Hope may well be in our own hands

            In this day of strained celebrity gossip and trivial reality TV triumphs, it is refreshing to hear about those people who give without regards for the attention they may receive.  Such is the heart of former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s book Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World. 

            While interwoven with his own experience with Not-for-Profits, what Clinton refers to as NGOs, the former president gives a detailed overview of who’s who in the world of giving.  Each chapter gives a different slant on the giving model and explores different ways the reader can also begin to give more generously themselves.  Clinton’s recommendations range from giving time to money, from micro-credit programs to being a big brother/big sister. 

            The breadth of Clinton’s charitable work is on full display as the writer gives case after case of his work since leaving the Oval Office.  This does not mean Clinton is writing solely about his own exploits, but rather weaves is own experiences in an almost secondhand way.  By telling of his friends and partners in the Clinton Foundation, the author shows the intricate web of people needed to run a modern NGO, and briefly shows the hurdles that face many non-profits.

            The book, though sometimes listy, read very fluidly and without any of the catches that often keep people from finishing non-fiction books.  Each idea led easily to the next and kept the pace of the book from being broken.  This is important when dealing with a subject of such grave importance as charitable giving.

            However, the true gem of this book lies in the individual lives the readers are allowed to briefly glimpse.  Clinton praises the spirit of humanity that shines bright in a doctor who has given his life to fighting treatable illnesses in Haiti or that of a young rape victim, infected with AIDS, who donates her time and energies back to the clinic that had provided medicines to her for a drastically reduced price thanks to a global non-profit collaboration.  The volunteers and victims giving each other reason and hope lends the reader a bit of the positive energy men like Bill Clinton are privy to each day.

            In the end, the book’s title proved to be apt.  Not only does the book present a broad view of the way millions give of themselves each day, it gave this reader hope that we can come together and make the world a little better through giving.