Thursday, October 24, 2019

Very Good Lives

by J.K. Rowling
Little, Brown and Company, 2015. 80 pages. Nonfiction

In 2008, J.K. Rowling was asked to give the commencement speech at Harvard. This short book is her transposed speech. She offers insight into failure and success drawing on her own life experiences. She  also speaks of imagination and its importance in our lives. As she defines it, "[imagination] [i]n its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, ... is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared."

Whether or not you love Harry Potter, this book is worth reading. I personally loved getting to know Rowling through her own words and experiences. Her frankness and sincerity made me respect her all the more. This is a one-sitting read but this book is also full of wonderful one- or two-line quotes worth pondering and going back to time and again. The books is also decorated with simple illustrations that add to the overall aesthetic and pleasure of the book. One of my favorite lines is, "We do not need magic to transform our world; we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already." 

LH

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