Take Two: True Stories of Real People Who Dared to Change Their Lives

In this collection profiling people who took deliberate steps to change their lives drastically, the common thread is what Brans ( Mother, I Have Something to Tell You ) calls "gumption." For all, three stages characterized the process by which they sought change: discontent, provocation, crisis. Among those interviewed are Katherine Fanning, former editor of the Christian Science Monitor ; Hope Cooke, ex-queen of Sikkim; A. Bartlett Giamatti, now baseball commissioner, once Yale president; and others of less renown--a monk who became an animal psychologist; a foundation president who is now an innkeeper. Such people who "move on" are expressly admired by the author, even when their desired goals are not fully achieved, as aggressive risk-takers. Readers contemplating their own "second acts" will find the book supportive.