Rating: 
Summary: A great gift book
Review: This is a wonderful gift book for the writer in your life. Inside the pages, you'll find photographs-- some cute, some beautiful-- and tidbits of advice about writing and prompts to spark your creativity.The book has a likable randomness to it; you can open it to any page and just read until you feel like writing again. Some pages have fairly lengthy anecdotes, and others are just a few lines long, with instructions like "Write about a simple board game that turns its players into pie-eyed cutthroats" and "Take two people you know who seem to be opposites in every way. Think about them until you hit on something they have in common. Start writing." It fulfills the promise of its title: it is, indeed, a handy little dose of inspiration. It's upbeat without being cloying, encouraging without being unrealistic, and full of very do-able exercises. I recommend this book as a gift because it applies to all writers; all of us have times when the Inspiration Fairy just seems to have flown away, and this book speaks to that. It won't teach you how to be a better writer-- it'll just entice you to set pen to paper again in a friendly coach-ish sort of way. My only complaint is that my fingerprints show on the glossy colored pages. Is that a stupid complaint? I'm petty like that. But it's still the kind of book that's fun to have around...
Rating:
Summary: WOW -- great tool for writers
Review: This little book is a wonder in itself. It is a combination book of philosopy, book of poetry, and book of inspirational ideas. It doesn't spell out a whole scene on every page that you are encouraged to write out yourself like other idea books...it gives you a tiny snippet of an idea that you can springboard off into your own writing journey. It does have some neat little stories and poems that are less than 1 1/2 pages long, has gorgeous black and white pictures that can prompt your imagination into a story or memory of your own, and the subtle, gentle push by the author through out the book for you to go ahead and 'take the plunge, write...!" is ambiguous enough to not sound like your mother nagging at you to get a chore done. I like the fact the book is small--five x seven inches--and easily thrown into a purse or coat pocket. Well done, Ms. Wood!
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