Nothing Left Over: A Plain and Simple Life

by Toinette Lippe

Book Overview

A brilliant meditation on how to move through the day with elegant economy and grace. Reprint edition with new Afterword. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 158542305X
• ISBN13: 9781585423057
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Tarcher
• Length: 257 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.6" x 7.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Spirituality without the dogma

Reading Toinette Lippe is as comfortable as settling in for a cup of tea and a long chat with an old friend. You know the advice you are getting comes from a caring person with insight and realistic experience. Her writing is literary without being stuffy. The spiritual aspects of her shared thoughts glimmer from the pages, but you never sense any proselytizing. The essence of her style, it seems, is to instruct without preaching. She is always sensible, often whimsical, and as nurturing as a hug. A good read.

Open windows -- This is fresh air.

Toinette Lippe speaks in a clear voice about her quiet, thoughtful life. In her unpretentious, straightforward style she tells the truth: Most people are not having a more perfect, more wonderful, more satisfying life -- like we think they might be. And, at the same time, she shares her heartbreak, bits of wisdom, and life experience. She's a lot more practical than most of the people I know, but this adds to her value as she shares her "recipes" for making a decent life. I loved her book and her realness. It was refreshing to be able to take something in without being assaulted by excess, flash and hyperbole. And to her credit, she does not mention the word "sanctuary" once.

A subtle invitation to go deeper

Nothing Left Over is Not, in my opinion, a clarion call to lead a "plain and simple life." It is a subtle and beautiful invitation to become aware of what life simply is. Nothing Left Over was a delightful few hours in a cozy chair being warmed from the inside. In the end, I knew clearly that Toinette, her life, and her awareness of her life were the gifts those hours had for me. I recommend it to Pilgrims on the Way.

Stealth Simplicity

Nothing Left Over is a sneaky book. As I read, I felt myself in familiar territory, the softness of a gentle reminder from a close friend. The book became my companion. Without trying, I contemplated the gradual considerations Ms. Lippe brought into the landscape, never feeling required to do so. The issues grew naturally, like a garden, without aggression or unnatural intent. When I finished this book, I had been on a journey and felt refreshed and nourished. I honestly hope that she continues to write and publish because subtlety in the field of spiritual writing is a rarity and extremely welcome by this reader.

Nothing Left Over has Something for Everyone

Nothing Left Over by Toinette Lippe is an extraordinary spiritual teaching about how to make full use of one's potential, energy and time. No spiritual teaching can exist with a body of lessons from a Master teacher, and Ms. Lippe gives generously of her own extraordinary life in order to help the reader fully examine how to mazimize the moments of our outer and inner lives. The application of these lessons to our inner lives is refreshing and insightful as Ms. Lippe identifies events in her own life as a mother, wife and senior book editor which explore how inner "house cleaning" can transform one's life through honest and impeccable attention to the details of our lives. As in the manner of all great spiritual teachers, Ms. Lippe gives enough detail of her own life to help the reader understand the underpinnings of her spiritual lessons and faith. She does this with wit, warmth and charm. Her beliefs are based on truths which have worked for her and can work for others, and her expression of these truths are self-assured but never smug. Living simply in our society is not always looked upon as a plus. Ms. Lippe shows that simple living is not a life of poverty. It offers a rich partnership with the universe and the circumstances of our lives. I believe readers will come away energized to clean out their inner and outer closets to make room for opportunities sometimes missed in the tumult of our chaotic lives.I encourage anyone who has the capacity for self-examination to buy this book. It is a tonic for modern times with beneficial results lasting far beyond the pleasurable hours spent reading this insightful and inspiring book.