One Life to Give: A Path to Finding Yourself by Helping Others

I don't read "instructive" literature, books written for the avowed purpose of telling you how to live better. I read for transport and discovery. Tell me a story. And that's what makes "One Life to Give" such a gratifying reading experience. It tells a story, a tale that is as grim as it is gorgeous.

This gem of a book straddles the line between history and a novel, with chapters on self-help following gripping, spine-tingling stories of survival from World War II. You will laugh and cry. It will capture you from page one. It will make you aware not only of what the human body can endure, but also of how much we have to be grateful for in our lives today.

One Life to Give, written by Andrew Bienkowski with Mary Akers, is divided into fourteen chapters, each one a separate lesson derived from Bienkowski's life as a child when he and his family were exiled from Poland to Siberia. They endured incredible suffering that the book can only really hint at. But through the suffering and the sacrifices of others, Bienkowski learned. And so the reader learns about the concept of "Radical Gratitude"--taking nothing for granted and remembering all the things in our lives with which we are blessed. We also learn about Listening, Hope, Perseverence, Kindness, and Love. But these are not abstract lessons at all. They are concrete suggestions for living a more fulfilled life skillfully crafted by Bienkowski, a therapist, and Akers, a talented writer. The total package is one that will be hard to put down and even harder to forget.