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    Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer.
    Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer.
    Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer.
    Audiobook2 hours

    Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer.

    Written by Heather Lende

    Narrated by Heather Lende

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    ldquo;Compared to front-page news, obituaries are downright inspirational. Writing them is my way of transcending the bad and has taught me the value of intentionally trying to find the good in people and situations. We are all writing our own obituary every day by how we live. The best news is that there's still time for additions and revisions before mine goes to press.rdquo; ndash; Heather Lende, from Find the Good As she was digging deep into the lives of community members, Heather Lende, the obituary writer for her tiny hometown newspaper in Haines, Alaska, began to notice something. Even the crustiest old Alaskan sourpuss who died in a one-room cabin, always had Halloween candy for the neighborhood kids; the eccentric owner of the seafood store who regularly warned her about government conspiracies knew how to be a true friend-his memorial service was packed. When Lende started intentionally seeking what was positive and true in people and situations in her own life-whether it was finding common ground with her opponents on the school board or accepting that her unmarried daughter's pregnancy might be a blessing-she felt happier and life seemed more meaningful, too. Awful events-from recent school shooting across the country to a fisherman drowning in Haines-are always followed by dozens and dozens of good deeds. When tragedy strikes we can choose to focus on the first responders rushing toward the scene or the guys grilling hot dogs for hurricane refugees, and, like yawning, caring is contagious. There's so much to gain by taking responsibility for your own happiness and nothing to lose. In stormy times like these we have to make our own good weather and Find the Good shows us how.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateApr 28, 2015
    ISBN9781622315710
    Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer.

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    Reviews for Find the Good

    4/5

    145 ratings19 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Beautifully told life lessons and applicable to everyone seeking to find the good in the midst of daily struggles and sad times.
    • 4/5
      very good intonation. hearm warming stuff, without it getting cheesy or lame. life, death, and love. the kind that comes your way.
    • 5/5
      Such a likeable and relatable author. felt like I was listening to a friend
    • 5/5
      Wouldnful sounds great writer i really love it, hope to hear something like soon
    • 2/5
      find it boring after 30 minutes listening the audiobook, sorry.
    • 5/5
      heartfelt, down to earth and deeply touching. i cried several times.
    • 4/5
      Nonfiction -- a quick and sweet read -- would make a great gift. Heather Lende lives in Haines, Alaska, pop. 2,000 and writes the obituaries for her town newspaper. Her approach is rather poetic and personal (and reminded me of the fictional Obituary Writer) and she shares in this collection insights on living a meaningful life. It also calls to mind the old 80s bestseller Robert Fulghum's Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Her overarching advice is to Find the Good and that is what she tries to do in each life she chronicles, regardless of their actions and attitudes while living. Her wisdom is also earned in her own life of raising 5 kids (1 adopted) and enjoying three grandchildren (1 unexpected). Overall well-written and transcends the trite. Her final advice is "Find the good, praise the good and do good because you are still able to and because what moves your heart will remain long after you are gone..."
    • 3/5
      Short snippets about people who've died in Haines, AK by the writer of their obituaries. Interestingly she goes out to the house & interviews each person's family prior to writing their obituary...From the snippets they all seemed like they were good people...Did I learn anything else form this book? Not a thing, but it was interesting... so for that I gave a third star.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic short stories of real people in small town Alaska. The author has a beautiful way of finding the good in everyone and everything. But not Pollyanna either as she also tells the realistic foibles and messy parts as well. This is the best book I have read in several years. Five stars is not enough.
    • 2/5
      I went into Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons From a Small-Town Obituary Writer by Heather Lende with a lot of perhaps too many expectations. I anticipated (and hoped for) humor of the macabre variety. Find the Good is a book of anecdotal advice from someone who regular faces death head on...or at least experiences it alongside those left behind. From the book's blurb, I thought that this was going to be a look at death with a light touch because how else can one continually run up against death and retain their positive outlook on life? I guess in a way Lende does explore the way she has had to structure her life so that she can continue to be a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen when the grief overflows. As an obituary writer in a small town, most of the notices that she has had to write were about people that she knew if not intimately then by sight. That takes a toll on a person and also fosters an environment for emotional and spiritual growth. There are some good, positive points made but in my opinion not enough to warrant an entire book. It would have made a good article or think piece. There's very little I can say about this one other than it didn't really live up to my expectations or blow me away. It would probably work well on a short train ride or as a beach read. It's a 3/10 for me, guys.
    • 4/5
      But sweet and short, but much less poignant and stirring than I'd expected.
    • 3/5
      This was okay. Glad it was less than 3 hours. I could knock it out quickly at work.
    • 2/5
      I thought this short audio book, read by the author, would be a good palate cleanser between heavier, longer stories. It was short. As far as palate cleaning, yes it worked for that because it left almost no taste.This nonfiction book about a small-town obituary writer could have been fascinating. I expected interesting stories about the people she met, the obituaries she wrote. And there was some of that. But the beginning of the book seemed too preachy to me, too self-satisfied.I was disappointed that the author chose to buy a puppy rather than rescuing a dog, because she didn't want a dog that had learned bad habits from other people. And she had the dog shipped to her, apparently never seeing where it came from, what sort of conditions it was raised in, what condition the parents were. But the whole puppy thing didn't have much to do with the story.Which was part of the problem. This short book felt disjointed, smug, and a little too stream-of-consciousness. The author's reading was a little too excitable. I could hear too many exclamation marks.Perhaps others will find merit I didn't, but for me, this was a book I didn't enjoy and was pleased it was short.
    • 4/5
      A small town Alaska obituary writer shares what she has learned about life and death.
    • 4/5
      Having grown up in a small town (albeit Minnesota rather than Alaska), I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the many characters. There are a lot of insights on life that any reader should appreciate. I highly recommend it.
    • 4/5
      Heather Lende writes obituaries in her little town in Alaska. Through interviewing the deceased’s survivors, Lende has learned all the important things in life. Prominent among those things she’s learned is to find the good. A gentle set of stories centered on the lessons of small-town life.
    • 4/5
      It's so easy to focus on the negative. I can stew for a long time about someone cutting me off in traffic. I walk off the tennis court replaying my errors. I let unkind comments fester. And I know I'm not alone in this. But what if we chose to focus on happiness and the gifts that everyone in our lives brings to the table instead of dwelling on the negative? What if, as the title of Heather Lende's lovely new book suggests, we Find the Good? It won't change my traffic situation or improve my tennis game, but it sure might make me a more positive, contented person.Life is lived in the dash between the dates on our headstone and until that last date is engraved, we can always change the story in between. Lende is the obituary writer in her small Alaskan fishing village. Often she knows the people she's writing about very well so it's heartbreakingly easy for her to find the good in someone's life as she goes about the business of distilling a life to the space allotted in the paper. Each short chapter is packed with wisdom gleaned from the life of someone who has died. And the brief slice of their life that Lende captures is wonderful, giving a real sense of the person. There is humor here and there are unexpected revelations. Lende shares a bit of her own family's challenges and the life-affirming way that she decided to face them. And as she does, she reminds us all that how we face each thing in our life is in fact a decision. We can dwell or we can celebrate and celebrating is infinitely more fun. It is a quick and welcoming read, one that is easy to dip in and out of when you need to be reminded about all the positives in life thanks to its vignette style essays. Heartwarming, simple, and direct, this is a gorgeous little book with a beautiful message that will leave you smiling as you close the cover. If you're looking for the good, you'll certainly find a lot of it here.
    • 4/5
      "Find The Good" is a very profound, interesting book. I enjoyed it very much and recommend it highly.
    • 4/5
      How does one describe a book about the writing of obituaries without becoming maudlin? It is easy when describing this book, written by an obituary writer. It is simply not depressing, rather it is absolutely inspiring. The author’s approach to life moved me to rethink about my own approach.This brief book is about a subject few people talk about, because obits, by their very purpose and nature, instigate thoughts of death. Now who really wants to think about their own expiration date? Yet, this author has written a somewhat humorous and heartwarming message for the reader, as she relates her own effort to always try to find something good to record in her obituaries; she always tries to find something that is personal and heartwarming to say. In this way, she can send a message to the mourners that will lift them up and enable them to celebrate the life of the deceased, to alleviate their sorrow rather than break them down emotionally. When describing a man who failed repeatedly to repair his fishing nets, she made it sound positive and amusing since it was the holes in the net that enabled some fish to escape to live another day. The irony is that she brought life into the very place of death and eased their pain.As I read her descriptions of the people she has written about and learned about the basic facts of her own life, I found that her simple message and lifestyle encouraged me to stop thinking about what I might not have, but instead to choose to look for and appreciate the good things that I do have in my life and all the good things I have had as well. Is my glass half full or half empty? It is definitely half full. The joy of finding whatever “good” news there is in a situation instead of looking for and dwelling on the “bad”, improves one’s life markedly. So let’s all find the good, shall we?