Nothing Left Over: A Plain and Simple Life - Softcover

Toinette Lippe, a prestigious book publisher and founder of Bell Tower publishing house, shares her life wisdom in Nothing Left Over. Her memoir speaks to living with full-tilt generosity and joy while not clinging to material clutter, resentments, and unfulfilled passions. "In truth, it is not the number of and diversity of our possessions that is the problem but our attachment to them.... The freedom we are all seeking is the freedom from the fear of losing what we believe we own." We've heard these sentiments before, but somehow coming from Lippe, who has her share of foibles, the words feel palatable and the wisdom feels earned. Like the gentle, intelligent voice in Gift from the Sea, Lippe contemplates the stories of her life as she passes on humble advice and observations. Whether she is writing of her existential crisis at 17 years old, her arrival in New York City as a 25-year-old virgin, the amazing conception of her son, or insider stories at Random House, Lippe offers a spiritual framework. In other words, she is an excellent storyteller--able to make meaning from her life so that readers can glean the rewards of her thorough contemplation. --Gail Hudson

Born in London, Toinette Lippe had a long and distinguished career at Alfred A. Knopf. In 1989 she founded Bell Tower, where she published seventy books that nourished the soul, illuminated the mind, and spoke directly to the heart. Her second book, Caught in the Act: Reflections on Being, Knowing, and Doing was published in 2004. After fifty years in publishing Toinette abandoned editorial work and devotes herself to East Asian brush painting, which she taught at the Educational Alliance for four years and now teaches on the Upper West Side of New York City. See toinettelippe.com.