Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The only girl in the strong, loving Bronstein family, nine-year-old Ruby anchors this adept debut from Hermann. Ruby has always felt both admiration for and rejected by her three charismatic older brothers; she is similarly intrigued by her Holocaust survivor father, whose observance of Jewish customs persists despite his professed loss of faith. Ruby's own sense of faith, family and self will be sorely tested over the next 10-plus years: her oldest brother Abe's schizophrenic break, a truly frightening event to 10-year-old Ruby, is but the first in a series of crises. The well-developed chapters have a tendency to read like individual stories, but Hermann keeps the novel's themes of loss and resiliency constant. Foreshadowing and symbolism get heavy, but what could have become a litany of family pain is tempered, in Hermann's eminently capable narrative, by young Ruby's concurrent journey toward self-discovery. (Aug.)
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Review
"The Cure for Grief is a searingly beautiful, stunning debut, saturated in the lyricism of loss and mourning yet rooted in the everyday. The book's sadness is irradiated by a wild hope as the characters take their places among the living; we are drawn in by the force of their sorrow but elevated by their rich and complex attachments to each other, the past, the future, and their own inner lives." -- Mary Gordon, author of Circling My Mother

"Written in measured, splendid prose, Nellie Hermann's debut novel is a courageous gift to readers. Far more than a coming-of-age story, The Cure for Grief is both vivid in its immediacy and poignant in its timelessness." -- Howard Norman, author of Devotion

"The Cure for Grief is a profound and thrilling achievement -- an exemplar of the reason books should be written and read. Nellie Hermann is wise beyond her years, though to say this is to miss the point -- that all great artists float beyond age and outside of time. The Cure for Grief is a coming-of-age story that reaches far beyond its subject; it shimmers with clarity and grace, fulfilling the deepest of literature's promises -- drawing us into a riveting world, punching us with emotion, revealing the most secret truths of the soul. Her vision is that of the seer, whose illuminating beam might help the reader learn how better to live." -- Shira Nayman, author of Awake in the Dark

"Stunning. A subtle, elegiac coming-of-age novel about catastrophe, grief and the persistence of everyday life. A gorgeously readable meditation on mourning and survival. Hermann is a young author to watch."-- Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Editorial Reviews
Review
“The formula that made more than half a million readers in France fall in love with this book has, among other ingredients: intelligent humor, fine sentiments, an excellent literary and philosophical backdrop, good taste, sophistication and substance.”
—La Repubblica

“Enthusiastically recommended for anyone who loves books that grow quietly and then blossom suddenly.”
—Marie Claire (France)

“An exquisite book in the form of a philosophical fable that has enchanted hundreds of thousands of readers.”
—Elle (Italy)

“Nobody ever imagined that this tender, funny book with a philosophical vein would have enjoyed such incredible success. For some, it is part Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder, part Monsieur Malaussene by Daniel Pennac. While for others it resembles a written version of the film Amelie. Either way, readers are responding in vast numbers.”
—Le Monde

Product Description
The enthralling international bestseller.

We are in the center of Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families. Renée, the concierge, is witness to the lavish but vacuous lives of her numerous employers. Outwardly she conforms to every stereotype of the concierge: fat, cantankerous, addicted to television. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, Renée is a cultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. With humor and intelligence she scrutinizes the lives of the building’s tenants, who for their part are barely aware of her existence.

Then there’s Paloma, a twelve-year-old genius. She is the daughter of a tedious parliamentarian, a talented and startlingly lucid child who has decided to end her life on the sixteenth of June, her thirteenth birthday. Until then she will continue behaving as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocre pre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not an outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter.

Paloma and Renée hide both their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. They discover their kindred souls when a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building. Only he is able to gain Paloma’s trust and to see through Renée’s timeworn disguise to the secret that haunts her. This is a moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us.

"Let me respectfully remind you, life & death are of supreme importance.  Time passes swiftly and opportunity is lost.  Each of us must strive to awaken.  Awaken!  Take heed, do not squander your lives."

A few important aspects of this quote that I think are worth highlighting are below.

1.  Your responsibility in life is to awaken.  Everything else is secondary.  EVERYTHING!  This does not mean you do not participate in the world, it means you participate according to the discipline your spiritual practice is creating for you.  Your supreme goal is always The Supreme.

2.  Human life is an invaluable opportunity that must not be squandered.  Don’t take this opportunity for granted and don’t waste it in pursuit of frivolous desires.

3.  Your house is on fire, this is not the time to hit the snooze button, you need to act; you need to get out!  You must have a great sense of urgency in order to summon the necessary energy to break through the trap of duality.  You can’t do this by dabbling about and being lukewarm about your dedication.  You need to have fierce passion and urgency, then you have a chance.  Act Now!

http://anmolmehta.com/blog/2007/10/05/insp...-on-life-death/

Teaching art is a sacred act. Every sacred act needs ‘ Concentration ‘ .Through our teaching we are developing ‘ Observation, Concentration, Memory and Imagination’ in Children. That’s why in our school even a 3 year old child sits for 2 hours and works with concentration.

In reality drawing is a method about “how to use a line and a curve”. A Line and a Curve…from these two symbols you can construct any picture in this universe. To do that, you have to change your way of thinking. Then you can draw any picture beautifully.That why drawing is not just getting some pictures on paper or canvas. It is a way of thinking. If the child’s thinking improves, his drawing will also become better.

Observation, concentration will come through Drawing & Painting, if taught through scientific methods. By achieving these skills, Children will get a third skill also. That third skill is ‘ Struggling to achieve some thing.’ Once children achieve these three skills that will lead to ‘ Understanding skills.’ This is the fourth skill. These skills will make children the best in their education and their future career also.

Race didn’t turn out to be much of a factor in the historic election of Barack Obama.

And that’s a good thing.

But there’s a chasm between the nonracial campaign (it really was the economy, stupid) that vaulted Obama into America’s highest office and a truly post-racial America, where ideas and energy trump skin color. I’m not sure if Tuesday’s election was a giant stride forward into a future that this nation may have been more ready to accept a generation from now.

But it’s the new reality — a black president — and aside from the bitterness of any white Americans who may feel somehow dispossessed after 43 straight white guys in the White House, the Obama presidency could be a remarkable avenue toward that goal of an America that has gotten past race.

This really is a big change in a big hurry, a 2050 moment that showed up quite unexpectedly in 2008, before a slew of other milestones that probably should have come first. Americans have elected just two black governors since 1865. They’ve only sent three blacks to the U.S. Senate in the same time, and Obama was the third, just four years ago.

Blacks are still more familiar to millions of Americans as sports stars and other entertainers than they are as captains of industry or political leaders.

So for some Americans, and older white Americans in particular, this must seem a sudden, even startling, shift in power. It’s a loss in power that could inspire feelings of lost power, and fear, perhaps the most dreaded of human emotions.

Almost no one would have predicted just four years ago that a black man would reach the pinnacle of leadership in this nation before many others had attained the intermediate steps that could have led to it.

And yet it happened precisely because Obama made it seem so normal.

He campaigned as an American who happened to be black, someone who wouldn’t run from race but also wasn’t running on it.

His candidacy was forged around ideas that could have come from anyone, black or white, and were intended to inspire hope for everyone.

It all worked. Voters ultimately saw him as the superior choice. A stunning number told pollsters Tuesday that race had nothing to do with their decision.

In that way, Obama’s win holds much promise for the social acceptance of the idea of black equality among national political leadership.

Think of it from the view of a young white child. For the next four or eight years, that child will know Obama as president. Not black. Not white. Just president. That perspective will shape the way a generation perceives leadership.

Obama didn’t run on race or run from it. It wasn’t the change he was talking about. But his inauguration can’t help but change the way a lot of people see race in this country. It won’t disappear under President Obama. But it will sure look different.