Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project

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Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project

4.27 of 5 stars 4.27 · rating details · 1,922 ratings · 569 reviews

From more than ten thousand interviews, StoryCorps-the largest oral history project in the nation's history-presents a tapestry of American stories, told by the people who lived them to the people they love.

StoryCorps began with the idea that everyone has an important story to tell. And since 2003, this remarkable project has been collecting the stories of everyday Americ...more

Hardcover, 284 pages

Published November 8th 2007 by Penguin Press HC, The

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Apr 28, 2008 Bee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-that-profoundly-impacted-me

*I edited this* Listening is an act of love. Even if I weren't already a huge fan of NPR's StoryCorps, that statement alone would have caught my eye. Nine times out of ten I come into work on Friday mornings sniffly and red-eyed from having listened to StoryCorps during Morning Edition. Just getting 100 pages into the book today during my lunch hour already had me tearing up, so maybe I'll have to restrict reading it to only occasions when I won't look like a lunatic from weeping over a book. Wh...more

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Jan 06, 2008 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: anthologies-and-collections, read-in-2008

The StoryCorps Project is dedicated to collecting and preserving the stories of ordinary Americans for future generations. People participate by being interviewed at the Storycorps booth in New York City or at one of the mobile recording booths traveling the country - they can choose to be interviewed by a relative or friend, or by a Storycorps facilitator. Selected stories are read on NPR every Friday morning and all are stored in the Library of Congress (subject to the participant's signing a...more

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Feb 18, 2008 Kat rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: delights, eyeopening

I am making my way through this extraordinary book - we saw the Storycorps booth in NYC in Grand Central and thought that it was a wonderful idea and then moved on with the crowd. I suppose that is what strikes me as I read this - if we don't consciously sit down and map out the foundation of our roots through the sharing of stories with loved ones then we are lost on the road. I wish I had asked so many more questions of my grandmother. She emanated such light and some striking dark tones. I am...more

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Mar 13, 2008 Mollypae rated it 5 of 5 stars

People aren't all that bad.

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Feb 10, 2009 Justin Jaeger rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: NPR Addicts and people who watch news or reality programming for the stories

I'm not so sure that everyone will enjoy this book as much as I did, but it is an inspiring look in the lives of everyday Americans and their history, memories, and most importantly their stories.

By design it is fragmented into anecdotal excerpts that are transcribed from the best bites of NPR's Storycorps. Specifically, the author compiled those stories that would work well on paper. While some of the stories focus on major events in an individual's life, there are a number of sections of the...more

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Sep 08, 2008 GuavaGal rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club, non-fiction, short-stories

I have not been a StoryCorps listener, but after reading this book, I'm planning to become one!

My book club selected this book, but there actually wasn't much to discuss, unlike other books we've read. I'd say it's a great book to read, not a great book for book club.

I had several favorite stories, but the interviews in the last portion of the book ("Fire and Water") were the most moving and memorable. Four of them were very touching: a story from a survivor who made it out of one of the WTC To...more

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Aug 02, 2008 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to Laura by: NPR, StoryCorps

Shelves: favorites

Actually, I'm listening to this via audiobook. I wanted to hear the people's voices tell their own stories.
***

I finally sat down and listened to the entire CD. I am in awe of these stories, of the people who lived them, and who were brave enough to tell them on tape and submit them to the Library of Congress.

The story that affected me most was from a Brooklyn man talking about his fiance who died in the World Trade Center towers on September 11th. You can hear the love in his voice for her and t...more

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Sep 18, 2008 Valerie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Valerie by: Barbara

Shelves: short-stories, non-fiction

Listening Is an Act of Love is a book of short stories that are filled with slices of everyday life, from normal, everyday people, just like you and me. The only difference between us is that they visited a StoryCorps booth (in New York city or a mobile recording booth) and committed their story to audio CDs. The CDs are then archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Excerpts from their stories (which are in interview format) are played on NPR's Morning Edition. This b...more

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Nov 29, 2007 Maggie Campbell rated it 5 of 5 stars

"...if we take the time to listen, we'll find wisdom, wonder, and poetry in the lives and stories of the people all around us. That we all want to know our lives have mattered and we won't ever be forgotten. That listening is an act of love."

"One of the things that has accompanied me, followed me, surrounded me, wrapped me, is that feeling of gratitude for whatever happens. The event was like beig picked up by the scruff of the neck and shaken. And God says, "This is your only life! Just be grat...more

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Jan 28, 2008 megan rated it 4 of 5 stars

(Thanks, Kate!)
A selection of narratives from the StoryCorps Project that were compartmentalized into chapters based on what the person was talking about. This book does seem to make truth of the idea that every ordinary and even extraordinary person has something worthwhile to say. My favorite chapter was "History & Struggle", particularly the story within the chapter about the young woman and her "odiferous" year in North Dakota. Of course, the stories in the chapter "Fire & Ice" surro...more

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Jan 10, 2009 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a very charming companion to the radio series run on NPR that allows two people to interview one another and share their own personal stories (there's a booth in Grand Central Station and many others around the country -- go sign up!).

You can read the individual stories very quickly. This is absolutely a book that can be picked up and put down all the time. I can't say it's quite the same as hearing the on-air segments -- where the power of the human voice can move you to tears. The real...more

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Jan 30, 2008 Diana Presley rated it 5 of 5 stars

I bought this book last night after hearing the author speak at book people in austin and was thru by 2am.. You might have heard excerpts of the StoryCorps project on Morning Edition on NPR.. basically it's an organization focused on spreading oral histories of everyday Americans, in a time when we are so focused on celebrity... this book is a collection of some of their favorite essays, from everyday things like a Brooklyn couple very much in love, to grandparents sharing their life with their...more

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Mar 26, 2008 Kerry rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

First of all, let me say that StoryCorps could very well be one of my most favorite things about NPR.

It feels like a gift to read these intimate moments in peoples' lives.

Who would think that opening up to another person and recording it for prosperity could be such a captivating thing. Maybe it just goes to show in this hectic world how seldom we really do listen to one another or share stories about what is important to us.

Most of all this book makes me happy that personal accounts of all t...more

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Jan 10, 2009 Elevate Difference rated it 4 of 5 stars

StoryCorps is an epic social experiment about Americana that was inaugurated in 2003 at New York’s Grand Central Terminal in order to “celebrate the lives of the uncelebrated,” as Studs Terkel described it. Pairs of people enter a booth where a facilitator helps them have a dialogue about a key moment in their life. One copy of the forty-minute recording goes home with the speakers; the other is saved at the Library of Congress. Listening is an Act of Love is a compilation of forty-nine of the m...more StoryCorps is an epic social experiment about Americana that was inaugurated in 2003 at New York’s Grand Central Terminal in order to “celebrate the lives of the uncelebrated,” as Studs Terkel described it. Pairs of people enter a booth where a facilitator helps them have a dialogue about a key moment in their life. One copy of the forty-minute recording goes home with the speakers; the other is saved at the Library of Congress. Listening is an Act of Love is a compilation of forty-nine of the most compelling personal sagas out of the more than ten thousand that have been recorded. It allows readers to savor the narratives and see photos of the tellers.

These dialogues capture conversations between people across North America. From New Town, North Dakota to New York City, friends, relatives, and colleagues discuss history, hardship, survival, love, heartbreak, and perseverance. Reading this book will take you into a blossoming romance between employees in a public school and into a conversation between two prisoners in jail. It will take you into a hospital after Hurricane Katrina, into a burning tower on 9/11, and into the life of a Pentecostal preacher’s son. You’ll read of how much joy a mother brought to her child by making a barn out of paper. You'll feel what it was like for a boy to sit in a car outside of a patient's home, snacking on laxatives, while his doctor father delivered a baby. The characters are male and female, young and old, wealthy and poor, of varied races and backgrounds.

The placement of the speakers’ photos after the tale helps readers listen to the voice before making assumptions about him or her based on appearance alone. It teaches us how inaccurate the snap judgments we make can be. People often forget what can be learned from simply listening.

Listening is an Act of Love not only provides a compelling slice of American history, it also reminds us that we are all more alike than we are different. Everyone has a story. Sometimes you just have to ask for it.

Review by Jessica Jacobson(less)

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May 20, 2013 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars

I hadn't heard of StoryCorps' mission before, but I do love to watch BTU TV's 2 series called TheTurning Point and The Story Trek, which are similar ideas. The book is a compilation of interviews done by two people who know each other. One person asks the questions and then listens to their friend's responses. The idea is that the details of the lives of ordinary human beings--any random human being--are more compelling than the best Hollywood movie or TV show. StoryCorps Gives a copy of the int...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Misty Baker rated it 4 of 5 stars

When I was a little girl I used to spend my summers in Iowa with my grandparents. I know that I’ve told you this before, and I know that I made it very clear how very dull it was. (That is not a statement I will retract any time in near future.) I was little, and I was sentenced to spend (at the very least) 2 weeks of my summer vacation stuck in a town smaller than most local Walmarts with a populations whose median age was somewhere around the 75 mark. It was quiet. I am not, and therefore the...more When I was a little girl I used to spend my summers in Iowa with my grandparents. I know that I’ve told you this before, and I know that I made it very clear how very dull it was. (That is not a statement I will retract any time in near future.) I was little, and I was sentenced to spend (at the very least) 2 weeks of my summer vacation stuck in a town smaller than most local Walmarts with a populations whose median age was somewhere around the 75 mark. It was quiet. I am not, and therefore the fit was a bit tight. What I didn’t tell you about was my Grandpa (Pops) and how, at just the right moment (usually when I was about the fall asleep at the table) he would launch into these amazing stories. Not about princess, or “How the West was won.” Those aren’t real. No, I got the good ones. I got stories about how he used to bake cookies on the hood of his car when he was at a business stop, or how my mother used to spend her entire Halloween evening tipping over outhouses instead of begging for candy. While everyone else (aka my brother and two very unfortunate cousins who also got stuck in Walnut for the summer) were outside playing city-wide games of hide-or-seek, or searching for their sanity; I was sitting next to Pops at the kitchen table, watching him play his 10 thousandth hand of solitaire, waiting for a story.

“Listening Is an Act of Love” presented by Dave Isay and his Storycorps Project, took me back to that time. A time that I didn’t (until now) realize had such a lasting impact on me. They were just stories right?

Apparently not.

Now, I have never (not once) written a review for an Audible book. I listen to them all of the time. In fact…I consider them my way of winding down when I am stuck in the car for endless hours running errands, or trying to make it to a book event that is on the other side of the state. They relax me, much like reading.

So why now?

Well, over the Thanksgiving holiday Audible gave all of their members a free gift. That gift was a 55 minutes edition of “Listening Is an Act of Love.” I downloaded it (of course) but mentally marked it as “not my thing.” Two days ago, while waiting in the carpool line at my son’s school I decided to give it a go. Hey…I had an hour to spare, and the headache I was currently hosting threw a big ol red flag on the reading option.

10 minutes in I was completely and utterly enthralled. It was like listening to Pops tell his stories all over again. These were real stories. Told by real people! That were interviewed by people intimately connected to them. The emotion I was hearing wasn’t fake or perfectly written to be poignant or thought-provoking. It was LIFE in all of its glory, whether shiny like the sun or as dark as the ocean floor.

And while yes, I did my fair share of eye-duct cleaning (crying for those of you that don’t read smart-ass) it wasn’t necessary because the stories were sad. Some were, I’m not going to lie to you. (There is an interview with a son and his mother – who gave him up for adoption 20 years earlier – that had me ugly crying) But some where just flat-out moving, or funny, or awe-worthy (like the man who escaped from the 105th floor of the World Trade Center.)

So awe-worthy, that 2 hours later… I found myself on Amazon purchasing the book. 55 minutes just wasn’t enough. I wanted to know more about these people and their contributions to life, and love and the pursuit of happiness. I wanted more stories. And while “reading” the stories wasn’t quite as compelling as “listening” to it straight from the interviewees mouth, they were still captivating.

I highly recommend both versions for anyone who enjoys candid snippets of life.

Happy reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: a story doesn’t have to be action pack to be compelling, it just needs to be heartfelt.(less)

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Nov 26, 2012 elaynne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Downloaded from Audible.com - It was a free download
Narrated by the author: Dave Isay

This short book is apparently a companion book to a project called StoryCorps. It was a quick and easy listen and I listened as I passed the time waiting in the carpool lane at school.

StoryCorps is a project where people record stories/interviews in a portable recording booth. Once completed, the interviewee receives one copy and one copy is sent to the Library of Congress, where, at some future date, the interv...more Downloaded from Audible.com - It was a free download
Narrated by the author: Dave Isay

This short book is apparently a companion book to a project called StoryCorps. It was a quick and easy listen and I listened as I passed the time waiting in the carpool lane at school.

StoryCorps is a project where people record stories/interviews in a portable recording booth. Once completed, the interviewee receives one copy and one copy is sent to the Library of Congress, where, at some future date, the interviewee's family (or other interested persons) can listen to the recording.

This book had selected stories made by "everyday" Americans. One was a Korean immigrant who talked about how being affectionate or using expressions of love were quite non-existent in her home country and how she determined that when she married, there WOULD be expressions of affection. One story was by a black woman who told how she managed to get her voter's registration card, another was of a woman who was half Native American and half German. After getting poor grades in school her father gave her a taste of how harsh life would be for her if she didn't improve her grades - then she went on to become a physician, another was a story of two sisters, one of whom was going to be celebrating her third anniversary of NOT cutting. Another was by a man who lost his love in the twin towers on 9/11 and two other gentlemen talked about what happened when Katrina struck. An elderly man talked about how he had to kill an enemy soldier during WWII and how so many years later, he still woke in tears about it. There were other stories and most of them moved me. I don't think it was their stories that moved me so much as the fact that it made me think of my parents and how I haven't heard their voices in so long that I can barely remember them anymore. If I'm in a darkened, quiet room, and if I close my eyes and strain my brain, I can almost hear my dad's voice in my head. And my mom's voice comes a little more easily to me because she hasn't been gone as long. And while I listened to the stories in the book, I thought how wonderful it would have been to have my parents' voices and stories recorded.

StoryCorps is a wonderful project and according to the book, NPR periodically presents a story made by one of the people. I'm going to have to make a point of seeking them out so I can have a listen.

If this hadn't been made available as a free download by Audible, I'd still be in the dark about the project. I'm glad I listened. It made me think that maybe I should do something similar, on a lot less professional scale ESP since I don't plan on shipping it off to the Library of Congress. It might be nice to record the things that I can remember, like my terrifying gondola ride over the Alps when I was 18 months old, or the apartment we lived in when we lived in Germany until I was aged three and a half. How much longer will *I* even be able to remember these events?

Anyway, if you have an Audible account, give it a listen. I don't think you'll be sorry for the hour spent on it.(less)

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Jun 24, 2012 Book Concierge rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am a fan of NPR’s StoryCorps Project. Simply put, “StoryCorps began with the idea that everyone has an important story to tell.”

In this book, editor Dave Isay compiles some of the more memorable stories recorded in the early years of the project. They are moving, horrific, tender, funny, beautifully simple, incredibly complex, inspiring and loving. The stories are divided into five major sections: Home & Family, Work & Dedication, Journeys, History & Struggle, and Fire & Water...more

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Feb 11, 2012 Kirsti rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: anger, biography, essays, history, humor, language, journalism, imagination, memoir, nonfiction, oral-history, philosophy

Incredible stories of love, death, romance, heartbreak, baseball, steelmaking, rotten mangoes, the Great Depression, segregation, the Holocaust, World War II, 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, and wet woolen mittens on a radiator.

After recording over 10,000 40-minute oral histories of ordinary and extraordinary Americans, the people at StoryCorps chose 49 excerpts and put them in a book. Here's a sample, complete with animation:

http://storycorps.org/animation/miss-...

About 95 percent of participants agr...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Malbadeen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

You need to know somethings about my family and me before I tell you what I thought about this book. We are TALKERS. We are debaters, theorizers, and lamenters. I mean we can REALLY TALK *A LOT*. So much so, that I am considered the down to earth* one because It's not uncommon for me to announce that "I'm not interested in talking about that anymore, that topic bores me, you're being too theoretical for me to follow you anymore" etc, etc, etc

*I'm replacing "down to earth" with the sentiment tha...more You need to know somethings about my family and me before I tell you what I thought about this book. We are TALKERS. We are debaters, theorizers, and lamenters. I mean we can REALLY TALK *A LOT*. So much so, that I am considered the down to earth* one because It's not uncommon for me to announce that "I'm not interested in talking about that anymore, that topic bores me, you're being too theoretical for me to follow you anymore" etc, etc, etc

*I'm replacing "down to earth" with the sentiment that could probably be better described as them thinking I'm a ninny headed girl that can't hold her own in their conversations and would occasionally rather tell a light hearted story about my disastrous New Years Eve than continue comparing educational systems the world over, or why Karl Barth isn't more widely read on the internet.

Because after 20 some years of discussing Kierkegaards perspective on aesthetic vs. moral led lives, I just want to make a sandwich and talk about whether butter or dill pickles are better while I'm doing it.

Sooooooo I tend to come to quick conclusions about things and blurt out my opinions without giving it much thought. This extends itself to my work and my personal life as well. It's a flight or fight response and I predominately choose flight!

And now it seems the topic that will not die is "Will paper bond books be irradiated by other technology". Now I have lots of elaborate and deep seeded feelings on this topic but I don't think any of them are original or not already being shared by people far more articulate than myself so when people ask me this, I tend to give the same glib response I gave to my mom a few months ago. I say something along the lines of "maybe, but stories wont die so I'm not too worried".

But here's the problem with that response. It assumes that "stories" and "well written books" are the same. They are not! And this book brought that home.

Now before anyone starts throwing eggs at me or anything (ha! I have to laugh at that because I assume that by now, most of you are more likely to have gotten bored, abandoned this review and decided to scramble some eggs for sustenance than to become so involved and enraged by words that you're willing to "throw eggs")I need to say that this book never claims to be a well written collection of stories.

It's just a collection of stories. Great stories. Stories totally worth hearing! I read all of them and it's a book I'll be keeping and hope that eventually my kids will want to read as well.

But I couldn't help thinking what a huge difference there is between just hearing the story because the story is worth hearing and reading a well written story. It certainly means I should consider revising my standard response from "I'm not worried because stories wont die" to something a little more specific. But more likely I'll probably just try and divert the conversation to the a re-cap of the latest 30 rock episode instead (and then my brothers will morph that into a conversation about the nature of comedic timing/writing and somehow merge that into a conversation that will end up at whether or not indoor plumping is necessary. Meanwhile I'll go do some laundry).

(less)

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Eh?Eh! I hope NYE wasn't really disastrous!

Man, I miss having conversations like in your last paragraph. I've gotten more uptight since college and have to r...more
Jan 02, 2012 09:57pm

Malbadeen No it wasn't really "disastrous" - I was just using that as an example.
Although it certainly had it's humorously humiliating moments for me. Like whe...more
Jan 03, 2012 07:36am

Eh?Eh! Hah! Ouch, and hah! Awww (Carolanne is right, you ARE lovely!), and hah! Hee!

I never did make it down to the basement. I suck at ping pong (shame, sin...more
Jan 03, 2012 08:43am

Jul 03, 2011 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

As I started reading this, I had such high expectations because of all the great reviews I have seen. However, I basically just felt "ho hum" about it for about 2/3 of the book. Then suddenly, the book switched gears and then I experienced what others have. From the horrible prejudices the older generation of black Americans have suffered,to reading the sad story of a woman fighting for her brother dying of Aids and the awful way he was treated and even harder to deal with, the accounts of those...more

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Jun 02, 2011 Becky rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: age-adult-books, gift-books, nonfiction, creative-inspiration

Five stars, hands down. This is a book to read when you need to remember what it is to be human (and maybe have some faith in humanity restored, too). The audio CD made me bawl, but reading the book did the same thing. I'm amazed at the visceral power of some of these simple interviews and memories about work, family, tragedy, and love. I especially loved the sections on the StoryCorps staff's firsthand experiences of the power of storytelling, and hints for doing your own interviews and recordi...more

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Oct 02, 2010 Corinda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Oh, how I loved this book! This book is a compilation of oral histories recorded by Storycorps, a non-profit organization dedicated to recording the every day life of Americans. Each week Storycorps airs a recent interview on NPR. I was a fan of the program long before I encountered this book. The beauty of Storycorps is that it shows how each person's life has meaning and importance, and it does that by recording brief bits about that person. Obviously, as a compilation of interviews, it reads...more

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Jul 15, 2010 ICPL Staff Picks added it

Shelves: staff-picks-blog, maeve, nonfiction

Ok, I confess, I am addicted to NPR, especially Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and one of my all-time favorite things is StoryCorps. Listening Is an Act of Love, edited and with an introduction by David Isay, is a compilation of selected stories from the more than 10,000 recorded sessions done at StoryCorps, either at their stationary sites at Grand Central Station or the World Trade Center booths or at one of the mobile booths that travel the country. While Iowa City has not yet hos...more

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Nov 07, 2009 Judy rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is an amazing book. I've heard segments from the StoryCorps Project on NPR, but I wasn't really aware that there was a book that gathered some of the more memorable interviews together. Thanks, Maggie, for recommending this book so highly. You were totally right. There is something lost, I think, in reading these interviews rather than listening to them (I admit that I went to the website and listened to a couple of them), but even in print the emotional impact hit me with a wallop. Too oft...more

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Jun 05, 2009 Gordon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Something tells me that, in a couple of hundred years, when historians from the 23rd century do their research on the United States in the 20th and 21st centuries, this book will be essential reading. It is history, viewed from the bottom up.

This is a book of stories, edited by Dave Isay, the founder of the StoryCorps project. The goal is to collect and archive the stories of everyday people. The StoryCorps methodology is simple: go around the country with a bunch of mobile recording studios, a...more Something tells me that, in a couple of hundred years, when historians from the 23rd century do their research on the United States in the 20th and 21st centuries, this book will be essential reading. It is history, viewed from the bottom up.

This is a book of stories, edited by Dave Isay, the founder of the StoryCorps project. The goal is to collect and archive the stories of everyday people. The StoryCorps methodology is simple: go around the country with a bunch of mobile recording studios, accompanied by a few facilitators, find people who have stories to tell and a son / daughter / niece / nephew / grandchild / friend / neighbor to interview them, fire up the microphones, and let them talk. The results are quite extraordinary.

Some of the stories that particularly stick in my mind are:
* The WWII army veteran who still can't forget the face of the 14-year-old Hitler Youth soldier who wouldn't surrender and that he had to shoot.
* The former alcoholic homeless man being interviewed by the man who brought him home for New Year's Eve dinner one night.
* The child of the Depression, talking to her granddaughter about what it was like during a North Dakota winter when there weren't enough overshoes in every family to go around, so the kids would trade off in attending school on alternate days and collect the homework assignment for their siblings.
* The sister who took care of her brother dying of AIDS.
* The two convicts in the Oregon State Penitentiary interviewing each other about their childhood and family history and the bad choices that landed them there.
* The birth mother being interviewed by her son, 28 years later, about why she gave him up for adoption.

Not every one of these stories will grab you, but enough of them will that I don't think you'll soon forget this book. It might even inspire you to grab your mother or your brother and drag them down to a StoryCorps studio. Or just put a video camera on a tripod in your living room and go that route. I'm very grateful I did that with my own grandmother and mother-in-law.(less)

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Jul 02, 2011 Diane rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am not a regular listener of NPR and wasn't aware of the StoryCorps project. The premise is that everyone has a story to tell. StoryCorps has several mobile recording booths across the USA and everyday people can go into the booths and record their stories. Many are interviews by loved ones. This book compiles some of these stories into thematic units (Family, Work, History and Struggles etc.) It is a powerful little book about the love, joy, courage and despair of humanity. Some of the most a...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Shana rated it 3 of 5 stars

Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project, edited by Dave Isay, was the unexpected surprise book of the weekend. I initially borrowed it from the library with hesitation because I figured it’d be excessively corny and predictable, but it was actually a lot more than that.

StoryCorps allows for people to interview others in their lives and thereby collects stories from Americans in a really neat oral history kind of way. It also, judging from the book,...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Liz rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I came across Storycorps a while back, and enjoyed listening to interviews on the website. I heard about "All There Is: Love Stories from Storycorps," and I excitedly read that, and proceeded to listen to the CD, which made me fall even more in love with this project. It's simply genius. It tells the history of our country through the people of our country, and that is the simplest, yet most remarkable idea. So of course, immediately after finishing "All There Is," I went to the library and chec...more

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Jun 15, 2009 Kressel Housman rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, memoir

To understand this book, you first have to understand StoryCorps, an oral history project, which has been going on across America since 2003. It was modeled after a similar project done by the WPA in the Great Depression, in which out of work historians and writers interviewed ordinary Americans about their lives. The purpose of that project was to create a record for posterity so that we could understand life during the Depression. But the current StoryCorps is slightly different. The interview...more To understand this book, you first have to understand StoryCorps, an oral history project, which has been going on across America since 2003. It was modeled after a similar project done by the WPA in the Great Depression, in which out of work historians and writers interviewed ordinary Americans about their lives. The purpose of that project was to create a record for posterity so that we could understand life during the Depression. But the current StoryCorps is slightly different. The interviewers are not professionals; usually a friend or relative brings another to the StoryCorps booth for the interview. And while part of the goal is to create a record for history - every recording is stored in the Library of Congress - the main goal is determined by the interviewer and interviewee. Some may want to explain their lives, some want to remember a loved one, and some just think it's fun.

This book is a collection of what StoryCorps' founder considered the best interviews. I'd heard some of them before because the best of the week is aired on Fridays on NPR's "Morning Edition." But most were completely new to me, and they really captured the broad spectrum of America: farm life during the Depression, a black woman and the struggle to vote, a Holocaust survivor and his daughter, a nurse whose brother died of AIDS, two men in jail, a 9/11 survivor, and Katrina survivors. Of all the stories, I was most moved by the Katrina survivors. The one that made me laugh the most was Dr. Richard Collins, the second interview in the book. He's a senior citizen, as are many of the interviewees. But all the stories were wonderful, and I'm hoping they'll come out with a sequel.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that my sister was employed by StoryCorps for a while. In fact, her name appears amongst the acknowledgments at the end of the book. While she worked there, she was always urging me to do an interview with her, but it was never convenient. Now that I've read the book, I'm more gung-ho than ever. Who knows? Maybe the world at large needs to know more about the teshuva movement. (less)

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“Aunts are to be a pattern and example to all aunts; to be a delight to boys (and girls) and a comfort to their parents; and to show that at least one daughter in every generation ought to remain unmarried, and raise the profession of auntship to a fine art.” — 2 people liked it

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