Release Date: July 24, 2024
Size: 6 x 9
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-57869-283-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2024913120
Booksellers and Libraries: Order Info Here or at Ingram.

SYNOPSIS

"Come along with me, and I'll make it worth your while," says Bill Mares. In his new memoir Better To Be Lucky than Smart, Mares captures exactly what it is that makes him tick—or run, or sing, or teach, or write, or fish. Written in a welcoming and absorbing tone, this book sums up a life of exploration and curiosity. Complete with photographs, cartoons, and a foreword by Don Hooper!

Tragically, Bill passed away after a battle with cancer on Monday, July 29, 2024. We deeply mourn the loss of our dear friend. “My life was not a single note, in vocation or avocation. I was happy to play as many notes as I could, as long as they harmonized into a chord,” wrote Bill in this memoir, his last opus. May his memory, and his words, be a blessing and gift to us all.

PRAISE

“From a small town in Texas to the battlefields of Europe, from a vast Arabian desert to a single Vermont bee, Bill Mares tells his life’s plucky and lucky American story. Pour yourself a home brew, put your feet up, and enjoy a first-rate yarn.”

—Stephen P. Kiernan, author of The Glass Chateau and other books

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“When asked to define most people, one or two words will usually do. But defining Bill Mares? You need a paragraph, a long one at that. This lovely memoir reveals the secrets of a man with a dozen or so passions in his life, who has graciously passed on his wisdom to tens of thousands. How has he done it? Some hints: Being open to adventure, finding great mentors, having a little luck (like getting on a certain elevator in Chicago), and making a fortuitous decision to move to Vermont. In this memoir, you’ll learn about the author and take away lessons for yourself.”

—John Donnelly, former journalist at the Boston Globe, advisor at the World Bank

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“Bill Mares’ fourteenth book so grabbed my attention, I read it in two sittings. Like the luminous art of the Hudson River School, its narrative ebbs and flows in the intimate landscape of his many years as an observer of people, their ethos, and culture. Transcending memoir, Mares invokes the world in which he grew up from the beginning of World War II to the present. Read this book. You will not be disappointed.”

—Bill Schubart, author Lila & Theron

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“Reading Better to Be Lucky Than Smart is like catching up with an old friend who has a lifetime’s worth of great stories. Bill Mares’ new memoir is captivating, compelling, at times deeply moving, often delightfully funny, and always filled to the brim with the joy of life.” 

—Reeve Lindbergh, author of Two Lives and 26 other books for both adults and children

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“Is there any adventure Bill Mares has stumbled on in his long life that he’s said no thanks to? Clearly not. His new book, Better to Be Lucky than Smart, is a wild ride of a memoir that is an account of the crazily disparate experiences that have constituted that life, and of how Mares came to be the person he is. 

He joined the Marines as a young man—and afterwards published a book with Doubleday about basic training. A book with remarkable photographs, taken, yes, by him, a skill he developed while working at The Chicago Sun Times. For a while he was a high-school history teacher in Vermont, and then for another while, a member of that state’s legislature. He’s written a few other books—eighteen in all, he tells us—on various other interests: beekeeping, home brewing, Vermont humor, on the crossing of the Nafud Desert by camel, following the journey of an ancient poet—a book with more extraordinary photographs.

Oh, he’s also a long-distance runner, a family man, and a choral singer. And somewhere along the way he learned to play the bagpipes. Of course he did.”

—Sue Miller, New York Times bestselling author of Monogamy

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“Everyone is interesting. Some lives are extraordinary. Bill Mares has tested life’s waters in many ways, among them as an author, journalist, photographer, marathoner, singer, teacher, explorer, beekeeper, family man, and beer brewer. His memoir of an energetic and restless soul where curiosity and imagination were given free rein is a fun, sometimes bumpy ride through the origins and highlights of several careers, adventurous globetrotting, and consuming hobbies.”

—Fran Stoddard, former host of Vermont Public’s Profile

Reviews & In the News

Vermont Public, August 22, 2024: Montpelier publisher releases two posthumous books by local authors

Vermont Public, August 7, 2024: Bill Mares, beloved Vermont polymath, dies at 83

The Daily Mail, August 3, 2024: Dying Vermont man shares his heartbreaking final moments after choosing to end his life via assisted suicide

WCAX News, August 2, 2024: Death with Dignity: Bill Mares shares his final moments with WCAX

Vermont Conversation Podcast, August 1, 2024: Bill Mares chose how and when to end his life. He had a few things he wanted to say before he died.

VTDigger, August 1, 2024: Bill Mares, a Renaissance man who loved Vermont, dies at 83

Seven Days, August 1, 2024: Obituary: Bill Mares, 1940-2024

VTDigger, July 31, 2024: Obituary William J. Mares

MEET THE AUTHOR

Raised in Texas and educated at Harvard, Bill Mares has been a journalist, state legislator and high school teacher. He has authored or co-authored 19 books. Tragically, Bill passed away after a battle with cancer on Monday, July 29, 2024. We deeply mourn the loss of our dear friend. “My life was not a single note, in vocation or avocation. I was happy to play as many notes as I could, as long as they harmonized into a chord,” wrote Bill in this memoir, his last opus. May his memory, and his words, be a blessing and gift to us all.