Customer Reviews

The Legacy Guide: Capturing the Facts, Memories, and Meaning of Your Life

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I teach a course in Life Stories and Legacy Writing at the Writer's Center in Bethesda, so I'm always looking for books I can recommend to my students. There are many "memory jogger" books of the type that ask things like "When was your first kiss" or "tell me about the first day of school." This one provides similar but better triggers for memories but also helps readers find a pattern in their lives, which I think will be helpful for people working on their own. During this session I've recommended this book and Tristine Rainer's book, YOUR LIFE AS STORY, for students who want to do more on their own. I'm glad someone is asking for "facts, memories, AND meaning," and with such good examples.

An excellent book with easy-to-follow instructions on how to bring out the life stories of loved ones -- including yourself. I used the method with my mother when she was in assisted living and had little to talk about. Together, we captured her life memories for myself and my family. She, in turn used the questions at the dinner table with her friends to relive their life experiences. In her last days my mother wanted the caregivers to read and reread her stories as a way to say good-by to life. The book provides a way to organize the memories of your life and the lifes of people reaching the end of their allotted life span. I would highly recommend the book.

I teach people how to write their life stories and have been doing that for several years. I am always looking for good ideas to enhance my teaching. I am enjoying the additional tidbits of information this book shares. I especially enjoyed the method the authors suggest for dividing up your book into the seven stages of life. I had already decided on a different method for dividing my life up but decided to change and go with this creative idea.

I especially like the way this book shares that you first give the facts and then share the meaning you have discovered from that happening. It adds an additional element to writing your book that will make it so much more readable for future generations.

Because of my recommendation some of my students also bought this book. My recommendation is that whatever method you are using to write your life story--this book will add value and meaning to your method.

The Legacy Guide helped me to reorganize my mother's memoires that she left us. In addition, it was an invaluable resource to delving further into memories and family stories that I had never known or had forgotten. I wish that I had had this guide when my father were alive so that his stories could have been written down for my children.
When using the guide the authors stimulate your curiosity and family treasure trove of memories in so many ways. The varity of examples that they cite are also a great help when gathering material. I am grateful to have this new resource that I know will be invaluable to me as I organize my own life story.

If you've ever wanted to put your personal story on paper for future generations this is a great book to use as a guideline. The book outlines innovative approaches to turn personal histories into written keepsakes. It shows how to capture milestone events that shape lives and then explains how to weave them into a legacy to pass down. The authors offer ways of remembering facts in different categories and say when working with memories, it's often a shock to realize your parents were younger than you are now.

The book not only helps shape your journey from childhood, through adolescence and into all the stages of adulthood, The Legacy Guide also suggests turning your story to a visual journey as well--adding photos, old letters and memorabilia. This is a book that will help fill in your story so your children and their children will know many of the daily details of your life long after you are gone. A good guide to sometimes difficult writing topics.

I purchased The Legacy Guide after checking out several books from the library on the subject first. I found this text met my needs better than any of the others I scanned. It is very readable, clearly organized, and the workbook approach was perfect for motivating me to write. I also downloaded the work forms from TheLegacyGuide.com so I could make notes without having to get into Word each time. I feel it is the "Complete" Legacy Guide.

Earl Anderson

My family has a story... or really, multiple stories. And every family has an archivist.... even if they don't know just yet who that is. When I gave this to my aunt, I found that there were two things necessary to making a family history - an archivist with the passion to tell the story, and guidance on how to actually do it, and not get frustrated by or lost in the process. The analogy for me is great cuisine - it takes a passionate chef, and a recipe. What's different from meal to meal is the ingredients.

Carol Franco and Kent Lineback's book is a terrific tool for transforming the archivist into a historian. Every family needs an historian to pass their story down the generations. Already, my children know little or nothing of my grandparents, and scantly more of their grandparents. I firmly believe every family has an archivist somewhere. With The Legacy Guide, every family now has an historian.

This well-researched and well-written guide encourages and supports individuals and families who want to review and preserve not only their history but also the meaning they find in that history. Whether you are interested in "a three-ring notebook entitled My Life Story," or are making a scrapbook that includes not only words but also "photos, letters, and memorabilia," you are likely to find the process easier and more satisfying with the help of this thoughtful book.

Carol Franco and Kent Lineback have created a useful and practical guide to life story writing. The process is seen as a series of life stages, each with specific facts and memories that can be woven into a coherent memoir. If you have been thinking about telling your life story but have felt overwhelmed or inadequate, this valuable book will give you the confidence to pick up a pen and start writing.

I keep going back...and back, and back to The Legacy Guide.

==

When I first got it, I thought to myself: "I don't want to write my story. But at least I'll understand what the authors are trying to do".

So I perused the book, put it down, and concentrated on moving to Santa Fe. That's whee I had met the authors.

This week, finally, I picked it up and started REALLY digging in.

Here are my NEWEST thoughts:

1. This is NOT a "how to" book. This is a guide to one's life...by great writers who have the ability to make the reader take an introspective look at life details we normally ignore.

2. I would almost call it a "Life Guide", except that sounds pompous. But that's what it is...a guide to make the reader really understand what she/he has (and is) experienced in life. Example: the older generation...middle, late adult, elder. I learned more about what it means to get older than ever before...things I never realized were happening to me...WHY we see the world differently...HOW others treat us differently, etc. Every older person should read this.

3. One of the keys to keeping the reader's attention is the use of the many quotes...that were so personal to those quoted...and always right on target. .

Yes, we recognize people such as Alan Alda, Jane Fonda, Goldie Hawn ...and of course the great Jim Botkin. But every quote was right on target, regardless of the notoriety of the writer. Each quote made its point...and I feel the quotes brought the book more alive than any other system might have done. Ever.

Again and again,I find myself going through the book and reading the quotes/articles. The use of italics on the quotes makes that job easier to accomplish.

I could go on and on.....even get effusive.

But somehow this book should be on everyone's bookshelf. You'll just keep referring to it, time and again.

It's worth the trip.