Review: "All There Is: Love Stories from Storycorps" by Dave Isay

One of my favourite fictional love stories of all time is only about eight minutes long. It's the story of lifelong love, what I like to call "forever love", found at the beginning on the movie Up (don't watch this unless you have tissues handy!). If you haven't seen it, I'll summarize it briefly here. A shy boy and an outgoing girl meet as children. Time goes on and the two start as best friends but end up falling in love. The two suffer hardships and disappointments over the years including the fact that they are unable to have children but they remain united through the good times and the bad. The wife falls ill towards the end of their lives but he is with her until the end. Wow. I truly can't do those scenes justice but they have always stuck with me. If only each of us is lucky enough to find this kind of "forever love", to find a partner that will stick with you through the good times and the bad.

All There Is, put together by the founder of StoryCorps, Dave Isay, is a book about "forever love". If you're not familiar with StoryCorps (and being a Canadian, I wasn't before reading this book), they are a group that is intent on preserving our history as people. You can make an appointment to come into one of their locations and bring someone with you whose story you would like to be told. This information is then preserved for future generations. All There Is is a collection of real stories that people have told about love. In the pages of this beautiful book you will find stories about falling in love with someone, about finding love late in life, and about losing the ones that we love. Essentially the book is filled with stories about the kind of forever love that make you believe in humanity again.

I finished this book a few days before Valentine's Day and I was going to tell people that this is a great Valentine's Day gift for the people that you love, but this book's scope goes far beyond that. I am so enchanted with these stories of love that I have already recommended All There Is to my family and my friends, and I plan to re-read my copy again in the future. There is just something about these stories that reminds me how lucky I am to have found a partner that I adore, and reading this book reminded me about the value of having love in your life. As you can probably tell, I recommend this book highly and without reservation. It is a collection of our history as human beings that will benefit those who take the time to read it.

My thanks to TLC Book Tours for inviting me to participate in this tour.