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Hope and Other Super Powers

It’s exhausting to give a damn these days, isn’t it?

Perhaps you’re feeling anguished about what you see on the news or in your social media timeline, or by your personal circumstances, and are paralyzed waiting for political or religious leaders, or celebrities, to rescue us from it all.

But what if you didn’t have to wait for someone else? What if you could be the hero? This book—a spirited call to action—shows you how.

In these pages, John offers a path away from the vitriol and toward com­passion, and a plan to transform our burdens into dreams and our outrage into activism. Drawing from lessons of beloved fictional superheroes, John shows us how to identify our origin story, build protective suits of armor, guard against our personal kryptonite, and vanquish our villains. He also identifies ten specific “superpowers” that we can enlist to make our lives and our world better. Along the way, he shares inspiring anecdotes and profiles about ordinary people who saw a gap in the world in empathy or kindness or gratitude and decided to fill it.

Hope and Other Superpowers is an invitation to anyone hoping to be the kind of person the world so desperately needs—the kind who can save it. In other words: it’s an invitation to you.

Read an Excerpt

The dream of a different world (as beautiful as it is) won’t actually alter the planet—only your hands getting dirty and your feet hitting the ground will do that. Being outraged at injustice doesn’t do much for the victims of that injustice—actively moving against it does. But that’s a hell of a lot harder than outrage alone, which is why most people gladly settle for being perpetually angry and living vicariously through spandex-clad, muscle-bound, CGI demigods who do the brave things they wish they could do.

Praise for Hope and Other Superpowers

“Pavlovitz asserts this is not a self-help book. Instead, “it’s a life-affirming, love-defending, butt-kicking manifesto.” Well, yes, but it’s also a 241-page pep talk with, as a leitmotif, generous references to superheroes whose character traits and powers epitomize those the author espouses. The result is high-energy, even perfervid...As for those superhero character traits, Pavlovitz writes eloquently about sacrifice, courage, humor...and more.”
Booklist
“In this enjoyable book … Pavlovitz’s honest examination of his own shortcomings is refreshing and reassures readers that mistakes and vulnerabilities can be seen as opportunities for positive transformation ... Readers looking to channel distress into self-betterment will definitely want to pick this up.”
Publishers Weekly
“More so than any other book on modern social and political activism, Hope and Other Superpowers should be required reading for anyone who wants to work against prejudice, hatred, and despair.”
Donovan's Literary Services
“[Pavlovitz] despairs about the state of the world and the values of the leaders tasked with repairing it. But he holds tightly to hope, and his new book is an impassioned plea for his followers to do the same.”
Chicago Tribune