Feeling the Book Club Love

Andy and I recently had our first book club experience and it was amazing!

The wonderful thing about book clubs is that they are most often held in private homes, with a small group of attentive readers, there's food and drink, and no need to "perform" as with a public reading. The meeting is held primarily to discuss the book with readers who have already read it, who are discriminating and intelligent and have interesting questions. We even sold nine additional books to members who already had their own copies and wanted to share the book with others.

It was so amazing to see this articulate group of interested readers sitting there with their books all marked and tabbed and highlighted. I think they remembered more about the book than I did. And several members had marked specific passages where a quote or a lesson or even just a simple observation had come to them at the perfect time to help them through some difficulty in their lives. What could be better? This is why I write. This makes all those long hours at the keyboard worthwhile.

I feel so grateful to readers, strangers who voluntarily give me approximately 8 hours of their lives, attending to words on the page--words that I've written. Then they take the words into their minds and hearts and make the book into an experience that speaks to them alone. They finish my book. Did I mention that it's amazing?

Second Printing!

Good news! We've just heard that Radical Gratitude is going into its second printing tomorrow--whoo hoo!!

Here are two pictures from our wonderful book launch this weekend, held at The Roycroft. This is the banquet room before people began to arrive, and this is us at the end--tired but very happy.

Radical Gratitude

The Roycroft Campus Corporation

The RCC in East Aurora, NY has very graciously offered to host a luncheon and book launch for Radical Gratitude and other life lessons learned in Siberia.

The luncheon will be held at the Roycroft Inn on March 8th.

If you had asked me two years ago to dream big and tell you where I'd most like to celebrate a local book launch, I'd have answered, "At, the Roycroft, of course, as if that would ever happen..." Well, I can't believe it, but it's actually happening! Yay!!

And (by the way) if you'd ask me, nationally where I'd like to launch a US release of the book, I'd say, "Oprah, of course, as if that would ever happen..."

(Just putting that out there for the universe to mull over...)

Press release!!

In the tradition of Tuesdays with Morrie, this is the inspirational story of how one man learned life's greatest lessons in the face of incredible hardship.









RADICAL GRATITUDE
and other life lessons learned in Siberia

Andrew Bienkowski & Mary Akers

Published by Allen & Unwin on 7 March 2008
No article or review should appear before this date without prior permission
RRP: $22.95 * Format: Paperback * ISBN: 9781741754223



Andrew Bienkowski was five when, exiled with his immediate family, he watched his grandfather starve to death so they could survive.

Reminiscent of Viktor Frankel's great classic, Man's Search for Meaning, this extraordinary book melds the unfolding story of survival against the odds with the practical wisdom 5-year-old Andrew gained while coming to terms with his new home; with its dramatic landscape and endless challenges. In amongst the pain are moments of great beauty, breathtaking northern lights, the appearance of the first butterfly after the long months of winter, the unexpected kindness of strangers who risked everything to be kind. It was these experiences that inspired Andrew to become a psychotherapist, and to devote his life to helping others.

As Churchill famously said, "We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give."

Each chapter details powerful ways to achieve this with such concepts as radical gratitude (learning to be grateful even for the difficult experiences in life); who we can and cannot help; genuine being with others in need, and the remarkable changes that we can experience when we do.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Andrew Bienkowski has spent more than 40 years as a clinical therapist. After Siberia, the family spent a year in an Iranian refugee camp where Andrew nearly died from dysentery, malaria and malnutrition. Three years in Palestine and a year in England followed before he finally immigrated to America. There, he went on to earn a Masters in Clinical Psychology and to become a psychotherapist.

Mary Akers' work has appeared in literary journals, many related to health and healing. Her story, Wild, Wild Horses was a Notable Story of 2004, and she has been a three-time Bread Loaf work-study recipient.

For further information or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Kelly Doust * Publicity Manager * Allen & Unwin Book Publishers
Tel: 02 8425 0137 Email: kellyd@allenandunwin.com
Download 300dpi cover images from the Allen & Unwin website.

Radical Gratitude and Other Life-changing Lessons from Siberia

My first book (and my co-author's first book, too) has been sold! And it goes to Allen and Unwin in Australia. I am so thrilled. The editor is a dream to work with and the writing is going really well. You can read a bit about the book at my agency's website: Blake Friedmann.

Here is a link for viewing my charming and lovely agent Isobel Dixon.

And my good friend and co-author, Andrew Bienkowski, has his page here.