What to Do Between Birth and Death: The Art of Growing Up

This isn't it because there are no charts, diagrams or specific directions to follow step by step. It IS a great guide nonetheless. This is a very thought provoking book full of essays on the sort of topics that all of us face as we go through life. The author does an excellent job of expressing and supporting his thoughtful ideas and observations in a way that is intelligent, well informed and often amusing. He is more thought provoking than instuctive. And so much of what he says is dead on the money. I love this book. My 17 year old daughter loves it. I think I'll see what I can do to relay some of this info to my Middle School kids. Well worth reading and rereading. I'm so glad I stumbled upon it. I'm already a better person (adult!)for it.

This is a total winner! Whether you're "growing up" in your 20's, or having to find your way decades later, Spezzano does a top-notch job of coalescing much of what's pertinent (or what should be so)about life as an adult. It's really all about perceptions, and how we see ourselves and those around us, and how we then manage to relate to each other. We're all the sum of our experiences, and what Spezzano brings to the table is clarity on what makes us what we are, and what we'd like to become. This is not a simple "how to" guide to becoming an overnight "success," but rather it provides substance on understanding life's curveballs, and handling them better. It's an enjoyable and excellent read, and as applicable today as when it was written.

Yes, you are responsible your happiness and your life. That is not new and almost every book in the area of self-help will tell you that. But this book cover much more topics than such issue. The author in his 20 to 30 year of practice as a therapist have compiled a list of what he perceives to be permanent points of conflict for us humans, so he tried to present a comprehensive list of those situations together with a "key" for the reader so he/she could determine by itself it such key could place it a different floor from which the person can look at its troubles from a new perspective. Nevertheless, this is not a "how-to" book, it just conveys little droplets of wisdom here and there that are not linked by any particular type of inner logic (or at least I did not saw it).

This book squarely puts responsibility for our choices and our happiness where it belongs, on our own shoulders. No fixations can absolve us from the responsibility to be as happy as we can, as productive as we can, in short, the best we can be. This book gets the message across without debunking very real situations and depressions that we are all prey to from time to time.