Introducing New MSI Press Affiliated Book: Bouquets of Bitterroots, Or How to Get Anyone to Do Anything for You and Be Happy about It (Leaver)

 



Book description:


The delicate bitterroot flower brings color and warmth to all who see it. By surviving freezing winters, it attests to the great enduring strength of gentleness. Metaphorically, in this book, the bitterroot is a "warm fuzzy" that can be shared with friends and strangers alike. Let the pages of this book bring warmth and color and the strength of gentleness to your world. Learn how to get what you want and need and make others and yourself happy as you do so.


Book Review from Louis Slovinsky, founder of People Magazine:'

Until I read the manuscript of Betty Lou Leaver's "Bouquets of Bitterroots," I thought Bitterroots was just an odd name pinned to a mountain range in Montana. The conflagration that scorched those mountains a few years ago raised my consciousness about their stunning, irreplaceable beauty, just as Ms. Leaver's pithy book elevates the eponymous flower to a superb metaphor for learning from adversity and cultivating empathy. The thread running through her personal anecdotes, each a jewel-like epiphany, is that faulty thought patterns need not lead to self-defeating behaviors. Protesting, perhaps too defensively, that she is not a Pollyanna, Ms. Leaver demonstrates over and over that you can be your own cognitive therapist, though she would never such lingo. The little half-scenes, scenes, anecdotes and stories that propel "Bouquets" forward show that it is possible to turn dysfunctional thoughts and awkward situations to your advantage by developing the tools to challenge them. Her strategies focus on problematic thoughts, emotions, behaviors and underpinning belief systems. Adept at making the best play with a badly dealt hand, Ms. Leaver suggests, through concrete examples, that one can learn to identify and correct the thoughts that make us feel anxious or even helpless. She demonsrates, through her intensely peripatetic life as a teacher, that you can improve your interpersonal relationships by thinking logically, looking for the best outcomes (the glass is half full) and becoming more assertive. You come away from her pages admiring her pluck, ingenuity and maturity, attributes not taught in any school. "Bouquets of Bitterroots" is illustrated, in black and white, by Zhenya Yanovic, a young immigrant from Siberia. His life story, encapsulated without sentimentality by Ms. Leaver, is a triumph over incredible adversity. As it happens, I have seen color reproductions of his work; his paintings are magical, mysterious, mythical and altogether charming. Read Ms. Leaver's book and seek out Zhenya's paintings; you won't be disappointed.


Purchase the book from AMAZON.

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