Even the Terrible Things Seem Beautiful to Me Now: The Best of Mary Schmich

Mary Schmich is a true Chicago legend, and a wonderful human to boot. This book will make you laugh, cry, and see the world from a new perspective. Can’t recommend enough!

Mary Schmich is a former columnist for the Chicago Tribune. She writes human interest stories that make you smile and cry. I love the stories about her mother and other family members.

To be honest, I was never interested in reading the Mary Schmich columns in the Chicago Tribune. I always read the columns of John Kass, the late Mike Ryoko, Studs Terkel, and critic Robert Ebert. My wife, however, read Mary Schmich's columns and enjoyed them. I purchased this book for her and I decided to also read it. I always thought her columns were aimed more for women and that is why I never read her material. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised reading this book which has numerous excellent columns I also enjoyed reading.This huge 413 page book is organized into 13 sections covering a large amount of material. Each section has a title dealing with her columns related to the heading topic and includes the following: My mother, Advice, loss and survival, family, taste of Chicago, travel, the world we live in, reading and writing, (My favorite section that had some great practical advice for anyone who loves writing.), Cabrini-Green, holidays, the seasons, The journey of Joan Lefkow, and 2012 Pulitzer Prize Winners. I have found many of the columns fantastic and like millions of other Tribune readers I will be reading more of Mary Schmich's columns in the future. She is an excellent writer. I guess that is why she is the winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for commentary.In conclusion, this book has something for just about everyone. The columns are short and cover a wide range of topics. Even if you are not a Mary Schmich fan, you should check out this book. A great read.Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: The Samurai Soul: An old warrior's poetic tribute)

Love this book! I'm from California and hadn't read any of Schmich's work before - I didn't even know she had written the rightly infamous "Wear Sunscreen" graduation address - when I first picked it up. I flipped through a few articles and got hooked on her wit, unique insights and approaches to life and the world we live in and I went on Amazon and bought it.I try to read a book a month since my job is very heady and keeps my busy, and I figured a book cut into so many chunks - it's a collection of her articles, all no more than a 1.5-2 pages - would be a good fit for a particularly busy month. I was right, I'm flying through it.PRO's- Organized in sections so it never feels disorganized or all over the place as a collection of articles otherwise might- LOVE her thoughts on family and life, priceless reads especially for anyone who is caring for older parents or watching their parents do that (that's me). There's one smaller section on this so the whole book isn't dedicated to that, no worries if that doesn't apply to you.- 400 pages of diverse reading from a brilliant, well-written columnist? Yes please!- Good to consume over time and I was surprised that I'm voraciously reading straight through it like a novel.I highly recommend it.

My wife loves the columns from the Tribune. I'll read some when she finishes.

This collection of Mary's best columns brings us back to moments of history like 9-11 and personal history of our families that we all share in some way. While I read her every day, it's a real treat to settle in with a whole BOOK of her insights and beautiful writing.

For some reason, I prefer to read her column in The Chicago Tribune rather than in the book. Maybe she's just better in smaller doses. Her poetry of priceless - especially when she's pricking the balloon of someone like D. (Disaster) Trump.

I took a yoga class that Mary was teaching, having no idea who she was, and thought she was an incredibly interesting and insightful lady. A few weeks later, I came across this book - realized it was the same person - and bought a copy. Each story provides a beautiful insight into life, love, and what it is to be fully human. I just bought a second copy to give to a loved one. Truly, a very special piece of literature to share - and to pick up every now and then to discover a new yarn.

excellent thought provoking reading material.