This I Believe

Title: This I Believe

Author: Varies

Pages: 5 cds

Genre: Inspirational, Essays

Grade: A+

Synopsis: This I Believe is a collection of essays by people from throughout the United States. Rich, poor, white, black, southerners, northerners, straight, gay, famous, not famous, female, male, essayists from all walks of life participated in describing their personal credos. These essays were all read by the authors themselves (with the lone exception of Albert Einstein, whose audio has been lost). Mixed in with the present-day essays were essays by people from the early 1950's. The authors included well-known people such as Colin Powell, Newt Gingrich, Bill Gates, Helen Keller, Albert Einstein, John McCain, Dr. Ben Carson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Robinson and Wallace Stegner. The essayists espoused their personal beliefs on everything from barbecue to family to forgiveness to America.

My Review: As you can tell by the rating I gave the book, I really, really liked it. I found myself laughing, crying and laughing again all within the space of 10 minutes. I couldn't get over the fact that these essays were written by regular folk like me and you and the crazy lady walking along the sidewalk and the compassionate lady driving by in her car. As I listened to these essays, I was proud to be an American, proud to live in a country where we are able to live freely with people of all beliefs and lifestyles.

From the Book: I have uploaded two of my favorite essays below. Have a listen!

Gift from the Sea

Title: Gift from the Sea

Author: Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Pages: 138

Genre: Essays, Inspirational

Grade: B

Synopsis: The book is basically a collection of essays that focus on Anne Morrow Lindbergh's (Wife of Charles Lindbergh) meditations on the different stages of life. She compares each stage of life to seashells that she found when meditating on a small island.

My Review: It took me a little while to get into this book and to understand what all her ramblings were about. I think that this is the type of book that would become more enjoyable the more that you read it. Probably one of the reasons that it was hard for me to get into the book was because much of the advice from the book didn't really apply to me.

From the Book: "(p. 26) For life today in America is based on the premise of ever-widening circles of contact and communication. It involves not only family demands, but community demands, national demands, international demands on the good citizen, through social and cultural pressures, through newspapers, magazines, radio programs, political drives, charitable appeals, and so on. My mind reels in it, What a circus act we women perform every day of our lives. It puts the trapeze artist to shame. Look at us. We run a tight rope daily, balancing a pile of books on the head. Baby-carriage, parasol, kitchen chair, still under control. Steady now!"

"(p. 83) I am very fond of the oyster shell. It is humble and awkward and ugly. It is slate-colored and unsymmetrical. Its form is not primarily beautiful but functional. I make fun of its knobbiness. Sometimes I resent its burdens and excrescences. But its tireless adaptability and tenacity draw my astonished admiration and sometimes even my tears. And it is comfortable in its familiarity, its homeliness, like old garden gloves when have molded themselves perfectly to the shape of the hand. I do not like to put it down. I will not want to leave it."