Your mood lately: down. Bottom of the barrel. Politics, crime, disrespect, lies, the economy — add them all together and you want to just go back to bed, pull the covers up, and wait until February. It’s too much. Too much to lose, so much to worry over. But in “Good People,” edited by Gabriel Reilich & Lucia Knell, you’ll find comfort from this contentious, hard-to-bear cycle you’re stuck in.
If you’ve ever been the recipient of an avalanche of goodness – well-wishes, donations, cards – you know how some of them tend to get lost among the landslide. That, say Reilich & Knell, is what tends to happen on their website, Upworthy: There are so many happy posts from their online community that sometimes, good stories get lost.
“That didn’t sit right with us,” they said. And so, they gathered some and created this book as “a counterbalance to the darker forces … fighting for our attention.”
Dip into the first section, “The Kindness of Strangers” and read about how one girl’s prom dreams were fulfilled by a woman who understood poverty, and what happened when a bad day at a bad job was made better by a good listener.
“Learn by Heart” is an entire chapter about teachers who understood their students’ lives outside the classroom. Read about a scrapbook that set a student on a life-long career, and a teacher who opened up an entire language and culture right before her ESL student’s eyes.
In “It’s the Little Things,” you’ll see that no action is too small. One man, for instance, learned how a compassionate store owner nurtured his love of music, unseen. Another storyteller writes about an angel with a black leather jacket instead of wings.
Dive into “The Kids are All Right” and read about a 10-year-old whose “enlightenment” surprises her nanny, and a group of boys who aren’t the least bit bothered by a classmate’s difference. And in “When I Needed It Most,” you’ll see how porches don’t have to be empty and that medicine doesn’t only come in a jar.
Like a cold drink on a hot day, a secret cuddle with a squishy teddy, or finding a Benjamin in last winter’s coat pocket, “Good People” is exactly what your head and heart need in this topsy- turvy, argumentative world. It’s like rubbing lotion on your soul.
Here, author-editors Gabriel Reilich & Lucia Knell collected tales of kindness and gratitude that are heartfelt and authentic, anecdotes that’ll make you smile. They might also make you think of something nice someone did for you. They might even spur you to pay it forward sometime soon. Best of all, if you’re a reader who hates sappy stories and syrupy tearjerkers, you’re safe. You’ll find gratitude here, not schmaltz.
Grumps are welcome in this space, but only if they’re ready to get off the bad-news treadmill and start feeling better about life in general. Things are never as bad as they seem, and “Good People” is a book you won’t be able to put down.
— The Bookworm Sez
