Journals Books

My friend turned me on to the idea of writing down my thoughts and dreams in journals to one day share with my future husband, and immediately I was hooked. I have since filled five journals to present to him on our wedding night.

This journal was the one that started it all. I bought two and filled both in about a year. It was a great way to start the habit of journaling not simply for myself but for another person to one day read and appreciate. The journal itself is beautiful and very romantic, with gorgeous pictures scattered throughout. The author also includes starter topics at the beginning of each page to help inspire you. Some women might like this; I personally did not. I followed the topics for the first journal and then just crossed them out and went with my own train of thought for the next one. For one thing, each prompt only gives you ONE page to fill, which isn't nearly enough space for the prolific writer, so you may end up crossing some out anyway. For another, the topics repeat themselves, which is tiring after a while.

Overall, though, this journal is highly recommended for any woman who wants to chronicle her dreams to eventually give to her "One". All I can say is pick up this journal, pick up a pen, open your heart chakra and let your creativity flow. Your future husband will one day thank you for this gift from the soul. (At least, I very much hope mine will!)

I am a total sap & love romance. I saw this book and thought this would be an amazing gift to someday give my husband on our wedding day.

I purchased the journal and was very pleased. There are beautiful wedding pictures on every few pages of a dress, couple holding hands, couple at the altar, etc. VERY BEAUTIFUL. It provides you just enough lines to express your innermost dreams and hopes. With prompts like:
*Today I prayed for you that...
*My hopes for our future are...
*Today I wanted to tell you...
*When I think about you I...

I can't put it down. I play some soft wedding music at night and light candles, pray, and write wherever I feel like writing. I plan on keeping this a secret from my boyfriend and giving it to him on our wedding day. It will make a beautiful gift to him, one that our children and families can look back on.

I love this journal, I'm actually planning on giving it to my future husband so he can read what God has done in my life. Highly recommended!!!

this book that rebecca st. james wrote gives you a lot of advice of the way God want sd you to live your life!!I recommend this book to people because a lot of people in this world need to relize that they need God to be happy after they die!!!Well enjoy this book as much as I did!!!

I was married in 1996, and had this guest book. It was unique and had none of the usual "wedding" design features, i loved it. The cover and binding are vivid in color with ample space for long messages, not just a signature.The pictures are beautifully laid out on every turn.I pull it out of my cedar chest and realize why i choose it all over again.

I was really excited when I received this book. It has some beautiful pictures that make it very special. One thing that I thought might be a problem was that there were only spaces for 130 messages/signatures. Planning for 300 guests had me concerned about room for all their signatures, but not everyone took the time to write a message. There got to be a line out the church b/c it was taking too long for people to write a message. I love the book, but would recommend it for smaller weddings...so there isn't a long line to get in and sit down!

We got married in 1998 and used this wedding guest book. It is so much more personal than those fancy, ornate ones. We enjoy going back and reading the messages that were written to us. We love this wedding guest book so much that we have ordered it for my sister, who is getting married this November.

I bought this guest book because of the design and layout of the attractive pictures and the option for guests to leave a congratulatory note along with their names. It was the first guest book I had ever seen with that kind of format. My husband and I have moved a couple of times since then, and I've come across it while packing/unpacking. Every time I read through it, I am grateful for all of the wonderful comments our friends and family wrote to us on our wedding day. It will always be a treasured keepsake.

I just received my copy of What Girlfriends Do yesterday. I was lucky enough to appear on one of the pages of the book with my girlfriend that I have known since the Sixth Grade. I had been very anxious to see the final copy, and to see Laura's other photographs. I feel lucky to be a part of this fine book. While flipping through the pages, each photograph reminds me of different stages in my life and the various girlfriends I have shared special moments with throughout these stages. Laura did a wonderful job of capturing that feeling of friendship only women can understand. I like the size of the book and will certainly buy more copies to give to my Girlfriends of all ages.

This is a photographer who may well be the eye of a new generation. All you need do is see her images to learn that the computerized perfection of today's cameras means little compared to the emotion and joy she captures time and again.

Laura Straus's What Girlfriends Do combines wit, tenderness and good observation in photographs which giave a sense of the range and vitality of women's relationships today. The book is a perfect size for a gift for people who value the mix of fun and artistic sensibility.

The photographs in this book are absolutely beautiful. I absolutely love this book! While hinting of Cartier-Bresson and Sally Mann, this is distinctly the vision of Laura Straus. The wonder of childhood fantasy and potential, the balance of teenager feelings, the depth of adult friendships are all artistically portrayed in this attractive book. A great gift for girlfriends of all ages.

The idea of healing appealed to me and so did journal writing. I've wanted to write but needed something to get me started. I needed a little more motivation, some ideas on how to begin and encouragment to keep going. Susan Borkin's book, When Your Heart Speaks Take Good Notes helped me begin writing, keep at it and create miracles in my life.

Borkin's conversational style encouraged me gently and her personal disclosure made me feel like I was listening to a wise friend.

Two examples of the effectiveness of the book are that I eased some of my grief at the loss of a loved one and made strides in letting go of food addictions. I'm convinced that Susan Borkin not only understands writing but can help us use journal writing to heal the pain in our lives.

Buy it for yourself if you want to write and heal. Buy it for friends because it's helpful and a pretty book as well.

The idea of healing appealed to me and so did journal writing. I've wanted to write but needed something to get me started. I needed a little more motivation, some ideas on how to begin and encouragment to keep going. Susan Borkin's book, When Your Heart Speaks Take Good Notes helped me begin writing, keep at it and create miracles in my life.

Borkin's conversational style encouraged me gently and her personal disclosure made me feel like I was listening to a wise friend.

Two examples of the effectiveness of the book are that I eased some of my grief at the loss of a loved one and made strides in letting go of food addictions. I'm convinced that Susan Borkin not only understands writing but can help us use journal writing to heal the pain in our lives.

Buy it for yourself if you want to write and heal. Buy it for friends because it's helpful and a pretty book as well.

With wit and a delightful sense of humor, Ms. Borkin takes you on a journey to a better "you" though stories, exercises and powerful information. She has a way of cutting deftly to the heart of your own human frailty and yet leaves you entirely in control of your journey to health and a more fulfilling life. Compelling and refreshing, she offers many ways to explore life and the problems we all face. Not necessarily with hard and fast didactic answers but with thoughtful exercises, gentle guidance and profound insight, she shows you the way to listen to your heart. She guides you gently yet firmly to seeing through your pain and finding your answers and trusting your inner guide. Try a few of the exercises and be amazed, as I was, how much you learn about yourself. Not only did I enjoy her book, I find myself going back and looking for those little nuggets of gold that spoke to me so personally. I know I'll go back to this book again and again.

Susan Borkin has written a wonderful book on healing oneself through writing. The 70 exercises are clear and concise. I have shared this book with a number of women in my creative women's group as well as women I do a writing workshop with and they are as enthusiastic as I am. I am ordering 2 more copies today for a friend that wants to give them as gifts to her daughter and sister. I wish Susan Borkin lived on the East Coast so that both of my group's could have her as a guest lecturer.

For us young ones in our forties, who once upon a time kept a journal, a book like this one is a bittersweet reminder of reminiscence-and-regret that we did not keep up with them. I read this book in two sittings, and found myself in the unfamiliar role of a young man, experiencing a transformation not too unlike the one I, a mother of five and grandmother of one, went through in those years.

To begin with, I read this book because I was visiting my daughter and I was bored. I had minimal expectations. What I found was an uncanny reflection on my own life, and I was surprised at how unique yet universal Martin's work is. It sent me on a bit of a sentimental tangent, and I must say a needed one that I've put off for some time, through a wide variety of basic to complex emotions.

I really did enjoy the experience, and hope to read more of Martin's stuff soon, if he has any.

Read it. Loved it. Bought it. So that sounds backwards, but sue me, it's America. :)

I found so much of myself in this book, I thought it was about me. Sadness, happiness, rage, I related. I borrowed it from a friend at work, and it was really funny because the poems that she thought were going to me my favorites were really good guesses, but not my favorites. Poems like "Forbidden", "Saturday After Work" and "Antihero" hit me like a ton of bricks, but the ones I liked the best were the ones like "Day 11,736", "Regret", "Pretzel" and "Collusion" (oo, and "The Forgotten Words of God" too, very existential) were my favorites because they were a little more abstract and mysterious but still descript enough to draw conclusions by.

Anyway, I need to say also that although the title makes you think that the book is all about relationships, that might be a little deceiving. Some relationships are parent/child or other family relationships, some are about relationships with friends, pets, nature and experiences. There are a few poems that are just about fun. All of them put together are like reading a person's life as they grow up.

Anyway, pretty cool, and I think that this kind of writing should be looked at by high schools and colleges as a project for there students. I highly recommend the book because it's kind of like a movie that you can go back to and feel comfortable from watching it. I hope that made sense.

After the first few poems, I thought I'd made a mistake and should have borrowed another book from a friend who had pushed this one on me. You can tell that the first few poems were written by a teenager, and I was at the point where I was just going to put it down and watch tv instead. But then I read "Where Once There Was a Cage" and I found myself going from my cranky mood to just having a complete tearburst, and then I was hooked. I realized that the poems before that WERE written by a teenager, and that is the POINT of the book. It takes you from that awquard stage of adolescense and moves you forward, as if you were developing (not aging, so developing is the only word I have)from the perspective of the writer. Like, these are his thoughts and emotions from the most personal perspective that you can get in a book, as if you had the driver's seat in his heart and mind. And the book brings you places that I as a woman don't think men go to often enough, or at least I don't see it often enouth, but that's my issue!

There was some stuff that I thought he experimented with that didn't quite work for me. There are two poems that he frames into shapes, one of a dollar sign and one of a skull. I thought the dollar sign one was very funny, but it was gimmicky. The skull one was too bitter, but I guess that's an emotion too. The "Ode to a Rag Doll" poem was very touching, and for my whole life I wish someone had written a poem like "Forbidden" for me. And there are a couple of others in there like that, really good love poems. The two haiku poems were really good; one was very amusing and the other I just adored because my mom was Japanese and she loved eastern poetry and she would have liked that one alot. Theres probably more than 80 poems, so I can't review them all, and I'm not even mentioning my favorites (except for the Cage and the Forbidden poems).

The closing was very fitting. Someone else wrote that now she wanted to know what happens to the man next, and I hope I don't have to wait more than a decade to find out, either.

To summarize, I gave this book four stars because I think five star books should be classics or staples on everyones booksehelfs. But I am very glad that I read past the first couple of poems because it was so worth it, and it took me on a ride that I was in no way expecting. It was very emotional and fun. Each poem made me think about my experience through life, and like my life I didn't know what the next poem was going to be about, or how my life would turn. I related to it FAR more than I thought I would relate to a book of poetry written by a man. It wasn't an artsy-phartsy collection of poetry, it was just very open, honest, and I have to say really brave for the man to let you in the way he did.

I have read the book twice, and my advice is to pick up a copy and do the same. Bring kleenex and let a friend borrow it.

Fran

At first, I thought that "While Searching for Love and Self" was going to be some kind of "Sex in the City" style diary, denoting the author's experiences in dating. When I received my copy, I was surprised to open it up and discover that it's actually a poetic depiction of important moments in a man's life as he enters adulthood (I suppose the subtitle, "A Journal in Prose and Verse, 1986-2003" should have given me a clue). I was hardly disappointed! I read through it at a leisurely pace in two days. Then I read it again, from introduction to the back cover. I had at least a half-dozen epiphanies each time I read it. It didn't matter that I am not a man; the book centers on his (the author's) experiences, yes, but its themes are universal. It focuses on relationships, not only romantic, but also with family, relationships with friends, community, with pets (a poem that made we weep until my tear ducts were sore), and a rag doll he had as a little boy (which made me cry even though my tear ducts were sore).

The poetry is not complicated. It is easy to read and enjoyable, vivid, and what made it fascinating to me was that in reading it from cover to cover, you saw this man evolve from a seventeen year old to a mature adult. I have kept journals since I was 13, and reading this book made me wish that I had kept mine in poetic form too, or even better, made me think about taking my writings and converting them into poetry so I can relive my life in my words as I have relived his as an observer.

I highly recommend "While Searching for Love and Self" not only because I enjoyed it and will certainly enjoy it again, (and find more layers in it each time), I also recommend it because everyone will find forgotten memories and emotions in it. It's impossible not to.

I ordered this as a gift and just received it. I think its great, the layout of the journal pages is simple and straightforward. There is plenty of room for writing your review - so many journals will have one line to fill in 'taste' (isn't that what its all about?). And there is an open page to the left of each journal page that lets you paste in wine labels. I'm too lazy to peel off labels and the pages are so nicely designed that it wouldn't look bad or look like anything is missing if you didn't include a label. Some journals have a giant open spot on the page itself. It has a very simple scoring system with just 1 - 5 stars, and just circle what applies in a couple of different categories.

Its great as a gift, its a very nice looking book, hard cover, great design. I highly recommend it.

(If this review was helpful, please indicate so)

I've just bought the wine journal and it it very nice! I is made lovely and all my labels fit in there. As a red wine lover I do not like that the journal has two parts - for reds and whites , but I am planning on putting reds in pages for whites.

This is a beautiful wine journal. Great gift for the holidays. very easy to fill out!! i love it!!

I was given this book as a gift and now I now can't drink wine without it! I love it and it's so easy to use. It's great for anyone- from beginer to expert.

This book is about a woman, Leslie, who is verbally and emotionally abused by her husband, Charles. I felt that this book did a good job in portraying what all a typical abused woman goes through. The book mentioned "Job's friends", so-called friends who told her that if she had more faith, prayed more, submitted more to her husband, etc, etc, then the abuse would go away. Leslie's self-worth plummets as her husband picks on her about how she spends money, how she does her hair, giving her a "failing report card", etc. Leslie leaves her husband, but like a lot of abused women, she returns to him, because she misses him and thinks that if she could be a better wife, her husband wouldn't mistreat her. There are many other things that happen in the book, but I don't want to ruin the book for you by saying what happens. I do feel that this book is a must read for woman going through abusive situations.

I loved the character of Zoe, Leslie's mother. We all need a mother like her, praying for us and helping us out of such
difficult situations.

The book, I felt, dealt well with the issue of whether a spouse needs to leave someone who is abusive and in what
circumstances it is best to separate. And the description of Charles was chilling!

The only reason I didn't give this book a 5 rating was because of cuss words that are in this book. I always feel that
profanity takes away from an otherwise good book, but this book is a Christian-based book, and I don't feel that the cuss
words have a place in Christian-based fiction. I know that the author was trying to get a point across, but it was difficult
to read at the times because of the language, which fortunately, wasn't too frequent.

The book, overall, is a must read for women going through abusive situations. It is clear that the author did her homework on this one.

Beverly wrote a gripping story about the patterns of abuse that can occur in a mariage and which in turn, affects the whole family. She made the characters very real and did not try to "sugar coat" the problem. This is a book that you will not be able to put down and the story will keep your interest until the last word is written. I wholeheartedly recommend this book!

Not only did this book describe what it is like to live with an abusive mate, but it also gave hope that there is a way out.

I really enjoyed this book to the fullest. I checked it out from the library and was so wrapped up in it that I read it in 4 days! I am looking forward to the sequel! It is so sad that there are actually women out there in the world going through stuff like this. It makes you wonder why God would allow something like this to happen, but that shows that when things like this happen we need to trust in God and lean on him for help. God said he woldn't put on us more than we could bare. As long as we trust in him, he will see us through

The Wish Book is a wonderful gift for everyone. It provides a place to journal all of your dreams/goals/wishes. The divided areas are useful to organize your thoughts. A definate must for highschool/college graduates. I use mine constantly!

This book is a true treasure which should be shared. Everyone should have a place to record there dreams and wishes...A goal/dream must be written down to be real...if not, it is just a thought. This book is the perfect way of allowing a person to be creative while recording their thoughts, wishes, and dreams. The perfect gift for a close friend or that special someone in your life.

I received this as a gift and it is now one of my most treasured possesions. I'm not into all the gratitude journals and stuff, but this was great. It's more a scrapbook to help form dreams, write down thoughts and treasure memories than it is a religious or spiritual journal. A wonderful format-lively colored pages-room to stick memories and pictures and momentos. Absolutely wonderful!

I received this gift as a college graduation present and have found it a great journal, especially for stepping back and looking at those things that I most desire for my life and future. It has different sections for the varied areas of life and is a fun, intriguing book to turn to when I want to remember what it is that I most wish for myself.

The adventures of Wishbone and Sissy are really neat. I think Wishbone is cool. I wish I had his strength and powers. Bogart is a bit of a nerd but he is hoot, his friend Simon could be a real tough guy if he wanted to. The story didn't let me get bored with it. It kept my interest wondering what would happen next. It leaves somethings to your imagination. There should be a part two just to answer some questions. This book was fictional but not too far fetched. I think my friends will like it as well.

I really enjoyed reading The Wishbone Journal. This book has a lot to offer including adventure, action, mystery, and comedy. It kept my interest with the different scenerios and characters throughout the book. This book is a good clean read and I will recommend it to my relatives and friends.

I really enjoyed this book and believe most youth will if they pick it up. This book deserves an "A" in my opinion. It is full of various real life and fantasy adventures. It made me wonder, laugh, and somewhat sad in parts of its content. Wishbone and Sissy are really true hero's. Bogart and Simon life's are full of typical but exciting boy's stuff. I will reccomend the wishbone journal to my friends and family to read. Out of all of the characters everyone can find at least one to relate to in our life.

The Wishbone Journal captured my attention right off. I could relate to some of it immediately. It kept my attention and made me want to keep reading to see what was going to happen. I really enjoyed the twist and adventures in the book. The characters were all very unique and interesting. With a story within a story it does not give you a chance to get bored with any of it. I believe it is a must read for everyone!

I have done my review on this good book twice in the last few months, yet it still is not shown here. What is the matter? Each time you say it wil be online within 5 to 7 days, yet nothing! Please either put it online or let me know why. Ruth L. Dunstone, rlslone@fiber-net.com.

This is a helpful and compelling book for any caregiver to read at any stage in the caregiving process--before, during, or after. The author prepares for her mother's death in a loving and spiritual way. By writing a day-by-day journal account, we are also able to share her frustration, anger, and aloneness as her mother's sole caregiver. Her honest sharing of emotions gave me great comfort in knowing that the gamut of feelings I experienced as a caregiver were perfectly normal.

The author accomplished her primary goal of being able to care for her mother until the end of her life without putting her in a nursing home. We are privileged to see how she made it through the experience with unusual openess, insight, and inspiration.

I've never read anything better on this subject. I found it honest and uplifting. This book should be in the hands of all caregivers and anyone who works with them.

Once in a while a book is discovered that is the perfect gift for those wonderful folks called caregivers. With Love, A Caregiver's Journal is such a book. Recently, I gave the book to a friend who has been caring for her Mother for ten years. She told me she sat down and read it the day it arrived. "It had been a particularly bad week with Mom and Marian Wright's book helped me in so many ways. First, I knew I wasn't alone. Then, I found myself feeling, somehow, less guilty. Finally, I dug out my long forgotten journal and began to write. I hope it doesn't sound too melodramatic to say this book may have saved my life. Thank you." This was not the first time I have given this book to friends in need and it certainly won't be the last. I highly recommend it for others.

Ms. Wright's book is a "must" for anyone who is a caregiver, who has been a caregiver or who will soon be a caregiver. Her journal takes one through the "roller coaster" of emotions common to a caregiver--joy, sorrow, resentment, guilt, loneliness, etc., etc. Reading her journal makes one realize they are not alone in this experience of caregiving. There are many of us who are, have been, or will be taking the same journey as Ms. Wright, and it is comforting to know about the silent support and understanding of others.

The book is an easy to read journal style. Once you begin reading, you will not want to stop until you finish Ms. Wright's book.

Thanks to Ms. Wright for sharing her experience with us.