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Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad | 
 enlarge | Author: Frances Moore Lappe
Publisher: Small Planet Media
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $3.74
You Save: $11.21 (75%)
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Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 74332
Media: Paperback
Pages: 208
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 0979414245
Dewey Decimal Number: 361.2
EAN: 9780979414244
ASIN: 0979414245
Publication Date: October 8, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Winner of the 2008 JAMES BEARD HUMANITARIAN AWARD, 2008 NAUTILUS SMALL PRESS GOLD AWARD and 2008 NAUTILUS SILVER AWARD in the category of Social Change/Activism Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity & Courage in a World Gone Mad is a little book with a big message. Frances Moore Lappe--author of fifteen books, including three-million-copy bestseller Diet for a Small Planet--distills her world-spanning experience and wisdom in a conversational yet hard-hitting style to create a rare "aha" book. In nine short chapters, Lappe leaves readers feeling liberated and courageous. She flouts conventional right-versus-left divisions and affirms readers' basic sanity--their intuitive knowledge that it is possible to stop grasping at straws and grasp the real roots of today's crises, from hunger and poverty to climate change and terrorism. Because we are creatures of the mind, says Lappe, it is the power of "frame"--our core assumptions about how the world works--that determines outcomes. She pinpoints the dominant failing frame now driving out planet toward disaster. By interweaving fresh insights, startling facts, and stirring vignettes of ordinary people pursuing creative solutions to our most pressing global problems, Lappe uncovers a new, empowering "frame" through which real solutions are emerging worldwide.
She writes: "My book's intent is to enable us to see what is happening all around us but is still invisible to most of us. It is about people in all walks of life who are penetrating the spiral of despair and reversing it with new ideas, ingenious innovation--and courage."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
Frances Moore Lappe for Vice President! September 17, 2007
Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States)
18 out of 28 found this review helpful
Frances Lappe Moore has my vote for Vice President--2008 *must* see the Republic "get a grip."
This book will be handed out to 250 individuals representing Foundations, United Nations elements, other Non-Governmental Organizations, and US military leaders who are focused on Stabilization, Reconstruction, Humanitarian Assistance, and Disaster Relief. I met the author in the process of putting the four-day program together, and feel very fortunate that she will be speaking to these leaeders who will be discussing nothing less than how to redirect 1 trillion plus a year through the creation of compelling decision-support on the ten destabilizing threats, the twelve policies from Agriculture to Water that must be harmonized, all to the end of helping the eight major players avoid our mistakes.
This is a brilliant Nobel Peace Prize level of work, and I note with interest that the author has received the "Alternative Nobel,"the Right Livelihood Award. She will be the first person to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Earth Intelligence Network and Transpartisan Policy Institute.
This book can read and appreciated at multiple levels from strategic to tactical. I list some other books below, but this book is now at the top of short list of books important for all time. If I could make a wish, it would be that every American voter read this book and share this book and enter into the active listening active dialog mode that the author outlines in clear terms. In combination with Reuniting American and with the Naitonal Initiative for Democracy, I believe that we have a real chance of taking about the power and implementing the author's program.
Frances Moore Lappe as Presideent, and The Average American: The Extraordinary Search for the Nation's Most Ordinary Citizen as Vice President, with a Transpartisan Cabinet that includes great leaders from all political parties; that produces a balanced sustainable budget before election, and that DEMANDS an Electoral Reform Act prior to November 20008, is in my view totally possible, totally credible, and quite certain of restoring America the Beautiful.
I've read and favorably reviewed other books by this author, and the supplemental readings I suggest below, but this specific book is a gift to all of us, and all the more likely to be appreciated now that we have all experienced the naked immorality of Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency and the complete ineptitude and lack of moral courage of the Democratic-led The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy) where every Senator and Representative is impeachable for Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders.
Other books I recommend:
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents)
Escaping the Matrix: How We the People can change the world
The Tao of Abundance: Eight Ancient Principles for Living Abundantly in the 21st Century (Arkana)
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People
Read this book and get revved up for a brighter future! September 23, 2007
Dilys J. Burke
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
If you've been feeling weighed down, perplexed, and ready to throw up your hands in disgust with the pervasive mess that seems to be predominating our society, this book will be breath of fresh air! Ms. Lappe has honed right in on the fundamental problems that are feuling the mess... I swear, you will find yourself nodding and whispering an emphatic "Yes!" at many points during the first few chapters.
But beyond defining the underlying perception of powerlessness that have lead us to a "thin democracy" (based on a gross imbalance of wealth and power, creating a dogma of fear and neediness that turns the masses into disgruntled "shoppers", ever-more driven to "buy" security, safety, and happiness), Ms. Lappe also goes on to point out concrete models of true democracy at work today, and suggest simple ways in which "average citizens" can begin to re-establish a sense of empowerment in own lives, as well as those of their families, communities, and the country. The opportunities exist all around us, we just need to act on them. As she points out through numerous examples, by redirecting our thought processes, raising our voices, and redefining our goals and needs, we can use our God given intelligence, intuition, and compassion to develop equitible policies and build sustainable neighborhoods and communities that serve everyones needs.
For a relatively short book, it is amazing how packed full of relevant information it is... I came away from this book feeling armed with knowledge and a good measure of hope that we, the public, can reverse the the downward spiral our country has been in, and get things back on the right track. Thank you, Ms. Lappe!
delectable credo-meets-blueprint for reshaping society September 11, 2007
Real Change Rose (San Francisco, CA)
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
Frances Moore Lappe's latest book, Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity and Courage in a World Gone Mad, takes a close look at how we've created our culture and how we can step back to reshape it. How do we create a more authentic and alive world that takes care of it's inhabitants?
Frances is an eco/political Rock Star, world changer, world traveler, long-time celebrated author of dozens of books (literally), and sprightly hot mama! The book is already getting glowing reviews as being revolutionary and insightful from places like O Magazine. It's message is timely, innovative and radical. Every morsel of this delectable credo-meets-blueprint is fluid and human yet scrupulously well thought out and honest. After all these years, Frances has finally written a book that condenses the most weighty and sensible points from her previous works, reshaping them into one cohesive lens for viewing our current situation.
Her message is hopeful but realistic. Not many books on democracy have such a high level of authenticity. Her ability to bypass the normal, worn-out political arguments is refreshing and out of the box. The time has come for the American people, and the citizens of the world, to take our lives and our governments into our own hands to create the world we want, in which we can all thrive together. A better world is possible, and Frances Moore Lappe is one of a handful of authors whose vision points the way.
Drawing clarity out of the mainstream cacaphony September 11, 2007
E. J. Freed (Boston, Massachusetts USA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
"Getting a Grip" is another example of Francis Moore Lappe's steadfast attention on the strength of every day people and local communities, strengths that our mainstream media all too quickly ignores. Lappe has a knack for drawing out bright examples of hope, courage and positive action in a day when the United States' broken national political system shuns real citizen participation and global econonmic structures devalue the human being.
This book will remind you that your neighbors are good, strong, smart people, with whom you can work to build community and a stronger democracy. Read it for hope, revitalization and to remember your own power.
Bravo September 25, 2007
L. Shelton
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
When faced with the political and social crises that the world is in, it is easy to become paralyzed with fear, anxiety and hopelessness. Frances Moore Lappe uses Getting a Grip to explore empowering alternatives to these feelings, creating a sense of great relief. Relief that individuals have the power to create change. Relief in knowing that each action, however big or small, has the power to make life better. Lappe uses her own powerful convictions supported by well-documented evidence to support her thesis that human beings are caring, compassionate creatures who desire more than just a flat, consumer-driven existence.
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