Cirrus@Austlit

'Kindness comes in many forms and affects all of us. As Mark Twain said, ‘Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.’ And while a kind gesture can often simply make someone feel better about their day, sometimes — as the twenty-five true stories collected here show — it can save a life.

'The first in the ‘Timeless Wisdom’ Series, these stories are sourced from around the world. They are of the everyday and the extraordinary. The result is a book that explores all that is best about human nature.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'True Stories That Reveal the Depths of the Human Experience

'We have all felt fear, whether it’s our racing heart as we make a speech or the profound awareness of our own mortality as we await medical results.

'Of course, the flip-side of fear is courage, as Nelson Mandela famously said, ‘I learned that courage was not the absence of fear but the triumph over it.’'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Time gives us the wisdom to realise a mother’s sacrifice, a father’s love, a friend’s loyalty, or a grandparent’s kindness, as loss and love turn to memory. Often as time passes, we can find ourselves looking back at moments in our lives and only then truly being able to explore the defining moments and complex feelings and emotions that make us who we are. These 25 stories of loss and love from around the world are inspiring, brave and heartbreaking reminders of what is most important: life, love, memory, beauty. As author John Green once said, ‘You can love someone so much … But you can never love people as much as you can miss them.’ These real-life stories are moments in people’s lives that show us the importance of forgiving, the tragedy in forgetting and the turmoil of moving on. From a wife in the heart of South Africa, reminiscing on her husband being taken by the river; to an Australian woman contemplating the childhood loss of her baby siblings from a new perspective; or the slow burn of unrequited childhood love in 1950s Canada and more, see how loved ones are honoured in this gripping compilation. Interspersed with apt quotes by people as diverse as Beethoven, Abraham Lincoln, Dr Seuss, John Lennon and C.S. Lewis, this is a book that can be read and connected with time and again. Here we can find the timeless wisdom in what makes us all profoundly human.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.