Picture of author.
6 Works 149 Membros 44 Críticas 2 Favorited

About the Author

Lee Kravitz grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and attended Yale and Columbia universities. An award-winning journalist, he most recently was editor in chief of Parade magazine. He writes an Unfinished Business blog which can be found on PsychologyToday.com. Kravitz lives in New York City and Clinton mostrar mais Corners, New York, with his wife and three children. mostrar menos

Obras por Lee Kravitz

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Sexo
male
Locais de residência
Clinton Corners, NY and New York, NY
Educação
Yale University
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Ocupações
Author/Editor/Media Executive

Fatal error: Call to undefined function isLitsy() in /var/www/html/inc_magicDB.php on line 425
Lee Kravitz is the author of PILGRIM: Risking the Life I Have to Find the Faith I Seek (Hudson Street Press) and UNFINISHED BUSINESS: One Man's Extraordinary Year of Trying to Do the Right Things (Bloomsbury USA.) He describes himself as "a perpetual seeker. I go on journeys of self-healing and spiritual growth; then I write about them. My hope is that my books and blog posts will inspire readers to go on their own transformational journeys."

Lee was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and attended Yale and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. He began his career as a freelance journalist and photographer, reporting on politics, culture and human rights issues in the developing world. Prior to becoming a full-time author, he was an editorial director at Scholastic Inc, the founding editor of React magazine for teens, and editor in chief of Parade, the Sunday newspaper magazine.

Lee lives in New York City with his wife Elizabeth Kaplan, a literary agent, and their three teenagers. They have two dogs and three cats, who make frequent appearances in his books.

Membros

Discussions

Unfinished Business . . . by Lee Kravitz em Reviews of Early Reviewers Books (Novembro 2013)

Críticas

rabck from HI77; after being fired from his job and not sure what to do next, the author made a list of Ten Things that he considered "unfinished business" and gave himself a year to complete them. Some really resonated with me - making a long overdue condolence call, connecting with a long lost family member and meeting with a long ago teacher/mentor. One of the author's friends had become a monk, and it was an enlightening chapter on spiritual awareness. Do you need a year off to do these things in your own life? Probably not, but the year deadline gave the author a limited timeframe to complete the items, instead of putting it off.… (mais)
½
 
Assinalado
nancynova | 43 outras críticas | Aug 9, 2022 |
Esta crítica foi escrita no âmbito dos Primeiros Críticos do LibraryThing.
A great lesson for us all to take to heart. Lee Kravitz was lucky to have the time and resources to handle all of his unfinished business in his life. Most importantly, he was able to realize and accept all he needed to go back and handle. Most importantly, I hope (though it was not really touched on) that he learned to put his immediate family first. He was running all over the country taking care of his business, now that he FINALLY had time, yet it appears his wife and children continued to be left out--waiting at home for him. It would be interesting to know if Lee returned to work still able to balance his family life and his work life, and whether he still maintains his friendships, etc. I would hope Lee's journey was not for nought.… (mais)
 
Assinalado
staffoa | 43 outras críticas | Oct 22, 2011 |
Esta crítica foi escrita no âmbito dos Primeiros Críticos do LibraryThing.
In Unfinished Business: One Man's Extraordinary Year of Trying to Do the Right Things, Lee Kravitz recounts his journey to salvation subsequent to being fired from his high powered job as editor-in-chief of Parade magazine. At the age of 54, he found himself footloose against his will. He was a 54 year old workaholic who had sacrificed work-life balance in order to cultivate business relationships and produce copy. All of a sudden, his world is turned upside down and he realizes that he is a stranger to his family as well as to himself. The book is highly introspective and follows the vein of many self-help books in the Happiness genre which usually devote 12 months to transforming their lives. In Kravitz's case, he decides to take care of unfinished business which has left him nagging, feeling guilty, and he decides to rectify the past - with his family, old school friends, as well as former mentors.

It was enjoyable, indeed, specially if you're open to the kind of self-help books that urge you to take stock of your life and make amends, giving you the possibility to live mindfully.
… (mais)
½
1 vote
Assinalado
Sarine | 43 outras críticas | Aug 17, 2011 |
Esta crítica foi escrita no âmbito dos Primeiros Críticos do LibraryThing.
What would you do if you suddenly lost your high-powered, high-pressure job in a declining industry, and received a year’s severance pay? Hit the pavement? Take up a hobby? Stay under the covers?

The author of Unfinished Business: One Man’s Extraordinary Year of Trying to Do the Right Things, Lee Kravitz, faced just such a situation in his mid-fifties. After taking stock of seemed to be a very successful life, he decided to spend that year reconnecting to the people in his life. As he says:

As good as my life looked on paper, it was sorely lacking in the one area that puts flesh on meaning: human connectedness.

We all have the kind of unfinished business to which Kravitz refers in the title of his book—emotional loose ends: old friends we’ve lost touch with, promises we made but didn’t keep, family we’ve grown apart from, things unsaid that need saying.

By the time we reach our fifties, most of us have accumulated a long list of such items, partly because we think we’ll get to them later, we need our own time, we’re busy with other things, or it’s just too difficult to or embarrassing to carry through. It’s true that as Kravitz says,

If we remembered how we could be separated from our loved ones at any moment, we would accumulate a lot less unfinished business.

But knowing that and finding the time and energy to apply it every day are two different things.

In Kravitz’s year of making amends, he set out on ten ‘journeys’, including catching up with a loved aunt who had drifted out of his life, making an over-due condolence call, paying a 30-year-old debt to an associate, looking up a mentor of his youth, and visiting a high-school friend who is now a Greek Orthodox monk. Along the way, he gains insights into himself and into what really makes a life – his and ours.

Reading this book has made me aware of the emotional loose ends in my own life, but being aware and taking the time and effort to do something are two different things. Kravitz recognized how much of a struggle it would be to keep up the rekindled relationships on an on-gong basis once he ‘re-entered his life’. He determined to make time, and so should we all. I would be interested in a follow-up from Kravitz: how has he handled that intention?

Of course, you’ll relate to this book if you’re a baby-boomer, beginning to question the value of what you’re achieved thus far in life, but don’t wait until then. Read this at twenty, thirty, or forty and perhaps you’ll prevent some of the regret that comes of losing touch over the years with the people you care about. After all, as Kravitz says:

Life goes fast. Click. You are fifteen. Click, click. You are fifty-five. Click, click. You are gone. And so are the people who loved and nurtured you.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
ParadisePorch | 43 outras críticas | Aug 8, 2011 |

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Gail Sheehy Introduction

Estatísticas

Obras
6
Membros
149
Popularidade
#139,413
Avaliação
½ 3.5
Críticas
44
ISBN
12
Línguas
2
Marcado como favorito
2

Tabelas & Gráficos