A Year of Living Kindly

2025 American Legacy Book Awards Winner in Self-Help: Motivational
2020 New York City Big Book Awards Winner in Self-Help: Motivational
2020 Independent Press Awards Winner in Self Help/Motivational
2019 IPPY Gold Medal Winner: Self Help
2019 Nautilius Book Awards Gold Winner in Personal Growth & Self-Help
2019 Best Book Awards: Gold Medal Winner in Best Cover Design
2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Gold Medal Winner in Motivational
2019 Readers’ Favorite Awards: Gold Medal Winner in Nonfiction Self-Help
2019 Eric Hoffer Award Winner: Self-Help
2019 Independent Author Network Book of the Year Awards: First Place in Self-Help
2019 Chanticleer I & I Book Awards for Instruction and Insight Finalist
2019 International Book Awards: Finalist, Self-Help: General
2019 Nancy Pearl Best Book Award: Finalist in Memoir
2019 Eric Hoffer Montaigne Medal: Finalist
2019 Foreword Indies Finalist: Adult Nonfiction—Self-Help
Named as one of Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2018

“An extraordinary and timely contribution in these troubled times.”
—Midwest Book Review

“Cameron knows how to captivate an audience; her prose is, by turns, humorous, astute, logical, eloquent, and sincere. Cameron’s anecdotes are consistently memorable, and her analysis of them is often brilliant. Overall, this well-organized book is engaging enough to read quickly but profound enough to savor slowly.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Frankly, the world needs this book right now. For anyone who is frustrated at the lack of kindness in the world these days—or for anyone who has become desensitized to it—A Year of Living Kindly is a must-read. It’s a sledgehammer to indifference and resignation, and a reminder that being kind doesn’t mean being weak.”
—Independent Publisher Magazine

“A Year of Living Kindly is a beautifully rendered exploration of kindness as a way of life, arriving at the right moment, with the right guide. Donna Cameron writes with humor and grace about this essential virtue. She makes it easy to follow her path—and to want to follow it.”
—Sarah L. Kaufman, author of The Art of Grace and Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for The Washington Post

“Donna Cameron’s contagious warmth, compelling stories, persuasive logic, and useful advice make this gem a joy to read. After I finished each lovely little chapter, I understood the path to kindness a bit better, my inspiration to keep moving down that path increased, and my resolve to forgive myself and others when we slip into unkindness grew stronger.”
—Robert Sutton, Stanford Professor and bestselling author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide

“Most people are kind, but don’t always know how to express it. In A Year of Living Kindly, Donna Cameron shares both the why and how of kindness. She’s written a wise, captivating guide for those wishing to claim the power of kindness and use it to change the world.”
—Leon Logothetis, Bestselling author of The Kindness Diaries

“Just being nice will not be enough to save the civility of today’s world. It will take the patience and focus of true and loving kindness. Don’t assume you know what is needed or how to do it until you read Donna Cameron’s A Year of Living Kindly. You will find inspiration for every experience and season of your life.”
—John Kralik, Author of A Simple Act of Gratitude

“This book will absolutely light your heart on fire for kindness! In A Year of Living Kindly, Donna Cameron encourages us to suspend our spectator status and fully embrace what’s happening around us. Through collected research and her own wise observations, she generously shows us how to lead fuller lives through kindness.”
—Nicole J Phillips, author of Kindness is Contagious, Host of The Kindness Podcast

“It’s irrefutable that being kind—on purpose—improves health and wellness. With fifty-two delicious, bite-sized chapters containing actionable examples that help readers weave intentional kindness into their daily lives, you can be sure A Year of Living Kindly is a book I’ll prescribe to my clients.”
—Laurie Buchanan, PhD, holistic health practitioner, life coach, and author

“An exquisite thread of compassion and kindness is interwoven throughout Donna Cameron’s book, A Year of Living Kindly. With beautiful wisdom and utterly clear examples, this book leads the reader to a new understanding of how to make the world a better place for all of us. I will recommend this book wherever I go.”
—Danna Beal, M.Ed., speaker, coach, and author of The Extraordinary Workplace: Replacing Fear with Trust and Compassion

“Although being kind sounds a lot like being nice, Donna Cameron shares how these two acts are very different. A Year of Living Kindly offers remarkable insights on how to increase your dose of happiness by adding kindness into your daily encounters. I’ve been inspired!”
—Linda Atwell, author of Loving Lindsey: Raising a Daughter with Special Needs

“A Year of Living Kindly is a wise, insightful guidebook—a timely gift to the world. In an era when mean-spiritedness, anger, and polarization are rampant, Cameron draws from her own experience and extensive research, demonstrating that being kind makes a profound difference, while also enhancing our health and wellbeing.”
—Susan Avery Stewart, PhD, emerita Professor of Psychology (Sonoma State University), Licensed MFT, and author of Winter’s Graces: The Surprising Gifts of Later Life

Donna Cameron has spent her career working with nonprofit organizations and causes—as an executive, consultant, trainer, and volunteer. She has seen kindness in action and been awed by its power to transform. When she committed to a year of living kindly she considered herself a reasonably nice person (with occasional lapses into bitchiness), but she knew that true kindness was a step above—and over the course of that year, she learned that it takes practice, patience, and understanding … not to mention a sense of humor. The recipient of multiple writing awards, Cameron has published numerous articles and, in 2011, coauthored (with Kristen Leathers) One Hill, Many Voices: Stories of Hope and Healing. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Donna now lives in a suburb of Seattle with her husband.

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