Elizabeth Lesser has 4 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 4 narrators, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 72 ratings. The most-rated is Cassandra Speaks.
Cassandra Speaks
Summary
What story would Eve have told about picking the apple? Why is Pandora blamed for opening the box? And what about the fate of Cassandra who was blessed with knowing the future but cursed so that no one believed her? What if women had been the storytellers? Elizabeth Lesser believes that if women’s voices had been equally heard and respected throughout history, humankind would have followed different hero myths and guiding stories - stories that value caretaking, champion compassion, and elevate communication over vengeance and violence. Cassandra Speaks is about the stories we tell and how those stories become the culture. It’s about the stories we still blindly cling to, and the ones that cling to us: the origin tales, the guiding myths, the religious parables, the literature and films and fairy tales passed down through the centuries about women and men, power and war, sex and love, and the values we live by. Stories written mostly by men with lessons and laws for all of humanity. We have outgrown so many of them, and still they endure. This book is about what happens when women are the storytellers too - when we speak from our authentic voices, when we flex our values, when we become protagonists in the tales we tell about what it means to be human. Lesser has walked two main paths in her life - the spiritual path and the feminist one - paths that sometimes cross but sometimes feel at cross-purposes. Cassandra Speaks is her extraordinary merging of the two. The best-selling author of Broken Open and Marrow, Lesser is a beloved spiritual writer, as well as a leading feminist thinker. In this book, she gives equal voice to the cool water of her meditative self and the fire of her feminist self. With her trademark gifts of both humor and insight, she offers a vision that transcends the either/or ideologies on both sides of the gender debate. Brilliantly structured into three distinct parts, Part One explores how history is carried forward through the stories a culture tells and values, and what we can do to balance the scales. Part Two looks at women and power and expands what it means to be courageous, daring, and strong. And Part Three offers “A Toolbox for Inner Strength”. Lesser argues that change in the culture starts with inner change, and that no one - woman or man - is immune to the corrupting influence of power. She provides inner tools to help us be both strong-willed and kind-hearted. Cassandra Speaks is a beautifully balanced synthesis of storytelling, memoir, and cultural observation. Women, men, and all people will find themselves in this book, and will come away strengthened, opened, and ready to work together to create a better world for all people.
©2020 Elizabeth Lesser (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
Broken Open
Summary
New York Times best seller This inspiring guide to healing and growth illuminates the richness and potential of every life, even in the face of loss and adversity.In the more than 25 years since she co-founded Omega Institute - now the world’s largest center for spiritual retreat and personal growth - Elizabeth Lesser has been an intimate witness to the ways in which people weather change and transition. In a beautifully crafted blend of moving stories, humorous insights, practical guidance, and personal memoir, she offers tools to help us make the choice we all face in times of challenge: Will we be broken down and defeated, or broken open and transformed? Lesser shares tales of ordinary people who have risen from the ashes of illness, divorce, loss of a job or a loved one - stronger, wiser, and more in touch with their purpose and passion. And she draws on the world’s great spiritual and psychological traditions to support us as we too learn to break open and blossom into who we were meant to be.
©2004 Villard (P)2008 Random House
Marrow
Summary
The author of the New York Times best seller Broken Open returns with a visceral and profound memoir of two sisters who, in the face of a bone marrow transplant - one the donor and one the recipient - begin a quest for acceptance, authenticity, and, most of all, love. A mesmerizing and courageous memoir: the story of two sisters uncovering the depth of their love through the life-and-death experience of a bone marrow transplant. Throughout her life Elizabeth Lesser has sought understanding about what it means to be true to yourself and, at the same time, truly connected to the ones you love. But when her sister, Maggie, needs a bone marrow transplant to save her life, and Lesser learns that she is the perfect match, she faces a far more immediate and complex question about what it really means to love - honestly, generously, and authentically. Hoping to give Maggie the best chance possible for a successful transplant, the sisters dig deep into the marrow of their relationship to clear a path to unconditional acceptance. They leave the bone marrow transplant up to the doctors but take on what Lesser calls a "soul marrow transplant", examining their family history, having difficult conversations, examining old assumptions, and offering forgiveness until all that is left is love for each other's true selves. Their process - before, during, and after the transplant - encourages them to take risks of authenticity in other aspects their lives. But life does not follow the storylines we plan for it. Maggie's body is ultimately too weak to fight the relentless illness. As she and Lesser prepare for the inevitable, they grow ever closer, and their shared blood cells become a symbol of the enduring bond they share. Told with suspense and humor, Marrow is joyous and heartbreaking, incandescent and profound. The story reveals how even our most difficult experiences can offer unexpected spiritual growth. Reflecting on the multifaceted nature of love - love of other, love of self, love of the world - Marrow is an unflinching and beautiful memoir about getting to the very centers of ourselves.
©2016 Elizabeth Lesser (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers
The Seeker's Guide
Summary
America has given birth to a wisdom tradition entirely its own, a spirituality that is as diverse as its people, and that respects the freedom and uniqueness of each individual. Judeo-Christian traditions and the meditation practices of Asia and India...modern science and Native American teachings...Sufism and transpersonal psychology - The New American Spirituality explores what happens when these and other traditions cohabitate our unique cultural landscape. With the gifts of such diversity come important questions. Is it wise to combine different schools of thought, practices, and therapies? How do we assess the authenticity of a teacher or therapist? Is our spiritual practice really working? How can we tell? On The New American Spirituality, Elizabeth Lesser speaks to these questions with clarity and passion, weaving stories of her own trials and errors, with detailed guidelines and meditations to help us find a path of our own.
©1999 Elizabeth Lesser (P)1999 Sounds True. All Rights Reserved.