Navigating Life: Things I Wish My Mother Had Told Me - Hardcover

Bergen, Margaux

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1594206295 ISBN 13: 9781594206290

Publisher: Penguin Press, 2016

Synopsis

“I absolutely loved this beautiful book!  It's wise, wry, bracingly honest and so gripping I couldn't put it down. Clearly whip smart, Margaux Bergen has one of those rare voices that pulls you in and makes you want to keep reading.”
— Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

An inspiring, piercingly honest user's guide to life, written for the author's daughter and given to her on her first day of college, reflecting tough lessons about family, work, and marriage.

You learn a few useful things at school--the three Rs come in handy, and it's good to know how to perform under pressure and wait your turn--but most of what matters, what makes you into a functioning human being, able to hold your own in conversation, find your path, know what to avoid in relationships and secure a meaningful job, no teacher will ever tell you. This diamond-sharp, gut-punchingly honest book of hard-earned wisdom is one mother's effort to equip her daughter for survival in the real world.

Margaux Bergen began writing this book when her daughter Charlotte turned nine and gave it to her right after graduation from high school, when she was setting off for her first day of college. "I am not writing this to groom or guide you to professional or academic success," she writes. "My goal is rather to give you tools that might help you engage with the world and flourish. . . . Think of this as a kind of developing bath-time wisdom."

Wise, heartbreakingly funny, and resonantly true, Navigating Life has invaluable lessons for students of life of all ages. It will challenge you to lead a more meaningful life and to tackle the bumps along the way with grace, grit, style, and ingenuity. What The Blessings of a Skinned Knee did for the early years of parenting, Navigating Life does for the next, far more perilous chapter, when new graduates are cast out on the high seas and have to learn to swim and find their way by themselves.

About this title

About the Author

Margaux Bergen has spent the last twenty years raising three children and working all over the world at large and small institutions focused on international development and women’s leadership. She has held senior communications positions at Vital Voices, The Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty, The United Way and the World Bank and is now at ORBMedia.

Review

“Witty, honest, and wise, it’s a must-read for girls of all ages, providing advice on family, work, marriage, and more.”
— Redbook.com 

“Bergen’s ballsy, elegantly burnished guide tackles bedrock issues such as friendship, sexuality, and paying the bills.”
— Elle Magazine

“Bergen offers readers not a strict how-to but an invitation. Come with me, she seems to say, and together we can figure out how to do this thing called life.” 
—Shelf Awareness

"Parental wisdom with a remarkably gentle and generous touch. . . Bergen’s book is poised and bracing; her authoritative and friendly attitude is almost more fortifying than the specifics of her advice. . . a masterful writer."
—Education & Culture 

“I absolutely loved this beautiful book!  It's wise, wry, bracingly honest and so gripping I couldn't put it down. Clearly whip smart, Margaux Bergen has one of those rare voices that pulls you in and makes you want to keep reading.”
— Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and The Triple Package

"Charming, delightful, and unputdownable for every mother and daughter, Navigating Life is a can’t-miss read.”
— Brit + Co

"A powerful ode to overcoming the challenging moments in every chapter of life, there is a sentimental lesson brimming on every page for mothers and daughters alike."
--Working Mother, “10 Reads to Make 2017 Your Most Productive & Peaceful Year Yet” 

"The stunning and honest guide to life we’ve all been waiting for...this enchanting book will leave readers in tears, laughs, and inspire bouts of every feeling in between.”
– Ms. Career Girl

“With charming candor and insight, Bergen addresses her college-bound daughter on subjects such as love, friendship, education and work... She discusses career moves and handling prickly employers and sudden terminations with grace before meaningfully recounting her experience with depression and the death of her alcoholic father. Her comments on divorce are wise and sensitive...She is at her most poignant when describing the fluctuations of intimacy and parental control with a child on the verge of adulthood... well told and piercing in its honesty.”
— Publisher's Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1594206295
• ISBN 13: 9781594206290
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256