By Accident : A Memoir of Letting Go - Joanne Greene

By Accident

A Memoir of Letting Go

By: Joanne Greene

Paperback | 20 June 2023

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Joanne Greene grew up in Boston during the 1960s and ’70s, a turning point for women in the United States. Doors were opening wider, and Joanne walked through as many as she could. As a young woman, she dove headfirst into San Francisco radio and television, and went on to host and produce award-winning feminist and other timely features and talk shows for decades. Throughout, she worked at having a great marriage and being an exemplary parent. But underlying her high-achieving life was a sometimes-destructive need for control.

Vulnerability and dependency were okay . . . for other people. Joanne’s value was tied to how in charge, how together, and how productive she was. Then she suffered a traumatic accident—and it set her on a journey of discovery that taught her true power came in the still moments, the moments when she not only loosened her grip but even allowed herself to crack. In fragility, Joanne found, there was beauty—and possibility, too.

By Accident is a story about discovering that control is a seductive illusion and how letting go of the need for it can reveal great strength and lead us to even firmer ground.
Industry Reviews
"Greene's unadorned, straightforward prose keeps readers rooted in her lively narrative of hardship and recovery, and her mantras may prove useful for those going through similar experiences. . . . A clearsighted reflection on the need to let go in the face of uncertainty."
-Kirkus Reviews

“This is an amazing book, harrowing, deeply human, and charming. I absolutely could not put it down.”
—Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird and Almost Everything

“Joanne, a seasoned broadcast journalist, is a stunning writer. She invites us into her head through her most critical moments, peppering her story with wit and humor, with insightful details and with unsparing memories of family, from the most distant to the most loving.”
—Ben Fong-Torres, senior editor of Rolling Stone and author of The Rice Room

“Joanne Greene’s By Accident is a raw, honest, compulsively readable memoir about love, loss, and letting go. Greene’s personal and professional life had long been shaped by her drive for perfection and control—until a terrifying car accident made her rethink everything, including herself.”
—Lacey Rose, writer/executive editor at The Hollywood Reporter

By Accident is laudable, compelling, gripping, and instructive. In this wonderfully uplifting memoir, Joanne Greene successfully overcomes life’s challenges with a combination of determination, devotion, skill, wit, hope, and courage. You will be cheering her on and feeling inspired all the way.”
—Sylvia Boorstein, author of Happiness Is an Inside Job: Practicing for a Joyful Life; It’s Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness; and That’s Funny, You Don’t Look Buddhist: On Being a Faithful Jew and a Passionate Buddhist

“What impressed me most about By Accident was Joanne’s ability to write about the suffering she has endured and maintain her refreshing sense of hope, love, joy, and optimism. Family and Jewish values help her through the blindsides—including the accident which fractured her pelvis in four places but could not break her spirit. Joanne Greene is an accomplished and impressive woman, yet she writes with modesty, candor, and verve. Her story touched me, and it will you.”
—Michael Krasny, host of the Grey Matters podcast, former host of KQED’s Forum, and author of Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life

“Joanne Greene’s By Accident is a compelling journal of what therapists and counselors have long understood: the only way to endure otherwise sense- less pain and tragedy is to learn something from it, and then to teach what you have learned to anyone who will listen. . . . This book is a gem.”
—Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, Emanu-El Scholar at Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco and author of Invisible Lines of Connection: Sacred Stories of the Ordinary and God Was in This Place & I, i Did Not Know: Finding Self, Spirituality and Ultimate Meaning

“In vivid prose, Joanne Greene shows us that reflection is often the gift of painful experience. Greene's flowing memoir illuminates the power of life-changing events and the insight they can offer. Greene is a warm, thoughtful, trustworthy guide into facing the unexpected challenges that alter the course of our relationships and expectations, most fundamen- tally of ourselves.”
—Shana Penn, executive director of Taube Philanthropies and author of Solidarity’s Secret: The Women Who Defeated Communism in Poland

By Accident feels like listening to a close friend tell a riveting, deeply touching story over a cozy cup of tea. As she considers her life thus fa

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