Overview
Robert Fulghum’s new book begins with a question we’ve all asked ourselves: "What on Earth have I done?" As Fulghum finds out, the answer is never easy and, almost always, surprising. For the last couple of years, Fulghum has been traveling the world - from Seattle to the Moab Desert to Crete - looking for a few fellow travelers interested in thinking along with him as he delights in the unexpected: trick-or-treating with your grandchildren dressed like a large rabbit, pots of daffodils blooming in mid-November, a view of the earth from outer space, the mysterious night sounds of the desert, every man's trip to a department store to buy socks, the raucous all-night long feast that is Easter in Greece, the trials and tribulations of plumbing problems and the friendship one can strike up with someone who doesn't share the same language.What on Earth Have I Done? is an armchair tour of everyday life as seen by Robert Fulghum, one of America’s great essayists, a man who has two feet planted firmly on the earth, one eye on the heavens and, at times, a tongue planted firmly in his cheek. Fulghum writes to his fellow travelers, with a sometimes light heart, about the deep and vexing mysteries of being alive and says, "This is my way of bringing the small boat of my life within speaking distance of yours. Hello..."
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
Bestselling author Robert Fulghum doesn't disparage planning, but he does believe that what makes us most human are those spontaneous moments that never get into training manuals. In this collection, the author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten ruminates on exceptional experiences that we can all appreciate. Affirmations and surprises.Library Journal
Fulghum, who came to fame in 1988 with his best-selling All I Really Needed To Know I Learned in Kindergarten, returns after ten years with more insightful and often funny observations of the world's idiosyncrasies. This time around, he ponders questions that he still asks himself: "What on earth have I done? What in the name of God am I doing? What will I think of next? And who do I think I am?" In trying to answer these, Fulghum doesn't miss anything, and he wants to make sure that his readers don't either. In the chapter titled "The Last Stages of Life and Why a Limited Opportunity for Lion Hunting Shapes Mine," Fulghum points out that the Masai tribe that lives along the Kenya/Tanzania border admires and reveres its elders, while ours warehouses the elderly in extended-care facilities. Fulghum feels that the Masai way is the better way, but tribe members must kill a lion in order to prove their worthiness. Since there aren't many lions in Fulghum's neighborhood, he has to figure out a better way-a way of his own. And so he does. An inspiring read; recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ5/15/07.]
—Mary E. Jones