Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination

by J. K. Rowling, Joel Holland (Illustrator)

Overview

J.K. Rowling, one of the world's most inspiring writers, shares her wisdom and advice.

In 2008, J.K. Rowling delivered a deeply affecting commencement speech at Harvard University. Now published for the first time in book form, VERY GOOD LIVES presents J.K. Rowling's words of wisdom for anyone at a turning point in life. How can we embrace failure? And how can we use our imagination to better both ourselves and others?

Drawing from stories of her own post-graduate years, the world famous author addresses some of life's most important questions with acuity and emotional force.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316369152
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	04/14/2015
Pages:	80
Sales rank:	400,745
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

J.K. Rowling is the author of the bestselling Harry Potter series and The Casual Vacancy, a novel for adults. Under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, she is the author of the Cormoran Strike crime series, including The Cuckoo's Calling and The Silkworm. As well as an Order of the British Empire for services to children's literature, she is the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees. She lives in Edinburgh.

Hometown:

Perthshire, Scotland

Date of Birth:

July 31, 1965

Place of Birth:

Chipping Sodbury near Bristol, England

Education:

Exeter University

Website:

http://www.jkrowling.com

Editorial Reviews

"Humble and moving, full of ideals one hopes the world's most privileged young people will take to heart."—Ron Charles, Washington Post

"A beautifully illustrated little book."—Shaun Fitzpatrick, Bustle

"Include[s] plenty of uplifting nuggets and words of wisdom."—Eliza Thompson, Cosmo.com

"It's sure to be a favorite gift for new graduates."—Michael Giltz, Huffington Post

"One of the author's all-time most inspirational speeches."—Josh Wigler, MTV.com

"The graduation gift book of the spring."—Jocelyn McClurg, USA Today

From the Publisher

2015-04-11
Harry Potter's creator faces a crowd of uber-Muggles—the graduating class of Harvard University—whom she enjoins to stretch their minds and be awesome. Today, Rowling (The Casual Vacancy, 2012, etc.) is massively wealthy, but that wasn't the case a quarter-century ago, when she was "as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain without being homeless." That condition might have been an I-told-you-so moment for the parents who worried that by pursuing a degree in classics she was setting herself up for penury. "Of all the subjects on this planet," she writes, "I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom." Instead, she tells her eager audience, it was a wake-up call: she had failed dramatically, and about the only place to go was up, which is, after all, the lesson one hopes to learn from failure. The classics prove steadfast companions in this brief volume. Though she's best known for a few Latin taglines by way of magical spells, Rowling makes neat connections between the challenges of modern life and the tutelary examples of Seneca, Plutarch, and the other ancients. While she discounts the ennobling aspects of poverty and misery, it's also clear that her education provided her with some steel to face those hardships. The author's quiet praise of liberal education forms one theme. A second, the importance of the imagination, is perhaps the more expected one, but Rowling takes a nicely unsettling detour by recounting her time spent working for Amnesty International and witnessing how monstrous people can be. The unimaginative, she ventures, are more afraid of the world than the imaginative and in turn, "enable real monsters." That second matter is a point that could stand elaboration. On the strength of this sharp, inspirational piece, we hope that Rowling will add a book of essays to her CV.

Kirkus Reviews