its roof.

Moving between their worlds, Christian and Jewish, African-American and white, impoverished and well-to-do, Albom observes how these very different men employ faith similarly in fighting for survival: the older, suburban rabbi embracing it as death approaches; the younger, inner-city pastor relying on it to keep himself and his church afloat.

As America struggles with hard times and people turn more to their beliefs, Albom and the two men of God explore issues that perplex modern man: how to endure when difficult things happen; what heaven is; intermarriage; forgiveness; doubting God; and the importance of faith in trying times. Although the texts, prayers, and histories are different, Albom begins to recognize a striking unity between the two worlds–and indeed, between beliefs everywhere.

In the end, as the rabbi nears death and a harsh winter threatens the pastor’s wobbly church, Albom sadly fulfills the rabbi’s last request and writes the eulogy. And he finally understands what both men had been teaching all along: the profound comfort of believing in something bigger than yourself.

Have a Little Faith is a book about a life’s purpose; about losing belief and finding it again; about the divine spark inside us all. It is one man’s journey, but it is everyone’s story.

Ten percent of the profits from this book will go to charity, including The Hole In The Roof Foundation, which helps refurbish places of worship that aid the homeless.

One of the best available introductions to the wisdom and beauty of meditation practice. –New Age Journal

There have been more than 250,000 copies sold of this famous introduction to Buddhist meditation. Thich Nhat Hanh’s gentle stories and exercises show us how to use the practice of mindfulness.

One of Joseph Campbell’s most popular, most quoted works, A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living is a treasure trove of insight and inspiration, thought-provoking in its depth, poetic in its scope.

Gina Lake is a spiritual teacher and the author of numerous books about awakening to one’s true nature, including Embracing the Now, Radical Happiness, Living in the Now, Return to Essence, Trusting Life, Loving in the Moment, What About Now? Anatomy of Desire, and Getting Free. She is also a gifted intuitive with a master’s degree in counseling psychology and over twenty years experience supporting people in their spiritual growth. Her website offers information about her books, free e-books, book excerpts, a monthly newsletter, a blog, and audio and video recordings.

A young boy emerges from life-saving surgery with remarkable stories of his visit to heaven.

Heaven Is for Real is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn’t know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear.

Colton said he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how “reaaally big” God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit “shoots down power” from heaven to help us.

Told by the father, but often in Colton’s own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle.

Todd Burpo is pastor of Crossroads Wesleyan, a wrestling coach, a volunteer fireman, and he operates a garage door company with his wife, Sonja, who is also a children’s minister, busy pastor’s wife, and mom. Colton, now an active 11-year-old, has an older sister Cassie and a younger brother Colby. The family lives in Imperial, Nebraska.

Lynn Vincent is the New York Times best-selling writer of Same Kind of Different as Me and Going Rogue: An American Life. The author or co-author of nine books, Vincent is a senior writer for WORLD magazine and a lecturer in writing at the King’s College in New York City. She lives in San Diego, California.