Frances Moore Lappé
Best-selling author of Diet For A Small Planet
Frances Moore Lappe’s 16th book, Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity & Courage in a World Gone Mad
"A small number of people in every generation are forerunners, in thought, action, spirit, who hold a torch high for the rest of us. Lappé is one of those." Howard Zinn
Via Skype, Frances now offers Getting a Grip classroom discussions and finds the interaction with young people who are searching for direction to be immensely rewarding. So far, conversations have included students from the University of Pittsburgh, Mount Holyoke, and the University of Colorado, Denver, among others.
One professor commented on the effect the book has had on her class, “…it helped them reach beyond the overwhelm that some have felt about the extent of world problems…” going on to say “…they took many ideas and lessons from your book on trying to help people recognize the big ideas about democracy, power/powerlessness, and fear that might keep them from acting, and on helping them realize the significance of individual actions to turn things around.”
Already in German and Korean, the book is soon to appear in Spanish as Tenemos Las Reinas. For a limited time, you can now order Frances’s new book Liberation Ecology, and Getting a Grip together for only $25 plus free shipping. Read a piece of Getting a Grip’s message in Tikkun.
Beginning Monday, May 11th at the Café Schöne Aussichten in Hamburg, Frances is traveling through Germany to tell people about Getting a Grip which has just been released there as Packen Wir’s An! (Let’s go for it!). The Grip tour will end in Salzburg, Austria on 20 May: check out Google Maps for cities and dates.
While in Berlin, Frances visited a school teaching the concepts of living democracy and was presented with “The Dove of Peace:” A live-size golden dove carrying an olive branch, sculpted by German artist Richard Hillinger for the 60th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, and adopted at the third session of the UN General Assembly. The artist made thirty statuettes to represent the thirty articles of the Human Rights Declaration. In 2009, all of these doves, each as a symbol of peace, are “flying” through the whole of the world from person to person, from institute to institute. To learn more, visit Collage United Nations.
"Getting a Grip is not an ordinary book: it's more like a new pair of glasses, allowing you to see everything around you with greater clarity. Suddenly the world is more comprehensible, more manageable, even more beautiful. You won't want to take them off."
--Barbara KingsolverMore Praise
