Thanks a thousand : a gratitude journey /
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : Simon & Schuster, Inc., [2018]Copyright date: �2018Edition: First TED Books hardcover editionDescription: 137 pages : illustrations ; 19 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781501119927
- 1501119923
- 9781471156052
- 1471156052
- Thanks a 1000
- Thanks 1000
- 179/.9 23
- BF575.G68 J33 2018
Item type | Current library | Home library | Collection | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Loan | Coeur d'Alene Library Adult Nonfiction | Coeur d'Alene Library | Book | 179.9 JACOBS (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610021309229 | |||
Standard Loan | Tensed DeSmet Library Adult Nonfiction | Tensed DeSmet Library | Book | 179.9 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | In Processing | 50610018462411 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
The idea was deceptively simple: New York Times bestselling author A.J. Jacobs decided to thank every single person involved in producing his morning cup of coffee. The resulting journey takes him across the globe, transforms his life, and reveals secrets about how gratitude can make us all happier, more generous, and more connected.
Author A.J. Jacobs discovers that his coffee--and every other item in our lives--would not be possible without hundreds of people we usually take for granted: farmers, chemists, artists, presidents, truckers, mechanics, biologists, miners, smugglers, and goatherds.
By thanking these people face to face, Jacobs finds some much-needed brightness in his life. Gratitude does not come naturally to Jacobs--his disposition is more Larry David than Tom Hanks--but he sets off on the journey on a dare from his son. And by the end, it's clear to him that scientific research on gratitude is true. Gratitude's benefits are legion: It improves compassion, heals your body, and helps battle depression.
Jacobs gleans wisdom from vivid characters all over the globe, including the Minnesota miners who extract the iron that makes the steel used in coffee roasters, to the Madison Avenue marketers who captured his wandering attention for a moment, to the farmers in Colombia.
Along the way, Jacobs provides wonderful insights and useful tips, from how to focus on the hundreds of things that go right every day instead of the few that go wrong. And how our culture overemphasizes the individual over the team. And how to practice the art of "savoring meditation" and fall asleep at night. Thanks a Thousand is a reminder of the amazing interconnectedness of our world. It shows us how much we take for granted. It teaches us how gratitude can make our lives happier, kinder, and more impactful. And it will inspire us to follow our own "Gratitude Trails."
"A TED Book."
The barista and the taster -- The cup makers -- The roasters -- The water -- The safety patrol -- The movers -- The extractors -- The farmers.
After being dared by his son, A. J. Jacobs decided to thank every single person involved in producing his morning cup of coffee. The resulting journey takes him across the globe and transforms his life.
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Booklist Review
No stranger to social experimentation, Jacobs has endeavored to become the world's smartest person by reading the Encyclopedia Britannica in its entirety (The Know It All, 2005) and to follow the Bible's rules (The Year of Living Biblically , 2007). Here he takes a deep dive into living with more gratitude, and he focuses this personal journey through a necessity he takes for granted, his daily cup of coffee. Working his way backwards, Jacobs thanks his barista and then moves through the industry all the way to the farmers. He also seeks out less obvious players, such as the designers of a coffee company's logo and cardboard cup sleeves and those monitoring health code standards. Throughout, Jacobs consults with a researcher and a psychology professor, giving the project a scientific rather than sentimental bent by his own admission, Jacobs is often irritable and cranky. His candid tone and genuine curiosity lead to fascinating conversations and establish human connections that deliver satisfying jolts of perspective. This slim offering has been published in conjunction with Jacobs' corresponding TED Talk, free on TED.com.--Julia Smith Copyright 2018 BooklistKirkus Book Review
A cup of coffee is worth a thousand "thank you's" in the author's experiment in gratitude.Esquire contributor Jacobs (It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree, 2017, etc.), the bestselling immersive journalist who brought readers The Year of Biblical Thinking and The Know-It-All, returns with an equally ambitious project: an effort to thank every person involved in creating his morning cup of coffee. Starting with the barista at Joe Coffee, which "has survived for twelve years, despite two Starbucks within a three-block radius," and moving through the entire supply chain to the farmers in Colombia, the author manages to thank 1,000 people who helped deliver him his morning caffeine hit. It's a novel idea, and it works as more than just a clever plot device thanks to the author's typically conversational tone and self-deprecating examination of his own need to be more gracious. "I'm mildly to severely aggravated more than 50 percent of my waking hours," writes Jacobs. "That's a ridiculous way to go through life." This sentiment leads to his argument that if humanity spent less time "fretting over what we're missing," we might appreciate more of what we have. The author demonstrates this idea with each encounter with a person involved in his coffee's production, from the lid designer to the Environmental Protection Agency employee in charge of monitoring the Catskills Watershed, the source of New York City's water. In touring the watershed, Jacobs discovered that the creation of the lake forced the area residents out. "This is a huge theme I need to remember as part of Project Gratitude: My comfort often comes at the expense of others. I benefit daily from the disruption to this community. I need to be more grateful for these sacrifices."Thanks to the miracle of caffeine, the author delivers a stirring, nonpreachy sermon on gratitude. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.Author notes provided by Syndetics
A.J. Jacobs is the author of Thanks a Thousand , It's All Relative , Drop Dead Healthy , and the New York Times bestsellers The Know-It-All, The Year of Living Biblically, and My Life as an Experiment . He is a contributor to NPR, and has written for The New York Times , The Washington Post , and Entertainment Weekly . He lives in New York City with his wife and kids. Visit him at AJJacobs.com and follow him on Twitter @ajjacobs.There are no comments on this title.