All There Is: Love Stories from Storycorps by David Isay
Publisher: The Penguin Press
Release Date: 2nd February 2012
Rating: 5/5
Source: Received from the publisher for review as part of TLC Book Tours. Thank you!
Buy: Amazon UK | Amazon US | BookDepository
Publishers Summary:

A celebration of love from StoryCorps.
In All There Is, founder Dave Isay shares stories of love and marriage from the revolutionary oral history project, revealing the many and remarkable paths that relationships can take.
From the excitement and anticipation of courtship to the deep connection of lifelong commitment, we discover that love is found in the most unexpected of places-a New York toll booth, a military base in Iraq, an airport lounge. As the storytellers in this book start careers, build homes, and raise families, we witness the life-affirming joy of partnership, the comfort of shared sorrows, and profound gratitude in the face of loss.
These stories are also testament to love’s remarkable endurance. Love survives discrimination, illness, poverty, time-even death. In the courage of people’s passion we are reminded of the strength and resilience of the human spirit and its enduring capacity to begin anew. This powerful collection bears witness to real love, in its many varied forms, enriching our understanding of that most magical feeling.

Love is all around us. It’s in the way we treat each other as human beings to the relationships that grow over time. In these short stories of love discovered, lost and found people from all over the United States share their varying experiences that at their core speak to the romantic within each of us. From stories of love found at a time of war to the heartbreaking loss of a husband as the building he works in collapses around him each of their stories show humanity at it’s finest and give hope to readers everywhere.

Wow. It’s books like this that leave me with the realization I’m an absolute hopeless romantic. This is the reason I think readers here at Chick Lit Reviews and News will love this book. What could be better than honest to goodness true love stories that have happened to real people? This was a book that had me hoping for the very best, laughing at times and on at least one occasion crying uncontrollably. Not all of the stories end in a happily ever after and some even openly admit they wish things were different, but even in a mere two or three pages each couple has an incredible journey to share and I loved them all.

All There Is: Love Stories from Storycorps by David Isay is a book based on the shared stories of numerous couples from around the US who visited a StoryCorps location to record their journey. It’s such a unique concept and it’s actually the first time I’d heard about it. Two people can go to a StoryCorps location and record an “interview” that will then be given to them as well as put in the records at the Library of Congress for future generations to listen to and learn from. In All There Is: Love Stories from Storycorps the stories about the relationships & love that have been shared over time were compiled into the book, separated into three categories: Found, Lost and Found at Last. It’s such a brilliant idea and one that I thoroughly enjoyed reading about.

Overall I’d say that the most enjoyable parts of All There Is: Love Stories from Storycorps for me were the first and second sections. In the first section “Found” each of the couples share how they found and fell in love with the other. Sometimes their stories are absolutely hilarious, one even admitted that she thought her husband was a bit mentally slow initially because he never spoke and just stared at her (turns out he didn’t speak English very well). They aren’t all hilarious though and a few were so wonderfully romantic that it had me thinking about how I could incorporate some of their long lasting marriage advice into my own marriage. The second section in the book was all about losing love, primarily through death. Obviously this was a very melancholy section, but at the same time many of the stories were incredibly hopeful and of course filled with love. As I mentioned earlier one of the stories had me sobbing uncontrollably by the end, but the couple’s story was so moving and I couldn’t help but think I need to remember to value my loved ones even more because of their shared experiences.

All There Is: Love Stories from Storycorps by David Isay is without a doubt one of the most romantic books I’ve ever read. With the upcoming Valentine’s Day holiday coming I’d highly recommend this as a gift to someone you love or even simply as a treat for yourself. This is definitely a book I could easily see readers of Chick Lit Reviews and News loving. All There Is: Love Stories from Storycorps is a book filled with love, hope, heartbreak and passion. Being the hopeless romantic that I am I fell completely in love with the stories shared by each and every couple in All There Is: Love Stories from Storycorps and I know that other readers will as well!