Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination in Our Shared Shelf

May 22, 2015 alana rated it really liked it

Shelves: making-things, females-and-feminists, non-fiction, biography-memoir

Very Good Lives is the transcript for a commencement speech Rowling delivered at Harvard a few years ago. Though the book is 70 pages, the text could fill two typed and printed A4 pages at most. The speech is broken into nuggets interspersed with illustrations in black and red that look graduatey. The speech starts off as I'd expected, failing will help you improve, etc. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the second half in which Rowling points out the responsibility of these privileged grad ...more

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May 23, 2015 Joanne rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2015-book-list

All true.

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Apr 01, 2016 Heather rated it really liked it

Shelves: adult, nonfiction

This is just a commencement speech made into a cute giftable book to benefit charity. You can actually read the speech here: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story...

I loved it, because I love her. Just know it's not really a book! ...more

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Apr 01, 2015 Danita rated it it was amazing

One of the most delightful 20-minute reads. My takeaway, impetus and muse: "... the power to imagine better."

Plus a call to keep empathy, like one's wand, ever at the ready. ...more

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