The Art of Grace: On Moving Well Through Life Paperback – October 25, 2016

We should all read The Art of Grace and bring the act of grace back into our busy lives. The message of this book is to be more aware, to look around you and see beauty in all things. The writing is lyrical at times but always very grounded and many times touches on the quality of not taking ourselves too seriously and keeping alive the ability to laugh at ourselves. Sarah Kaufman has written a quietly spiritual book that will resonate with all of us. Using the examples of well known people such as actors, dancers and sports figures as well as describing the purpose of grace, Sarah deftly opens us to a better and more gracious way to live. There is also wisdom here. The last pages, Tips for Moving Well Through Life, sum up quite succinctly how a wise person should live.

Beautifully written and full of contemplation.

Reminds us of one of those qualities easily lost in pop culture. Good for young people to be exposed to. I dug up youtubes of some of the people she describes, a tennis player, a ballerina, etc and she's right, they're exceptional and it added to the book experience. Also written in the spirit of the book, with a gracefulness to the righting and just enjoyable to spend time in.

The author may make some good points about being graceful in life, but her reliance on Cary Grant, whom I happen to like, didn't resonate with me. Bios of Grant's indicate that he was never happy with himself, thanks in part to an indifferent mother and a father who left the family to take up with another woman. His personal life was not a happy one and he was most at home with himself onscreen. HIs favorite role was Father Goose, an unshaven fellow who was not so debonair!

In Chapter 9, Dancers: The Grace of Transcendence, Sarah writes, “Strippers, you see, have a kind of wisdom to offer. They are not self-conscious. They are not snobs. They know it’s not having a “perfect” body that counts, but how you use it—and your attitude.”So, I want to live my life like a stripper. Well, at least I aspire to have a stripper’s attitude; acting in a manner that is not self-conscious, being humble, not snobbish, worried less about how I look than how I move and how I make others feel.I want to thank Sarah Kaufman and her excellent book, The Art of Grace: On Moving Well Through Life, for teaching me about the wisdom strippers have to offer.Thank you Sarah for sharing this wonderful book…Matt GersperFounder, Happy Living[...]

The Art of Grace is an enjoyable read that reminds one to be aware of the way s/he moves through and in the world on many levels. I liked getting to know the artists, dancers, actors, and others Kaufman introduces in rather intimate ways. She points out the dearth of grace in our current living and makes the reader want to become a person of grace.

I can't imagine enjoying a book more. The subject matter, had I been told before what it was, would have shied me away but the author made me love the subject matter and demand more. Read this book, you shan't regret it.

The idea of “grace” as a valuable personal asset and a societal goal is a good one. However, the book’s logic is confused, although so overtly incorrect as to not be confusing. The book gushes continuously (to the point of embarrassingly) about Cary Grant as exemplar to the degree that the reader becomes emabarresed for the writer. Most offensively, the work equates personal “grace,” as in “manners, breeding, style, good personal groooming, etc.” with Divine “Grace,” ie. God’s Mercy. The two have nothing to do with each other.

Hopeless. Waste of money. Countless attempts to read this over yeeears until I eventually threw it. For losers, perhaps.

In a current society made up of "i-ism", it reminds you how to behave as and in "we".

A very well written and vivid book that explores the elements of grace. I would recommend this book to everybody. If you live your life with varying degrees of mental and physical disharmony, you will find a cure within its pages.

Liked the approach. Good read.