The Shelter of Each Other

By: Mary Pipher Ph.D.

Narrated by: Mary Pipher PhD

Our country is in a profound crisis: a crisis of decency, of civility, of character. And families today are experiencing a new set of realities. Our best instincts are undermined at every turn, and our families, to which we turn in crisis, are feeling the strain. Working parents are harried, tired, and overextended. Mary Pipher understands this. She's a good listener, perhaps the best listener in America. And what she has to say goes straight to the heart.

Confronted with today's challenges, parents feel helpless to protect their children from the enemy within their homes: the innapropriate television their kids watch for hours, the computer and virtual reality games that keep them from playing outside, when they should be learning from and about the real world. Compounding this is the fact that our psychological theories don't work anymore. These theories were developed decades ago, when families were tightly knit, relatively monolithic institutions, and they're dated. Pipher argues that such theories are of little help in our violent, sexualized contemporary culture. And while diagnosing the problem is the first step in curing it, Pipher offers ideas for simple actions we can all take to help rebuild our families and strengthen our communities.

©1996 Mary Pipher (P)1996 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Simple solutions for survival in this family-unfriendly culture.... Eye-opening...heart-wrenching and uplifting." (San Francisco Chronicle)

"Compelling." (USA Today)

"A canny mix of optimism and practicality." (Newsweek)

Beautiful book

I agree that the audio quality is not the best but it does get better, or perhaps more tolerable, after several minutes. This book is so wonderful, you won't notice the less than stellar audio. This book is warm. It is comforting. It is filled with common sense, love, and wisdom. I suggest every parent or future parent, or spouse, listen to this book. I am so glad I found it. My children are 5 and 8 and this book only reinforces the importance of connection and closeness with family and your community. It reminds us that material goods, media and the popular culture do not lead to happiness and love. Appreciating what we have does. I loved this audio version so much that I ordered the paperback to read again and again.

families, culture, psychology history at its best!

i have to give this book 5 stars to make up for the excessive grumbling about the sound quality in other reviews. Here is the deal on the sound. They play background music for the first 30 seconds of a chapter. Those 30 seconds are offensive to modern ears. However, this problem can also serve the point of the book. The first 30 seconds of each chapter can literally serve as an example of a superficial cultural expectation which could be used to subvert the real content of the book and of its value to family life. If you are not buying the book because of these sound reviews then i would recommend the book all the more.

I doubt if the cultural and historical comparisons of families in this book will ever be better told. Further relevance of this comparison to the crisis of meaning that both families and individuals suffering under today could not be more precise. Its not a nostalgic book about the good ol days but rather a search for meaning for today. The author is fair about the good ol days and mentions the bad "sound quality" moments.

Her clarity about the dangers of viewing family problems solely from a psychological or only from a culture perspective is brilliant and as clear as i have ever read about it. The skill with which the values and words of our grandparents and our fading parents are extracted to our benefit is a talent only a few surgeons can perform.

And though the book is not from the latest tablet and smart phone era, it ironically rings clearer! I think this could be because at least the previous television-video-games-cell-phone era was actually easier to identify than today's comprehensive talking portable computer surfaces.

Further, the joy and promise of these novel devices clouds us more than even more primitive devices did only a few years back. Yet living in this latest era that is beyond outrage characterized primarily by the inhumanity of rootless corporate globalization , political hijacking, global fundamentalist regression and ruthless and callous work conditions, families need to understand how families have survived as long as they have.

Excellent book, not great audio quality

This is a marvelous book about what a family can be and how families can stay close. It raises sobering questions about what is being increasingly lost for families in America. It is a heartfelt story of connection and building strong ties.

The audio book suffers from relatively poor audio quaility.

Sound quality

The message is awesome but the sound quality is pretty bad. I still recommend it.

Could not even listen

The audio on the book was terrible. I could not even understand what was being said. Do not purchase this version.