A heartwarming memoir of love and faith from Hannah Brencher, founder of The World Needs More Love Letters, who has dedicated her life to showing total strangers that they are not alone in the world.
Fresh out of college, Hannah Brencher moved to New York, expecting her life to look like a scene from Sex and the City. Instead, she found a city full of people who knew where they were going and what they were doing and didn't have time for a girl still trying to figure it all out. Lonely and depressed, she noticed a woman who looked like she felt the same way on the subway. Hannah did something strange--she wrote the woman a letter. She folded it, scribbled If you find this letter, it's for you on the front and left it behind.
When she realized that it made her feel better, she started writing and leaving love notes all over the city--in doctor's offices, in coat pockets, in library books, in bathroom stalls. Feeling crushed within a culture that only felt like connecting on a screen, she poured her heart out to complete strangers. She found solace in the idea that her words might brighten someone's day.
Hannah's project took on a life of its own when she made an offer on her blog: She would handwrite a note and mail it to anyone who wanted one. Overnight, her inbox exploded with requests from people all over the world. Nearly 400 handwritten letters later, she started the website, The World Needs More Love Letters, which quickly grew.
There is something about receiving a handwritten note that is so powerful in today's digital era. If You Find This Letter chronicles Hannah's attempts to bring more love into the world,and shows how she rediscovered her faith through the movement she started.
Review:
I got this ebook from Netgalley in return of an honest review.
I first heard of The World Needs More Love Letters years ago, just when it was on the brink of becoming the extraordinary movement it is now, I just never put a face to the wonderful woman behind it all. This book changed that entirely, not to mention my perspective on everything. That's when you know you are holding a masterpiece, when it feels like the equivalent of a soul-searching trip through the mountains.
There's a lot to be said about this book, more than will ever be able to be expressed by simple words, but if there is one thing we can try to start with is Hannah Brencher's engrossing magical writing. Throughout the entire book I felt bewitched and hypnotised by the brilliance of Hannah's words, the passion, self-discovery and honesty she transmitted through the page. It was an incredible experience to see how such a young woman was able to create so much, and how beautifully she was capable of transmitting it to us, readers. Hannah Brencher is the perfect example of powerful defyance of oppressive sadness, a rebel to depression and a heroic person to look up to.
I found the story itself to be one of the most inspiring moments of my recent reading experiences, especially given the fact that it is a memoir, the real story of a real person, and it made me feel something I hadn't felt in a very long time: the sudden urge to do something greater than myself. If You Find This Letter is so full of love and emotion and reality, it's the perfect portrait of a life worth fighting through, while showing that the best way to help ourselves is to help others. I immediately signed up to be a part of the More Love Letters team, so I can help to share the love Hannah Brencher planted with that first letter she wrote.
I must say this was the easiest five star rating I have given this year, and I can't recommend this book to enough people to be content with my efforts.
