Scan barcode
simplymary's review against another edition
5.0
Anne Morrow Lindbergh is my favorite author. Her power of description, of bringing to the mind understanding through artful expression, is inspiring to me. She makes me want to write more. Her life is fascinating, yes, but moreso are her thoughts; and though not many of us can relate to her circumstances, somehow she transcends time and station to get to the heart of what it is to be a human being. This book in particular filled me with such a juxtaposition of delight and dread, knowing that her baby Charles' murder was coming, coming...I appreciated how she expressed and exposed her subsequent grief, all its recurring and painful stages, and look forward to getting my hands on everything she ever wrote.
inthecommonhours's review against another edition
4.0
I love her introduction to the sad second half of the book, and her explanation for why she chose to share her story.
lauraellis's review
3.5
This set of diaries and letters covers her wedding and the first years of her marriage, including the kidnapping and murder of her son Charles Jr. and the birth, four or five months later, Jon Morrow Lindbergh. She ends on a note of new beginning—the wedding of her beloved sister Elizabeth, who has a fatal heart condition. It took me awhile to read the parts after Charles Jr. was kidnapped and found dead, as she tried to work through her grief.
leighannsherwin's review
5.0
When I first read this book it was so long ago. I had just moved away from home for the first time and was going to college and had little experience in the real world. I would get lost in the story, the adventures of her flying and the horror of the kidnapping and murder of Anne and Charles's first son. But I never saw it as more than a historical record. Several years later I read it again. Years older having lived life, gone through tough and good times I saw these diaries and letters as something different. No longer was I distant from the words on the page. I was there with Anne as she retold her adventures in real time. I could see the cold remote areas of the north picture the tea ceremony in Japan, visualize the Yangtze flood and the desperation of the people if affected. Then came the part of the book I found I related to the most. In the course of just a few short months Anne lost her father, her first born child was kidnapped and found murdered and her older sister discovered a life threatening heart condition. The sadness, the fear and the hope leaped out through the page. What she said was so true. Grief is such a strange thing, one day you feel fine, the next you wonder how you can go on living. She writes in a heartbreaking way about her fear of forgetting or losing little Charlie, that his face is becoming faded in her memory, of trying to recapture him in portraits and even in the son she gave birth too soon after his death. What she went through is an unimaginable nightmare for any parent and it breaks your heart to read her diary entries as she struggles to come to terms with what happened to him. Even fearing the same will happen to her new son, or that Charles, or someone else she loves will die suddenly. She talks about seizes each moment with loved ones as it might be your last which is very wise advice. She also writes of happier events in the midst of the chaos. Her sister despite being handed a death sentence of a diagnosis gets engaged and marries at the end of the book. Her second son is born healthy and happy despite all her fears, and there are some lighthearted moments involving the family dogs, including training a new guard dog and how the current household pets react to the new addition to the household. I am so glad I decided to read this again and that I read it when I did. It made me feel less alone in my own grief, though my losses are much smaller than hers were. I will continue to read through these volumes as I'm finding with each reading I gain a bit more wisdom about life and how to deal with the devastation it can throw at you.
More...