Overview
This box set includes Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen’s national bestseller My Grandfather’s Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging, and the 10th anniversary edition of the New York Times bestseller Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal, which includes new material from the author.
In My Grandfather’s Blessings, which Dr. Dean Ornish calls “one of the most extraordinarily moving books I have ever read,” cancer physician and master storyteller Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen uses her luminous stories to remind us of the power of our kindness and the joy of being alive. Through the teachings of her grandfather, an Orthodox rabbi and scholar of the Kabbalah, Dr. Remen explains how we can discover our wholeness through service to others—and the way to restore hidden wholeness in the world.
Kitchen Table Wisdom is a remarkable collection of true stories that draws on the human tradition of shared experience—showing us life in all its power and mystery and reminding us that the things we cannot measure may be the things that ultimately sustain and enrich our lives. With new material, this special 10th anniversary edition addresses the same spiritual issues that made the original a bestseller: suffering, meaning, love, faith, and miracles.
“Rachel Naomi Remen is nature’s gift to us, a genius of that elusive and crucial capacity, the human heart. She has much to teach us about healing, living, and loving.” –Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., author of Emotional Intelligence
Synopsis
It was Rachel Remen's grandfather, an Orthodox rabbi and scholar of the Kaballah, who enabled her to see that blessing one another is what heals the isolation and loneliness in us all. He didn't do this by running out every week to volunteer somewhere. He did it by living life knowing that he belonged to it--that everyone belonged to him, and that he belonged to everyone.
Enthusiastically praised by everyone from Deepak Chopra to Daniel Goleman to Larry Dossey, Rachel Remen has a unique perspective on healing rooted in her background as a prominent physician, a professor of medicine, a therapist, and a long-term survivor of chronic illness. In the form of a deeply moving and down-to-earth collection of true stories, this prominent physician shows us life in all its power and mystery and reminds us that the things we cannot measure may be the things that ultimately sustain and enrich our lives. Kitchen Table Wisdom addresses spiritual issues: suffering, meaning, love, faith, courage and miracles in the language and absolute authority of our own life experience.
Yoga Journal
The best-selling author of Kitchen Table Wisdom (and medical director of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program) returns with an even more engaging collection of anecdotal essays to engender in the reader that rarest of feelings: that one is blessed.--Phil Catalfo
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
Our ReviewFrom Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, the author of Kitchen Table Wisdom, a collection of moving and inspirational stories about the human spirit, comes more writings that examine the heart, mind, and soul at work. My Grandfather's Blessings is a collection of thoughts, anecdotes, parables, and prayers that Remen has gathered to help those who are facing the crisis of illness, whether in themselves or someone they care about. Such a crisis is often a wake-up call, a push that forces us to reevaluate our lives, our priorities, and our values. It can be a painful and arduous journey, but the homilies in My Grandfather's Blessings will no doubt provide a cushion for many as they navigate those bumps in the road.
The stories are compelling enough to make one want to read the whole thing in one sitting, but My Grandfather's Blessings is one of those books best experienced in small bites in order to savor each tidbit and relish the flavor of the underlying theme or concept. It makes for a series of snacks, but in the end, there is much sustenance to be found. The cumulative effect is like a multicourse gourmet meal that provides a high level of satiety and nourishment for the soul.
--Beth Amos