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Praise for Glad to Be Human

“Glad to Be Human takes a defibrillator to your creative center! It’s a field guide to embracing the creativity and spontaneity that bring joy to the business of being human. With an artist’s eye and a poet’s soul, Irene O’Garden shines her light on the bliss that surrounds us. Each of her essays turns the eye toward love and possibility. I am changed by these now dog-eared pages, and I will return to them again and again for inspiration.”

—Annabel Monaghan, author of The Digit series, columnist for The Week and HuffPost

“Glad to Be Human is a journey of joy. Irene O’Garden has crafted a collection of inspiring, illuminating and vibrant vignettes and reflections that delight and provoke at the same time. Her humor, artistry and love of life are infectious. Whether you read one story at a time or consume the book from cover to cover, you will find insights and phrases that will stay with you long after you put the book down.”

—Joanne Sandler, author, senior associate of Gender@Work, former deputy executive director for program and policy at the UN Development Fund for Women, producer and cohost of the podcast Two Old Bitches

“In a world that’s so challenging and complicated, it’s not always easy to remain optimistic. But it is possible. This book reminds us to hunt for light in the darkest places—and find beauty in everyday life.”

—Susan Hyatt, entrepreneur, TEDx speaker, bestselling author of BARE

“Reading Irene O’Garden’s Glad to Be Human: Adventures in Optimism is like spending a weekend with your best friend and talking non-stop about everything under the sun. Provided, of course, that you are lucky enough for this best friend to be as wise, witty, thoughtful, articulate, and expressive as Irene O’Garden. Written in an engaging and carefully crafted style that often shades lyrically into prose poetry, O’Garden’s essays cover a wide range of experiences, from love and loss, to laughter and living fully in each day. O’Garden explores the essence of what it means to be human with a clear-sightedness that acknowledges pain and suffering while remaining constantly open to wonder, hope, and joy.”

—Sheila Fisher, professor of English, Trinity College, author of Selected Canterbury Tales: A New Verse Translation, Chaucer’s Poetical Alchemy, and other works

“What a joy to read this book! Irene O’Garden’s essays are wise and generous, bubbling over with startling and heartfelt insights about our lives and struggles. I kept pen and paper handy to record the many ideas that I want to think about again and again.”

—Rosalind Reisner, author of Jewish American Literature: A Guide to Reading Interests, editor and contributing author to Women in the Literary Landscape: A Centennial Publication of the Women’s National Book Association

“This is really a delightful book! Irene O’Garden takes everyday tasks and objects and turns them into fascinating insights. Glad to Be Human helped me look around in wonder and find my own delights. In addition to her brilliant text, I loved O’Garden’s black and white photos and alluring aphorisms.”

—June Cotner, author of Gratitude Prayers, Back to Joy, and thirty-four other books

“Get ready to devour the offerings at this table set by word weaver and poet Irene O’Garden. Sure, a feast for those who love metaphors, but a banquet, too, for those who prefer the real deal: Life is here for the taking. Love is here for the taking. So take it! This stunning collection of curiosities and illuminations (which I share with my writing students, who marvel at O’Garden’s attention to the tiny and ordinary charms in our midst) shows why being human warrants gladness, and with nods to the big and small (A saddleback caterpillar? The Leaning Tower of Pisa?), readers discover the brightest gift of all: gratitude.”

—Kathy Curto, author of Not for Nothing: Glimpses into a Jersey Girlhood and faculty at Sarah Lawrence Writing Institute and Montclair State University