Customer Reviews

The Story of a Lifetime: A Keepsake of Personal Memoirs

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The story of a lifetime is a wonderful book. Not only is the flow of the book very easy to follow, it can be started at any point in life. Whether you want to keep an ongoing story of your life, or just want to remember and leave behind a legacy. The questions are clear and simple yet very thought provoking. An excellent gift to or from parents. I love the fact that all of the questions are already there, it's up to the writer to answer the questions he or she wants. I am definitely looking forward to leaving this reminder of me to my family.

Far and away the best way I have come across to bring out all the hidden and forgotten memories of a lifetime, some of which may bring tears as well as smiles to your face. I can now pass on to my children, and their children my experiences and thoughts. I intend to purchase one for my wife as soon as I can squeeze it into my Social Security budget. Many thanks to the author.

I bought this edition of this book as well as the "revised edition" (blue-green cover) to give to my baby's grandparents on the occasion of her first birthday. This ("plum") edition comes with a dustcover that goes on and on about parents growing old, death, funerals, etc, told from the perspective of friends and family, rather than that of the person who is to fill out the book. While I think it is understood that a book like this is something that families will want to read after a person dies, I thought that the cover was morbid and inappropriate to give people who are busy living and don't want to dwell on getting old, death, and dying. If the dust jacket needed to speak to those topics I think it would have been far more appropriate to discuss them from the perspective of the person who is to fill out the book. It almost feels like the book is ignoring that person and treating them as someone who is already dead. If you are giving the book to someone who is on hospice, it's probably great. Otherwise, give the "revised" edition. Luckily you can take the dust cover off of this one, but the book isn't very attractive without it. The "revised" edition comes with a card that has the morbid stuff on it, easily thrown away.

This book is the most unique gift I have ever received. Ever since my daughter gave it to me, I can't put it down. I was touched by her wish to have me preserve things about my life. It is such a wonderful idea and the questions have brought a flood of memories. Now I feel I can say everything I want to say to my children and grandchildren. I recommend it for anyone.

A terrific guideline for family members to recount their lives. Formatted to allow the user to start anywhere and provides many thought provoking questions that otherwise may have been forgotten momories. A great gift to a loved one to get back from them.

I discovered the story of a Lifetime book in a quaint little store in Chicago and bought 3 copies for friends and relatives. The response I received was unexpected, each individual seperatly shared with me that it was either the nicest gift or the most touching gift they had ever recieved. I opened a unique store of my own in Michigan in Dec. 2000 and decided to carry The Story of a Lifetime book as one of my gift items, 8 months later the book is still my # 1 selling gift item! Enough said!?!

I gave this book to my Grandmother for Christmas last year. She was a little overwhelmed by it at first, because of its thickness. After I assured her that she didn't have to answer all the questions, that she could skip around and do a little at a time, she began to tackle it. When I visited her for Thanksgiving, I found the book on her coffee table, with several pages of questions answered. I learned about her parents and grandparents, and then some--one of my anscestors fought in the Revolutionary War! What she wrote about her childhood helped me understand her better and appreciate what she went through. I look forward to reading what else she has to write, and I'm sure this book will become a family treasure for years & generations to come!

I was impressed by the thickness of this volume; I wasn't expecting anything quite this big. And each page has lots of lines on it. But each question is given a relatively small space for the answer to fit in, and there is absolutely no way to find a particular question, or a particular topic, without reading the entire book and putting post-it notes in as bookmarks. I would have loved an index at the end, or a table of contents to the sections. Also, parts of it are really excessively sentimental - not everyone who's filling out one of these reads Simple Abundance compulsively, and the authors don't seem to realize that.

I got this book for my mother-in-law and she loves it. The first day she had it, she spent almost the entire day writing. She's told all of her friends and they are now wanting the book for themselves and their parents who may still be living. What better way to tell someone you care than to let them know you want to know all about their lives and want your children to know as well, so it will never be forgotten how wonderful they are. Now the only problem is, which grandchild gets the book when she's done!

I received this book for Christmas - my friend knows I have kept a journal since I was 12 - so it was a "just perfect" gift for me. What I like about it is that it lists all the questions you would like to ask, but have never got around to asking of anyone precious in your life. I am going to send a copy to my 89-year old godmother - because there is so much I would like for her to tell us. We're also going to use it as a tool for the video we are making of her - the questions and segments are perfect for a project like that. In a future edition, I would recommend more questions or segments for those with non-traditional lives - multiple marriages, foster families, gay relationships, etc. But this is definitely a start in the right direction and there are plenty of blank pages to fill in your own unique events, life experiences, and thoughts.